Cantina Louie (Jacksonville/Southside, FL) — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Today, my friends and I visited Cantina Louie for the first time and were initially impressed. We ordered drinks, appetizers, and entrées, and when the food arrived, everything looked and tasted great until things took a turn. One of my friends discovered a hair in her food, which immediately caused her to gag. We expected the staff to handle the situation with concern and professionalism, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Our server didn’t apologize, she simply said “no worries” and walked off, presumably to have the food remade, but gave no clear follow-up. We asked to speak to a manager, and Keith came to our table. Shockingly, he also didn’t offer an apology. Instead, he insisted that all kitchen staff wear hats and hair nets, implying that the hair couldn’t have come from their team. It felt like he was questioning our honesty rather than addressing the issue. We politely asked to return all our food and stated we’d pay for the drinks. Still no apology. Before leaving, we discussed leaving a review (as we do for every restaurant we visit, good or bad), and at that point, the manager suddenly offered each of us a $20 gift card, not as a goodwill gesture, but seemingly in exchange for not sharing our experience publicly. Sadly, what could have been a great first visit turned into a disappointing one due to poor customer service and a lack of accountability from the management. We won’t...

I’ve been to this place many times, mostly because I was part of social group that hung out there regularly. I was never impressed with the food and ultimately stopped going, but then my husband had a good experience when he went there with co-workers. So we started going there for lunch on a semi-regular basis over the past month or so.

Well, one of the times, there was a long blonde hair in the salsa and when we mentioned it to our waiter, he said it was cilantro. It looked like a straight up hair, but whatever, they brought us new salsa.

Then this week, we went for lunch and I ordered a water that wound up tasting soapy and my husband ordered a Tamarindo that tasted like pure sugar water and was gross.

For lunch, he ordered chicken burrito bowl and I couldn’t decide what I wanted so I ordered the sampler. The nachos and taquitos were practically burnt — dark brown in color. The chicken in the empanadas were not seasoned at all.

And my husband’s chicken also wasn’t seasoned and nothing in his burrito bowl seemed fresh. He then wound up throwing up a few hours after eating it.

Between the hair in the salsa, soapy water, and food poisoning for my husband — I am now under the impression they don’t follow health code standards and the kitchen staff doesn’t care about the quality of food that is served.

Cantina Louie is officially on our banned list of...

My wife and I are on an overnight getaway trip to Jacksonville to do some shopping and dining. While here we ate dinner at Cantina Louie (Jacksonville/Southside) because my wife really likes Mexican food! We were not disappointed. The restaurant is brightly decorated in a Day of the Dead theme. We were seated at a table that had a long bench on one side and chairs on the other. We appreciated that there was ample room between tables so that we didn't encroach on each other's conversations. Our server was friendly and efficient and the menu was quite extensive. I ordered three different kinds of tacos: the Mahi taco (breaded Mahi with peruvian sauce and mango salsa), the Hot Surfer Chick taco (chicken with pineapple salsa), and the Blackened Shrimp taco (blackened shrimp with slaw, pico de gallo, and peruvian sauce). Each taco was different, but each exploded with flavor! They were wonderful! My wife ordered Pineapple El Pastor Chicken Fajitas. The chicken was delicious as was the pineapple salsa that accompanied it. So, the food was great, the atmosphere interesting, the service efficient, and the prices reasonable. My only regret is that we live three hours away. I wish we had a Cantina Louie where we lived. We would definitely be regular customers! But as it is, we will keep this place at the top of the list for our next visit to...