Mexican Cantina

Terrible service. Very hot inside. Food was mediocre at best. Had to ask for the check three times, while watching the bartender on her phone the entire time. Would never return.

We decided to not try this place last time in Ft. Lauderdale but we stopped by this time. It was pretty empty around 6:30 but shortly after we sat down it got busy. The food was good — just normal Mexican food for the most part. Chips and salsa was great! Service was a little below average. Had to ask for refills and more chips. Overall it was a good experience and we would go back. Chimichanga was delicious!

Waitress was nice; food was generally not good. The Mexican pizza appetizer wasn’t good and the flautas were bad. However, The shrimp quesadillas, cheese enchiladas and chicken enchiladas were pretty good. Heard the drinks are good but we didn’t have that and can’t comment on that (did have sodas which were strangely bad tasting). Probably a fun place for drinks with friends but not good family meal place.

Careful with this place — went in with 5 for dinner and noticed that a service fee was added to the final tip. When we questioned the $ 25 fee they said it was an automatic 15% gratuity added. Well here’s the problem, no signs or menus mentioned anything about an automatic gratuity — not for 5 people, AND 15% of the bill was far less than $ 25. When we confronted the manager he initially denied it, then while we were outside waiting for a cab, he came back out with $ 5. Why the refund if there was no wrong doing? Scam — careful folks.

I love coming here when I’m in the mood for summer Mexican American food. The chips & salsa are great, the portions are large, and the food is tasty. My boyfriend and I usually get 2 appetizers for our meal, super nachos and the grilled chicken quesadilla. We always leave stuffed! The staff are super friendly and nice, and if you come a few times they’ll remember you. I’m a local, and I have been coming here since I was in high school, and it has shown consistency through the years. It isn’t fancy, at all, it’s more kitschy if anything. It feels comfortable to me. It’s dark, almost red light, and like I said the staff are incredibly nice. I haven’t tried a lot of things, my boyfriend loves the Chile Rellenos, I love the fajitas. But mostly we do the appetizer thing, we get variety and it’s more than enough food. This is not Mexican street food style, it’s American Mexican food and you know what, there’s a niche for that as much as authentic Mexican. All I know is, I’ve never had a bad meal here, and I will continue to patron it for as long as it is here.

We started our girls trip off at Mexican Cantina, which was highly recommended by the staff at our hotel. We arrived at happy hour. There was not a lot of customers there yet but every customer had a huge drink and smile. This décor and interior of the restaurant is a little dated but I can’t eat decorations.
The food was good. The guacamole was outstanding. The drinks were off the chain. Huge and full of liquor. We all ordered the chimichanga burrito which was huge. It was very tasty but nothing to scream from the rafters about. None of my friends could finish their food. For less than $ 20 each we were all full and tipsy. This was not the best Mexican food I had but it wasn’t bad. The drinks are the best deal at this spot

Best part of the meal was the chips and salsa. I’ve eaten at every Mexican restaurant in ft Lauderdale and this was the worst. Taco meat was dry and unseasoned and the Mexican pizza was cardboard covered in cheese. We requested all of their sauces to try and make the food edible.

I am so surprised by the mixed reviews for this place! We were staying in the resorts and ended up finding this place on a whim. The food is delicious and affordable. We enjoyed our meal, but the star of the show is the homemade dressing — You must order it! A special shoutout to Jessica for the great service.

This isn’t a fancy place but wow the food is amazing. Best burrito I have ever tried. Also the fajitas are huge and so well seasoned. Grilled chicken quesadilla was awesome. Their salsa and hot sauce were amazing.

I wasn’t sure what to expect due to the mixed reviews on Unilocal.My experience here was not the best.
The chips were actually the best thing I’ve had here today and the margaritas looked pretty good. I ordered the shrimp veracruz. The shrimp was very very over cooked, the rice was dry and tasted like it was made a couple days ago and then microwaved. The beans weren’t very great either. We definitely won’t be coming back.

Avoid this place like the plaque.
Food is horrible. Sit at the bar and drink margaritas instead.

Went on a Tuesday night and we were a group of 6. They sat us at a table in the bar area. They promptly delivered chips with fresh salsa. Ask for the green salsa if you like spicy.
They allowed us to do six separate checks after a little begging. They brought out two entrees and then waited a few minutes to bring 3 other entrees. One entrée was not brought out until we were about finished. The manager apologized and said she would offer ½ off that one entrée for the mishap. I think the meal should have been free for the hassle.
One fajita came out sizzling and the other one didn’t. Aren’t fajitas always suppose to come out sizzling and smoking? Fajitas are not served with rice and beans.
I ordered an a la carte enchilada. Very happy that they allow this so you don’t have to get three enchiladas with rice and beans like at most restaurants. The enchilada had shredded beef and a red sauce. They use cheddar cheese here. It is an Americanized Mexican restaurant.
After five of us received our meals our waitress went missing. We needed waters and my friend’s entrée. After about 10 minutes she appeared and apologized that they messed up her order and then we had to ask for water refills.
The menu is typical like you would find at other local Mexican restaurants, however, I don’t remember seeing Cuban dishes on the menu.
There is parking in the parking lots on the east and west side of restaurant. Parking is free. The restaurant has good ambiance. Overall, it is okay but if you want ethnic Mexican food this is not the place for you. If you want American style Mexican food at affordable prices it is a good pick.

