Jose's Cantina — Restaurant in Galveston

First and last time at Jose's Cantina.

I have never been so dissatisfied with a restaurant that I actually made time to leave a bad review. We were there for almost 2 hours including the 35 minute wait time. The waitress was super sweet and accommodating and did nothing wrong.

Unfortunately, my two children cannot eat wheat, so whenever we visit Mexican restaurants, we always ask them if they can make cheese quesadillas with corn tortillas instead of flour. We have never had an issue with this at any restaurant that we've ever been to. If they couldn't/wouldn't do it, then we would order something else, no problem! The waitress said they could do that, but there would be an upcharge. We were fine with that. One child wanted french fries with his food and the other wanted rice and beans.

About 15 minutes later, a random plate of fries came out by itself for my child. I thought that was a little odd, but we went with it. About 20 minutes later, the rest of our food came out. My child who wanted fries had nothing but refried beans on his plate with his quesadillas. Again, super odd, but it was fine. I could immediately tell that the quesadillas were made with flour tortillas. It was another female staff member that brought out the food and I mentioned that the quesadillas were supposed to be made with corn tortillas and she said that we only make them with flour. Didn't apologize or offer to fix it. I explained that they couldn't eat flour tortillas and she walked over to another woman who I'm assuming was the manager, but she never came to talk to us or try to make it right.

When our waitress came back, I showed her that the quesadillas were made with flour, she apologized and took the plates back to the kitchen to have them fixed. When she came back, she told us that the kitchen said that the corn tortillas were too small to make quesadillas and that they were too busy. Too busy! It was now 8:30pm and the restaurant was over half empty. They made a mistake and refused to fix it. I was in complete shock at the lack of customer service or accountability. I had to order another plate of fries for my other child and it came out quick. My children had a plate of fries for dinner. I wasn't going to try to order anything else at this point, so we fed them when we got back to the camper. Also, my fried okra were undercooked with batter still inside the crust.

This was my first time at Jose's Cantina and we only came to try it because Tia Juanita's was too busy. Every time we go to Tia Juanita's, they make my kids cheese quesadillas with corn tortillas even though quesadillas isn't even on the kids menu. Now that is great customer service from a restaurant who cares about their customers.

Lesson learned and we will never be back. As my 7 year old...

Well after getting to the table it took 10min to get are drink orders which was not hard to remember. water, coffee , orange juice it took them another 10 to 15 minutes to bring are drink them after. finally giving them are food orders it took 34 minutes to bring them out and are food was cold and while we waited for the food, we never got water refills for coffee refills. But yet are waiter would walk. Passes. Trying to pick up other peoples orders. After asking for jalapenos and another water Will you wait it for both items and never got them. Every time I would look up to try to find our waiter. He would be doing other stuff like refilling the tea recepticles Hiding in the back, talking to the kitchen. The whole time being able to pick up both items and bring it to us. The whole time, one of the Managers and the rest of the waitresses. We're just wandering around having fun. After waiting another 20 minutes for those 2 items. He came back and said the heat didn't know if the kitchen had brought it out or not. I can see there was only two people that were doing their jobs and were on point. When was a young man? I didn't get his name. He was wearing a Richard he had brought us her food. And another one was in older man. It was doing the bus boy duties. . There was a couple that sat next to us. That had gotten their probably thirty minutes after us And had ordered in everything And they're food still didn't show up. As we were leaving, it was finally coming out. But it were complaining about the weight as well and a lack of Professional resume this restaurant showed .... If I was anybody else coming in to this restaurant? Show being on some kind of time limit I would just throwIf I was anybody else coming in to this restaurant? Show being on some kind of time limit. I would just throw that...

The margaritas are delicious. The bartenders and staff seem very friendly but talk to regulars so not very attentive. It took awhile to ask questions about the menu and longer to get an order in. (even longer to get the check) The menu is big, there are choices for everyone! The prices are slightly more than I'd expect, however it's in a tourist trap region even though nothing really is happening now (winter). I tried the crab cakes on the appetizer menu, there were 5 thin cakes that seemed devoid of much breading, not sure what was going on with them. They are nicely browned outside but mush inside, I didnt run across any crab, but I did get some sand/grit. They probably needed to pre bake or lower heat cooking so it cooks through. I saw the negative chips and salsa review, it was scary, but we had some and under the large full chips, HALF a basket of very small broken ones 😳 🤔 I thought positively and hoped it was bottom of the bag, and not the remains of 12 people preceeding me. I asked for a new basket. I also had the hot shrimp with seasoning from the appetizer section. They were slightly over cooked, harder than they should be so harder to peel. Some fell apart when peeled, they may have been older which shouldn't have been mixed. When you walk in there is a dead seafood aroma that smacks your face which I haven't ever smelled in a seafood restaurant before. You adjust. But I'm going to give 3 stars since the drinks are good, friendly staff when they are available and my husband liked...