Masa & Agave Cantina — Restaurant in Cleveland

I seldom write any reviews, but this was just plain…BAD. I walked out feeling like my wife and I had just paid over $100 (including tip) for tacos and Diet Pepsi.

The atmosphere was nice. The service (the source of many poor reviews) was fine.

The food was a massive FAIL.

We started with guacamole and chips. The Guac was more like plain mashed avocados. Very bland, lacking garlic, lemon juice, and salt that turns mashed avocados into that wonderful stuff we call guacamole!

For the main course we both ordered Street Tacos. Pork Al Pastor for my wife and Carne Asada for me. The Al Pastor was tender and quite good. The Carne Asada was tough and almost inedible. The meat was in large chunks that were stringy and tough. I ended up removing the meat from the taco to cut it with a knife and fork, then loaded it back on the taco. Even so, my jaw was sore by the time I got through these tacos. Then there were the tortillas, which appeared to be thin 6” supermarket tortillas. I’ve eaten a lot of street tacos (even in Mexico City) and they’re always served either on thicker (and smaller) tortillas, or if the tortillas are thinner, they are doubled up. Not so here — a single thin tortilla that fell apart as I ate it. As I look at pictures others have posted, I can say our tortillas looked nothing like that. Maybe they didn’t get a delivery and had to sub these in (continued under “Dessert.”)

Even so, we decided to forge ahead into dessert. One of the three desserts offered was unavailable because they said they had not received their delivery of ice cream (?!?!?). The Tres Leche Cake was a joke. A slab of dense, dry white sheet cake with whipped cream on top and what appeared to be evaporated milk poured over the top. There were a few nice slices of strawberries on top, but that was like lipstick on a pig. Flavor was “meh.”

I am not a super-foodie in any way, but I know my guac, street tacos, and Mexican desserts. Masa & Agave Cantina FAILED on all three. Then there’s the point of $100+ for Mexican food for two (no cocktails)?!?!?? I cannot in good conscience recommend this restaurant to...

We came here on a Friday night as a group of 5 for a birthday. It was about half full. The atmosphere was very cool and the booth/table we were in was comfortable.

The drinks were good but unfortunately the first two drinks we tried to order, we were told they we all out of. One member of our party tried to order a virgin passion fruit margarita from our waiter and we were told that it wasn't possible to have a virgin passion fruit margarita. We then walked up to the bar and the bartenders were great and more than happy to make a virgin margarita.

The guacamole was very good.

We had never been there before and asked for any recommendations. We were told by our waiter that "everything on the menu is good except for the ahi tuna because we are out of that". This was not very helpful for us but we ordered the Toblanes braised short rib as well as the chicken mole. We were told about 10 minutes later that they were all out of the mole so we switched to the steak - medium rare.

The Toblanes was ok. Good flavor but served with tortillas to make a small taco. No additional toppings were provided like cheese, pico, etc. We had to ask for plates for our dishes after they were brought out. The steak was cooked well done and at this point we didn't really want to try anything else on the menu. Someone at the table got french fries and these along with the guacamole were probably the highlight of the night.

Overall the service was not very good. We were there for over 3 hours and were told that multiple things on the menu were sold out after ordering them. We were never asked once by our waiter "would you like anything else?" or "how is everything?".

In conclusion, food was below average for above average prices, service was horrible, but drinks and...

They spent so much on art and atmosphere that they forgot to make the food taste good.

I ordered 3 'wild oyster mushroom' tacos with rice and beans for $20. Easy peasy, everything but the oyster mushrooms are mexican staples that a restaurant like this should knock out of the park.

Tortillas- dry, not properly reheated so that they dont crumble when folded. They crumbled when folded and were slightly cold. They tasted like storebought. The name of the place includes 'Masa', the tortillas should be hot fresh and recently made, not old dry stale and tasteless.

Mushrooms - I buy and eat oyster mushrooms, these were not oyster mushrooms but were regular old cremini mushrooms. They give you a tiny amount per taco, literally 3-4 slices of mushroom per taco (of small button mushrooms). The nopales included were such a small amount they were difficult to notice.

Beans and rice - black beans tasted like they were reheated straight out a can with nothing added. They were definitely not cooked from dry and were lacking in salt and flavor and texture.

Rice- mexican rice looked good, but had no flavor and was like eating play doh. No tomato flavor whatsoever. Texture makes me think they didnt even toast the rice first.

Portion size - this was a childs meal, 3 tiny tacos and a tiny tiny serving of less than half a cup of rice and less than half a cup of black beans.

Finally, nothing they served was prepared with the amount of effort warranted by the price. I could understand the tiny portions if it was lovingly made from scratch, but nothing I ate showed that.

The good - Their sauces on the tacos were pretty good.

The atmosphere is nice.

Service - service was okay, they were busy and we weren't given...