On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

Great food! Try a combo platter or the enchiladas. Good salsa too. The taste/​smell of BBQ permeates the place. But you’ll enjoy the experience.

Pedro and Samantha are fantastic. The food is great especially the guacamole prepped table-​side and the chicken fajitas. My 11 yr old daughter loves the build your own tacos, and says the chefs are the best ever and are magicians in the kitchen. The only problem is that you get too full! If you can manage room for desert, go with the sopapillas. They are great with either chocolate sauce or honey. Great food, great service, great fat belly when you leave.

Came in for the lunch special and coronaritas! We all loved the food and Shannon was a great server!!! Definitely recommend this restaurant to everyone.

It never fails when I come here. The horrible service. And I know «why do I keep going back» I love their chips and queso but I’m starting to think its not worth it anymore. Everytime the service sucks. I came in, had to seat myself because there was no hostess. The manager came over finally with menus and basically slammed the silverware on the table. Bad mood? It wasn’t even busy. I waited 10 mins for queso and when he brought it over, he sat it at the other end of the high table and walked away. Like really? Had to get up to move it closer. He then brought water to my table. Rather than not being lazy, completely reached over me and everything I was eating to put it on the other side of the table. Towards he end of the meal I see the manager in the back messing with food, then wiping stuff on her pants and then going back to messing with food. Just 5 seconds befor she was handling money. I’m starting to see why this place gets less and less business.

Went there for dinner, and I really liked this place. First of all the UNLIMITED chips and salsa is great, very fresh. We ordered the Quesadilla, Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos, and the Shrimp Fajitas. overall the food was really good, and the portions were pretty big as well. the service was fast, and our server was really nice, definitely a good experience, will be coming back

Taco Tuesday specials and margaritas are great. I really like the shrimp and steak fajitas and the shrimp and tacos too. The fish tacos were a little overcooked and too dry though. Salmon dish was delicious (I like seafood). My favorite drink is the margarita with a Coranita upside down in it. Service is always very friendly and efficient here. Only really bad complaint is we once ordered the «live guac» table side and the server kept using his fingers to put the ingredients in, even though he had a spoon. He scratched his ear too. Please dont, that’s very unappetizing! Cinco de Mayo was fun.

Went here during lunch time. First off, excellent chips (unlimited!). They’re fresh and warm. The dipping sauces are good too. You get the tomato salsa by default. But if you can handle the heat, then go for the green spicy dip (IT IS SPICY, so careful).
For the main course I tried the chicken empanada, chicken tinga enchilada and the spinach mushroom enchilda. This also came with rice and black beans. The empanada and the spinach enchiladas were good. The chicken tinga tasted meh, wasn’t too impressive. The Queso was awesome.
Costed like 12 bucks with tax for all of them, which I’d say is a pretty good deal. Will be back for sure to try some of their other items.

My boyfriend and I were excited to visit this restaurant. It was our first time. We got seated right away. As we were looking through the menu for about 5 min no one has acknowledged our presence. Our waiter was no where to be found. 7 min later another waiter from another section finally apologized for the wait. He gave us the chips and salsa. Then 3 min later our waiter finally came. All in all, bad service! Our waiter didn’t even know the food that I ordered in the menu. I think she was confused which dish I was trying to order. In my curiosity, I wanted to time how long it will take for this other family to get serviced. They got serviced within a minute. So disappointed.
We will never come back here ever!

We went out for lunch for Cinco de Mayo. This was my first time eating here. Service was a bit slow, but that was to be expected as it was pretty crowded for lunch. Their food was very salty. I would go there again but to try their margaritas as their drinks looked pretty good.

Went in for a Sunday night dinner– had a pitcher of strawberry margaritas and table side fresh guacamole made! Both 5 stars! Endless chips and salsa! Quick service!!! Soda refills before the last sip was done! Various dinner entrees ordered and all were good! We sat in the cantina area — our server who I think was the bartender too was fabulous!!!

The food here is a step up from a taco bell. Decent food, not a place I would go out of my way to visit again. Only reason I tried it was because I was given a gift card. I’d be a little more critical of their food if the money came out of my pocket.

