Magnolia's Tacos and Tequila Bar — Restaurant in Harrisonburg

Visited on 6/23/2021: After about a 45-minute wait, we were seated up on the rooftop deck. After the sun went down it was extremely windy and chilly, so plan ahead if you ask to be seated outside at night!

Overall, our food was good. I ordered a pulled chicken taco and an al pastor taco with a side of rice. I enjoyed both of my tacos, but there was so much pulled meat on each one that they were hard to get down at times. I wish both of them had some sort of vegetable, or slaw, on top to add some textural contrast instead of them being all pulled meat. The flavor of both were very good, and the rice they were served with was nice too. It was extremely lime-tasting, which I enjoyed, but I can see some people not enjoying it as much. My husband ordered the masa-crusted shrimp tacos and he really enjoyed them. He said the flavor of the slaw on top was nice and that it added a nice crunch on top of the taco.

I cannot recommend the guacamole though. First of all, it was pureed like baby food, which is not typical for fresh guacamole, It was the texture of the pre-made industrial squeeze tubes of guacamole you get at Taco Bell. There wasn't any chew or texture in it at all which was disappointing. And the taste was all jalapeno; it was so extremely spicy that I only had a few scoops of it before giving up. The chips were fine, but they needed more salt. They tasted like they has been sitting out for a while and weren't hot anymore.

The margaritas were great. I had the blueberry basil and my husband had the peach, both on the rocks with salt. One note about the peach one: they seem to use frozen peaches to float in the marg, so don't bother trying to fish one out to eat it after you've finish the drink. It tasted like nothing.

Our server was really friendly and helpful; she checked on us often which was great. I felt bad for the table next to us that had a large party; their waitress never checked on them and it took about an hour for some people in their group just to get drinks. Sheesh.

Overall, I enjoyed Magnolia's and I would try it again if I were in the Harrisonburg area in the future. But skip...

I LOVE Magnolia's food but I did not enjoy their service tonight. We waited a bit longer than usual to get out waters and the speciality drinks took about 20 mins. to make it to our table. The non-alcoholic margarita tasted a little different so we thought it had alcohol. We notified our server and he assured us it did not have alcohol. He took the drink and came back with the same drink saying that the manager had tried it and said it didn't have any alcohol in it and left the same drink on our table. Once our food finally came out, our whole order was wrong. My sister's tacos came with the wrong tortillas and I had subbed out the shrimp for pulled chicken because we don't eat shrimp for religious reasons, but my dish had shrimp. The server kept saying "okay" as I explained about our food and as he took each dish. I feel like he wasn't very understanding and he didn't acknowledge the errors that had been made to our order on their end. We proceeded to ask for the check for my drink, the non-alcoholic margarita that my sister didn't drink, and the chips with queso we had ordered and eaten. At this point we were upset and decided to go pay downstairs. The bartender wasn't very welcoming. He asked why we hadn't gotten our server to take care of the check and I responded by saying that we weren't happy with our service. He responded by saying that I had taken the service into my own hands and that restaurants don't always get orders right. I responded by saying that they get my order wrong there most of the time and he proceeded by saying that maybe I should take that as a sign, to which I responded, as a sign to not come back? He mumbled a few other things but I couldn't hear and my sister and I were ready to leave. The reason I keep going back is because I really enjoy their food and they're usually quick and understanding about errors to my order. I'm not sure if I'll go back after this experience and I've never left a review before, but that's how much of an impact their service left...

Came here for the first time on 4/28/18 for lunch. It was a nice day and we wanted tacos so we got onto their rooftop area. We were greeted by a friendly host who was able to get us up on the rooftop, although it took 30 minutes instead of the promised 15. We were happy to enjoy a quiet meal together to chat and enjoy the nice weather, but that soon changed when everyone on the rooftop kept being distracted by a loud buzzing drone flying erratically over us, shaking and wobbling. Myself and the person I came with were both nervous it was going to hit someone. We were told by our waitress that the owner was getting drone photography of the rooftop. I find this to be disrespectful to customers as we were not told this would be occurring.

Now the food: My friend asked for some tomatoes and onions for her taco. The waitress came back with a very small plastic cup of pico de gallo which I later found was a $2.50 charge. Good service would have been telling us it was extra. Furthermore, all of the portions are small, the tacos are only 3/4 filled, and the "side of rice" was only a marginally bigger plastic cup than the small $2.50 cup of pico.

The food quality was fine, no complaints there! But I felt like I was being nickeled and dimed my entire meal for chintzy portions. I have had appetizers bigger than this meal. Not a good...