Sagebrush Cantina — Restaurant in Fenton Charter Township

Sagebrush use to be our FAVORITE and now you couldn’t pay me to eat there. This place has gone completely down hill. We recently visited with friends (like we frequently do) and had the worst experience. Immediately when we sat down we noticed a particular male bartender that we don’t care for. (From past experiences). This particular bartender works like a robot. Extremely monotone, what do you want to drink, drops it off, disappears, what do you want to eat, plays with his phone, cashes you out, disappears. I’m not sure what’s more important than attending to the guests at the bar, but for him there’s something way more interesting than his guests’ wants and needs. Luckily there was another bartender so we decided to stay and make the most of our night out with friends. With a huge view of the kitchen, my husband pointed out how dirty the kitchen was. I began watching and noticed a server take dirty plates back to the kitchen and not even a minute later, stuck her hands directly in a bucket of cheese to garnish a soup. Realizing they don’t believe in washing their hands, I began watching the bartenders. In a matter of 10 minutes I noticed the guy take dirty plates and sit them on the ground, touch limes to garnish a drink, cash some people out with cash, touch multiple straws, break up mint for a drink… ALL without washing his hands.. absolutely unacceptable. Luckily neither bartenders offered us menus, so we thankfully didn’t place a food order before noticing all of this. After the bartender was done on his phone, we got his attention to cash out and left feeling sick to our stomachs. With the insanely high prices of food here, you’d expect staff to be clean and engage with customers. Sadly, we will not be returning to sagebrush for our weekly get togethers and will spread the word...

I had pretty high expectations as my mom goes a lot with her friends and they all love it. The place looks cool and the service was really great. Unfortunately, the food was a let down in several ways. I will say first, the chicken soup was amazing. It's the only reason food got 3 stars lol the salsa was decent too and the chips were fairly thick and crunchy, which I like but some with sensitive gums etc may have trouble. Good news is you can throw them in your chicken soup and you're good to go! I ordered a build your own combo which comes with rice and beans, along with soup, chili or a salad. I do highly recommend the soup. I chose carnitas taco and the flautas w shredded beef. Presentation was really nice but it was overall disappointing. My flautas were dry and not so flavorful. Carnitas also underwhelming. I didn't finish mine and my bf basically hardly touched his fajitas. They were the weirdest looking chicken fajitas we've seen. We frequent Mexican places all over, as we travel for work... We were surprised to see larger slices of orange looking chicken, he also said the onions were off. It definitely was not appetizing and the server said it was a marinade. He didn't like it and also discovered the tortillas, inside the little warmer, we're hard as a rock on the edges, a big bummer for sure. The margaritas were alright, a little heavy on the sour. A 20 oz house frozen was $9 and it was $14 for a 20 oz mango flavored. I thought that seemed like a lot but I was more concerned that the food was mediocre and that he didn't get to enjoy his food much at all. We did not complain or try to get money off or whatever, we just declined boxes and prolly won't go back. After pics of what was left over and short vid of rock...

This is my favorite Mexican restaurant and worth the drive from Grand Blanc. Their Burrito Especial with chicken (white meat) with refried beans and rice is my favorite, but everything I've seen looks delicious.

Service is usually excellent. Today (August 12, 2025) wasn't the best service as the waiter (the guy with facial hair, a purple shirt, and who led the singing happy birthday to someone) didn't check back at our table even when he was at other nearby tables, and after waiting for quite a while and trying to catch his eye, I finally had to go to the kitchen entrance, ask someone to contact him and refill our chips and drinks. The original Diet with grenadine was very weak per both myself and my friend who tasted it, but he brought a little cup of grenadine. Chips weren't hot tonight, either. But in all fairness, this is a one-off and not the usual, so they keep those four stars. Everyone can have a bad day.

The atmosphere is fine until it's rush hour, and then it becomes difficult to hear the person across the table. I wouldn't recommend coming during rush hour. I do wish there were a way they could help with the noise level. Also, in 2024 they still weren't taking reservations, which made it a pass for Cinco de Mayo. Friends and I set another day as our Cinco de Mayo celebration, which was disappointing. I hope they're taking reservations now. It gets pretty crazy on May 5 as well as during rush hour.

I prefer the booths. They do have some tables as well as tables with bar-height seats.

Definitely check them out. The food is consistently good. It's much better than the other Mexican restaurants I've tried...