La Cabaña Mexican Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Estes Park

After a long day of hiking in RMNP, my sister and I visited La Cabana looking for some good food & drinks. We spoke to the hostess, who failed to take our name and contact information, and told us the wait for a table would be about 20 minutes. In the meantime, we went inside to order a drink from the bar. While we were ordering our drinks, we realized the hostess never took our information. I walked back outside to speak to her again and she put me on the list but now for a 25 minute wait. We spent $37 on two margaritas and waited at the rooftop bar overlooking Estes Park. 25 minutes came and went, then 30 minutes, then 35. I went back to the hostess who informed me that my name was taken off the list. A very kind server then made sure our order was taken. We ordered the chips, queso, guac & salsa, as well as two chicken fajitas. After tip, those three items totaled out to $100. I know this is an expensive town, but for the service and the quality of food, I was very disappointed. When the server brought out our food, we paid the bill before even having utensils to eat. We were so ready to leave. We had been waiting for over 2 hours from arriving to the time we left. Everything but the chicken, onions & peppers were terribly bland so we got to go boxes and left promptly. We had lost our appetites at that point. Between the terrible service, the unnecessary wait, and the overpriced, boring food, we did not have a good experience. The atmosphere of the rooftop bar was awesome and we much appreciated the kind server who made sure we got...

We showed up without reservations...but noticed that the outside patio had only half (if that) of the tables in use. The inside was empty except for 2 people sitting at a booth. I understand that they might not have had enough wait staff to accommodate the tables...but that was only the first problem. The hostess was not very friendly, which to me should be the person that represents the restaurant in the best way. We put our names down to wait and asked if we could wait at the bar. We went to the "bar". This should not be a bar. It had one bar stool and one unfriendly bartender. Also, we felt in the way of workers going in and out of the bar since it was such a small space. Again...bartenders should have great personalities right?? Not this guy. He was so slow and not friendly at all. Not once from beginning to end did anyone who worked there ever smile at us. The bartender took forever to make way-to-expensive drinks that tasted awful. After a couple sips of my margarita I had a stomach ache because of the over whelming sweet and sour he put in it. I would usually send back a drink if it was that bad...but all 4 of us decided to just leave. I can't rate the food because we didn't wait around for our table. I did see some of the food on trays and it had the presentation of food someone would get at a concession stand. We didn't want to deal with any more of the unfriendly hostess, bartenders and servers we came across so we just left. Do yourself a favor and...

The atmosphere takes the win here, as long as you don't mind overpriced Mexican food, you're in the right spot. My gripes are the following. 1.) They apparently don't have physical menus to give you. What if your phone is dead or you simply don't carry it on you. 2.) The prices are too high for ok Mexican food. Being from the south and living in Mexico for some time I can confidently say it's just ok....the 9 dollar elote looked good but somehow lacked authenticity. Maybe they dial it back for tourists, I'm not sure. I've had much better elote on the side of the road for 2 bucks. The "Colorado burrito" is also good... nothing compared to a California burrito at just about any Taco shop for half the price. 3.) The QR code menu doesn't have all the options and doesn't mention their a la carte menu items. My companion wanted to order the fish tacos but she doesn't eat rice and beans I was ok with just eating them for her but the plate cost over 23 dollars for just two fish tacos along with rice and beans. We were still going to order it but they were out 😝😅. The spot is beautiful honestly and maybe rent is high reflecting the high prices. If you are a foodie that knows authentic Mexican cuisine whether it be regional Mexican food or closer to home cali-mex or tex-mex. This place will fall short of expectations. If you are new to Mexican food and money isn't an object and you just want to be in a nice ambiance then it might be great for you. (Oh yeah, chips and salsa are not...