M Cantina — Restaurant in Dearborn

First time here. New business, opened a week ago. Ran by husband and wife duo. Menu is different,but inclusively latino. Tacos, Tortas, and Tapas. With it being our first time, we wanted to try a variety of items. I ordered a Mexican street corn that had a aioli and Cotija on it, we shared a torta from 18 hour roasted lechon, we shared an order of chicken empanadas as well as shared a Mexican mole pizza and Fried Bananas (maduros). We had two Aguas Frescas made with the hibiscus flower and lime. Service was fast and friendly from the wife and part owner. We ordered a few items based on her recommendations. First off the food is great, there is an open kitchen so you can see everything being done as well as a visible juice bar. The husband is known for his juices and according to the napkins is called the liquid chef. Portions were a good size for the price, we got two empanadas per order, there was a nice amount of fried bananas in the order and the torta was quite big. I ended up having to take most of the Mexican pizza because it was so large. I thought we had not ordered enough food and I left with a box. The corn was also beautifully charred. The prices were good for the Tapas and the sides. Higher than we are used to (we live in Mexican town)but are in no crazy high. We ordered two of the hibiscus Aguas Frescas and it was amazing. BUT This was probably the only thing I was disappointed in comma was the fact that a large is only about 16 oz and costed $18 for two of them. Now I'm from Southwest Detroit where you can buy 32 oz of hibiscus agua fresca for about 2 or 3 dollars. Now, don't get me wrong I know that this is a special recipe and takes preparation but when I go back there is no way I am paying $8.50 for a beverage that does not contain alcohol LOL. However I will come back for food because of course that was great and I will come back to try an espresso as all as one of their hand-made juices. I have my eye after the watermelon mint and lime juice.

Now to the atmosphere, that was also nice. We enjoyed the quiet small and cozy restaurant that had a very contemporary and upscale feel. Beautiful wood,and industrial touches. Old fashioned Edison light bulbs, beautiful metal chandeliers etc. The owner named Heidi was very hospitable and struck up conversation concerning the chairs when I found how much spring was in the stool. Now in general I hate the kind of stools that they have. They are the cheap kind of Ikea stools that do not have a large area for your butt, so you keep slipping off. Now me being a bigger girl was quite disappointed that this was most of the seating. However Heidi explained that most of the furniture and insides of the restaurant are custom-built and there was a mishap concerning the tables and the bar stools. And somehow the stools ended up being taller than the tables, so now those are are actually at the juice bar. So we ended up sitting at the juice bar which was great because we got a good view of the entire restaurant.

Prices Now we paid about $50 for lunch which is about $30 more then we generally spend for a weekday lunch since we have weekday lunches together quite frequently. I would probably come back for dinner in order to not feel so guilty about spending that much money on food lol.

This is a great addition to Dearborn and one that my husband and I have been waiting on for a while, so go and check it out. Support small business owners plus the...

First off, the waitress (I believe she is married to the chef and possibly a manager) was completely disrespectful to my elderly mother and other members at our table. She was beyond unpleasant. She was rude, disrespectful, and made inflammatory comments which I'll get into more detail shortly. When we first arrived my we realized that it was difficult for my mom to sit at a higher table that we were seated at so we requested a different one. At first the waitress/manager seemed obliging and moved us to a different one, however I noticed that the younger waitresses were scared to move us without her permission. It was as if she was The Godfather and what she said goes....or else. When it was time to order, she was upset when we asked very simple questions about menu items and drinks and was clearly annoyed when we asked for a few more moments to decide. In fact she did not return to our table for another 40 minutes after this and told us that we should just order tacos because everything else would take too long to make since there were many orders ahead of us. Mind you, she began taking orders from other tables and parties that arrived after us and exceeded what would be a reasonable amount of time to return to our table. It seemed somewhat vengeful. Whatever, we decided to get past it. We are an understanding bunch and the restaurant can be difficult at times. Honestly, in an attempt to be obliging, we ordered tacos to appease the waitress. After a long wait she returned to our table with our food in DOGGIE BAGSand asked us to take our food with us. When we questioned why she would do that, she told us that she wanted us to leave her restaurant. Truly, it was the craziest experience that I have had with a person. My family and I are a classy bunch and were not about to be engaged in some sort of argument with this woman so we walked out and left the food there, although she had already charged us for it. Truly, this woman seemed full of rage and I didn't want to put myself or my family in an unsafe situation. It was a horrible experience I felt terrible that mom had to experience this. I am a great proponent of sending kindness into the world and treating others with respect. I am not sure what this woman's issue is but all I can say is it was completely inappropriate, gross, and inflammatory.

Even if this was 3 Star Michelin restaurant I would never go back based on the behavior of the waitress/manager. When someone goes out to eat, chooses to support a small business (we drove from Birmigham to Dearborn to give this small business our support), and spend their hard earned money, the last thing they deserve is to be met with hostility. Not sure why this waitress thinks it's okay to mistreat people - based on previous comments there is clearly a pattern of behavior here. (I can only speculate as to why she chooses to treat certain people in such horrid way but obviously knows how to behave appropriately at other times.)

Save your time, money, and peace of mind. Support a business that understands the service industry and appreciates your business. If you are one of the scared looking young waiters or waitresses working there and reading this, I feel for you from the bottom of my heart. Y'all...

This restaurant might peak many people’s attention, however the service is poor.

We walked in and saw all the tequilas and were surprised. We are frequent tequila drinkers. Due to all the varieties I asked for a recommendation on a respasado. There was a younger girl at the bar at the time and she let me know that the bar wasn’t her thing, but it was some guys over there. Whomever this guy was(were thinking he was the owner) walks over and asks us a couple questions about what we like and we let him know we normally drink respasado. Then he proceeded to tell us about celebrity tequilas vs mondern Tequilas. Now , we really are the type that will take recommendations as we’ve tried a variety of tequilas. Once I realized he wasn’t going to give me a recommendation, I walked over to the other girl by the bar and asked her for a strawberry margarita. She told me she could not serve me and told me I had to ask the guy over there. I allowed my fiancé to keep up the discussion than asked for a strawberry margarita . The guy told me to look on the menu to order.. at first I was like whaaa? However instead of just being smart, I looked at the menu and ordered a classic margarita as they did not have a strawberry margarita. My fiancé goes on to order another drink that’s listed on the menu and asks for them to substitute whatever liquor is on the menu for tequila. The guy says no substitutes can be made …. I was dumb founded at how many tequilas he had , but won’t allow any substitutes. 2nd thing I let go, we go on to order food. I like to try the appetizers first to get the feel of the food overall. I asked for chips and queso and his response back to me was “ that’s in Texas, not here” . A simply we don’t have that would of worked. At that point I was over it.

Fast forward, I received my lime Margarita and my fiancé received his drink …. not even full. We only ordered the two drinks and our bill came to $38.00. We asked to cash out and the waitress had the nerve to tell us that the machine won’t include tip and asks us if we would like to include any tip. Like for whatttt?? My fiancé said no, and we went down the street to El Barzon for perfect service. Let me add, we eat out frequently, and this was by far the worst service we have received in a while. If you’d like to add substitutes to anything, pass on this place. The wide variety of tequila is nice, however it’s not that attracting when they won’t suggest anything outside of the normal or wont substitute

I wanted to love this place! But no thanks.. try El Barzon or Cosmic Burrito for...