Puente Viejo Cantina Bigfork — Restaurant in Kalispell

First off, I never leave reviews and overlook small things, BUT our experience here was not a good one. From beginning to end, it was not a pleasant experience. First, it took a while to get menus, the menu is confusing, the waitress finally brought water but never checked on us again other than to bring plates out, we had 3 more people join us and they were never brought water, I had to go ask for 3 more glasses and a pitcher so I could refill our glasses. We had to go to the bar to add an order of fries to our order bc the waitress never checked on us. I asked for more chips and salsa and she never brought it, although she told me she would. The food was the most bland Mexican food I've ever had, our orders of flautas had 4 tiny flautas with beans and rice that were not seasoned well and it was $17 for the tiny flautas!! I had to go ask for silverware bc they only placed 2 sets of silverware on our table and we had a table of 5 people then 7. The nachos weren't very tasty either, none of the kids would eat them, they even looked bland and colorless. Waitress never asked how our food was and never cleared plates, then we had to go ask for our ticket. When we got our ticket there was an item listed that we didn't even order, when we asked the bartender or manager about the charge he got upset and I guess thought we were trying to get out of paying? He wouldn't really listen and continued to talk over us, he said he didn't have a button for small fries so he put a charge for ceviche on the order but said it was for the small order of fries. Ok? We didn't order ceviche and there was already a charge with the word FRIES so it was confusing. Please learn your program and label your charges correctly if you don't want confusion! So we paid $18 for a regular order of fries and small order, plain crinkle fries, that is! Above all, customer service is so important!! If our waitress would have been thorough and done a good job, even though the food wasn't the best, I wouldn't have left a negative review but with all the above and the manager being rude, they need to learn to treat their customers better and remember this is a hospitality business! When you go to dinner you are paying to be served...

The restaurant was a let down, the taco truck was so good in the past. For three of us it ended up being $99 for lunch w/o tip. Edit: Okay, so i finally got the itemized receipt i asked for multiple times while I was in the restaurant so we could divy up the bill on Venmo. I’m going to break down why this was so bad imo: Service was awful. I understand being short staffed, but our server literally asked us 45 min. after we ordered what we had ordered again. I literally had to stand up to get attention to get refills on drinks, and then they were forgotten so we had to remind them again. When the food was deliver the person. Didn’t know what the meat was on the tacos, and didn’t tell us they were out of salsa at the time. She then came back with a spicy sauce which was great— but still odd to not mention it and instead have us ask why something that was mentioned in the meal was missing.

Drink prices are not listed, playing the how much did each person spend game is not fun. And itemized recipes is easy to print out and I saw that others in the restaurant had them.

We watched for 45 min as no one got food then food came out in big bunches, which people who ordered just as much before us getting food. It took us well over an hour to get our food, which isn’t bad if you have good service. The entire time we were stunned that the service was that bad. We also didn’t get any silverware, and had no way to ask for any since we rarely saw the server. We ran out of napkins, genuinely one of the weirdest dining experiences I’ve had. Again, the food at the food truck was way better.

Please train...

Despite a somewhat bare interior that is searching for its full vibe, my incredibly picky Southern California father and brother-in-law (who are none to quick to compliment Mexican food as most places do not use fresh sauces or ingredients) were very pleased with their meal. The birria was fresh and delicious! My sister, who does not eat any meat/seafood, was happy the kitchen staff created a simple burrito for her that allowed her to also enjoy the birria. I thoroughly enjoyed the shredded beef street tacos and was pleased to have extra limes and cilantro brought to the table. The small disappointments were in them being out of chips (a great shock for our table with 4 teenaged boys) and the avocados not being ready for guacamole, but this was so quickly forgotten and made up for by the incredible service. We enjoyed learning about the local beers on tap and found the owner, Thomas, throughly knowledgeable about tequila—his personal touch of visiting our table to share small samples of different tequila brands with those drinking margaritas and sharing how his tastes were shaped by growing up in Loredo, Texas made our day trip to Bigfork memorable. The service felt personal and infused with a genuine passion for growing a local business that makes locals and out of town patrons...