Baja Cantina (Glebe) — Restaurant in Sydney

Large servings of delicious food. Can’t fault that at all. Did feel a bit disappointed by lack of more specific advertising/communication on Thursday Happy Hour specials. Said 6-8PM there are ‘$10 Margaritas’ on the website and the blackboard out front. On each of the tables there were then lists with all the different margarita flavours. There was no pricing or specification of which ones were in the Happy Hour or not so we assumed they all were. When ordering we even said to the waitress “we’ll have to get margaritas for happy hour” and proceeded to order a Passionfruit, Pomegranate and a couple of Jalapeño margaritas. It was only when went to pay and found out they were charging us almost double the Happy Hour price that we were notified “No, it’s only on classic margaritas.” When I tried to offer helpful feedback about the advertising being misleading, they just repeated themselves and refused to acknowledge the issue.

Definitely left us feeling like their lack of clear advertising or verbal communication was with the purpose of trying to get people to spend more when they wouldn’t otherwise have done so.

The cocktails were nice and we understood that it was what it was and paid the price, but part of our rationale of coming here specifically to try it out on a Thursday at that time was to take advantage of Happy Hour, so it did leave us with a bitter taste to what was otherwise a really lovely evening.

At least now we know for future, but I just hope this issue is resolved so others don’t end up accidentally spending more than they budgeted for as a result of misleading written advertising and lack of verbal communication...

It was balmy summer evening and we decided to find a table in the back garden. Moved around a few times as it took a while to find one that was stable.

One star for the atmosphere as I endured an hour of five screaming kids running wild around the entire restaurant without being reprimanded by their ‘parents’, or told it was inappropriate by the waitresses that watched it happen. Wish I could reduce this to zero stars for the Mexican-screamo System Of A Down style music that was blasting far too loudly.

One star for service, as one margarita arrived 30 minutes after the other, for an order that was placed for two at the same time.

One star for the food - steak and chicken fajitas - that were completely unseasoned and bland Mexican I could have made better at home with the help of Mr Old El Paso. Meat was sat in a pool of oil and I write this review from bed, where I feel like I will never recover from whatever this feeling is 12 hours post consumption. Queso was hot slop, which would have been better used as grout to repair some cracks in the paving.

Didn’t really think the dinner could get worse, until a staff member came out and crouched down like a hobbit about 2m from our table where he smoked a cigarette, like he thought we couldn’t see him. With smoke-free dining laws, this has been illegal for a long time now, and is a bad look (and smell!).

Won’t be returning and will be reporting this restaurant to NSW Food Authority as I’m sure they’ve probably got rats, cats and bats going...

I booked the last spot at Baja Cantina for dinner on Saturday 9th August at 8:45 pm. The restaurant’s Google listing and website state they close at 10 pm. When we arrived, two pstaff members greeted us warmly and served us promptly. Our food and drinks came out quickly, which was great.

Unfortunately, the experience quickly went downhill. We had been seated for less than an hour when, at around 9:23 pm, one staff member began rushing around, clearing plates and announcing to customers, “kitchen closed, bar closed.” She then started mopping aggressively around our table, banging chairs, and making it very clear she wanted us gone.

At 9:24 pm she told me the bar was closed – which is fine if that’s policy – but her delivery was unnecessarily blunt and rude. By 9:28 pm, she was hovering to take my glass of water before I’d even finished. When I asked, “I thought you closed at 10 pm?” she ignored me. I then asked if I could finish my water; she walked away without a word. The mopping, noise, and rushed atmosphere continued.

We paid our bill ($93.18) at 9:36 pm and left at 9:38 pm – still less than an hour after being seated.

I understand staff want to finish on time, but projecting that frustration onto customers, especially when they’re within the posted trading hours, is poor hospitality and unacceptable service. As a Glebe local, I will not be returning and will be sharing...