La Esperanza

LaEsperanza Restaurant & Bar

Guacamole in a black stone molcajete, surrounded by halved avocados, limes, tomatoes, a jalapeño and tortilla chips on blue-grey slate
Plate 01Guacamole, made and served in the molcajete

Mexican home cooking by the Cordova family of Puebla, in the pink house on Gibbsboro Road since 2002.

Reservations by phone, 856-782-7114. Half our tables are kept for walk-ins.

La casa

The family, the house and the name.

  1. Family-owned and family-run since 2002. La Esperanza was the Cordova family's first business, a long way from Puebla; they chose Lindenwold for its Mexican and Central American community. The cooking is traditional Mexican with other Latin American specialties, home-cooked, and the menu is written in Spanglish on purpose.

  2. The name means hope. The logo is a little house, drawn by hand, with the words Mi casa es su casa. It resembles the very first house the family owned in Mexico, on the side of a small mountain and now abandoned, where the brothers and sisters took their first steps and where the family began to have hope.

  3. The house is the restaurant: a vibrant pink building with blue trim on Gibbsboro Road, a blue arch over the door with a carved stone head, and a full bar built around tequila, with Milagro margaritas made from fresh-squeezed lime, mezcal, martinis, sangria and Mexican beer.

The restaurant's long pink building with blue trim, two arched signs and yellow flowers along the front, about 2006
40 E. Gibbsboro Road. Photo dated about 2006.

The plates

Eight things to order first, in the restaurant's own words. Tap a plate to see it large.

Guacamole in a stone molcajete carved like a bull, with a basket of tortilla chips on blue Talavera tile
Plate 02Guacamole in the molcajeteMarket priceDelicious dip made with fresh avocados, jalapeño peppers, onions, cilantro and tomatoes made and served in a Molcajete. Our customers say, “You can’t go without it!”

“You may not need dessert.”

The menu, on the Bistec a la Criolla
Bistec a la Criolla: grilled steak on a fried sweet plantain with an egg over easy and sliced avocado, on blue Talavera tile
Plate 03Bistec a la Criolla$22Marinated grilled steak on a fried sweet plantain with one egg over easy, sliced avocado and a side of rice and beans; you may not need dessert.
Enchiladas de mole poblano topped with melted cheese, with rice, black beans and a basket of chips on blue Talavera tile
Plate 04Enchiladas de Mole Poblano$21.50Corn tortillas filled with cheese or meat covered with our Mole Poblano sauce, garnished with cheese.
Carnitas de puerco: crisp fried pork chunks with shredded lettuce and tomato on a white oval plate, on dark slate
Plate 05Carnitas de Puerco$19.50Our fried pork chunks, slow cooked and then fried, served with a side of rice and beans.
A homemade tamal in its corn husk on a white plate, with a margarita and the stone molcajete behind
Plate 06Tamales$7Fresh homemade tamales, they’re just like the ones Mom makes, and that’s because she does. You have your choice of pork or chicken.
Three soft tacos with cilantro, onion and radish, with lime wedges on a white oval plate on slate
Plate 07Tacos, orden de tresfrom $17.50Orden de tres tacos – three soft tacos, $17.50 unless listed. Add lettuce and tomato +2, add cheese +2.
A close-up of sizzling fajitas: grilled chicken with charred peppers and onions on a white plate
Plate 08Sizzling fajitasfrom $21Are you a little afraid of the Mexican food? Then get some good home cooked sizzling fajitas.
A slice of El Imposible, half chocolate cake and half flan, with caramel on a white plate and a cup of coffee behind
Plate 09El Imposible$7Half chocolate cake and half flan napolitano. It’s impossible to say no to this!

“It’s impossible to say no to this!”

The dessert menu, on El Imposible

La barra

Milagro tequila, mezcal, martinis, sangria, cerveza.

“There is no Margarita as Fresh as this one.”

The drinks menu, on the Original Fresh Margarita

Fresh-squeezed lime, Milagro Silver tequila and a dash of agave nectar: that is the original, and there are four more, with cucumber and jalapeño, poblano and pineapple, spicy orange, citrus and cilantro. Then martinis, pink and red sangria, a Paloma, an Oaxaca old fashioned with mezcal, and Mexican beer on tap.

Read the drinks ledger
A margarita with a salted rim and a lime wheel on a table of sunflower-pattern Talavera tiles, against a dark room
Plate 10A margarita on the sunflower tiles

Visit

Hours, the address, and how to reserve.

Hours

Opening hours
MondayClosed
Tuesday – Thursday11 am – 9 pm
Friday – Saturday11 am – 10 pm
Sunday11 am – 8 pm

Where

40 E. Gibbsboro Rd.
Lindenwold, NJ 08021

Reserve

By phone only, at 856-782-7114. Half the tables are kept for walk-ins, so if you feel spontaneous, just come.

Call 856-782-7114 Directions

La Esperanza

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