On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

I went here for the first time in the early part of 2015. I had a good experience then. The food, drinks, service and price were all good. I have since been there two more times, both in the last few months of posting this review. Both times were terrible experiences. Most recently, my girlfriend and I went for dinner. We were seated quickly, but nobody came to our table for 10 minutes. We put in our drink orders (a margarita and a beer). The waitress came back 5 minutes later with water, chips and salsa, but not our drinks. Another 10 minutes later, and she dropped off our drinks and we put in our dinner order. 20 minutes later, my girlfriend’s food came out, but mine did not. We had no silverware, and the waitress was nowhere to be found for about 5 minutes, so I went to the hostess and asked for some silverware. Another 15 minutes went by before the waitress came by to check on us. She forgot to put my food order into the computer. I waited 10 additional minutes and my food finally came out. We complained and the only thing we ended up paying for were the drinks. It’s a nice gesture and all, but given the additional bad experience I had in January 2016 and reading the reviews here, it is clear to me that this is a systemic problem. I will not be coming back.

Don’t bother sitting at the bar. Took me 15 minutes to catch someone’s attention, 20 minutes to order my food, and another 30 to order a second beer. The staff frankly do not care. I’ve watched the second bard tender (short, stout, curly hair and glasses) walk back and forth without helping anyone, but took the time to stop and chat with servers and stock beer bottles. Not worth the time and effort just to order food and a drink. I shouldn’t have to be wearing fluorescent colors while standing on a table to catch the attention of the bar staff.

First time guest there. Barely cold corona and stale chips were brought. I intended on ordering much more but cut my visit short when the server was very inattentive and forgot to bring my guests strawberry margarita. Queso tasted like it came from a can. Might give it another try, only reason it wasn’t a one star was because the strawberry margarita was delicious!

I’ve seen mice walk in front of me in that place. The service is awful if you don’t go to the bar.

Went in for early dinner on Saturday. Hostess wanted to put us at a table. We asked for a booth instead and she looked very put out by that request. Waiter was nice and helpful but he kept forgetting things. Food was good and, with one exception, was as ordered and plentiful. They quickly corrected the order goof. Floors had more than acceptable amount of food and what-​not that should have been cleaned up before someone slipped on it. Men’s room needed to be cleaned a little better and the faucet was so loose that I thought it was going to come off in my hand. Seems like the managers need a little talking to about expectations.

The food was good. But I didn’t got tortilla for my fajita. We tried to get the waitress. It took almost 10 minutes…
What I can’t tolerate is that I got a hair in my black beans. When the manager came, he offered to give me another plate of black beans. We were waiting too long. I said I’m not hungry anymore. He did give me discount… but still…
Won’t come back any time soon.

If I could give 0, I would. Terrible service. Went in for takeout while in town. Seemed like no one there had any idea what they should do and how to interact with customers. While waiting for takeout, saw food go back to the kitchen from a table via the manager. A cashier cursing and slamming the register closed do to the register malfunctioning. And no follow up on water. It was a surreal and terrible. Avoid if possible.

3 stars just for the food and hostess stand. 0 stars for everything else.
I love OTB… But not this OTB. I’ve been to this one 2 times and it’s disappointed me both times.
The best salsa around… All the other «Mexican» places up here are awful! Chips are salty so maybe ask for no salt on the chips… Then you can salt them yourself at the table.
Service was absolutely horrible.
We got sat quickly but then it took 10ish minutes before a waitress came over. We gave her our drink order and food order. From the time we ordered, it was 13 minutes before we got our drinks and that’s only because we asked for them.
The guy who brought our food kept saying plates were very hot but he was sorely mistaken because our food was lukewarm. Still ate it and enjoyed it but it wasn’t hot.
All that to say, service is horrible.

I’m still not going to Chipotle so this burrito satisfied the craving. Most definitely a kid friendly atmosphere.

