La Montana Mexican Restaurant

Been here many times and the food is average. Terrible, terrible service last time I was there. We waited to be seated but no one showed up and there was no sign that you had to wait. So, we seated ourselves at a table close to the host desk. As soon as we saw the host we told him we had seated ourselves. He got really pissed and asked if we really thought it was ok to just sit down? We said we waited but no one showed up and there’s no sign that says to wait. There was no one in the restaurant. All the tables were empty but he was really angry with us for sitting down. We got up and left. We will never, ever go back.

Slow service. Food is ok. None of the employees seem to be in a hurry to serve the customers. Undertone of rudeness. Unfortunately because this could be a nice place.

Great food!!! Chips and salsa are the best!
I had the chicken fajitas and they were great. Very large portion size. Staff is friendly and restaurant was very clean. We were there on valentines day so wait for the food was a bit long, but that was expected.

Good Margaritas food was ok, but what can you expect for mexican food in Big bear, whats up with the melted cheese on the rice?

I liked the food but service was bad. 1 hr mwait for our food. If you’re not in a hurry, try it. If u dont like to wait go somewhere else.

Without a doubt the worst restaurant experience my family has ever had.
We walked in were seated in the back corner and waited for 20 minutes until we were finally given menus and our drink orders were taken. (We should have left at that point). Then after ordering our good we waited for another 30 minutes and after complaining to the manager were given a disgusting free dessert. (We should have been given 50% off our meal). It was totally inappropriate and our server was incredibly awkward and creepy.
If the food was good that might have made a difference but no it was barely edible.

We should have taken the hint when there were no cars in the parking lot, but at 9pm, we just thought most people had finished eating already.
It was just about the most tasteless meal that I have ever had and their beans were especially atrocious! We only came in because we were starving and this was the closest Mexican restaurant to our cabin.
One sentiment from my fellow diners: «At least we didn’t get sick from this place». So I guess it could have been worse.
Side note: They even let solicitors in here to bother the clients!!! As soon as our food came out, a teen came in hitting us up for donations to his church program!
For shame, La Montana, you should just close your doors.

This was the closest Mexican restaurant from where we were staying. Customer service was good. Hostess was friendly and the waitstaff as well. Sadly food was the least to be desired. The ground beef tacos– oh my god!- were disgusting! The first thing that came to mind was soylent green– it’s dog! Horrible, horrible… I had to spit out food. I was so shock by the taste of it. Whatever that was… it was meat in the lowest form possible.

Drink sucked and food was. bland…will not go back bartender was rude

The food was good and the margaritas were good, but I ordered their oysters and it made me sick!!! :(

Well not exactly A-​OK. My tilapia dish (although it looked good) was dry, tasteless… bland. UGH! What a dissapointment. My hunney’s chicken fajitas on the other hand was so freaking good! Our drinks where also very good. Not sure what happened with my fish :(their salsa is also tasty with some kick!
Been here several times and will be back just won’t order their fish again.

The food itself was good but service was terrible which ruined it for me. We had a party of 6 which I think would be manageable but seemed to overwhelm our server, he took our orders delivered the food and that was just about all we saw of him. It took 15 minutes to get a refill on my margarita which was mostly water anyways. Our server also couldn’t split up the bill and was just generally non-​existent. He had a helper with him who was picking up his slack and that’s why our tip went to him not our server. I wouldn’t recommend this place, if you’re looking for Mexican food in Big Bear go to the Hacienda grill just down the street on Big Bear Blvd, they do a good job!

I ended up here just simply looking for a place showing the USC/​ND Football game with sound. With the intent not to eat, I ended up caving in. It became impossible to resist the glorious smells of fajitas, tacos, burritos going to my left or to my right. Starting it all was the the help yourself chips and salsa bar, which might as well have said «Randy’s Chip & Salsa bar, stay out».
I didn’t want anything too heavy, after all, it’s been a few days in a row of carb overload with stuffing, turkey sandwiches, and the AYCE Pancake and Waffles this morning for breakfast (Madlon’s); I opted for a Taco Salad w/​Shredded Chicken. It was good and HUGE, with more stuff than lettuce.
Casie, an OC and LA transplant, set the tone of the bar area with a friendly and casual demeanor. Albeit the sound was fairly low, Casie and staff did their best to accommodate a bar with 95% interest in USC. Yay! Except, of course, for the final score and loss. Booo.
The bar is good, and the restaurant is way nicer and larger than I expected it to be. For the holidays, it’s decorated in white lights, garland, and red ribbon. I can’t quite agree with fellow Unilocaler (and my extraordinary Mom), Shirl S., who rated it a 4-​star, I’d have to try a few more traditional items of food. But, this is certainly worth trying, and for me, coming back again would be a pleasure.

