Cantina 1511 — Restaurant in Charlotte

WORST RESTAURANT EXPERIENCE IN MY LIFE!!

It was my wife’s birthday celebration and we had a group of 12. The evening started with continuous waits for drinks and the initial appetizers. These waits were between 45 minutes to 1 hour. All the time we’re getting apologies from the waitress and it got to the point that we requested for a manager. The “manager” comes out and I explain the wait issue and the fact that the waitress seemed overwhelmed by the size of our group and that she was in need of additional hands to get her through our group. What I expected was this manager to help out the waitress or even find another waiter to help get through our table. WELL I WAS WRONG. This young girl who definitely was not the manager didn’t even try to help or get the waitress help. She just listened to the issues in pointed and said “Oh, I will talk to her”. To which I pointed, she needs help not a talk and then she walked away. Nothing changed the food and drink were delayed and the ones that did come were not to my parties (and myself) satisfaction. Food was cold and bland. Plates didn’t look like they were prepared with any care. The drinks were, in the waitress’s own words “missing ingredients” which made a margarita taste like a lemonade Kool Aid. At that point, we just wanted our checks to get out of the restaurant. The checks came and of course, most of them had wrong charges and tickets had items that we’re not correct. Mind you, before the tickets were made, we told the waitress which groups were together and which was each others items, drinks and food. Seemed like the waitress forgot what we spoke 10 minutes prior and just created tickets as how she thought it was correct. The tickets were so incorrect that she charge one of our friends card with ANOTHER TABLES bill. Unfortunately, the mitigar ended with the waitress apologizing and actually taking money out of her wallet to get my friends bill straight after she charged her for another table.

I have never been so embarrassed and felt so bad for someone. This waitress just needed someone to come and help her and her manager did nothing to make it easier or to make sure the customer had a better experience than what we had as of when she was spoken to. WILL NEVER COME BACK TO THIS RESTAURANT AND NEITHER...

I’m being very generous with the 3 stars.

Pros: 1) The friendly hostess that seated us right away and was accommodating. 2) The gentleman wearing blue gloves that served our food and made us feel welcome. 3) The margarita tasted good with the chip and salsa.

Cons: Service could’ve been better. Our waitress was Isabella and she seemed uninterested. Her demeanor was borderline rude and we felt rushed. When I asked her a question about some fries for my toddler, she answered it really quick and moved on to take the orders from the other people sitting at the table. She didn’t even allow me to finish my questions and complete my order. Lol! I had to ask the person beside me to place my side order for me. I wasn’t able to get my margarita the same time as the other people I was with because apparently if you order the special (2 tacos + 1 margarita) you have to place the order all at once and cannot order the drink first. That was an inconvenience for me to convenience them. It’s not that difficult to place one margarita order first, and 2 tacos later. We had a cup of contaminated water and asked for a replacement which she never brought out and only came back to refill our waters once. We had to flag her down when we wanted to order additional food/drinks. To end our experience with her, she brought us a to go box that did NOT fit our taco. Um, ok. Are we the first people to not finish our food?? The food was not that great and presentation was lacking. Maybe if it looked better, it might’ve tasted better? The guacamole was brought out by our waitress, Isabella, and she took two forks and mashed it around a little bit leaving big chunks of avocados and too much lime was used. First time I’ve seen 2 forks used to do this at a restaurant. The tacos were a hit and miss. Some were good, and others tasted stale. Looks like they just threw it on the plate with little effort and it was messy. The fries tasted great and was the freshest tasting thing we had besides the chips. Probably won’t be returning and wouldn’t recommend this place if asked by peers. See pictures...

What in the world happened to what used to be the best Mexican restaurant in town?

I used to eat here all the time up until about two years ago my job situation changed

So here I am two years later craving some good Mexican food. We show up with hardly any customers in the store. It still takes about 15 minutes for someone to take our drink order.

I asked if they were going to bring out some chips like they always did in the past. I was told they now charge $2.95 for chips and salsa. I tell them to bring it because I remember how wonderful the salsa was here.

Boy were we disappointed. Still better than most places, but now the chips don't have any salt on them and the salsa is more watered down and less tasty than it used to be.

But that's okay, because I know the Burrito Tejano will be delicious.

Wrong again. They no longer sell that on the menu. Instead they have something with the same ingredients but call it a platter and have almost doubled the price of what it used to be.

It says a platter, so perhaps it will have a lot more food on it. Wrong again. Not only was it the same portion as two years ago, but they must microwave pre-made dinners because the ground beef was cold.

Like COLD!!!!

Didn't want to have them take it back to the kitchen because, you know, how kitchen staff behave when a customer isn't happy with their cooking. I don't want any spit in my food so I eat it cold.

Not to mention the girl forgot to put in our order and so we had to order a second time a half an hour after we ordered the first time. And remember they weren't very busy

I couldn't keep my drink cup full or salsa on the table without us having to get up and ask someone.

The prices used to be very reasonable in here but are now pretty outrageous for what you get. And then they want me to tip them on top of that?

In fairness, they did apologized several times and ended up not charging us for the chips.

However, still a great disappointment overall. I will probably not return to what was my favorite Mexican restaurant...