Cantina del Barrio — Restaurant in Cheltenham

My wife and I had high expectations for this place, we loooove Mexican food, being latino, we know how important seasoning and mix of deep flavors are to the cuisine. Well, it was disappointing, maybe its a Taco Tuesday problem as I saw similar reviews for this day of the week.

Service was ok( hence, 2 stars), the challenge was in the kitchen:

Kids quesadilla took 40 minutes, which should really take 5-10 mins. The restaurant was not full.

The Guac tasted as if it came from a box, I only appreciate freshly made guac, the easiest recipe ever! Not sure if it was a mistake or Tuesday Tacos ?

The al pastor and carne asada tacos were horrible, sorry, but there was no 24 hour marinate. The pork was super over cooked and mega under seasoned same goes for the steak. The overall taco flavor profile was not there, felt bland and mix with the Guac ( which I did not appreciate) ruined the dish for me.

Finally, we got refried beans and cilantro rice. The beans were not good, felt like they had been sitting for a long time and the rice had 0 flavor no salt whatsoever. Very disappointing.

Sorry for the long review, but consistency is everything in a restaurant and seems that there is a problem in that front. There are many good reviews here, which tells me there is potential. Hope, more seasoning and fresh ingredients are brought to the table, I truly would go every week….. thanks and...

We came on a Saturday afternoon and were surprised to see that most items on the menu were either a lunch menu (ends at 2:30) or dinner menu (starts at 4), we arrived at 3, so had to choose from considerably less items on the menu (only tacos & sides available).

This wasn’t particularly an issue for us as we all wanted tacos anyways, but I just find this quite a strange setup, as there are so many wonderful items on the menu but if you come at the wrong time you can’t have any of them, and 3pm on a Saturday seems like a time when the menu should be fully available.

We ordered 2x taco deals + 2 separate tacos, and had some requests to remove items on one of the plates, the order came out wrong, when we flagged this issue it was sorted very quickly, but the additional taco came out with just the tortilla and meat, nothing else? It just felt like a lack of care and effort, not a nice feeling for customers visiting for the first time. We were given an extra taco, although by accident.

I have to say that the food and drinks were lovely overall, it may have been that we came by on a bad day, the atmosphere, service, and effort were lacking in my opinion + lack of options reduce my...

If you’ve ever wanted a taste of authentic, world-renowned Mexican food then you’re sadly out of luck. Our visit to Cantina del Barrio was a tacky, soulless experience highlighted by terrible service, bland food and decor that should only appeal to children and the colour-blind. What they present is a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of Mexican dishes that might fool someone after a few shots of Tequila based on their looks, but I’ve had loaves of bread that were more flavourful than what is served here. If gazpacho is your idea of a hearty meal, then you might find something to your liking, because besides the shocking absence of basic seasoning, the dishes could only be considered warm by the dearly departed. My guess is that other reviews are from people who have never actually tried Mexican food and get excited by the exotic idea of a taco. Don’t fall for the cheap colourful skulls, the predictable Spotify playlist or the unpleasant lighting, these geriatric offerings are borderline insulting in a country with some of the best curries in the world. If you ever meet a Mexican and want to see them cry, take them to Cantina del...