Cantina — Restaurant in England

I discussed all of what I’m about to say with the staff when leaving (in a reasonable fashion) so this is not keyboard warrior stuff. First of all, the place looks good. Bright and well decorated - welcoming. We were a party of 5, two in our 50s and 3 20 somethings. On arriving, to be fair, the staff alerted us to the fact that they were out of fries, patatas bravas and taquitos. OK we thought, not that big a deal. Having sat down, we were then told they had no rose wine which seemed odd in the middle of Summer. They did found us one bottle randomly in the fridge (not on the menu but charged at the cheapest bottle price) so a point for initiative there. When my son then ordered something with pulled pork, they then told us they didn’t have that either. Starting to be a bit annoying at this point. Felt like either a delivery hadn’t arrived or something else had gone wrong but I think if we’d been given the full list of unavailable things we might not have bothered. Then the food arrived. Oh dear. £7 for a small plate of chorizo which looked like cut up supermarket slices some of which had been incinerated. Outrageous. The meatballs were dry, and again we got 3 or 4 small balls for £7. Maybe 5 prawns for the same. The mains - jambalaya oddly was excellent, full of flavour. The tacos were bland and tasteless. No spice or seasoning and just plain meat plonked on cold salad. Not good at all. We weren’t given any cutlery, had to ask for tap water 4 times. It was a shambles to be honest. The staff are friendly and took on constructive feedback well but £200 for 5 felt like poor value. There a range of very good options in Porthleven and this currently is not one of them sadly. We were told it was only the second day of the new menu but that isn’t going to matter if you don’t have someone who can cook things that taste nice. I’d 100% spend your money elsewhere like Kota Kai, Amélie or one of the pubs until this place gets its...

Nice location in Porthleven. I have been many times when this was Steins and then Michael Canes. Now, this place is a street food restaurant. I enjoyed my time here, and the food was ok, but not wow, or I must come back and have that again. It lacked that je ne sais quoi. The food wasn't bland but lacked something that makes you talk about it. Seasoned but not enough, spice but just, muscles cooked but slightly too much. The staff were lovely, friendly and helpful; however, they were overwhelmed, too few of them for the number of customers. I waited 20 minutes to attract someone to get my bill, and eventually, I had to find someone. They were not loafing or hiding, just run ragged. The wine was ok but expensive for what it was. I googled my wine and could have bought it locally for nearly £20 less 😅; however, that's the nature of most restaurants. Would I go again? Yes, but it's not on my list of wow that was great I must go again restaurants. Would I recommend it? Yes but not as a top choice; there are a fair few other restaurants I would suggest first. It isn't that I didn't like this place; I did, but it didn't wow me. I can't enthuse about it. I will watch and see how it goes and see if something on the menu drags me back Sorry Cantina, I hope as the business matures, I can come back and give...

Wrote the business an instagram message, the same place I used to book my table. They’ve decided not to admit their faults and apologise, so I’m posting my message here.

We were so looking forward to this booking, but left extremely disappointed. The place was extremely understaffed? I overheard the lady at the door saying the restaurant was fully booked. Surely that was your sign to schedule more people? Especially for a new menu launch. The two ladies we encountered were lovely. But we only saw them like twice. The taco’s were cold. Normally wouldn’t mind. But when paying £12 for 3 taco’s which are essentially 50% lettuce. I want the toppings hot. Not to mention, the fish taco came with 3 small slivers of fish? We would have loved to raise this with the staff. But nobody was back over to our table for the rest of our visit, not to check on how the food is, not to clear our plates, not to offer dessert menu’s. We were hoping to order more drinks and some desserts, but gave up after about 15/20 minutes of waiting. We ended up using the qr code on the table to pay and leave.

I wish we’d chosen somewhere else for this evening meal. Somewhere with some flavour and personality, like Cargo or...