The server was very nice and did not charge us for the order as we took a couple of bites and asked for the check. Honestly I felt I would become sick if I ate their food, the stale chips should have been the warning but we gave the them the benefit of the doubt. I’m sorry but the food was gross and stale, the refried beans tasted like they’d been sitting so long that they soured! All I could think of was Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and just wanted to wake up!

I have been there several times but my favorite time to go is for lunch. Good chips and lunch time price for a tostada. It is always consistently good.
I have had the happy hour tacos and they are not too impressive,

I was excited to return for a meal hear this year but I was disappointed in the service this time around. There are two things I feel are just no-​nos in the world of customer service: 1) When you make a mistake, don’t try to explain to the customer how it was more of their mistake than yours, step up and take the bullet; 2) don’t tell your customer how to order; listen intently & let them make their own choices. Unfortunately there were multiple mistakes made and no one to blame but us. Now, I dont mind taking rightful blame but in this case, we know it was completely our waitresses lack of attention to our requests.
The peach sangria was still just as good as the last time and so was the rest of the food (my Carnitas was tender and juicy just the way it should be!). I do have to point out there was a younger guy there that was was very attentive to our needs when our waitress was not around; most of the time…

I am gonna try to be fair and judge this by the overall satisfaction of myself and date as well as the other patrons I observed.
First I love Mexican food and living in socal I’ve tried a lot. That being said I don’t love it all and I’m not über picky. That being said… On with the critique !
Fun place friendly service looks like a chill bar area. We immediately ordered a HALF order of nachos and it was ridiculous size! It was pretty dam good, the way nachos are supposed to be. Tons of real cheese melted all over. In my top ten greatest nachos ever. We maybe ate half.
My meal (which I could barely eat) was carnitas enchiladas and they were cooked great but I needed a little something more inside (cheese, spices or something) and the rice was very fine almost like couscous, but cooked right. The salsa and chips that I had 3 chips before nachos came were great. Pretty decent prices and quick service at 7pm on a summer Friday night.
Everyone else looked to really enjoy their food. My rating is more like 3 ½ stars.
But I will come back especially over el jacalito where I was left wildly let down. Side note: la Montana had way more clientele and friendlier service over el jacalito.

10 people went out to dine. A friendly and polite bunch, hungry after a day of sledding.
10 people dined at La Montana. No one was happy.
My «spicy vegetable» dish tasted like microwaved frozen veggies. The beans were dry with some weird crusty cheese incorporated inside. The rice was mushy.
To the right of me I heard the crunch of a taco and the immediate response was, «Ew, this is gross.»
3 people said the tortilla soup tasted like barbecue sauce. 3 said the albondigas soup was too salty to enjoy.
The person who ordered a salad had a bowl of iceberg lettuce without avocados, as it was listed in the menu.
10 people were hungry so we ate… but it was just blah.
Although, it was agreed the salsa was good. I guess that’s where this place earned its one star.

La Montana is pretty good — it’s not fancy, it’s straight up traditional Mexican food. You will get a ton of food. Their nachos are so yummy and will feed your whole table. The enchiladas are also great — the green sauce is a bit on the spicy side so beware. They have long booths that will seat 6 – 8 people and this place has a kiddie menu that has tacos, burritos, etc. and fries!
Also, we were rocking out to the music :) The peach sangria might have had something to do with that!
You can make a reservation but I’m not sure how it works… when I came in they didn’t have a reservation and then they found on the back of a receipt someone had written «Dick — 9 people — 5:30pm» So maybe if you make a rezzie just call ahead to make sure that someone wrote it on a receipt and someone else noted it? lol.

I will definitely be back here! First of all, the restaurant is pretty big, so getting a table shouldn’t be too much of a problem even on a busy night. We went on a Sunday afternoon, and it wasn’t crowded at all. I liked that the table had a pitcher of ice water and four glasses right there. Thank you for that!
There was a brunch menu of selected items that you could get until 2pm. These items came with either champagne or orange juice. The regular menu is pretty sizable, and I went for the chicken enchiladas verde. Very tasty! My friends had other items, and they all seemed quite pleased with their food. Even the 3-​year old, who ordered chicken tenders! A silent kid is a kid that’s happily grubbing away on his chicken tenders, I say.
Service was great. Our waitress was very attentive and even when she made a mistake on one of the orders, she immediately took care of it and kept the table advised until the item arrived.
There were so many things that sounded good on the menu, I can’t wait to come back and try something else!