On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

I give Ivan 5 stars. He has a sense of urgency and ALWAYS smiles. Being in the industry myself for almost 2 decades, I recognize what might not be obvious to others. When he is busy, you can’t tell, if a table gives him the blues, you can’t tell. However, today as I was observed him get that one table where everything could go wrong, in what some of us may call the weeds, and from what I could gather, a manager of some sort, flinging her long hair, making drinks, not tied up as per health code, I heard her hollar, «More frozen Ivan! «Ivan was on the patio dealing with a table I witnessed him running their order twice because they obviously just couldn’t be satisfied today. It was so unnecessary. As a supervisor or manager, NEVER forget what it was like to be in Ivan’s shoes. Maybe go touch the table and show excellent customer service while still having the back of your employee. As a manger I never forget to serve and lead, it’s called servant leadership. I have really enjoyed my frequent visits here and hope to continue to do so. 20 years ago my graduation dinner was at OTB in Stafford, so the restaurant as a brand holds a special place in my heart, you never know who’s watching so always treat not only guests but employees with the utmost respect. Thank you.

Whitney Hayes was awesome!!! She was very attentive as well as social. I have been to this location several times and every time I am impressed with Whitney!

I absolutely love this place! The service was incredible. My waitress whitney was speedy and curtious. Went above and beyond and recommended a sample platter. That had so much food I had to take some home, and save some for later. I definitely will be going back!!!

NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER again. Sat there for 20 minutes without a waiter even speaking to us… then after ordering our drinks (tea’s & waters), we waited another 15 minutes to receive them… during this wait period a few ladies from the booth behind us got up and said we have been here for 45 minutes and not one person has spoken to us… we finally placed our order and 20 – 25 minutes later all our food came (which is pretty normal, i fee like in any restaurant after ordering) except my moms, which was a simple half order of bean, cheese and chicken nachos… her’s did finally come out. when we were all done ready to leave…

Starting with positives, service was swift; we were seated quickly, order taken right away, and food was on the table in 10 minutes.. Now the food: Both the freshly made chips and the salsa were quite good as was the bowl of queso seasoned with peppers, tomatoes, and cilantro. My mushroom enchiladas would have benefitted from having a little melted cheese inside and less tough tortillas rolled around the outside. Seasoning of some type would have helped as well. My pork tamale was not pleasing to my palate at all. The meat filling had little taste and the sauce was like tomato paste right out of the can. The refried beans were pedestrian at best, but the rice was pretty good. My wife had a salad with ranch dressing which she really enjoyed and the tortilla soup which she felt was ok, but nothing to rave about. …Great service! Mediocre food.

Lol I swear we must be on the show PUNKED! I just seen 2 rats chasing each other jumping from the beam by the time I pulled my phone out to take a picture they ran into a hole! But the watermelon margaritas are good! Update as we are still sitting here we have not been checked on no drink refills, never got chips, water or anything, we finished our 1 drink 15 minutes ago. It has been 30 minutes since I posted the original review and still no one has been to our table!

Today’s lunch at On the Border wasn’t up to their usual standards. I ordered the Portobello Mushroom bowl, and my husband the chimichanga. Service was a bit slow, even though at shortly before noon the restaurant wasn’t busy.
My bowl was good, but there was no mushrooms in it. Instead I was served grilled squash. I like squash, I cook squash, and I eat squash, but I was hoping for Portobello mushrooms. The bowl with black beans, rice, roasted red peppers, and other ingredients was very good, so I didn’t complain. After all, I like squash.
My husband’s chimichanga was good and he enjoyed it.
I ordered a second beer, a smaller one than the first (the sauce on the bowl is tangy, to say the least). The beer arrived, the larger version. The waitress suggested that we split it.
We will continue to go to On the Border, but I’ll be sure to order something that is not only mentioned on the menu but actually exists in the kitchen. And I may start drinking iced tea.

So, I’m comparing to other chain restaurants in this same price point and I’m still pretty disappointed. We stopped in at 2:30 on a Sunday, clearly after the lunch rush from which they hadn’t fully recuperated.
There wouldn’t have been a wait but we had to wait for a table to be cleaned. I’m not sure who was responsible for bussing the tables but they obviously didn’t show up and if they did they should be fired. Not only was the restaurant cluttered with dirty dishes and trash under tables but the bathroom was pretty nasty. The doors don’t shut completely and the toilet was leaking water from the handle. I think it may be more sanitary to use the bushes outside.
Waitress was super friendly but was either: 1) partially deaf, 2) didn’t speak English or 3) easily confused by simple orders.
Example:
Me: my son will have a corndog with fries.
Waitress: do you want to add chicken to the quesadilla?
As far as the food — we didn’t find bugs, fingers or hair so we consider that a success. Chips were half stale, but the ones that weren’t stale were good. I ordered a salad and they snuck the brown wilted leaves at the bottom and they had the wrong dressing. Ice was at a premium and I was only allotted one cube for my tea. Tea was good, would have been better cold.
Two stars only because there were no foreign objects in our food and our waitress was super smiley.

