The Cantinita — Restaurant in Midland

My girl friend and I decided to try something new for drinks and food, so we went here at kind of a weird time, 445 pm to check it out. The vibe was very high class and sophisticated; we were one of maybe two tables. All the staff were very warm and welcoming, friendly and happy. We were presented w a small saucer of finely chopped tuna and some thin hot sauce/salsa, which had a great vinegary flavor, but it was definitely more on the liquid, no pieces type, but I really enjoyed the flavor. I did not really care for the tuna/seafood concoction but it was an interesting touch. I will say, my cocktail was AB SOO LOOT LEE AH-MAZING!! 😍 A strawberry Pina colada...tasted like the freshest strawberries, and just made whipped cream... beautiful presentation, and taste out of this world!! 🌎 My friend could not stop raving about her steak quesadilla, saying it was the absolute best meat and quesadilla she's ever had. It did look extremely tasty, well stuffed, very cheesy, etc. Be aware though that the menu apparently changes at 430, from a more "traditional" Tex-Mex menu to a more higher class, sophisticated menu, more suited to a nice date night, but we were allowed to order from the lunch menu, which was great customer service 😁 It was hard to get our waiter's attention when we needed refills on chips, etc, which was mildly annoying, but once they came, they were kind and attentive. I ordered the carnitas, which had a good flavor, but were mostly hard fried fat, which would have been great as a flavoring agent for beans at home, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat very much of the hard fried fat, although the rice and beans were excellent. If I go again, I'd try something more like my friend had, which looked and smelled delicious, as she raved. The bottled beers were about $2-3 dollars higher than most other places, but again, that was probably because it was a higher class, date type place, classy than our usual hangouts, lol. My friend also mentioned that it seemed like it might have it's roots or the atmosphere of more like a Brazilian or Venezuelan type place, very showy, professional table side presentations, lots of steak and seafood options, etc. All in all, we were pretty impressed and now I know better for the next time I come...come before 430, ALWAYS get the Pina colada (or other great sounding drinks), pass on the tuna appetizer, and order something other than the carnitas unless I want to take them home for flavoring. Great atmosphere, fun hallway to the bathroom, great...

Service is great, everyone is so attentive. The restaurant is clean and the vibe is cool. We went during the day but I can imagine it being so much better in the evening because of the lighting and murals. The food is good. I got the mixed fajitas and the meat was good. My only complaint there is that they mush all the accompaniments into one small dish and it kind of ruins it. I had to take out the lettuce guacamole and the pico just to be able to eat my rice and beans. My husband had the tacos de tripa and he liked them but did say he wish they had a spicier salsa for them. They serve them with a creamy avocado salsa that has good flavor. He also got the tostada macha that he really, really liked. And for my son we got him the kids pizza. It’s microwaved, avoid it if you can. Some of it is soft and others hard as a rock. Fries were good. Overall the place is...

Service was really good. I don’t read Spanish, and the menu is in Spanish, so I needed extra time to study the pictures. The server kept checking on me, which made me feel a bit pressured, so I ended up ordering something I recognized on the menu.

My wife ordered flautas, papa fritas, and some sort of shrimp and octopus tostadas. I asked them to make a drink for me that wasn’t on the menu—a spicy jalapeño martini—but what came out was more of a margarita. Despite the mix-up, everything was absolutely delicious.

Honestly, I don’t think it really matters what you order—everything we saw and tasted was on point. The food and service were excellent. I’ll definitely be taking customers here in the future. The steaks looked incredible—they cut them at the table for you to sample, and they looked top-notch.

This place is definitely a go-to...