Ordered the lunch steak fajitas lunch size. It was more than enoungh. Both the wife and I thought it was prepare well. Service was good. Only fown side was that we initially sat at a dirty table, but it was quickly resolved.

Went to Taco Tuesday last week. Next time I will keep taco’s out of my Tuesday routine. Really bad service, brought over skunked Sam Adams instead of Dos Equis. No order had the appropriate items that were supposed to come with it and nothing was any good. Cold stale chips, flavorless queso, Poppers overly battered and tasted eh was the highlight. Time to pivot and become something else. Please discontinue business.

It’s tough giving this three stars when I want to simply call them «On the Salt» or at least «Hold The Sodium Border». But if you can look past that and possibly order some of the healthier options for you, it’s a fun place that is almost always packed, even on weeknights.
One of my first complaints is going to center around the front door greeting area. We recently arrived with nobody else waiting to be seated and weren’t sure exactly what to do. There isn’t any signage greeting you on the next step. A computer stares back at you backwards instead of there being a hostess stand. With nobody around, we stood there like dummies. Granted, this was the last issue we had with service but still, can you at least fix this?
Service was great, definitely as ample as one would want. Our server was constantly attentive, really friendly and did his job well, understanding that empty drinks pushed to the end of the table meant it’s time for a refill, even without prompting. Although pricey at $ 10, at least the server asked what we did or did not want in the Guacamole Live! tableside presentation. I just wish they had a few more options for us to try, maybe a selection of different peppers or even pimentos to add. At least the avacados come straight out of the shell and were perfectly ripened. Their drink menu is extensive and I usually order a Modelo beer which a Mexican restaurant better carry. I cannot speak to the mixed drinks since that isn’t really my thing but they seem to be pretty popular.
My favorite here used to be the chicken tortilla soup but at 1500+ mg of sodium, WHY MUST YOU RUIN A GREAT THING? I almost sent it back the last time I had it, the salt basically ruins a really awesome recipe. And then there is the heavily salted entrees as well, even the beans need it toned down. I’ll never understand why chain restaurants have to unhealthily stand out from the crowd by doing this to its food. Are the ingredients not as fresh? I don’t know, I’m only on the consumer side but because of it, I don’t eat here as often as I would normally want to for fear of health issues. I tried cutting down also on the saturated fat by ordering the mushroom and spinach enchilada but it was still swimming in too much cheese. Food gets a lackluster 1.5 stars.
Ambiance is about a 4 at the bar, service a usual 5 and the food comes in at 1.5, that is how I can reluctantly give this place 3 stars when it probably deserves less. Know what you are getting into and you’ll probably enjoy yourself but don’t make this a weekly habit for fear of hypertension.

Holy bad bar service! I’ve been here more times than I can count and the food is always tasty. Its always consistent– you know exactly what you will get in terms of food. Th menu changes, from time to time, but the quality remains the same. Its decent food in a fun environment and you can never go wrong with the prices.
Recently I’ve been here on a few occasions and the bar service and table service was just horrible. I’ve tried weekday lunch and various dinner times. I expect it to be busy and I expect a wait but once I actually get seated, I expect okay service. Recently it has just been slow and almost painful. Tried to sit at the bar and get bar service– sat there for 10 minutes and did not even get acknowledged, even after looking the bartender straight in the eye. I’m hoping its lack of staff or just new staff because I really used to love coming to this place but the service makes the experience frustrating and unpleasant.

The worst dining experience in a long time. We called ahead so we could seat when we arrived. they didn’t have our name or wanted to hear about it. Completely rude. We asked for a manager and waited 20 minutes and he/​she never appeared. finslly got seated waited 20 minutes to have our order taken.
When food arrived the kids taco had no stuffing and my daughters salad was a bowl of lettuce.
Total disaster stay away.