My daughter and gave this place a shot while in Waco for tennis. We walked in the door to a crowd of people waiting for the hostess to show up to seat them. It was a 10 minute wait just to wait for them to show up. The meal was ok until the dessert arrived. It was a brownie with ice cream. My daughters brownie had a white plastic cable wire tie (zip tie) between the brownie and the ice cream on top. She could have accidentally swallowed it and choked. When we showed it to the wait person they apologized and asked what could be done. I said they should comp our entire visit (she could have choked). She came back and said mgr would allow half of meal.
Please check your dinner for foreign objects before swallowing!

My old home away from home. Bartenders Chris and German are friendly and fun, the managers are great Epically Martha

Delicious food! Great fast service! Awesome drink variety. You won’t regret it. I go here often and every time is been great! I love the fried avocado and their salsa is the best.

Lunch time and the service was good ! Ivan the waiter was on point ! It’s a must do at lunchtime!

Went in with a part of 8 on a Thursday night… Server was lack luster and dinner took 2 hours from start to finish. Good was good but slow from the kitchen.

I haven’t been to OTB in 7 years, and I was really, really surprised that dinner here was pretty good. I would give Waco OTB 3.5 stars.
Chips and salsa– not bad. I like how fresh and tomato-​y the flavor is, but whew… it’s definitely got a dull hot that will bite you after a while. (This could be good for chip control, but I don’t go to a Mexican restaurant with the expectation of chip control.)
Fajitas– The person I was with absolutely loves the hell out of the fajitas here. I haven’t had them, but they looked just fine.
Enchiladas La bandera– These were okay but not really remarkable. I am indecisive, so why pick when I can have three different ones? They were kind of stingy on filling, and some of them were lower on flavor than the others. Wouldn’t really recommend it.
Rice– I had the cilantro rice. This was a really nice and surprisingly good touch! Tasted great.
Grilled vegetables– Instead of beans, you can get grilled vegetables. This was pretty awesome. Good quality zucchini, squash, and red pepper grilled nicely. I’m accustomed to zucchini and squash being cooked to hell and flavorless, but they did a really great job with this.
Cleanliness could use a bit of work. Sticky menus creep me out.
All in all, a solid experience. They have a lot of crazy killer deals throughout the week, so I would definitely go then to cash in on one of those, like their enchilada or taco nights.
When in Waco, a town with a heavy Hispanic population, I probably wouldn’t encourage you to eat at OTB since there are a lot of super legit options for cheaper. However, if you have a phobia of the unfamiliar yet a love for margaritas, this isn’t a bad option in town. I would still eat here anyday before La Fiesta and Casa Olé.

Didn’t have a good experience. Service was poor & food quality wasn’t the best. When our order was brought out, my wife got her fajitas but they messed up my order. They finally brought out my burrito 10 min later. Would have figured that the manager would have came over to apologize but that never happened.

Dillon, a student studying to provide a good income for his future also provided excellent services to the two brothers and their Brides last weekend following the funeral four our Aunt. Excellent service enhanced the typical food of the chain, providing a superb and delightful visit for the couples who traveled from Washington State and Kansas City. stop here and enjoy!

Really a sad excuse for Tex-​Mex. It’s one of my favorite types of food so I eat it often. I still don’t have a favorite place in the Waco area and wasn’t expecting much from a chain but this was just not good at all. The salsa was incredibly plain. Spicy, but plain with no flavor at all. The food itself tasted like it came from a microwave and had no flavor. We would have been better off at Taco Bell. Save your money if you are thinking about going here.

I’ve Been to this location several times for lunch and dinner. The food is always consistent and the service it great.

This restaurant is good. Can be really crowded on the weekends, so make sure that you get there early. The staff are always nice and prompt to help you. Chips and hot sauce are pretty dang good. The enchiladas are my fave.

Travelling for work by myself, and the Tex-​Mex craving hit. I love On the Border chain food, and this On the Border (OtB) didn’t disappoint.
I came in on a Sunday night, and was seated in a high wall booth so it wasn’t quite as super awkward that I was dining by myself. The waiter was super friendly, quickly bringing out the free to-​die-​for chips and salsa.
I went a little overboard with the food order for one, starting with a very rich indulgent order of stuffed jalapenos ($ 8). To my pleasant surprise, they weren’t just stuffed with cheese, but also chicken making them slightly less terrible for my health. The plate was huge, and definitely should be shared. My go-​to «You Choose 2» combo entrée for under $ 8 was well worth the money. Tasty (although a little dry) chicken enchilada, chicken empanadas, beans, and rice. Quite a bit of food for $ 8.
I had a feast I couldn’t finished for under $ 20. Really have to give credit to how friendly and helpful the waitstaff are. Well worth the money for a dinner out in Waco.