The service at La Rosa was good. The waiter was congenial and tried to be useful by not recommending certain dishes that he said would not be good. The restaurant was moderately busy and we were put in a corner booth but it did not take great efforts to get his attention. That was good. Also good was the margarita jug. Our group ordered 3 of them for the table and the one was missing the lime. That was fixed which was appreciated. We particularly liked that their margaritas have fresh green chili in them. It gives a nice kick and I wonder why I've been drinking margaritas differently all my life.

The food was bad. The cheese for the nachos lacked flavour. The nachos themselves were the blandest I've ever had. The one dish was essentially an unseasoned cheese sauce, and my chili con carne tasted like it was a kitchen base (as in what you keep in your stock pot before you flavour it for the menu). The sour cream across the whole meal was not sour. I suspect they were running low on it, and mixed sour creme with normal creme? The main course tacos had oil oozing onto the plates. The meat again lacked flavour and the ingredients were not balanced. My shredded lamb taco tasted like it was taken from the bottom of a black funeral pot where the meat had burnt and that flavour had permeated the pot's meat. Did the pot burn perhaps and the meat get salvaged? Someone else had a chicken dish and the chicken breast meat (sliced) was dry when we all tasted it. Finally, the churros promised to be good but we found that they had not been cooked all the way through. So the outside was crispy, if not slightly too hard, but the inside was still wet dough. Anyway we took a lot of food as takeaway for the dogs, and to try salvage at home (failed).

All in all, a we had a good evening despite the food. If you are at Monte, pop in for a drink but rather go somewhere else for your meal.

Best Mexican cuisine in Gauteng!!!! We had the chili con carne as a starter - delicious! Soft shell crab as a main - absolutely amazing!!!!!! And the churo drenched in salted caramel was unlike any churo I’ve ever tasted, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and I could actually taste the salt in the salted caramel - a delight!!! Needless to say, we were very surprised by the excellent quality of the food.