Driving Route 70 through Cherry Hill, you have no shortage of restaurants to choose from for a quick bite. Options ranging from fine dining to fast food to diners line the congested highway, and if you were to blink, you would miss La Cita, an authentic Mexican restaurant tucked between Edison Avenue and Wesley Avenue.
The restaurant, made up of about a dozen tables, is owned by husband and wife Regulo and Olivia Reyes and offers diners a taste of Mexico with its brightly painted walls, family recipes and traditional sauces.
The Reyes owned the El Mercadito market in the location that La Cita sits now. The market began as a Mexican grocery store specializing in ingredients shoppers needed to make their own authentic Mexican feast. In addition to selling groceries, Regulo and Olivia started making food for patrons to take out. The popularity grew from there.
“We started out as a take-out restaurant with only one or two tables. Soon people would call asking if we could hold the table for them so they could come and eat. That’s where the idea started,” Olivia said.
Regulo also works as a chef for the Aldo Lamberti owned restaurant, Positano Coast in Philadelphia. Olivia said they pride themselves on using the same vendors as the Lamberti restaurants to provide the best shrimp, steak and chicken they can.
“Regulo is very passionate about the food he makes. He loves what he does and takes great pride in it,” Olivia said.
When La Cita opened, the Reyes said they expected the clientele to mostly be Spanish, but that has not been the case.
“We have a lot of people come in who have recently traveled to Mexico and they ask if we have certain dishes or that they really wanted to eat something from there again,” Olivia said.
For their Restaurant Week menu, Olivia said they are excited to feature many of their authentic dishes.
“The Mexican menu can be so extensive so we can’t make everything but we’ll give customers an authentic taste of a lot of dishes,” Olivia said
