Hacienda Mexican Grill
1449 Davis Road, Salinas
424-6400, www.haciendamexicangrillsalinas.com
The Hacienda has so many things going for it. The delicious molé sauces, the huge Cadillac margaritas, the value-rich happy hour, the sizeable dance floor(s), the major touring acts like Elena y Los Tejano Ryders and Ruben y La Nueva Onda, who visited this fall to a packed house. Tucked amid the big-box chains along Davis Road in Salinas in its own cavernous space, it doesn’t have the look of a locally owned outpost, but that just makes its discovery richer.