Fiesta Bonita Mexican Grill & Cantina — Restaurant in Kelso

Simple review: you take an old Azteca restaurant (remember them?), with all the garish finery that was involved, slip in a new, local, owner and you have Fiesta Bonita. I mean, Azteca went all in when it launched. And it still exists in the NW and outer areas. But its footprint is much smaller that it was. And that gave local places a chance to basically do a turn-key thing. As in Kelso, so too in places like Lake Oswego. You got the space and now you do your thing (never been to the one in Vancouver, though ditto).

This location does the whole American-ized Mexican thing and does it well. Large portions. Fresh chips always refilled. Non-offensive salsa. Great servers. Does it cost more than it used to cost? Sure. What doesn't? But it is filling in that generic, yet positive, way. You are sitting in what is basically a place that Liberace would have owned if he was Mexican-adjacent. And eating chips and salsa. So, a win!

And the people-watching is great. The local color is great, up to and including the four 'ladies' who went into the bathroom on my last visit, spent nearly twenty minutes in there, and came out 'refreshed' from whatever it was they were doing in there! Lots of locals. Lots of fun. A great place, all around.

Oh, Annie, one thing: why in the heck did you go to a place like this and order Mac n' Cheese? Did you misjudge the room? And, Bonnie, I think your review is about you, not the restaurant. Go back and read what you wrote. You loved the atmosphere . . . but nothing else. Perhaps you were the problem. And, Judy, we get it. You picked the wrong place. Clearly. you are not a sweetie and don't deserve to be disparaged in that manner. Lessons learned. Lessons learned. I love reviews. You get an education.

Recommend this place for groups. Recommend it for what it suggests and what...

It used to be our favorite mexican restaurant but it's just really gone downhill. The last 2 times we've been there we've been forgotten about. Neither time was exceptionally busy. The first time we ordered and the waiter came back 40 minutes later surprised we didn't have food to then realize he forgot to put in our order. The food was clearly slopped together. We asked for beans with our chips and the waiter was also rude telling me they charge $1 for each thing of beans acting as if I couldn't afford it. Nothing really done about the extreme wait for food either. Fast forward a few months and visit again. We ordered drinks and waited at least 20 minutes for the waiter to come take food orders. Then waited at least 25 more minutes for food and had all cleared our plates completely, cleaned up the table, and stacked our plates before he came back with our bill. When he brought my card back my friend ordered fried ice cream to go. 30 minutes later I found someone to ask about it. Turns out the waiter went on break and didn't even order the dessert. Same friend ordered 5 fried ice creams to go a few days later and they were all different sizes, some half melted, some had chocolate and some only had whipped cream. There are multiple Mexican restaurants in town... this one just...

My family and I went there last night for dinner and our waitress was the best but the cooks and owner were another story. My daughters burrito was incorrect, I was okay with that mistakes happen but then they also served my carne asada burritos cold and once I told my waitress she was really apologetic but once the owner came over she wanted to pass the blame on me for putting sour cream on my burrito and that was the reason why the insides of both of my burritos were cold but there was only sour cream on one. She said she had taken the temperature of the burritos which I knew she was lying because I had her employee feel the inside and she also said it was cold. She was really unprofessional and just needed to take responsibility for her cremployees mistakes but to say it was my fault. That was where I draw the line. This restaurant has went down hill, I live right down the road but would rather go to Oregon to a real Mexican restaurant where the food is good every single time. After the way the owner treated me I will never return here again and will tell everyone I know to...