Moe’s Cantina- River North

Was here 7 pm on a Wednesday and had the steak and shrimp skewers. Despite other reviews we had great service! Sat outside. Steak skewer was delicious and perfect, shrimp a little over cooked. I like that they have all the different salsas but price point is a little high. Overall good experience!

The service here was sooooo unbelievably slow. Like ridiculous. The food was extremely bland and needed salt in the worst way and is the most expensive mexican that I have ever had.
The atmosphere is the only saving grace on this review. It’s a trendy place and they have a massive space to accommodate large crowds.

Service was a total failure. I can’t comment on the food since I never received it.
Was told by the hostess that the wait was 45 minutes to an hour for a table of 4. When I inquired about a number of vacant tables, she said that they were held for reservations. I stepped to the bar and used an app to make a reservation for 10 minutes later. I walked right back to the hostess and was promptly seated. I should also note that the app indicated availability every 15 minutes for the next 2 hours, so the initial refusal to seat us made no sense.
At the table, our waitress informed us that the food was taking longer than usual to make because of the day’s huge lunch crowd. We said OK and ordered right away. 35 minutes later half of the people at the table were served. 35 minutes after that (!!!), the other half of the party was still without food. We asked our waitress what was going on and she thanked us for our patience. As she could not predict when or if the rest of the food would arrive, we cancelled the remaining orders and left.
Mo’s is just more River North garbage. Final grade: F–

It’s cool inside, don’t get me wrong. I think a lot of the clientele that made this place cool has moved on. River North is constantly changing, so you really can’t blame them.
I have never had bad service here, so that’s definitely a plus.
My main concern with this place is that I felt like they put together their menu after a day of sampling a wide variety of CostCo samples.

HORRIBLE FOOD! YUCK!!! Frozen to microwave. Don’t waste your money. The servers are also incredibly rude. Horrible representation of Chicago and they don’t care about your business.

Terrible. TERR-​I-​BLE. Bad food and far too expensive.
Came here for dinner and a drink. Just by sight, I could tell my enchiladas were plopped onto a plate and microwaved, and the chicken inside was dry as a bone. My husband’s food arrived 20 minutes after the rest of us had been served. When we flagged our waitress to check on it, she just shrugged (never an apology or acknowledgement of the inconvenience) and said that the food will take as long as it takes. THEY’RE TACOS, PEOPLE. They do not take 40+ min. to make, unless they’re magic tacos, and while he reported the meat was indeed good (hence my two stars, instead of one), they weren’t any better than you’d find at a good random taqueria.
My husband and I each had a drink, the saddest enchiladas, and tacos that apparently were imported from Mexico, and our bill was $ 70. Nope. Never again.

Went to moes for tequila fest.
Total bummer patron was well represented other than that one brand only a handfull of other distilleries.
Not any where bear what was expected.
A couple of newer lower end tequilas and jose quervo.
They have good stuff on the shelves .what a disappointment. Not a fest in any way shape or form.
The little bit of food between the two bars was ok.
Wonr be back.
I have more tequila in my freezer and no low end.

Was recommended this spot by our hotel and was unfortunately pretty disappointed.
Ambiance — it’s a sports bar, which is cool but we were expecting that kind of crowd and noise since there was a Blackhawks game on so we opted to sit outside which was cool.
Food — really meh. Comes with 4 tacos which is decent but there was not flavor or sauce or salsa or anything in mine that really brought out the flavors like tacos should have.
Drinks — got the lavender mojito for $ 12 and there was no lavender taste that came through at all.
Alsooo they dropped off chips and salsa for the table which I assumed were free obv but they were $ 4!

Came here for River North Beer Fest which was organized by «Chicago 20 Somethings.» Extremely rude manager and terrible in general. Do not recommend at all!

Big Bar, Big Prices, Bad service. This pace gets packed on a Friday or Saturday night which I would expect to have bad service. But it’s hard to get food on a Tuesday night after work. It should be a crime to charge $ 8 for a Bud Light!
The food is average. Stick with tacos or something simple because anything else takes forever. There are plenty of awesome places to eat or go out in this party of town. Go somewhere else.

I’ve experienced way better. But felt compelled to give 2 stars since our waitress was very nice, inexperienced & clueless, but nice.
We came to Moe’s for a work lunch on the Thursday of NCAA, could have been our mistake. The place was busy, not yet packed, but busy & the waitstaff had no clue what the hell was going on. We got seated at a table then moved to another table b/​c that one was reserved.
The bus boys brought us out the wrong dishes twice. The waitress got our order wrong. The fish tacos were inedible. The quesadillas were just okay. Needless to say the 3 of us at chips & guac for lunch.
I don’t think I’d go back considering the amount of bars there are in RN. But if I did it would solely be for drinks while watching sports.

You pay for food presentation!
CHIPS — the salsas divorced just chips. They are now separate and unequal. Maybe it’s a good thing as it was polygamy. :-o
HALIBUT EN HOJA DE PLATANO ($ 18.50) — seriously overpriced. For ONE. Barely one plantain and a sliver of overcooked good looking halibut.
CAFE CON LECHE — the beans are still weak. For $ 3, you are consuming white sugar and inorganic milk.
SERVICE — the girls are still nice and perky. *wink*
VENUE — impeccably clean and organize.

