Cantina 512 — Restaurant in Austin

I needed a last minute day before dinner reservation for a group of 20 and they were able to accommodate! This is very much a restaurant during the day / club at night type place. The daytime vibes were great, with a DJ on the patio and lots of people enjoying drinks and some ordering food. When we arrived, I checked in with the hostess and was shown our table. They had put us in a private area upstairs that was open and overlooked the bar. The music was loud out on the patio but up at our table was the perfect volume level. Eventually the outside DJ broke down and they moved to the inside DJ. The music did get louder and louder as the night progressed but it was basically as we were finishing our meal around 9:30 that it was loudest.

Our food was delicious (and plentiful) and our server (forgive me) Roxie or Rosie, I can't remember exactly, was PHENOMENAL. She did separate checks for us and worked her tail off up and down those stairs delivering drinks with very minimal wait time. She was the perfect vibe for our group and really enhanced our experience! Roxie/Rosie 10 out of 10!

Food: Apps - Queso Blanco, Guac, and Elote Riblets were just wonderful. Flavorful and delicious. Drinks - Mangonada is a must, and their house marg is perfect! Mains - The Big Crispy Taco was ginormous and tasty and just a site to behold, I also loved my Fajitas de Carne with a great amount of beef and tasted my friends Fajitas de Pollo and Fajitas de Camarones which were also plentiful and delicious. Dessert - Churros for the win! Big and scrumptious.

Thank you again for the last minute booking and helping to make my friends birthday dinner a GIANT success! Will be back for...

We had such high hopes for Cantina512 since we have been anticipating the opening as residents of the same building. This is a bar. If you come here to have dinner, you will be disappointed. The dining room is too dark to distinguish what your eating. There is a DJ blasting music in front of you to have a decent conversation. Perhaps it was intended to be dance floor afterwards. The food was to pricey for what it is. The chicken fajita was a anemic of flavor on a bed of green bell pepper and onions. If you want black beans and rice, you have to pay extra. The shrimps skewers tasted funky as if it was not cook properly. I could not decipher it since was too dark. We could not figure out who the staff is. There was a lack of professionalism or decorum. When we ordered drinks at the bar while waiting for our table, the bartender keeps touching his hair and then touching the ice. Hygiene issue. Hopefully the alcohol was strong enough to sterilize the drink. Call me old fashion, but when the hostess who was barely wearing anything greeted us that should have been a sign to run. The skimpy outfit of the cocktail waitresses dehumanize this young women for tips. We witnessed a lady tripping, falling and hurting her arm on a down step by the bar since there is no signage to watch your step. We were hoping this would be a better alternative than Unbarlievable but it seems to be in the same category. This place has great potential but needs a reboot. Until then back to the food truck across the street and Half Step for great cocktail and way...

Stopped by last night at 9:30, after checking into the hotel. Asked if the kitchen was open and dude said "yes it doesn't close until 10" girl immediately said no the kitchen is closed. No big deal I found another place for late dinner and came back today for lunch. Ordered a Margarita which was unusually sour not sweet, thought maybe the mixture was off so I ordered another which was the same, neither was good. Ordered chips and salsa which came out super fast but the chips looked, smelled and tasted exactly like Tostitos. The salsa also looked smelled and tasted like Pace picante sauce but blended with cilantro added, nothing special. I ordered the chicken tacos which now top my list of the worst tacos I've had in my 50 plus years on this planet. The chicken looked like the street roller doing construction out front, rolled it a few times then was covered in Panko followed by a few minutes in the deep fryer filled with three month old vegetable oil, it stunk something awful. Flour instead of corn tortilla filled with shredded cabbage that appeared to be soaked in a mayonnaise / water mixture and garnished with three weak old frozen and reheated several times mango type yellow sustenance. The music was loud and sounded like gangster rap which is unusual for a Latin restaurant. I won't be back since this is the culture and not the kind of place that takes good...