We had good service (friendly, helpful and prompt) except there was a bit of a delay getting the bill.
Seems to be more TEX than MEX. Prices are modest. Servings were very large. The Ultimate Fajita came on 2 large plates, and the Saturday special Chimichurri was large also. Food was tasty, and to my surprise, not very salty. The spice level was low except for the opening serving of salsa and chips. I had Dos Eques dark draft for the 1^st time and it was very enjoyable. Don’t know why they would serve it with a lime slice as that did not suit the beer well.
This was Sat early dinner and the place was nearly full. The only major negative for us was that the noise level was about as high as at any restaurant we ever visited. So this may keep us from going back in spite of the otherwise good showing. And noise probably cost them one star.

Food is great. This place has a separate vegetarian menu. A++
Service can be little better.

I’ve been to many different On the Border restaurants over the years, but never reviewed them before. So when we stopped here a few weeks ago for lunch, I decided there was no time like the present to write a review of them.
We always sit in the bar area at this particular On the Border b/​c we like the atmosphere there — more lively than the «restaurant» area. Of course, it was a Saturday afternoon, so it wasn’t crowded or anything and we didn’t order drinks, but I still felt the staff was very attentive to us… always refilling our pop and giving us more chips/​salsa.
One of my favorite items is chips and salsa — something about a warm salted chip with fresh salsa. I could die happy if that was my last meal. On the Border is no exception as I like their chips and salsa.
I ordered the «Border Smart» Tomatillo Enchiladas with rice and my husband had the Sunday Special Burrito. Unfortunately, my dish came out lukewarm and I had to send it back. I can’t tell you how this annoys me at a restaurant these days. If you read many of my reviews, that’s what my major complaint is. Chefs need to learn how to time the cooking of the food and keep the food hot for the customers. After my dish was reheated, it was fine, but it does put a bit of a damper on the whole meal. The manager did come by and apologize, but still. This seems to be a trend at all restaurants these days, and I just hope it stops soon. My husband liked his burrito and while it was hot on the outside, that same temperature did not carry thru to the middle.
While I did not have the best experience this past meal, I would still come back to On the Border. I like the restaurant and the food — they just need to make sure the food is hot!

Great service! We were given chips and salsa when we walked in and the salsa was a bit spicy for my taste. I got the street style tacos with chicken. While the taste was great, the actual chicken meat was tiny little bits that visually, did not look appealing. I got three tacos in my meal and they were small, a little bigger than the size of my palm. The margarita was great though!

I have been here about 5 times and tried many menu items from quesadillas, tacos, enchiladas, nachos, a more. Food is a 2; it’s ok, but nothing close to authentic. Know you are getting «American Mexican» if you go here. They have some good drink specials during some hours.
One of my last visits I was at the bar (only customer at bar). There were 2 workers who just got off work and a friend of theirs at the bar also. The off-​work workers, and the working bartender were all talking about their shifts. Making fun of customers. How fat they are, how annoying they are, etc. One referenced how one older ladies customers boobs were down to her waist. Not what employees should be doing after work. Sitting complaining about their jobs and making fun of customers; not good. I heard one brag, «I’ve been fired from 4 different On The Boarders, now I am working here». Service that day was pathetic as well. There was a single table and myself at the bar. Took 20mins to even catch the bartender. When he wasn’t talking with his off-​work corkers he was in the back of the restaurant. Most establishments don’t allow workers to hang out at their bars. Made for awkward experience. Manager, at least I assume so (he was wearing button down shirt and nice pants), was there the whole time during this bad visit. In and out of bar and all of restaurant. Weird he didn’t notice or say anything.
All in all. Food is mediocre, service is below par. I would recommend finding another place for Mexican.
I am currently at this restaurant, bartender this time seems more attentive. I was going to give 1 star, but the lady bartender on this visit got me to raise it to 2 due to her good service. She didn’t have a nametag on and I forgot to take the receipt, which may have contained her name. If a manager or owner is reading this, on 1÷13÷06, at about 4:30pm, the female bartender you had working did very well. I’ve been here 2 other times at the bar with 2 different male bartenders and was disappointed with the service.
I’ll update my review if I ever return and have new findings.
*Update — I put back to 1 star because I really feel bad sending others here. Go elsewhere.

