Baja Craft Kitchen — Restaurant in Ontario

A miserable, irritating experience.

My wife and I entered and were seated after a brief wait. We had to use our phone flashlights to read the menu because it was so dark.

Once we had ordered by marking down what we wanted on a piece of card with a pencil, we waited a long time for the first taco to appear - perhaps twenty minutes or more. The waitress had stated when she took our order that the food would be brought out as it became ready, but this seemed to be a manipulative way of giving themselves permission to provide terrible service (and to be clear, I don't blame the service staff themselves, who are probably just students trying to pay their tuition, I blame the managers who came up with whatever "concept" the serving staff were having to work from).

My wife ate her first taco while I sat there with nothing for about twenty minutes, very hungry after a long day at work. As my wife ate, the waitress stopped by and asked if "everything was good", even though I had no food to give feedback about! Making one person sit there with nothing while others eat is the cardinal sin in restaurant service - at least try to serve the first two items together!

Finally, another taco arrived, delivered with complete indifference by another waitress. The taco seemed to be deep-fried, it was dripping with grease, and very unsubstantial. It was also cold on the outside like it had been sitting around for a while. It was gone in two bites and the painful wait for another scrap of food began - it may have been another twenty minutes or more before the next instalment was dumped on our table - two more tacos that I had ordered. I gave my wife one of mine, because she was now sitting with an empty plate and looking sad and hungry.

With these tacos quickly gone, the wait began for whatever else we had ordered - I couldn't remember what it was because it was so long ago. Perhaps half an hour passed this time before the waitress stopped again and asked if "everything was good". We pointed out that we were still waiting on one taco and a bowl of ceviche. I asked if we could just have the bill if the food wasn't ready, but she insisted on looking into it and disappeared into the kitchen. The ceviche arrived perhaps another ten minutes later, but we never laid eyes upon the final taco.

We flagged the waitress down after another ten minutes and asked for the bill. She said something about the place being "overwhelmed", but it wasn't clear why they should be overwhelmed. I felt like suggesting that they limit the number of tables to a number that would not overwhelm them, but said nothing. She generously announced that the taco we never received would be free. Nevertheless, we still paid over $70 for our ordeal.

We left, and I stopped to buy a chicken poke bowl on the way home because I felt hungrier by this point than when we had arrived.

How hard can it be to offer a decent dining experience? It doesn't require a PhD in consumer psychology - just provide reasonably prompt and friendly service, well-timed delivery of food, sufficiently substantial meals to satisfy customers, decent atmosphere....that's all. Roadside diners and shawarma shops manage to get it right. We were in Mexico this winter and stopped at a roadside smoked chicken shack where the owner had to get on his bicycle and ride to the next town with a plastic bag to get ingredients for our lunch, and even they managed to give better service!

I hope Baja Craft Kitchen give some thought to their "laid back" (!)...

Went there tonight thinking it would be an awesome date night. Waited ten minutes and she sat us but at the door , like man we have had a long week this is our time together why do I want people walking past my table. Got seated order beers , waited 15 minutes still no drinks, the lights were nice music was so loud for a restaurant it seemed like a club and I had to sit super close to my husband to hear him speak and clearly the everyone was yelling to talk. No one said hey sorry we really busy , sorry for the wait waiter was mumbling and didn’t even look at us us, seemed like she was done. No explanation of what kinda beer “just it’s Spanish beer” after waiting for 15 minutes no explanation, no sorry and with how Loud it was we got up and left extremely disappointed and will never go there and will also tell other about experience just because of how bizarre and loud and unpleasant unorganized, a overall anxiety filled environment! And that’s the energy workers give off! Horrible horrible experience and I’ve never in my have ever experienced anything like this at a restaurant setting. We walked out after waiting for the waiter to say thanks but no thanks and she still didn’t come or even look at us , I felt like a thirsty step child waiting on its angry mother!!!!! I will never forget the name of your restaurant cause of this experience so glad I didn’t waste money! What good is the food when your environment and energy overall is trash . I’m sorry but never again , it actually makes ruined our date night and we ended up leaving fighting on where to go cause at that point it was late 🤷🏻‍♀️ thank you great servers it was like my husband and I...

The drinks were alright. Fair priced and reasonable taste. Nothing too amazing but not bad. The food however was extremely mediocre. 20 minutes to make 2 tacos, when there was no one in there today. Our server checked on us 3 times without one of the party having to single them out to get them. It got so bad that we had to get another waitress to bring us our bill because our waitress just didn't care. They were more interested in talking as a group at the front with the other staff. The lack of seasoning was abysmal. Coming from Toronto where we have a wealth of amazing Mexican places owned by some awesome people. I can't help but feel this place is owned by someone who never worked in the restaurant industry because the service is the worst I've ever seen and I've worked in the industry for well over a decade across multiple continents and it's the only time I have honestly considered not even tipping. Please get someone who knows how to cook and season food, just slapping some names on a menu that resemble Mexico doesn't make it Mexican. Also for a Birria taco it was super dry, plain and the most flavor was the little bit of lime and the mildest salsa Verde I've ever seen. Super disappointed and don't think I'll be back. If you want drinks and are OK with a wait it's alright but I'd recommend other joints in town first....