Taco Cantina — Restaurant in George Town

As a Mexicana, I genuinely appreciate creative interpretations of Mexican cuisine. I’ve enjoyed thoughtful, flavorful takes from around the world, some traditional, some fusion, but all made with care and respect. This place, however, served up what was easily the worst version I’ve ever had the misfortune of tasting.

I ordered the Carne Asada, Korean BBQ, Mahi Mahi, and Coconut Prawn tacos, hoping for a delicious fusion of Cayman spices and bold, balanced flavors. Instead, I was met with an assault on my tastebuds. Not a single bite from any of the tacos was redeemable. It felt like a disservice not just to Mexican food, but to every culture they attempted to draw from.

I had also planned to try the lengua and barbacoa, but after that first taco, I knew better. I scrapped the rest of my order and took it as a hard-learned lesson.

Don’t be fooled by the glowing reviews. This place is all style and zero substance. It looks the part but doesn’t even remotely meet the mark.

If the owner of this restaurant happens to read this review, I have one urgent question: What on earth are those fried onions made from? Because they should not be black.

The carne asada was already questionable on its own with an almost gamey flavor, but those fried onions? They were the final straw. Whatever they were cooked in (or burned in), they produced the most expensive vomit I’ve ever had the displeasure of experiencing.

If you care at all about your customers’ experience, I strongly suggest hiring a new chef, or better yet, trimming the menu down to just drinks. Because frankly, that was the only part of my visit that...

This was disappointingly one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had. I’ll give credit where due - we booked for a table of 12, 4 days in advance. Showed up & there was only 2 tables occupied. First round took 10 mins to show up, fine okay, we wait bout 20 mins for our server to come back - order drinks and food. 30 mins go by, food starts to trickle out; I am yet to get my drink (rum and ginger ale). 15 more minutes pass - 3 or 4 of 12 of us have got their food. I request the drink i’m yet to get. 5 mins go by, I get an apology for no drink - still nothing received. 15 mins go by, I FINALLY get my drink… guess what? Its a rum and ginger beer. 10 more mins pass, the rest of the food starts to come out; server comes RUNNING out and shouts at my SO “WHOS FOOD IS THISv” to which she replies “how am I supposed to know??” (Lol). I get my food duck confit, lion fish & carne asada - all mid cant lie. I’m probs $30 deep on a dinner that was trash, one of ONLY two drinks mixed incorrectly & im vex. Also, the Margaritas were pure name brand margarita mix & sugar - garbage. I regret even suggesting this lol. If I could give less than one star I would. Go to casa43!!!!

To the manager, if and or when you see this, I hope you can take this and do something with it.

Also - what is this...

We were very excited to go hit Taco Tuesday, and this place was recommended by a friend. I’ll start by saying we have some amazing Mexican food at home. The menu was well put together, and sounded great. We started with the chips and dips app. The chips were ok, stale and over fried…and the guacamole was ok. The salsa tasted like pace picante sauce, the beans I’m pretty sure were frito bean dip. I knew we were in trouble. Chicken tacos. Highly recommended by the server. Have you ever had a coworker bring the shredded chicken in a crock pot with salsa mixed with it? It was that. No hot sauce, salsa, etc to put on it. My kids scraped the chicken out and just ate lettuce and tortilla. Mahi taco. Was ok. Frankly the others were so bad it stood out. Could have served a flip flop on a tortilla and been better than the Chicken. Carne asada platter. Steak was actually seasoned pretty well, but was very small. Came with broccoli for some reason which was the best thing on the whole plate. Came with a small side of the canned Walmart beans as well. To top it off, French fries on the platter . Never in my life have I ordered a carne asada platter and received broccoli and French fries.

Only thing that could make my 100$ worse is if I get...