Los Cantaros — Restaurant in North Hampton

Recommendation: Families and diners should be aware of potential service issues at this restaurant. Improvements in staff training and customer service are crucial for enhancing the dining experience here.

Visit Details: Date: 07/03/2024 Time: 07:24 PM Table: B8 Server: Initials DV

Experience Summary: Our visit started promisingly with a young lady greeting us and kindly seating us at booth Table #B8. The restaurant wasn’t busy, with many tables empty around us, and a few guests seated a couple of tables away. The ambiance was pleasant with enjoyable music in the background. Unfortunately, the service quickly fell short of expectations.

Service and Dining Experience:

Initial Requests: Upon arrival, we requested a booster seat for our 2-year-old son but never received it. Despite following up with our server, DV, the request was overlooked.

Service Delays: It took our server DV over 30 minutes to attend to our table for the first time, even after we asked to speak to our server because our toddler was very thirsty. When the drinks finally arrived, the server forgot to provide a straw and carried bare straws in his palm without gloves, which is a direct violation of health codes.

Order Taking: When taking our order, DV appeared moody and was not polite, particularly rushing and intimidating my 12-year-old nephew, who is still learning to order at restaurants. We ordered tacos for myself, grilled chicken burritos for my wife and nephew, and tortillas for our son, which he never received despite multiple follow-ups. Kid likes to eat tortilla with the poblano sauce - weird but dont ask me why.

Food Quality: The food was excellent. We enjoyed our meals, but the delay and lack of service for our son’s meal was frustrating.

Follow-ups and Conclusion: After waiting 45 minutes since the rest of us got our food and following up multiple times, I requested to see our server again to remove an item from our order as we decided to go home and cook dinner for our son. DV finally appeared after about 15 minutes and offered to remove the item from the bill without apology or acknowledgment of the poor service. His dismissive response that they were "really busy" was unacceptable given the numerous empty tables.

Overall Impression: This experience was disappointing and highlighted a significant lack of basic service and courtesy. The server’s neglect, lack of communication, and unprofessional attitude were glaring issues. We hope that the management addresses these problems and provides better training for their staff to ensure a positive dining experience for...

New Update: went tonight. It was terrible. Margarita was bad. Our entrees were awful. The enchilada were horrible. The sauce was bitter and unappealing. The veggie quesadilla was weirdly slimy and coated the mouth in nasty way. They didn’t charge us for the food and the service was friendly but wow, a total downgrade in edibility. A 3rd strike IMO.

Update: We have eaten here a few times since the original review. The food remains reliable. Looks good. Tastes good. Drinks also decent. Nothing really stands out. The service remains the weak link. We have had to wait for our bill or for someone to take the payment or to order a second round of drinks, each time. Also had a bartender power-trip on me while we were waiting at the bar. I will probably still consider this as a meal option since it is one of the better sit-down Mexican places in the area.

Original Review: My wife and I decided to try out this new Mexican place while visiting the area. The decor was nice and clean. They were playing old-school Mexican music which we enjoyed. We were seated promptly. The restaurant was mildly busy but I wouldn't say it was packed.

The menu is fairly standard American Mexican food. Combo platters, tacos, etc. My wife ordered 2 tacos and I had the chicken enchiladas. We also ordered margaritas which arrived in absurdly giant goblets. The drinks were decent but very expensive. I understand that getting margs with dinner is always going to inflate the bill but 2 each was more than half the bill! They were like $15 apiece. That is NY prices, IMO. They weren't bad, though. Just expensive! Our food arrived and was perfectly acceptable. We enjoyed it. I had the jalapeño margarita but it wasn't very spicy. Still good.

What we didn't enjoy was the service. After being seated it took about 10 minutes to get menus. We never got water. We did get chips and salsa at some random interval. Once we did order the drinks and food came promptly. After the 2nd round of drinks, we didn't see our server for a literal hour. We had to flag someone down to get the bill. After we got the bill it took them another 10-15 minutes to take our card. We were there for almost 2 hours!

It wasn't a terrible experience but not the kind that leaves a great impression. If you have a bad experience here there is a Shaw's in the same parking lot so you can go buy groceries to make more...

This was on my list of Mexican places to try for a while, suggested by a few folks on one of my food pages from social media. The server was okay. He seemed a little overwhelmed and hurried with his job, checked on us once before bringing the check so never got a refill of water or soda. Mine and my boyfriend’s food was a little pricey, I believe, for what it was. The salsa was delicious with the chips, queso was good but not worth $7 for the amount you get. I will speak mainly on my meal because I didn’t try the others I was with. I will quickly say my teenage daughter and her boyfriend loved their chicken enchilada($17ish) and supreme nacho($17ish) and my boyfriend really enjoyed the chicken vegetable special($23ish) where he substituted mushrooms for the chicken, so his was vegetarian. All the meals came with rice and beans which were pretty good and had great flavor. I got the fish tacos (3), with cilantro lime slaw and chipotle aioli. The fish was cooked absolutely perfect, probably the best fried fish I’ve had on a while, which surprised me a little. This was the first time I have ever had tacos where it was not assembled, just fish in the shells with nothing else, half a large soufflé cup of aioli and the amount of slaw they gave was about a 1/3 of a large black plastic soufflé cup( these are less than 1/2 cup usually), I did ask for more for hoping it would make the cost worth it. Slaw was not very flavorful, not crunchy and wilted. Aioli was good. If the fish wasn’t as well cooked, they would not be something I’d get again. All and all, may be a place I’d try again but get a different dish. Not the worst, not the best. Total for 4 ppl with tip and no alcohol...