Casa Balbina Mexican Cuisine & Pancake House — Restaurant in Columbia City

Looking through all these reviews leaves me perplexed. My family decided to go here because our favorite spot around the corner was closed for the weekend. Fortunately, they will be back open for us to go next weekend because we won’t be going back to Balbina. Our experience started with a server who acted like she didn’t want to be there. We got chips and salsa and the bowl of chips went down quickly because they are small bowls. We ordered a queso and a guacamole. Those were served without chips. We were left sitting there with a full guac and full queso for approximately 15 minutes. The kids were eating the cheese with a spoon and sipping the water from the melting ice in their empty drink glasses. Finally after asking another server to bring more chips, we were brought 15 chips in a bowl. Literally, 15 chips. We were beginning to chuckle at this point as we thought we were in bizarro world. This lady serving us, we felt, was purposely giving us terrible service and we were just trying to figure out why. Anyway, our food came out after 45 minutes (they weren’t very busy). Food: my daughter liked her chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. My son said his cowboy burger wrap was ok. He got a side of fruit and it was a huge, nice looking plate of fruit. Wife got steak fajitas. She said the steak was overcooked but she likes crispy meat. There was a good pile of meat. I got steak fajita quesadilla. My wife must’ve gotten my portion of steak. It was lacking of filling. At this point I was done. I couldn’t get out of there quickly enough. On another note, if we could’ve gotten the guy that was serving other tables, I’m confident our experience would’ve been much better. He was working hard for his tables. Hopefully our experience wasn’t normal. We will be going around the...

Went here for the first time to celebrate my birthday. Group of 8 including 3 kids and a vegetarian. I would go back every Sunday if I could afford to!

We tried to go on Mother's Day and there was a long wait (they were busy), but on June 1 it wasn't too busy and there was no problem accommodating our party of 8. I'm not sure how well they can accommodate especially large groups, but you could do 10-15 without taking over the whole restaurant.

Huge variety in the menu, something for everyone/every mood! Includes a breakfast menu and standard American staples along with delicious Mexican cuisine. (I didn't notice if there was a vegetarian menu, but with the variety I know there were a good number of vegetarian options.)

The prices were very reasonable - you won't find better at a sit-down restaurant these days. And the portion sizes were quite generous! Chips and salsa come as a free appetizer. We all enjoyed our food.

They provided coloring books and boxes of crayons for each kid. I liked that because I honestly get tired of collecting a new pack of 4 crayons every time we eat out with the kids! And the kids menu was good for us.

We had Carlos as our server, and couldn't have asked for more pleasant and friendly service! Towards the end it came out that we were celebrating my birthday, and they were eager to make a thing of it. They brought me a complimentary dessert (fried ice cream, generous portion) and all sang Happy Birthday.

It was a fully positive experience. I can't wait to go back and try more of...

I SUGGEST GETTING A FAJITA QUESADILLA RATHER THAN A RELLENA. CHEAPER AND BIGGER PORTION FOR LESS THE PRICE. I went here based off of the reviews. I ordered a QUESADILLA RELLENA. Added steak. Got home and to my surprise it was a child size steak quesadilla that with adding the steak and taxes is around $14. I called and asked if this was the correct size for this price. On the menu it says you can get a 12” for cheaper. A fajita one at that. A quesadilla rellena is 99%of the time stuffed with veggies, onions and the meat. Not just a basic cheese and steak quesadilla. The one Hispanic server tried explaining himself in SPANISH lol. I understand it very well and while he was saying let me simplify this so she understands like I’m incompetent I responded to his conversation in Spanish and he walked away. The owner then was explains to me that I was the first person in 20 years to ever notice the size difference and cost. Not going to lie the food was great just pricy for that portion. He spoke to me in a condescending tone. Please don’t try to make me feel lesser than you because you have a bread store and 20 other restaurants as you so called yourself bragging about. I told him as well if I would have known that those were that small I would not have asked if they made it incorrectly. The hostess said oh they just used the wrong size tortilla and the are correcting it with the correct size. I think they gave you the appetizer size. Wrong. That is the...