On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina — Restaurant in Kentwood

We had a terrible experience at this location. We love On the Border and typically eat there at a couple Indianapolis area stores (Avon and Greenwood). Never had a problem with either, food and service was always outstanding. We did try to eat at On the Border in Kennesaw, Georgia recently and no one was seating people so we left and discovered Chuy's instead.

Anyway, about Grand Rapids On the Border. I don't want to call anyone out by name but I will say we were there about 7:45 PM on 7/14/2023. Our server was male and he had the special talent of not writing down your order.

There were three of us, my wife ordered a quesadilla with vegetables only (asked specifically for no cheese), my son ordered some chicken tacos with these crispy onions, and I had a fajita (no meat, no cheese, no sour cream, requested black beans, and white cilantro lime rice). The guy wouldn't write any of it down. If I asked for the white rice he'd say, "sure '. Ask if I could get black beans instead of refried and he'd say, "sure".

He wasn't good about getting our drinks out but did keep them refilled. The chips and salsa were slow to get out and they did not get refilled quickly. They were delicious but we had empty basket most of the time we waited for our order. There were black things floating around in my glass of water.

My wife's quesadilla came out with cheese and vegetables only. She figured it would have rice and beans too but it didn't. She alerted our server that it had cheese and that she requested no cheese. He took it back and had it remade. There really wasn't much to it and cost around $13. That's quite a high price for the amount of food you get.

My fajita came out and it had refried beans, Mexican seasoned rice, and cheese on the beans. I told him what was wrong, that I ordered black beans, white rice, and no cheese. He took it away and brought a plate with black beans, Mexican seasoned rice, with cheese on the beans. I kind of slumped my shoulders when he put the plate on the table and as I started to tell him again he just quickly took the plate back and didn't stick around to hear what I was going to say. He then brought a third plate with black beans, white rice, and cheese on the beans. I just decided to eat around the cheese because he didn't care to get it right. He acted annoyed that I asked where the guacamole was and brought a small container out. My food was okay but not as good as what I get from other On the Border stores.

My son thought his tacos were excellent.

This was our first meal of a short vacation to Grand Rapids and western Michigan. We were looking at local Mexican restaurants when I saw On the Border. I goofed and opted for On the Border when I should have given a local place a chance. It was a disappointing meal to start our little trip off with.

We had a hell of a time with the bill. We're rewards members so we get $2 off the queso my son ordered. I also had a $10 off $35 coupon. The first bill had an extra $3 soda on it we brought to his attention (we all had water). He fixed that but the next bill didn't have the $10 off. He said we couldn't use the $2 off queso and the $10 off $35. So obviously we'd want the $10 off. He brings the bill back again and has now rang up our vegetable quesadilla and fajita together to make it cheaper, still no $10 coupon, and the cheese went from $7 something to $9 something. The total of the bill kept going up! We finally said forget it and just paid and left.

It was maddening! I don't know if we'll ever be back to the Grand Rapids area but we'll definitely never visit this location again. That guy...

Tonight was a HUGE let down. We dine at this location on a regular basis. It is my sons favorite restaurant. So much so that he picked it as the place to have his birthday dinner. Normally when we come in there are less than 5 of us but we have seen (on multiple occasions) larger parties being served. We had very limited time to spend together to celebrate his birthday so a number of his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins joined. There ended up being 13 of us total. I had called a couple days previous and was told that On the Border does not take reservations however the man I spoke with took down my name, the time we were coming and the number of guests and said he would give the staff a heads up. Fast forward to my sons birthday. Everyone was to show up at 5:30. Because On the Border does not except reservations I arrived by 5:15 to put in our name and wait. I was informed that it would be a 30-45 min wait. That was not a problem. We waited. At 5:55 I checked to see how much longer the wait was going to be. After some brief checking I was informed the wait was going to be yet another 45 minuets. From what I could tell other parties (who came after us) were being sat in the area we were supposed to be sitting in. We had waited patiently for other guests to finish their food and when they were done other people were sat in our place. The hostess I was talking with said at least 45 minuets because the people sitting in the area big enough to seat all of us had just sat down and we’re about to order. I’m not exactly sure what happened. When we spoke to a manager it was offered to us that we be sat at separate tables. That kinda defeats the purpose of being all together to celebrate a special little boy.

This was how my son chose to celebrate his birthday... the one thing he got to do.... at your restaurant surrounded by his family. However we ended up walking over to Red Robbin (who saved the day, picked up your slack, and made his birthday special for him) Myself, my son, and the rest of the party were beyond disappointed. You lost out on a fairly large dinner order, lost out on potential new customers, and lost some regulars. 1 star...

Found a decent sized bug melting out of my ice when I went to finish my water after my meal. I showed the waitress and she didnt say a word so i asked if there was anything that could be done about it as that is disgusting and i did not know what to do. They said no and the waitress said I could speak with the manager so she went to get her. The manager was rude the entire conversation, she started off very hostile. I would have accepted as little as an apology and agreement that that isn't sanitary but instead she treated me as if I planted the bug and were trying to get my entire tables meals for free as soon as she walked over. I just wanted recognition for my issue. When another customer asked her if she would drink that, she said "professionally no. But personally I live in the country." I stated we are at a nice restaurant not in the country and this was just about customer service. She said she would take 5 bucks off my bill, probably to get me to stop talking but never apologized. Due to anxiety (as a recovery germaphobe) I was shaking a bit when I handed her my card. She noticed & inquired, only then did she say she would make sure this was not an issue again and it would be looked into so I could return and feel better about the cleanliness. My bill was very minimal and I was not asking for much (though my companions thought differently) I just wanted an acknowledgment and apology (which was never given). Instead I was looked at like a piece of trash who just wanted a free meal. The food itself seemed fine, although the orders came out slightly wrong. The treatment of the customers was not satisfactory...