A new restaurant in Northbridge Mall is offering fresh, authentic Mexican food to local residents.

“Everything’s made from scratch, like the quesadillas, the chicken for the quesadillas. Everything’s made for the day, it’s not like made a week ago,” said Nathiely Torres, daughter of Yolanda Torres, who owns La Guadalupana.

Nathiely said the way the food is cooked at La Guadalupana separates her mother’s restaurant from many other restaurants in Albert Lea. For example, the quesadillas are made using handmade tortillas, chicken, cheese and lettuce.

La Guadalupana is in the food court at Northbridge Mall next to Conger Meat Market.

Since much of the food is prepared from scratch, Nathiely said the food takes time to cook after an order is placed. Yolanda wanted people to know that La Guadalupana is not fast food, even though it is in the mall food court.

Yolanda also serves enchiladas, gorditas and tortas, which are sandwiches with breaded chicken or steak, lettuce, cheese, avocados and onions. Nathiely said they plan to add a taco salad to the menu.

“The reason she opened it is because she wanted some people to know the different foods there are,” Nathiely said.

Most of the recipes for the food cooked at La Guadalupana are family recipes Yolanda has collected, Nathiely said.

La Guadalupana has been open for about a month, and it is the first restaurant Yolanda has owned. Before opening the restaurant, she was a stay at home mom. She and Nathiely live in Albert Lea.

Nathiely said Yolanda’s been pleased to see a wide variety of people eating at La Guadalupana. Many come to try different foods they don’t typically eat, Nathiely said.

La Guadalupana is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nathiely said Yolanda plans to change the business hours. Currently, they’re observing what hours are busy and what hours aren’t before they can adjust the hours.

The ability to make such decisions is a part of the business Yolanda appreciates. Yolanda said she likes owning the business, being her own boss and having time to spend with her children.

“She likes it because she’s her own boss. She gets to choose her own times, when she’s working. She gets to be with her children. Also, she likes it because she’s making food for other people, and she likes to hear when they say, ‘It’s really good; I like it,’” Nathiely said translating for Yolanda.