La Patrona Mexican Cantina & Grill — Restaurant in Freeport

All the food was excellent, other than the fries with the kids burger (which was huge) being a little over cooked for my 5 year olds tastes and my plate maybe sitting in the window a little too long.

Unfortunately, the service was in the top 5 worst service I've ever had. We were seated quickly enough and the complementary chips and salsa arrived acceptably quick. It was pretty much down hill from there. Some of it was a language barrier. My wife took the 5 year old to the restroom so I was alone with our infant. It took a while for the waiter to stop by for the the drink order. I asked for waters and for the kid a white milk. I also asked for hot water to warm up milk for my infant. We got waters in kids cups and the white milk in a kid's cup, but no hot water. Took longer than it should have to get the drinks and the waiter tried to leave before we could order our food.

My wife had 3 beef tacos with rice, I had a fancy quesadilla and the aforementioned kids burger. None of this stuff should take all that long to make.

We ate through the chips and salsa and got a refill from a runner.

It was 30-40 minutes for the food and it may have been longer had not a manager walk through asking if everything was ok. She immediately ran off to check things and my plate arrived shortly there after, followed by the other two. I asked for water refills from the runner who seemed to understand but never brought any refills. The waiter wasn't around much and neither him nor anyone else checked in on how the food was until we were pretty much finished. We never did get drink refills.

I did notice another table of 6 getting food replaced(?) a couple of times after the bulk of their order arriving, so I'm speculating something was wrong with their food and ours was stopped to remake theirs a couple times.

Check took a while to arrive as well. Lowest preset tip was 18% which I reluctantly picked rather than custom since the manager was standing right there holding the electronic unit and I just needed to leave to get the kids home having had to be there so long.

Decor was fine if slightly sparse compared to some Mexican...

Super good food and good portions but the service could improve a little, the food took a while to come out and when it did I just didn't get my meal. Our server said there must've been a mix up and it was most likely taken to another table but she made sure to be on top of the mistake to correct it so I wasn't sitting there while everyone else at the table ate for way too long. I asked and she said they had 5 cooks so the kitchen was not short-staffed at the time we came in, they just might not have enough servers. Either way the team very clearly cares about their customers because our server was super apologetic and we got a discount at the end of the night. The burritos favoritos plate was so good and the tres leches cake itself was delicious too but I recommend asking for no whipped cream because it was like cool whip but a million times worse. I don't know why they would cover that amazing cake with that abomination of a whipped cream. The brand they use must be called uncool whip. No biggie though I just scraped it off.

It's so worth going back to and I am sure that next time I'm in the area and go back, this rating will...

So I drove almost 2 hrs from Chicago to Freport to visit this place. So this is what happened. 4 samples of margaritas, I only liked 1. Micheladas were well prepared. Unfortunately the food is not that good. The order of tacos dorados with almost black guacamole. Pollo feliz, the breast had good flavor, unfortunately it was covered with too much cheese sauce, it ruined all the flavor of the chicken. Tampiqueña, it is unfortunate that they do not use a good arranchera, the meat was dry and super tough, beans and rice had no flavor, enchiladas the guajillo sauce was bitter… I complained to the waiter, “who by the way are very kind and attentive” … I told him that the meat was too tough and difficult to eat so I spoke to the kitchen and they cooked me a ribeye steak, 1-5 it was 3. I think the only good thing they have are the sauces, good flavor and spicy. It's unfortunate that being one of the few Mexican food restaurants in Freeport, they don't know how to cook. Apparently the owners like their food, but personally, they need a lot to give it a Mexican-style flavor. It's bad that people like this represent us with...