Habaneros Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Joplin

I've reviewed over one hundred places and it's not often, especially as a first time customer, that a single location can get 5⭐ rating. Certainly if ratings are done, good or bad, a reasonable explanation is in order as to how a place achieves their rating. Not it was good or bad and that's it. Readers want to see the why's.

My wife and I are new residents to Joplin. I've lived in Missouri for 34 years. Transplant from Edmond to Mt. Vernon MO. Moved to Joplin in April of this year. Unlike visiting Springfield for eats and other things, we really wanted to take in some of the local restaurants. Habanero's was our stop, first time EVER stop, on Tuesday the 23rd of '25. Was addressed immediately by smiles and a couple of friendly faces. It was very welcoming. Seated immediately. Ordered our beverages; unsweet tea and sweet tea. Got complimentary chips and salsa and both were very good. Like wise our teas were excellent and tea forward. Not watered down tea. Ordered fresh guacamole...it was amazing! And lots of it. My wife and I enjoy good fresh guacamole and this was fantastic. Our waiter ... what a terrific waiter. Jimmy was everything a waiter should be and then some. Friendly, respectful, very efficient, and fun to visit with. He took our orders, explained what certain things were as far as seasoning goes as my wife is allergic to capsaicin. She ordered steak tacos and I got the shrimp chimichanga. I took pictures of these dinner items and the guacamole. One word: spectacular!

I've had my fare share of shrimp chimichanga's and my wife has her fare share of steak tacos. Generally average to good is what is prepared. My wife said her steak tacos were the best she's ever eaten. I'd say my shrimp chimichanga was shut-the-front-door delish. Jimmie asked several times if all was good. I told him all was fantastic! It indeed was. Did I mention that from the time we ordered it was less than five minutes before our dinner arrived. Piping hot too. I was shocked how quickly dinner got to us. All fresh. All beautifully prepared. Smelling amazing too.

Tip of the hat to Habaneros for not only exceptional service, but the excellent food. It was everything to me and my wife. You really used, what I like to refer to, THE. AND. THEN. SOME. approach. Thanks to the Chefs (whoever you are) for beautiful well plated amazing tasting food!

Jimmy, you sir are a great waiter! It shows you enjoy your profession. And when one enjoys their job, it's really not "work " Thank you and we WILL be asking for you the next time we come in. It'll be sooner rather than later too.

Thanks Habaneros for off-the-hook Mexican food! We anxiously wait till the next time.

p.s. As we were leaving another waiter said to us, "we'll see you tomorrow!" I loved it as it showed me the confidence and belief Habaneros has in their product. As...

Arrived around 4:40 was seated and service was already not so great there was a kid running from the back of the restaurant (maybe a workers kid) salsa was very bland my 2 almost 3 year old insisted on adding salt pepper and lime to it (he is very advanced) he wanted chicken nuggets from the kids menu with rice and beans the nuggets were over cooked Tyson Dino nuggets beans and rice had no flavor he didn’t eat any of it and persisted that he didn’t want it, my mom and I food arrived (warm/cold) definitely not hot they closed for their lunch so maybe it was pre prepped earlier in the day my mom ordered the steak street tacos and meat was diced so small and had very little meat in each tortilla I ordered the quesobirria tacos and they were warm not hot with what seemed like soggy roast with clumps of unmelted cheese stuffed in a crispy tortilla immediately asked for the ticket they asked if we wanted to go boxes we said no we did not enjoy the food and would be needing to get something else she brought the ticket did not ask if we’d like something else or a discount or anything to make it right on their part as I went to pay out of curiosity (and a manger at a restaurant in the past) I asked if there was any discount on the $40 ticket for the food being unenjoyable she was very rude and asked if we didn’t like anything which we didn’t we had to add salt pepper and lime just to eat the salsa and everything else we took 1-2 bites each and even my 2 year old immediately picked up his plate saying I don’t want it so I kindly said no ma’am not even my 2 year old would eat it if not it’s okay (i understand we did eat chips salsa and received drinks so wasn’t looking for a complete free meal) she yells at me to just forget about it and not even pay so I left and definitely will not...

Our office ordered some queso and chips from here tonight. We won't be ordering from here again.

The queso was watery and bland, and we were only given two bags of chips for four orders of queso. The queso we paid nearly $4 apiece for amounted to small little cups of queso you had to break a chip to dip into.

We called the restaurant to ask if this was normal (mistakes happen, we wondered if they thought we asked for small sides of queso?) and the employee who answered our call HUNG UP ON US.

We called back and expressed our confusion about the small quantity of queso for the money we paid. The employee stated that this was the normal practice for their restaurant.

We were also told that they charge 50cents a cup for salsa (we agreed this was reasonable, except for the fact that were charged an additional $4.75 for salsa according to the follow up email from DoorDash my coworker received after she placed our order.)

The phone call basically ended with the employee insisting that there was no problem, so my coworkers and I deemed them to be a lost cause.

After reading other reviews for this restaurant, I see now that the owner finds an excuse for everything. My coworkers reviews have already been responded to, and the owner is implying that they are liars. I expect that I will receive the same response, if any.

For future diners at this establishment, I recommend that you resign yourself to bland, overpriced "cheese dip" and an owner that can do no wrong in...