Cantina Norte — Restaurant in District of North Vancouver

I went with a group of friends, and had a really nice evening. I would like to give this place four stars, but I'm giving it only three because of the meal I had. One friend and myself had the duck Verde. I can't remember the actual name of the meal, but you'll find it on the menu pretty easily. I wouldn't recommend it. To be fair, the duck was very tender. We both agreed that the meal itself was very Bland with little flavor. I did ask for some hot sauce. And they gave me this fantastic green hot sauce which had wonderful flavor to it. I basically covered my meal with it and it was the prominent flavor to the dish at that point, it was actually the only flavor to the dish. My wife had a chicken and mushroom quesadilla and thought it was fantastic. And one of our friends had the tortilla soup which she really enjoyed and our other friend had something else and I can't remember what it was but he seemed to enjoy his meal too I think it was a seafood rice dish of a sort. So that being said I would definitely go back and try again and pick something else. We had desserts as well, and they were all very tasty. I had the flan, which was good, but an honesty I have had far superior flan. I think it might be a challenging dessert to make. The passion fruit sorbet was delightful! The churros good. And a couple people had the banana cream pie I think it was. They seem to enjoy that.

Atmosphere-wise, it was nice, spacious, the only negative that I have to say, which I find in a lot of places these days; there is no cushioning in the restaurant, and the noise just bounces off the walls. It is very difficult to have a conversation unless you're sitting directly next to someone. There were six of us, so three people at one end could talk with each other and three people at the other end could talk with each other but there was no conversation really possible for the whole table to join in. As for the service, the service was just fine. Not overly attentive, but definitely checked in on us. Only one criticism, one of the servers came to offer refills of water, she filled my glass, and then walked away with water in her jug. The rest of the table looked at me, and then we all laughed. Water refiller could be a little more attentive.

Yes, I will go back again and give it another shot. I think it has potential. As for it being "Mexican" food, I think possibly it would be a better description if it was called Mexican...

I usually don’t review anything, but I needed to warn people. Food was mediocre/subpar and service was terrible. Starting with the food, it was not the best. Possibly the worst Mexican food I’ve had. If you use seasoning outside of salt and pepper, just know that this food is not flavored. It’s very bland. The guac on our nachos was basically half a smashed avocado; not even the bare minimum salt and lime juice were in it. The sour cream was probably the most flavorful in it. Even the sauce tasted like rotted enchilada sauce. It’s very hard to mess up nachos, but this restaurant somehow achieved it. Overall, other entrees that were ordered lacked flavor; seems that they put their energy into presentation. Drinks were ok, the bartender seemed new, but that’s whatever. Moving on to the service, when we walked in, the hostess was rude and salty off the bat, and honestly, we felt racially profiled in there. She sat us, basically tossed all the menus on the table and scattered them instead of arranging them on the table as any other hostess or waiter would. The hostess would throw us dirty looks for no reason. Our drinks took a while to come while tables that were sat after us got theirs right away. We saw that our drinks were made and ready to be served but were sitting on the bar counter for a good ten minutes while the bartender made drinks for tables sat after us; the waiter quite literally saw that our drinks were ready as we saw him rearranging them on the counter, but went ahead to serve the ones for tables sat after ours right away. In general, our table was ignored and we believe it was on purpose. The waiter also gave us dirty sharing plates that still had crumbs and dried food stains. When the bill came, an 18% gratuity charge was already added to “avoid adding more tips” even though our table was for only 5; we were told by the hostess that the gratuity charge is added for 8 and over. We had to argue with the waiter to fix the bill, and the new bill did come; however, the waiter literally just shoved the tip screen right in our faces ?? Didn’t even give us time to look over the bill. Honestly, this was the first time we felt that a tip shouldn’t be paid given the terrible food, service, and general uncomfortability due to the dirty looks given to us by the hostess and waiter. We still...

After reading the reviews we were anxious to experience the revival of Cantina Norte. Unfortunately it was a disappointing experience. After being shown to our table we waited 20 minutes before we need to stand to call attention that we had not been served. When asked about the drink menu we were informed that it had not yet been printed (10 months after opening). We did order 2 glasses of white wine and 1 red which the menu show Happy Hour prices of $9. As this was not happy hour we expected it to be somewhat higher. We ordered the Chipotle Chorizo Mussels, Shrimp & Mango Quesadilla and the Fraser Valley Vegetable Fajita. The mussels and the quesadilla were tasty, however, the fajita vegetables lacked any flavour. I am not sure what happened here but I have had many fajitas before but none as flat as this. Upon finishing our meal we sat and talked for 15 - 20 minutes before we started looking for the our server for a bill. Once again it required us to stand to get any attention. This was becoming a pattern. Upon reviewing the bill we noticed they had charged $48 for 2 glasses of white wine and $16 for the red. It was clarified that a mistake (check your bill before paying) was made on the white wine which was reduced to $24 or $12 per glass but the waitress would not change the red to $12. When we asked to talk to the manager we were met with a shocking attitude. Rather than acknowledge that perhaps they were remiss in not providing a wine list with prices or that the server did not explain the price of wine when taking orders, she pointed out that the wine list was on their website implying the onus was on us to seek out this information. When we insisted the red wine should be priced at the $12 as well she reluctantly and with an attitude agreed to reduce it. I do remember a time when businesses strove to ensure their customer were happy. That wasn't all that long ago (last Wednesday). I hope the owners realize it takes far less effort to retain a customer than it does to attract a new one. I am hoping they will take the time to read this and perhaps give it some...