On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina — Restaurant in Arlington

Our family have been regulars at On the Border for nearly 20 years, eating there 3-4 times each month (or more). It's our favorite restaurant, but we may now start reconsidering that.

This review is based on the last three visits to this particular OTB (near Parks Mall in Arlington, Texas).

A few weeks ago we visited, but our server was mostly non-existent and oblivious to the basics. First, she brought out my taco with meat only (no lettuce, tomatoes, or cheese), and I did not order it that way. When I pointed it out, she seemed surprised. During that same visit, she was not around most of the time, and we had to wait a long time for the check. When she finally did show up, she asked if all was good (with all five of us sitting there with empty cups). I said we needed a round of refills and, again, she seemed surprised about this. Her overall service was very poor, so she earned a low tip.

About a week and a half later we returned figuring one bad server doesn't spoil our favorite eatery. We had the same server, but figured things would be better this time (everyone has a bad day). Things were worse. She offered to bring the kids desserts, indicating that there was a special going on, but before she explained anything, she asked the kids which ice cream flavor they wanted. When we got the ticket, we noticed one of our kid's $8 meals was rang up at $10. We now felt taken advantage of and lied to by this waitress. Due to our previous experience, we asked another employee for the manager. While talking to the manager, our server defensively interjected herself into the conversation. We didn't notice that the kid's drinks were not listed, so the overall price was lower -- we just saw her offer desserts to the kids then seem to charge a higher price. I told her she should have explained things beforehand and given us the choice, but she didn't, so we felt mislead by her. She earned another low tip.

We returned for dinner tonight, figuring she's one bad server of many. However, we waited over 10 minutes before anyone took our drink order. No servers came around. Finally one did come who we saw working tables on the other side of the restaurant and he was clearly hustling to provide good service. He said he saw us sitting without service, so he came over, and what we saw corroborated this. We'd had this server before and each time (including tonight) he was excellent (he earned a tip of more than 25%). The managers and other staff, however, were poor at best. It took the kitchen over 30 minutes to prepare our food after we ordered (other tables were seated after us, including families, and finished their meals before we ever got our food). Meanwhile, one of the managers talked to every table around us, looked at our table at least three times, but completely ignored us. Other servers mostly ignored us, too. We felt like we were being punished because we gave an incompetent server who provided very poor service the low tips she earned. Tonight our server was excellent (and the tip reflected that), but the management was poor and our treatment felt punitive.

Initially we wanted to say it was just one bad server. Now we're thinking it is very bad management and training. If this is how customers are treated -- if this is OTB's standard of customer service -- do we need to find a new favorite restaurant and visit them 3-4 times a month...

Worst. Restaurant. Ever. Not to mention, potentially roach infested.

I went to this restaurant with family that was visiting. We went there to have a good time. For starters, we ordered parrilladas so the waitress got us our food and for plates she brought like tea sized plates for us to eat in. it. First mistake. She also took a while to get our drinks, our food, extra pair of forks and knife, poor service overall. The food wasn't even that great, to be honest. We stayed there for an hour and a half or two, as I said we had family that was visiting.

We were going to the car, which was parked in the disabled spot and found out my family had been robbed of all their belongings. The car's window had been smashed and that is how they got the bags they had brought to their short visit (and this was the same night they had just arrived from the airport). Their passports, money, clothes and electronics were in the bags that were robbed in that place.

As soon as this happened we went back to the restaurant but they had locked the place behind us. We knocked and the manager came out. We explained the situation to her and she said there was nothing she can do, very nonchalantly and without a single ounce of empathy. After that two of the staff members, wearing the On the Border uniform came to us asking questions about what happened and telling us this has happened lots of time before.

When we called the police the guys were still there, asking things about what we were going to do and stuff, which I found suspicious. After that they left. When the police arrived the restaurant started turning off all the lights at the place. Every single staff member had already left, even leaving some of their tv's on.

This place didn't have the usual 'take, lock & hide' sign that you see at every place. There were lamp posts but they were turned off for some reason. Didn't have any kind of security cameras or men, for that matter.

When we were looking around the restaurant to look for evidence or even any belongings left behind, all we could find were roaches around and all over the parking spot and near places to the restaurant. I can only imagine what the place might look inside the kitchen!

Overall, it was a horrendous experience. Everyone, from the staff to the place's security system is a nightmare that I don't want to repeat. I would NEVER EVER go back there, in my life, even if they paid me.

If you can, avoid going there at all costs. You'll either get poor service, or, in the worst case scenario, get robbed and find yourself with restaurant staff lacking empathy and unwilling to help you in any way,...

Well let's start with when we visited on Father's day and when we arrive, I let the hostess know my daughter was already there so I didn't give her a name for us to be on the waiting list. My husband who is Hispanic went to look around to try to find my daughter but she called me said she was waiting in her car but had given her name already to check in and I told her to come inside and she did, so we're standing there waiting our turn and my husband over hears the 2 young girl hostesses talking in Spanish and asking why are we just standing there ? Instead of asking us if we needed help still. So my husband walked over and told them in Spanish as he pointed to our daughters name on the list and said that we're with her and are waiting on a table with her. They were like oh OK and spoke back in English only. We got our table finally and we had a very nice polite young waiter who was very new only a week on the job, we were asking about the difference between the online menus and in the dining room menu why so different and if they offered any type of vegetarian food items for there are not any on the menu i Dinning in but online there's a bunch. So the new waiter gets the manager and the manager said they really don't have any vegetarian items available but could offer cheese enchiladas, and really didn't offer anything else, seemed more bothered by our question than anything, so my daughter settled on that, we were very disappointed in this and felt it should have been noted online that they don't carry the vegetarian items on dining in or just change the menu. Also we ordered 2 different margaritas frozen and when we got them they were mostly melted another disaster , didn't send them back because it took forever to getting our drinks appetizers and our food, and we knew that the waiter was really trying and it was kinda busy being it was Father's day and just the waiters first week. I will say the food was tasty but my daughter's cheese enchiladas seemed just throwed on the plate and the black beans were leaking the juice into them which made them even more yucky. Inspite of the appearance they did taste good though. Might consider placing black beans in a small bowl. I would like to go back maybe to a different location maybe we'll have...