Cantina Mexicana Kuta Lombok — Restaurant in West Nusa Tenggara

Don't get me wrong, the food was actually pretty good.. can't remember exactly but I think we've arrive at the cantina around 3 or 4pm on day 2 motogp. There's only 1 table with 1 customer sippin beer, we pick a table, and ask for service. No greetings, that's ok. We looked at the menu for about 10minutes and have to wave around for service despite there are 7 or 8 employees can be seen around us, they're all seems to be busy instead of attending customer, that's still ok. We've ordered our food & beverages. Not too long, food arrived, ask for hot sauce or spicy salsa, the staff were confused, I mean a Mexican restaurant don't provide salsa/hot sauce, might as well go to a padang restaurant instead. We've ordered a quesadilla, Mexican pizza and a beef ribs taco and cerveza. Done with our meal, instead of waiting for staff to come to us, I walked towards the bar where I can see a credit card machine to ask for my tab. A woman helped me, again just like any other staffs we've encounter no greetings. So I asked for my tab, and it's close to 800 thousand rupiah, and I give them a bank card, bca to be exact, they said the machine broke, I have to pay cash, I told them nicely why not tell your customer ahead of time, not all the time people walking around with money in their pocket close to a million rupiah, she easily reply without apologizing, there's an ATM nearby.... I was like wow... So we've come up with 800k and give her the money and told her to keep the change, wasn't much probably around 15-20k in change, and to be expected, no thank you or gracias..

We are very polite from the moment we walked in till the end. Is this normal behavior of the staffs? Is it because there's no management to be seen? Or is it because we're local?

We're all paying customers, treat us the same.

One thing for sure, I ain't comin back for that type of service, such a shame cause the food and the cerveza are...

This place really brought me back to my second honeymoon with Carol (the third wife) in 2016. We were supposed to go to Puerto Vallarta because she threw a fit about our first honeymoon in Chilliwack - apparently staying 45 minutes from home "doesn't count as a romantic getaway." Fine, I booked us flights to Mexico.

Of course, nothing goes according to plan when you've been married three times. The plane gets diverted to Guadalajara due to some airport issue in Puerto Vallarta. Good thing I hadn't actually booked the Puerto Vallarta hotel yet (Carol still doesn't know this). Ended up being a blessing - Guadalajara was fantastic.

The food at Cantina Mexicana reminds me of that unexpected Guadalajara trip. Ordered the Mexican pizz, it's the best deal on the menu. Crispy tortilla base with perfect cheese pull. Nothing like what Carol ordered at that tourist trap near our Guadalajara hotel (paid 300 pesos for soggy nachos).

The beef short rib tacos were tender and flavorful - way better than the rubbery ones they serve at that Mexican chain restaurant back home. Even the atmosphere brought back memories, though thankfully without Carol complaining about the music volume or asking if the ice cubes were filtered.

Only complaint: those decorative Jarritos bottles are just for show. Spent five minutes trying to order one before the waiter explained. In Guadalajara, they'd never pull that nonsense - you want a Jarritos, you get a Jarritos.

Service was quick, portions were actually generous, and prices were reasonable at 85,000 Rupiah for my meal. If you're looking for authentic Mexican flavors in Lombok, this is your spot. Just don't expect to drink from those...

HONEST REVIEW:

Uf, where to start with this one. A very bold statement: "THE BEST Mexican restaurant I've had in Indonesia" Honestly if you want to be mentally transported to Mexico 🇲🇽 this is it!

BAD THINGs: Let's get the elephant out of the way first. Only bad thing I can say about this place is the constant rumblings of motorcycle, trucks and cars, since it is on the main road, but nothing you can do about that. The good things more than make up for this one bad one. one minor inconvenience due to maybe language barrier. We wanted appetizers out first and once done with those have the mains. We got everything all at once. If you want that, maybe be more specific.

GOOD THINGS: First off the food. Simply amazing 👏 . We ordered avo-salsa for starters. Good, crispy, homemade tortilla chips with good smooth guacamole. Mains were Fish taco and Short-rib taco 🌮. Fish taco was very light, summer-y not too spicy piece of haven. The Short ribs taco was a bit heavier, but oozing with flavor. The sauce you get on the side is a bit on the spicy side tho, so be careful.

Margaritas was 5/5 😍

STAFF: Friendly, attentive and with ok English.

Ambient: Music here is just the cherry 🍒 on top! The sounds of salsa, bachata and samba take you places. Just banger after banger - Shakira, Maulma, J Balvin, Marc Antony, Anuel AA, Prince Royce, Becky G, just to name a few. Honestly such a good vibe you feel it from the street just walking by. But downside the traffic as mentioned.

Would recommend...