Marta's Cocina — Restaurant in Lynden

This is the second time I’ve gone to Marta’s and the food is average as far as Mexican cuisine goes. Beans, rice, tortillas aren’t scratch made, the food is on the bland side, but decent enough for an evening out. The prices are quite high for the quality.

Tonight a friend and I met for dinner. I arrived at 5:00, and my friend arrived at 5:05. We ordered drinks at 5:15. There was a large party filtering and, and the restaurant was reasonably busy for a Saturday night. Our food order was taken at 5:20, and came out very quickly by 5:25. I commented on how quick it was and the waitress said “I wanted to get your food out before the party,” which I totally understand and appreciate. We started to eat, and this is where the rushing started… both our meals and drinks were half full and boxes and checks were brought out.. I awkwardly boxed up my food as I was still eating but oh well. We paid by around 5:50, and proceeded to catch up while finishing our margaritas. These drinks are $16 and large. I’m a 5’1” 115 lb female, and if I’m expected to slam a drink of that size, you better be calling me a cab, so I didn’t feel guilty taking a reasonable amount of time to finish and enjoy my drink. At 6:15, either a busser or a food runner came to our table and said “I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s really busy and there’s a line out the door and you’ve been here for a long time and you should really leave. Again I’m sorry, but it’s really busy.” I was flabbergasted.

First and foremost, I’m going to address the safety concern, here. It takes the average person one hour to metabolize a single drink with a full glass of water and a meal. We were just shy of that hour mark, and to be pushed out the door to turn and burn the next table is unprofessional and unsafe. This made me feel truly uncomfortable.

Second, by the time we were asked to hurry up and leave, there was absolutely no line out of the door. There was a single party waiting to be seated. The large party was enjoying their drinks, and taking their time. It is clear that the value of our two top wasn’t high enough to allow us to have a quality dining experience.

While I understand nobody likes campers in their section - believe me, I paid my way through college waiting tables - this was the most offensive experience I’ve ever had in dining. We had been at our table just over an hour, which is completely reasonable for a drink and a meal. It was very clear that the check from a large party and getting as many patrons in as possible was the priority over offering a quality dining experience to all paying customers.

All in all, this is experience was a borderline LCB concern, extremely rude and completely unprofessional.

Very...

I never EVER write reviews but we had a very odd experience at this restaurant that I’ve never had before.

My husband and I both ordered build-it-yourself meals; I wasn’t super hungry so I ordered a 1-burrito meal and my husband was hungrier so he ordered a 2-burrito meal. When our food came out, my plate had a great size burrito on it, and his plate had what looked like 2 taquitos. We asked the server right away if we got the right food, because the 2-burrito meal looked much smaller than the 1-burrito meal. The server brushed us off and just told us that’s how it comes. Later on during the meal, someone else (seemed to be a manager) came over and asked us how the food was and we said great except we were confused why the 2-burrito meal had less food than the 1-burrito meal. They again didn’t have any answer for us.

We were very confused and still don’t understand why paying extra gets you a smaller meal. It was delicious and very reasonably priced, but unfortunately the confusion of it and how the staff dealt with our question makes us not want to come back.

Had they taken his plate back and come out with 2 big burritos like I had on my plate, we would have been so happy and absolutely would come back again. But we were disappointed that the staff didn’t have anything to say when we...

My husband and I ended up at this sweet little gem of a Mexican restaurant, "Marta's Cocina",  this evening by chance while on our short 2 day vacation across the border. We never knew this place has been around 15years plus. Lynden, Washington has been one of our favourite stops for short overnight stays these past many years. In all this time, we have never noticed this restaurant on Front Street, Lynden. The food is outstanding and the service even better. On arrival, we were met with a great big smile and a lovely hullo by Marta herself! Marta is the owner! The restaurant is bright, well spaced and clean. Hand sanitizers were placed in every table and you can clearly tell that they have made every attempt to observe good Covid prevention protocols.  We both shared a couple dishes- a Vegetarian Fajita and a spicy creamy Prawn Dish- yummilicious! Portions were good and taste authentic! Will return for sure! The drive from Vancouver to this little gem is well...