Nina's Tacos — Restaurant in Bozeman

I used to like Nina’s but the quality of the food has drastically gone down, the speed and service are terrible. Our server was nice but we had 30-minutes or more in between her visits. She said it was a mess inside. There was no manager to be seen anywhere.

I got a shrimp bowl básico style. Six tiny shrimp came on a bed of dry, plain white rice which had been sprinkled with grocery store shredded cheddar cheese. It was a complicated task getting the server to bring some salsa or sauce so I could choke the crunchy rice down.

Their prices are fine if the food was decent but it is not anymore. Don’t get chips, salsa and guacamole unless you’re prepared to pay $21. Since they don’t sell quac on the side it comes with chips for a whopping $13. If you want salsa the it’s another $8. The quac was out of a container, the green salsa has no flavor and the fire roasted salsa is good. Their beans used to be good but not anymore. The beans that came with my son’s carne asada tacos were so incredibly spicy they couldn’t be eaten. The meat in the tacos was fatty and chewy. Horrible.

It’s a great location with a decent vibe but the operations and food are a disaster. Our group of seven...

Well 2pm on a Sunday and the place was completely empty and I was told (by a guy sweeping the floor) to seat myself- I looked around took a seat at the bar and the bartender (presumably) said I’ll be right with you sir. Then he proceeded to grind ice in a snow machine...very loud. I waited a couple minutes, he’s still grinding ice... so I left. No food no drink and grinding ice is more important than servicing the ONLY customer in the whole place.

Nice decor, great selection of tequila. I’m guessing the snow cones are great too, and very clean floors. I will try again once the staff is trained to focus on the customer first.

New Update. I did make it back and tried their taco sampler, beef, shrimp, chicken- the beef was the only “taco” with flavor. Cost was $5 per taco - which is a small 4” flour (uncooked) shell with some stuff inside. No sauces or anything else provided. Again only person in the bar and I think it took about 10-15min to get these three tacos - long enough I was starting to wonder about the order. Service was good, very nice bartender who was very sociable and she went back to the kitchen three times to check on the order, third time...

Clean and good service so far in my experiences! This is not my favorite category of Mexican food but it is so good for what it is! The rice is INCREDIBLE...and the tacos too. I like how this place is different but not in such a way that it is trying too hard to be fancy(a monumental mistake so many new Bozeman Restaurants make in my opinion).

Update: All of the above is still true and everything is still fantastic except pleeeeaase bring back the orange salsa! I lived for that salsa!

Another update March 2025: Whyyyyy are you always changing the stuff that is the best? The Cilantro lime rice was one of the many great original things as well as the orange salsa and the wonderful queso and even the queso is a bit different now darnit and the rice is something totally different that can't even touch the Cilantro lime rice! Orange salsa is partway back to original but not completely. Please leave those things alone! Waitress marin tonight was awesome though ♥️ps. Part of the problem besides the flavor difference in the salsa and queso is everything allnof the sudden seems "pasty" and not...