La Cantina Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Goleta

La Cantina is located just off Turnpike in the Vons shopping center. They offer a variety of Mexican cuisine, and the presentation is on point! Prepared by chef Adriell Colli who brings his wealth of experience through the culinary world.

We started with fruity margaritas, such as the watermelon, passion fruit, cucumber and mango. All made with fresh ingredients. No artificial flavors here. Ted was our bartender and the drinks he prepared were well executed.

For food the zesty ceviche, creamy guacamole and fresh housemade tortilla chips got my taste buds going. An explosion of flavors in each bite.

The mains such as the mole con pollo, was a beautiful & creative presentation resembling sushi. This rich mole sauce was well balanced, not too sweet or spicy. It was flavorful and delicious. This won my heart!

The enchiladas la Paz packed with fresh seafood and topped with a rich creamy chipotle sauce was chefs kiss delicious. We also tried the Quesabirria, made with goat. I’m always hesitant to try goat meat, but this wasn’t gamey at all. The meat is tender, melts in your mouth and flavorful. I appreciate that the Quesabirria wasn’t greasy either, and the consomè was the perfect dipping sauce. Well done chef!

They also offer veggie tacos here. Hongos aka mushrooms and fried avocado; which BTW is upon request and not on the menu. To end this amazing experience; we tried the Pan de Elote. Think cheesecake meets sweet corn cake with a moist tender texture. It wasn’t too sweet, which made this enjoyable.

Overall, a great place to check out if you’re...

Well I am happy to report that this place rocks. Super clean and yet it feels cozy. I went in on their opening day and let me tell ya… wow!

First of all the wait staff was awesome!! Shout out to Ana our server, she had to have table touched about 5-6 times. The manager came by and also asked how we were and got us some freshly (still warm) chips. They had some great salsas as well.

We ordered 2 cocktails from the bar and wow!! First of all they are beautiful. Second, the taste was to die for. It had enough alcohol that you could taste it in the drink but yet it did not over power the drink making it a wonderful experience. 10/10 great job to the bar staff.

Now for the food. Honestly, I thought the proportions were looking small but I left totally full! So… in my opinion it was exactly the right size! The thing that stood out to me was the WIDE verity of tacos. I don’t know why but I have been having a hard time finding a good fish taco. While I did not order them on this visit, this will be what I order on my next visit. The shrimp and quesadilla we got were made to perfection.

The seating was great and there were 5-6 TVs showing football and they have Sunday ticket. They also seem to have a full bar as well so that’s a plus as well.

I’d give this place 6 stars if google would let me.

Perfect food✅ Perfect and BEAUTIFUL drinks ✅ Amazing wait staff and management ✅ Wonderful atmosphere ✅ Kid friendly ✅

Update. The fish tacos...

We started with the guacamole which was creamy and delicious! We polished off a whole bowl of crispy, thin chips with that! The waitress told us we had ten more minutes to order off the Happy Hour menu! So we quickly ordered 3 more items off the HHM and we were not disappointed! The three other dishes we ordered were the Aguachiles, which was a light and refreshing dish of shrimp, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, onions and lime! The corn ribs were excellent! I have made these myself at home and it is not an easy task to get them with just the right amount of burnt grilled flavoring! Lastly, we got a chicken sopes. The house Margaritas are delicious but they make so many different kinds of margaritas that La Cantina is just beckoning us back! We are yet to taste the mole, ceviche and so much more! Our sombreros are off to Chef Hector! If you are on the fence about trying yet another Mexican restaurant in SB, my advice is to go for their Happy Hour, which is everyday from 3:00-5:30pm. We’ll see you there because we will definitely be back! Oh wait! I forgot to mention that we couldn’t resist trying the churros which were light and crunchy (not oily) and they were served with a chocolate sauce (which needs some improvement) and my fave… condensed milk! So yummy! These were as good or better than I’ve had in Mexico where I...