Hacienda Don Juan

I went to Hacienda Don Juan for the first time with one of my roommates who, in addition to having an adventurous palate, is fluent in Spanish and knows a lot about different Spanish-speaking cultures.  Hacienda Don Juan has Salvadorian and Mexican cuisine, and offers a wide variety of choices at extraordinarily reasonable prices.  Located at 875B Main Street in Worcester (right next to the Thu Duc Vietnamese restaurant), they are open seven days a week until 10pm and accept most major credit cards.

Most of the dishes on the menu have meat, and a number of them are fried.  That being said, the food was high quality and there were a number of healthy options.  Hacienda offers a selection of soups and grilled fish and meat, and many of the meat entrees had vegetables mixed into them.  To start you off, Hacienda provides freshly-fried corn chips with fresh salsa, which were very tasty.  My roommate ordered Mole Poblano, chicken breast pieces seasoned with dried peppers and mole, a Central American chocolate sauce that is savory rather than sweet ($11.99).

While I normally take eating out as an opportunity to order meat, I went with Nopalitos al Sarten, one of the few vegetarian options on the menu.  It consists of cactus strips (sans spines, for those who were concerned) sautéed in olive oil and tomatillo sauce ($9.99).  Both of our meals were served with white rice and refried beans and sprinkled with soft white cheese.  My roommate also ordered corn tortillas for both of us, and a pupusa for him, a traditional Salvadoran dish which consists of a corn tortilla stuffed with pork and fried ($1.50); I don’t eat pork for health reasons, but my roommate assured me that it’s delicious.

In addition to main dishes, Hacienda Don Juan has a selection of appetizers (again, mostly meat dishes), traditional and American-style desserts, and Central American juices.  My roommate topped off his meal with a passion fruit juice.  My roommate also ordered some food to go for a friend of his that was working; a pupusa and a horchata, a drink made with almonds and sesame seeds.

(courtesy of mmm-yoso.typepad.com)

One of the things I appreciated about the meal was the serving sizes.  Many times I’ve been to a restaurant and they overload your plate with food.  While I’m in no way opposed to taking home leftovers (and enjoying the meal a second time), I have met a number of people that actually hate the idea of leftovers and never take them.  The portions at Hacienda were not huge, but large enough where one doesn’t necessarily need to order more food.  I took the rest of my nopalitos home with me, and actually used them in a scrambled egg burrito the next morning!  On a related note, the restaurant itself is not especially big, and tables seat two to four people each.  My roommate and I were among the few eating there that evening, with the exception of a pair of Salvadoran men and a few other college students.

Final comments: Hacienda Don Juan definitely gets my seal of approval.  I’d recommend it to anyone looking for somewhere adventurous but still comfortably familiar and that won’t cost too much for a filling meal.  The food and atmosphere are of great quality.  Most dishes include meat or seafood, but there are still some vegetarian options on the menu.  A great place for a date or short business lunch, or for impressing your visiting friends and family with what Worcester has to offer.