Molina's Cantina — Restaurant in Houston

I went to Molina's on Westheimer which is just down the street. I ordered a Molina Margarita and the Jose's Dip based on another review. The Margarita was alright, but overpriced for the amount of drink provided. The Jose Dip tasted like Velveeta cheese and a little bit of hamburger meat. It lacked the flavor I was expecting for a $5 appetizer. I ended up mixing salsa into Jose's dip to get a little more flavor from the cheese and hamburger meat. A little taco mix, chili powder, salt and pepper, or other spices would have made this dip much more flavorful.

I ordered the beef enchilada dinner as my main entree. It was one step above a frozen Old El Paso dinner, and this isn't a gigantic step. The dinner tasted like it was right out of the microwave which I suspect is accurate since the waiter dropped the plate in front of me and told me it was very hot. I have tasted better beef enchilada's and queso from a local taqueria. I felt the main course was over priced for the serving size.

The ambience of Molina's was somewhat lacking as well. I didn't get a Mexican cantina vibe from this place, but my standards on this maybe a little skewed. They do serve alcohol of all kinds; however, this place had a more formal dining experience instead of a relaxed atmosphere. My interpretation is that Molina's is suffering an identity crisis. The waiters and waitresses are wearing formal uniforms and the silverware is rolled into formal napkins. The dining area was pretty plain with some designer lights over the kitchen door where several bulbs had burned out. It gave me the feeling they are not willing to invest much in the restaurant, but they hope you are.

The wait staff was very friendly, respectful, and checked on me frequently. My only critique with the frequent check-ins is the dining felt a little rushed like they were trying to turn over tables and the place was not busy. For the price tag at $20 for one person vs portion and drink sizes, I am unlikely to visit Molina's...

I have been to Molina’s once, and that was one too many times.

I went with a group of (15) friends to celebrate someone’s birthday. The entire experience was not just subpar, but a downright awful experience. Let me preface this by saying I do not blame my server at all, this is more about how the restaurant is run. It was very obvious that they were short-staffed. I saw managers walking around observing but never helping.

1. We all ordered water to start to keep it simple. It took 29 minutes (and three reminders to our server) for everyone at our table to get glasses of water. Some people even got sprite instead of water. During dinner several people went without a single refill.
2. Our orders weren’t taken for nearly an hour.
3. We were short on silverware and plates and after asking for more ended up having to get up and grab some ourselves.
4. We asked for salsa multiple times and never received it.
5. We were extremely short on toppings for fajitas.
6. We asked for flour tortillas multiple times and only received corn tortillas.

The only positive thing was that the chicken fajitas were actually very good, which I did not...

I have been searching for this place ever since moving to Houston - I finally found the best enchiladas ever! I'm from Corpus Christi, the holy grail of all Tex Mex food (don't knock it till you go to every single recommendation I have made). Anyway, these enchiladas are very similar and possibly better than Kikos in CC, which were the best until these. The fajitas were also very good. Back to the enchiladas... they don't use cheddar cheese which is good because cheddar is too heavy and greasy when melted to make a good enchilada. The key difference between Kikos and Molina's is the chili von carne which actually has carne/meat like big pieces of it. I only had to add a dash of salt to make it perfect. After I devoured my enchiladas, which is only two (a little disappointed on that, it's normally three), I like to mix my chili con carne with rice and put it into the flour tortillas. OMG! So good. So aside from number of enchiladas complaint the only other complaint I can make is I wish the tortillas were a little fluffier like in CC. The chili con queso was just meh but green sauce was great!...