Jose's Mexican Cafe & Cantina — Restaurant in Honolulu

Very relaxing place, very much like a local sports bar hangout with very good food and some wonderful service. The food is good, a bit more Americanized Mexican cuisine, still very well prepared. The chips n salsa were great, a spicy lightly chunky salsa. A side of their homemade guacamole was a definite accompaniment, really creamy, with a bit of chunky texture as well!

A wide range of standard and specialty drinks, and beer, my friend had his usual Negra Modelo and server brought a nice chilled glass with lime. I chose to have one of their premium house margaritas, The Agave special blended. Our server recommended this particular one blended as the agave is thicker and can settle to the bottom when just on the rocks. She absolutely knew her menu and cocktails. An excellent fresh tasting, smooth cocktail !

I had Albondigas soup, steaming hot, wonderful vegetables and a light, yet distinctive, beef and tomato based broth.

My friend had a combination plate with two items, a chicken enchilada and chili relleno, refried beans and Spanish rice. The chili relleno was the largest I've ever seen, and with just a small taste tes , it was perfectly battered and fried with melted cheese oozing out the sides. The flavor was on the mild side, yet excellent and well seasoned. My entree was the large Rojo pork and chili burrito. Very tender and tasty, again having a mild seasoning to please most customers. Though I prefer a spicier version, the taste was fresh, homemade, and really good. The abundantly huge portion was enough to take half home, to share with myself for tomorrow lunch! We skipped dessert as we were both pleasantly full!

The atmosphere and food quality passed on all levels, and the greatest part of our relaxing visit was by far, the wonderful person who served us. Her name is Iona. Ask for her when you have dinner at Jose's. She is one of the most personable, knowledgeable servers who is sincerely genuine. From her immediate greeting upon entry, to her recommendations and quality service (yes, though very busy, she was able to continuously check back with us, remove empty items, and keep our table clean), she was awesome! Iona also personalizes her service with a bit of conversing guests at each table, providing a homey atmosphere, as if chatting with a long time friend. Iona presents the highest level of service quality and genuine character to your visit. Down to earth, yet friendly, intelligent, and highly accommodating, she presents herself at the top of her profession. And she made our late afternoon lunch/early dinner an unexpected and most gracious experience! Mahalo to Jose's and especially Iona for the...

I don't want to ever complain or make a fuss especially as someone who works in the service industry. Unfortunately today's experience was horrible and I would never want anyone to experience what we went through. I understand being short staffed, but being rude and unapologetic is not cool. We waited a few mins when we arrived before being acknowledged and told that it will be 5mins, no hello but straight to asking us how many and being told it will be 5mins. We were fine waiting since it was lunchtime. The employee was able to bring us to our seats and told us 5mins and walked away. Not even a min later she comes and asks us what qe want to order. My gf ordered a drink and I didn't know what I wanted so I just asked for water. She then comes back our drinks and asks what we want to order. We told her our drinks but she was rushing us to decide and we just decided to get taco salads. We ended up both having Margaritas since she was off and I just finished work for the day and we just wanted to relax and eat. The margaritas did not taste like a Margarita, it was in between frozen and over ice style that didn't taste like the fruit flavors. We just drank it because we didn't want to make a fuss and have it wasted, plus we didnt get a chance to let her know about our experience. She asked us once how everything was but she didnt wait for a response and just rushed away before we could answer. Taco salad was pretty good for the size, taste and price. The chips that were given were hard and stale but we were starving so we just ate it. We tried getting the attention of the gentleman that dropped our food off but he left before we could ask for utentils. We didn't get any Utensils or napkins to start and had to grab our own which thankfully was next to us. Not even a few bites into our food, our server placed our check down not even asking if we wanted to order any food or drinks with what we had before she rushed away. We felt so rushed and didn't get to enjoy our time. The server seemed to be having a rough day or something because she even kept pointing to seats to tell other customers to sit without saying hello or acknowledging them other than saying how many. I hope her day gets better so everyone has a better experience than we did. I think it wouldn't have been a terrible experience if they just acknowledged us and apologized saying they are short staffed or whatever it was for them to be rushing around instead of barking our things to us and rushing us. We just wanted to be treated with the same respect and understand that we had showed. May this be a one off situation and or...

I’m only giving it one star because of customer service (DURING THE DAY ) . A few time I have had someone do take out for me , I even ate here on my Bday . But yesterday 04/06/2023 I experienced the most horrible service there was only by one employee (White old lady who was wearing tight legging and could barley move around in them ) The lady was so rude I was in shocked .. first I called in my order which was around 12pm the guy on the phone said 20 minutes . I am familiar with their wait time so I actually did arrive until 1pm so about 45minutes . When I arrive this older gentleman and I waited by the door for about 8 minutes before the wicked lady actually greeted us . I was the first in line and I told her that I was waiting on a phone order that I placed a while ago . The litttle wicked lady rudely told me sit down by the door because my food still wasn’t ready … Fast forward 10 more minutes ( mind you I called around 12 pm ) my food was finally done ..as I was paying I seen that the lady had a stuck up attitude slamming down the bill and ink pin pretty hard . Definitely not one please nor thank you . I am in the food service and understand how things are but how I see it at the time there was only 4 other customers (3 customers were at one table )in the restaurant besides me and it was still early so why come to work with a shty attitude. Anyways after that situation I was just flabbergasted . my other half and I are great tippers where ever we go I still thought about tipping even after waiting forever for my food and the lady nasty attitude , but I rather had gave it to the homeless man who was sitting around the corner . Not to mention that the day before was my birthday so I was still I little hung over and a little irritated… and to the little lady if she see’s this because I know she knew her service was sht and should’ve been waiting on a review : You may wanna look in the mirror every day and tell your self your gonna have a good day , you don’t know what type of day someone is having especially me my emotions be everywhere . Idk if your leggings was so tight that you couldn’t process right or your just old and also have emotions idk what the case was but coming to work the way you did yesterday Laaaaady even Taco Bell employees will never …. Overall great food of course and shout out to the young lady who made my margarita nights before “Girl...