While traveling for work, I wanted to stick close to my hotel on my last night in town. I love authentic Mexican food, so despite mixed reviews, I figured this was worth a try. If I was basing my review on margaritas and service, I would have given four stars. I should have stopped there. Sadly, I ordered food. The salsa was meh. I thought I would enjoy my chips more with some queso dip. Terrible idea. It was so burnt it was not palatable. Fluke? Perhaps. Then my chimichanga also came burnt. So disappointing. Maybe I caught the cook on an off night? I hate to leave a 2 star after one visit, but this was downright awful. Walk a little further, head to Primanti’s for some pizza or a sandwich or spend the extra cash and go to Trulucks.

The food Was pretty good for tex mex. I had dinner at 6:30 on a Saturday night. The place was very quiet an empty. A few more people arrived by 8:30. Staff was very attentive. They seemed as if they were all family and friendly. The older bartender was a nice guy. The big margaritas were strong. Two did me in.

Soooo good!!! Great waiter Luis who always made sure we had enough chips and salsa. Very friendly and never missed a beat with anything and everything we asked for. I orders steak fajitas which was more than enough for two, while hubby ordered shredded steak burrito which he love as well! Amazing restaurant and so excited to have found this place. Will definitely not be our last time.

Funny story.
So my girl, Ariel, asks me «Hey – do ya’ll want to go out for margaritas on Friday?» Since Ariel is a social camel (she can live for months off the social interaction others might need in a day) I was both stunned, and immediately excited. «Hooray!» I thought. It was supposed to be a shitty work week anyway, and I would likely need something to start my weekend off right.
If only.
We stopped by Casa Frida (a four-​star Unilocal establishment) where they tried to seat us in a parking lot. We left.
We stopped by Canyon (a five-​star Unilocal establishment) where the wait was an hour, with no standing room at the bar. We left.
Sadly, we ended up here.
They only have canned Budweiser-​brand Mango-​rita crap. When I requested a Corona (the literal lesser of two evils) with lime, she came back with lemon. What kind of Mexican place doesn’t. have. limes? I was furious.
The food was simply awful. My husband literally found three (huge) bones in his burrito.
AVOID.

Had the golden grand margarita, which was pretty good ($ 9.95). Started with the jalapeños, stuffed with cream cheese. The were okay, but wouldn’t order again. The chicken fajitas were average but definitely a large portion for your $$. Serves was great. Will probably just visit the bar if I go back.

Ok, only stopped here because too many people were hitting me up for money as I tried to walk from the DoubleTree to the Thai place on the beach. So, I turned around and went here. Big mistake– should’ve had dinner at the hotel.
It was a dark & weird experience. Lots of old people, maybe locals who didn’t know any better? I don’t know and I don’t plan on speculating but I can say this place was horrible!
The entire space was pretty dark with salsa music playing, which would be fine in a more upstanding establishment.
Instead of putting all of my eggs in one basket, I opted to get guacamole, tortilla soup & shrimp quesadilla. The guacamole was dark and gross– seriously! The soup was bubbly like soapy dish water, with less taste! The quesadilla was awful, too. The side of guacamole didn’t even resemble the appetizer version! No joke!
If I worked at Doubletree, I couldn’t recommend this place. Hands down.

Definitely a lot more on the Tex-​Mex side than the authentic Mexican style. But what Mexican Cantina loses in authenticity, it makes up for with it’s fabulous kitzchy décor and the 42 OZ COCONUT MARGARITA!!! At least I think it was 42. The bowl of the glass was the size of my head and after one of these things I was rightfully silly.
Fresh hot chips are brought directly to your table with salsa. We had some guacamole and the shrimp fajitas. Both were delish and the service was good, too.
The place was slow because on tis particular night everyone was out to watch the boats go through the intracostal with their lights on. I’ve seen lit up boats before, but never a margarita as big as the one at Mexican Cantina. This is the sort of place that you take a huge group of friends for a drunken birthday party and do the Mexican Hat Dance in the middle of the room.
I’ll be back the next time I’m in Fort Lauderdale.

As this place has been around for decades, I was surprised that I had difficulty finding it on Unilocal.The problem seems to be that they aren’t even sure what they call themselves. La Cantina Mexican American Café is stated on the front of their menu (see picture), but the wording on the awning and noted in a few other more obscure places lists it as Mexican Cantina as well as in other reviews and in the phone book. Then, again it is noted in some flyers as being Mexican American Restaurant. Hmmmm? Maybe restaurants as well as the elder become so senile they too have difficulty remembering their own name.
Now, on to matters more important. As I mentioned, the place has been around for decades and frankly, the interior and décor is beginning to show it. Much of the varnish on the booths is worn, the floor looks dingy and those crappy hanging acoustical ceiling tiles appear to come from the pre-​strip mall era. However, the place is relatively clean and orderly.
They don’t open until 4:00PM and have a number of signs outside indicating so. They don’t appear to have much of a weekday dinner crowd but seem poplar enough on weekends. They do have a fairly decent bar crowd following during happy hours with their offering of their 46 ounce margarita; which are actually very good.
If you want none authentic, Americanized Mexican food, this is a good place. Their tacos are fairly decent, by Taco Hut standards and their dinner proportions of food are all large generally containing a tiny scoop of bland tasting guacamole, a large portion of refried beans covered with cheese, a big heaping of rice and a fairly good sized main portion of their entrée with very mild, weak flavoring.
Every meal is served with the usual basket of chips and salsa. The chips I had were good, but the salsa totally bland in flavor but fresh.
Amongst other dishes I tried their Pacifico Burrito, sort of a wrapped combination of sauce, scallops and small sized rather dried out shrimp for $ 15.00, which was just about the highest priced entrée offering. At best it was OK.
The service, however, was extremely good, polite and very professional.
I would say it’s a nice place to stop by for happy hour drink at reasonable prices but for Mexican food, even Americanized Mexican food, you can do better.
I had been in here years ago, and overall feel that it has lost a lot of the luster and glam it once had.