First time here, it’s pretty space, like really space. If you’re like me and you want walls in the restaurant you go to. Don’t come here.
Noise level is pretty average, echoes a lot, because it’s a wide open space.
Seeing this is a Mexican restaurant and Cantina, they should have Jarritos, which is a traditional Mexican beverage. But yet, they do not have it. Tsk tsk tsk, to be a «Mexican Restaurant» you need everything from beverages to food to the feel as you walk in. Which here they failed. Not all the Mexican beverages and the feel is more of a welcome to L.A. But for a Tex-​Mex its pretty good, but for me doesn’t give the feel of a place in Texas, despite the pictures of the Alamo.
Menu: not really a lot of options, to be honest. And really over priced. I can go to Taco Joint in Chicago and get better tacos and less over prices. Or to another place and get more tacos for a cheaper price. 9 $ on average for 2. Really, a bit much. Same goes for the burritos and fajitas. Overall menu does not have enough options to be a «Mexican Restaurant».
Cleanliness: pretty up to standards. Tables clean, silverware, bathrooms, everything. Clean. I like it.
The chips and Guacamole/​salsa: the salsa has a good kick to it. So be prepared for that. The Guacamole also taste good, but needs the kick.
My meal was the ultimate fajitas, and wow, it was filling. My steal was rare. (Look at picture) everything was delicious. Well done. Flavourful, kick, zing, and etc.
The service was well attended, she came and checked on is multiple times. To make sure we were good. But she never refilled our beverages.
Overall, will I come back? Maybe. Just there wasn’t a thing here for me to come back for certain, so maybe I come back, maybe not. We’ll see.

Okay, so they’re On the Border, right? Could it really be so unsurprisingly bad? Yes. Mostly because of the service. We come by here often on weekends if we head to the mall or to a movie at the AMC across the street. For the three times we’ve come here (my GF really likes them from her home town) we’ve always had to wait to be seated for at least 10 minutes. This would be understandable if there was a line, but that isn’t the case. We just get stuck waiting for a waitress to come over and seat us.
Once we are seated, invariably we have to wait for 5 – 10 minutes for a waiter to show up and get our drink/​meal order. The food here is okay, but the annoyance of waiting twenty minutes to get an iced tea when the place is half empty and you’re the only new customer coming in in the last ten minutes really gets to you.
I’d say if they were willing to spend a day making sure their staff knew their areas and knew which person was supposed to seat new customers, this place would be a 3 – 4 star review. As it is, I just don’t want to come here again and I want to save you the trouble.

Went here yesterday for dinner with 3 other people.
The food was fast, but the service was not that great, we felt really rushed… & the food was super salty.
I did like the complimentary chips and salsa though!
We ordered stuffed jalapeño poppers, 2 of the combination fajita platters, street tacos with steak, and beer battered fish tacos.
So the jalapeño poppers were decent. They came out fresh & hot, but I thought they’d use fresh jalapeños. They used the canned, pickled ones, which are pretty salty.
Then we got our combination fajita platters. The guac I was not impressed with. Seemed like it was made a long time ago, not that fresh. The meats (3 pieces of shrimp, steak, chicken, carnitas) were super salty. It came with this weird garlic butter. It was butter with garlic powder, salty & just ew.
The flour tortillas were good. They seemed really fresh and homemade!
The fish tacos… the flavor was good, but the fish was cold and there was no crisp. The whole point of a fried fish taco is the crunch of the beer batter, but nope, this was a soggy mess.
I didn’t try the street tacos, but they didn’t look like anything special. Just corn tortillas with chopped steak. Eh. I can get that anywhere.
Didn’t like the black beans or rice. Both flavorless & hard, but of course there was a ton of it on every plate.
We got cokes and when they were getting low, we were not asked if we wanted a refill, but the table next to us, got refills before they were even done or asked for them.
Overpriced & mediocre. I’d go back to try the drink specials, but idk, maybe not.

I will pass! I did give 2 stars because I’ve come before and tried the fajitas and they were decent! Today I had the Enchiladas… Chicken Tinga with sour cream sauce… They were horrible. The rice was hard as well!
The waiter was however very attentive and willing to replace the food but I was so turned off by the taste I refused.
Sigh oh well…
Oh but wait I was giving 2 stars. However as i typed this review The kitchen manager came out … He was apologetic and brought me a free dessert that tastes great!
OK OK I will try this place 1 more time!