I been going here since 10 years now and always come often too. Bring a lot of people with me and tonights service sucked. This waitress was so rude and her tone was like she was anoyed everything I said. I asked for chips and she said. I guess :/​so sad

It’s just time. It’s time for this restaurant/​location to go. It’s seen its day and further customers should be spared the severe disappointment or even sickness.
I’ve eaten at this restaurant for over FIFTEEN years! Once a week every pay day back in its hay day. It was the highlight of our week.
Slowly over the years they followed a trend of taking the best items off the menu one by one. That in itself was a horror show, and even though the menu became more bland & boring than any other Mexican American joint around, the quality of the food hadn’t gone entirely downhill yet.
Over the past year or two this place has PLUMMETED in quality in every aspect of its existence! We got take-​out plenty. Just do yourself a favor and don’t do it EVER!!! They never get the order right and I swear they make the food lazily & terribly because they suppose they won’t be dealing with your disappointment face to face! Also, the two times they apologized and said they’d redeem us in the mail for our awful take-​out experiences they LIED and did and said NOTHING! I UNFORTUNATELY got a gift card here and figured I’d give them one more try for NYE takeout. I must be dumb as a box of rocks. I am sitting here in total regret as everything around me is inedible, yet again.
Sure, eat-​in is a BIT of a different experience. It’s face to face and they don’t want to deal with your complaints in a way they have to fix them, so they serve sub-​par food with a smile, possibly thinking you won’t notice the MICE SCURRYING ALL AROUND the dining room floor. Last time I couldn’t take it anymore and sat knees up with my feet up on the booth.
It’s time for this place to finally say goodbye, before they end up poisoning or infecting people. I won’t even bother ranting on about the utterly inept & careless staff they hire. It’s absolutely unreal.

I organized a small event here. I worked with Kip and he was great to get me pricing and info on the catering and how it all worked.
When the day came, I showed up and they were not at all prepared or ready. The staff did not know of the event or that we were coming. It was crazy.
They tried to give us a smaller room, and the run around.
When I pushed back, and insisted that we were promised the room and everything needed to perfect, only did they get their act together.
They were scrambling but it in the end, it all worked out.
The food items were good. Fresh and hot. The waitress was friendly and accomidating.
In the end, it all worked out but I feel I was lucky. Not sure if I would come here again to plan another event.

Food was fine. Not impressive. Like lots of other mexican places. Good for groups. Or if your drinking after work. Meaghan was our server and she was great. Very efficient and quick. Lots of they’re glassware has chips in them.

I’m honestly surprised at the rest of the reviews on this page. Our experience tonight was very good — both food and service!
I love that there’s a separate vegetarian & vegan friendly menu available to special request. My vegan self & my vegetarian boyfriend both left very full.
Only downside would be that when we walked in, the employees at the front seemed to completely ignore us. It was very busy but there was no smile or «we’ll be with you in a moment.» Just 5 – 10 awkward minutes of standing in front of the doors.
That being said, our waiter was awesome. He was really understanding of the vegetarian menu. The food service was also fast.
The best part was the «sangria swirl margarita» — I would come back just for that honestly. Strong, and not juice-​like. Perfect.

On The Border is a place to go if you want to celebrate being on vacation and in a brand new city, which for us, that was what it was. But if you want a decent and well-​priced meal, look elsewhere.
The drinks we ordered were good. Both margaritas. They were delivered to us in a semi-​timely manner. There seemed to be a break in between when we got our drinks and when we ordered. I could of done without the huge time gaps. It was always a guess when we’d see our waiter next.
I ordered the Chicken Bowl or somethingorother. It was bare, with very little flavor or anything going on in it. I was disappointed by just how boring it was. Not to mention, I finished it in like a minute. There was not enough in there to be as expensive as it was. I also ordered a side of guacamole and it turned out to be seven dollars (unbeknownst to me, because it wasn’t labeled well on the menu.) There were like two spoonfuls in there, I wonder how they got that price…
The margaritas are what saved it from a one star. They got their drink specials right.
Overall, I’d say the high prices and the mediocre food is to suck in the tourists that inhabit the surrounding hotels. People are looking for Mexican, but it could be a lot better than this, that’s for sure.