Texas Cantina — Restaurant in Tallinn

Of the 3 Mexican restaurants we tried during our stay in Tallinn, this was our favorite in terms of atmosphere, 2nd favorite in terms of food/drink, and least in terms of value/flexibility. The vibe is great, wait staff are friendly and outgoing, and menu is interesting. Margaritas are delicious but not strong. I had two (at Є15 each) but didn't catch even a buzz. That would never happen in the real Texas.

For a starter, we (of course) wanted some Chips with Salsa but also sides of Guacamole and Cheese. But no, that can't be done. Very un-Texas like! No sides of Queso or Gauac are possible. So we were forced to buy both the Chips & Salsa and the Chips & Cheese for Є10 each. Pretty pricey considering most Mexican restaurants in the world give some Chips & Salsa for free, but even worse value when we saw the tiny little portions of Salsa they gave for this big price. Definitely not Texas-sized. And for extra sides of salsa, they charge Є6. The other Mexican restaurants in Tallinn gave us extra salsa for free. At least all of them were good, especially the Queso.

For the mains, we went with the strangely named Dr Pepper Soup, and the Steak Tacos. The Soup was excellent. It tasted like a cross between Tortilla Soup and Chili. A bit sweet but not overpowering. It also came with a small side of (the impossible-to-buy) Guacamole, so that worked out well, and it was also good. For the Tacos, the beef was good, but the tortillas were terrible. They were thick, doughy and ripped easily. Clearly not the same tortillas they use for their nacho chips. I would much prefer a crispy shell similar to their nacho chips.

Overall, it was an enjoyable meal and an interesting experience, but I probably wouldn't repeat it because of the poor value (overall bill was right at Є100, which was more than double the other two Mexican places in Tallinn) and the lack of Texas-style...

I can’t respond to the reply below, so just editing review here:

We came to the restaurant on a weekday around 7pm- it was not too busy (multiple empty tables). We received menus and drinks right away, but after ordering our food we did not speak to our servers for the next hour as we watched them go around the room and speak to every other table multiple times. It seemed like we had been forgotten even though, again, it was not that busy. There wasn’t even any eye contact when we tried to catch eyes or a reassurance that food was coming. I am a type one diabetic, and though I had not injected any insulin (thankfully!), my blood sugar was declining steadily as we waited for food as we had not eaten much that day. Eventually, we had to stand and track down a server to ask how much longer we had to wait- after that, we received our food in about 5 minutes, which does again lead me to believe we were just forgotten about. The restaurant may have been understaffed as I only saw 2 servers walking around, but the tables around us were ordering, receiving food, and having plates taken away and ordering desserts in the time we were sat waiting for our main course to arrive. Staff were nice enough but there was no apology or explanation for anything, it was quite an awkward experience.

I’m slightly reluctant to even post this review, as I can see the owner responding to other reviews saying similar things about waiting times in a strangely antagonistic way- this is not an attack, i am giving my honest account of what dining here was like. Hope it is taken in and helps to improve the service for...

I give this an overall five starts but let me caveat my review. First, I was born in Texas and lived there for the first 2 decades of my life. This is not authentic Tex-Mex at its best…. HOWEVER this is wonderful TexMex for Europe. I’ve been traveling through Europe for 3 weeks now and my son has made me try countless Mexican places. This is the 1st Tex Mex place we have found. We were heartily welcomed and they did a great job explaining the Texas-sized menu 😁 we started off with queso. It was really good for Europe but had an herb or seasoning that didn’t quite belong plus they should use less cheddar and more Monterey Jack if available. It was, however, the best queso I have had in Europe 🙂 at this point our drinks had not arrived. They need to fix the length it takes for complicated drinks to arrive versus simple ones as this was a recurring problem (not due to our waitress) Indeed, our friendly waitress Uma deserves 5 stars. She was engaging and taking care of a number of tables and went to great detail to explain everything with enthusiasm. We also shared the chili burrito that had 2 spicy stars. It was spicy but not overwhelming and Una brought us sour cream to make sure my son would be happy. In short, this may be the best Tex Mex in Europe. It was also fun to watch some locals enjoy trying out...