Servers at moes really need to take a class on customer service. I have to say I come here fairly often and have yet to have a good experience. I typically order a margarita (really good margaritas) and a chicken fajita. A few weeks ago I had my eyes set on the Chicken Cobb salad, I ordered it with no beans and the chipotle caesar on the side (not complicated). I was dining out with three other people, 1 person ordered chicken fajita, the other person ordered tacos and the final person wasn’t too hungry and ordered salsa (traditional red) AND we ordered guac for the table, as well as, drinks for everyone. For starters our waitress was annoyed that, that was all that we ordered and made a few comments.
Our food came out and my dressing didn’t taste like a caesar, I mentioned it to the waitress and it literally was the end of the world, she argued back and forth with me. 10 min later she brought me another dressing claiming that it was a mix up and asked me how I liked it, I said it tasted exactly the same but I didn’t care because I was hungry and really wanted to eat my dinner.
My friends and I hung out there for a little while ordering drink after drink after drink and when we were ready to leave we asked for the bill. Upon inspection of the bill, the waitress charged me for 2 dressings, and charged my friend for an extra salsa that she brought out to us (we didn’t realize that we had to pay for our waitresses mistakes) but whatever we were in no mood to argue.
We split the check 4 ways (half cash half cc) we included tip in our charges and the waitress came back to us saying that she didn’t charge the tip that we requested because she didn’t think it was enough. For some reason she thought she earned more. HA! believe it or not but she should of actually worked for her tip rather then us having to wave her down the whole night and putting our orders in with other people. (side note: we left 20% which she did not deserve at all).

This bar is gigantic. I mean huge. Who knew that this bar from the street goes back as far as it does??? Really though. Come here just to see how massive this bar is and then think about how sometimes this bar actually has a line I’ve heard.
It is really a glorified giant bar that is sort of pretending to be half of a club but then Mexican/​Cantina themed. There is a lot going on here. TVs everywhere playing sports at times but then when the nighttime mode comes on, the TVs switch to music videos corresponding with the songs which is actually pretty entertaining. BUT those videos are too entertaining for the crowd here in that people stop talking to each other it seems.
If it wasn’t for one bar tender who made us a special drink with a shot of tequila sitting in an open jalapeño I would not have stayed here for a drink. But it definitely was an experience and if you have a large group you will likely have room to bring that group here as long as it isn’t peak times.

Wouldn’t waste your time.
A group of us went to Moe’s on our lunch hour and our service was terrible. She never cracked a smile, didn’t even greet us with a hello. She walked up to our table and rudely said «Do you want anything to drink?» She didn’t come back to fill our drinks until 20 minutes in and it took her 10 minutes to take our order.
Our food was sub par. She never came by to see how we were doing.
On our way out the door she didn’t even thank us for coming!
I was in the service industry for seven years so I know it can be stressful. However, we were one of MAYBE five tables there and there were probably 6 servers on the floor.
Terrible experience. Won’t be going back!

I’ve been there a few times to watch games, and it’s fun. However, I went on a non-​game night with my friend to get food, and I absolutely regretted it. Their overpriced tacos were too dry and not that great. Total waste of stomach space!
On top of that, while we were there the TVs were way too loud and no one was really watching. There were 10 people there total. My friend and I couldn’t hear each other and we sat across from each other. It would have been fine if it was good music or even a game going on, but they had a game review on and a bunch of advertisements. I was not having it…
I am giving this place two stars instead of one, because their mango margarita was actually awesome. I would probably go back on a weekend and just get the margarita.

Came here for a wine event with one of my friends and we have a blast!
This place is huge. There is plenty of seating and the staff for the event were every friendly.
I haven’t had a meal here so I can’t say anything about the food.
But they have pretty good drinks, try the sangria!
I plan to go back and try to the food.

Lunch: Why pay $ 25 for one-​note guacamole, uninspired tacos and slow service when you could… not?
Happy Hour: Their margaritas are comparable in quality and price to others in the area, so if you’re stopping for a drink after work, I won’t judge.

Tables, chairs and floors were covered in glitter. Waitress was inattentive. She spent more time hitting on a guy rather than doing her job.
Guacamole was standard. Flour tortillas are very bland as was the rest of the food.
Worst meal and service I’ve received since visiting Chicago. Definitely will not be recommending to friends or returning.

Good Lord, what a sore to the neighborhood. Like much of the rest of River North, this place attracts tasteless, clueless, douchebags looking to pick up drunk, loose women. Luckily the hood offers so many different establishments that there are better options mere blocks away.
A word of advice to anyone looking for a good meal: don’t eat at an establishment that features tacky pictures of its’ food on the menu. Before walking into Moe’s, you can see their tacky menu chock full of pictures that look nothing like the actual food (McDonald’s, anyone?). I was once part of a large group here that ordered some apps. Bland, tasteless food that was way overpriced. Same goes for their margaritas. No beer on tap, and the bottles they have are pretty morbidly overpriced.
The staff is rude and disinterested. The bouncer wouldn’t let my friend in because he was wearing Chucks. Didn’t matter that he had a blazer and button-​down and plenty of money to spend. Douche. Bartender was texting instead of trying to manage the crazy bar crowd. Douche. Unfathomable how this place is crowded, let alone has a line sometimes.
They should airlift this place, along with Barleycorn and Social 25, to Wrigleyville, connect it to the other Moe’s and Barleycorn, and just sprawl a giant neon sign across the top that says «DOUCHELAND.» Schaumburg bros would proceed to salivate and frequent that establishment, in turn staying away from RN.