Mother's Cantina — Restaurant in Ocean City

Parking was easy for me, i got a space up front. They also have parking on the backside of the building as well. This is a small restaurant, with a large bar area, and a tortilla shop right beside it. The outside is bright and colorful, the inside has a dive vibe. I felt comfortable right away finding a spot at the end of the bar. Throughout my stay, the service was outstanding, especially when talking about Dan the bartender. Anything I needed/questions I had were answered quickly. Even as a 1st timer, I felt like a regular. You've earned yourself a lifelong customer on that alone.

I ordered a Modelo draft, cold, and refreshing. I also had a shot of Julio Repo, solid pour. I also tried the house marg during Happy Hour at $3.50. It tasted fresh and wasn't tart at all. Another win for the trip.

I ordered Mother's Award Winning Chili Bowl: 1st place chili at Ocean City's annual chili cook-off! A traditional, sweet & savory chili bowl is topped with cheese, baked, and served with warm chips. This chili rivals all the chili I've had in this lifetime. Nice and sweet with a touch of heat, seasoned perfectly, not overbearingly spicy. The melted cheese was fantastic. I heard they shred the cheese in house.They had very few beans in the chili, which I 100% prefer. The tortillas were warm, fresh, and tasted excellent. Do yourself a favor and get you some.

I ordered taco's when happy hour kicked in choosing many different flavors. Here we go! Chicken Taco: Topped with lettuce, cheese, tomato 4-7pm daily $1.75. Chicken...melts in your mouth. Fresh, juicy, dark meat that makes for a taco that's out of control good. Fried or Sauteed Fish Tacos: Topped with lettuce, cheese, tomato 4-7pm daily $2.00. Fried...another excellent choice. Seasoned perfect, and fried to an ideal crisp. Sauteed...decent flavor, cooked right, just missing a salt element for me. I wasn't really into this one. Beef Taco: Topped with lettuce, cheese, tomato 4-7pm daily $1.75. Beef...while I loved it in the chili, it didn't work for me in the fried corn tortilla. I took a bite and just left it at that. Portabella Mushroom Taco: Topped with lettuce, cheese, tomato 4-7pm daily $2.25. Mushroom...earthy flavor, needs a salt element in there. It was better with sour cream, but this really wasn't my jam. Chorizo Taco: Topped with lettuce, cheese, tomato 4-7pm daily $2.25. Chorizo...was off on the flavor for me. I need a little char on the meat, grease, and spicy kick in my chorizo. This had none of these things.

When I come back, I'll only order 2 tacos at a time, because they are much better when they come out fresh. That might have been part of the issue with some of the flavors for me. You get a choice of soft (flour) or hard (corn) tortillas for these tacos. They do make their tortillas in house, and...

We were on vacation from Michigan here in Ocean City and were spending a couple days here and were seeing the sights and trying some restaurants and we saw Mother's. Today was a very hot day and after a game of mini golf we wanted to get something for lunch in a nice restaurant to cool down and have a good time. The host at the door was too busy watching a golf tournament to be able to seat us at first so we stood there awkwardly for a few minutes, but not a big deal really. Our waitress was nice and gave us good service. We had been excited about the food since we love Mexican food and saw the great reviews, but this was some of the worst Mexican ever. I know in their reviews they say they aren't Mexican because there aren't any Mexican workers apparently, even though on Google they are clearly labeled a Mexican restaurant. We ordered and then waited approximately 45 minutes to receive food at around 12:30, and it was not busy there at all, maybe 4 or 5 tables had people at them. When we got our food the portions were not that impressive, we literally had about a fork full of rice on our plate which was so dry and nasty it was inedible, the tortillas which are supposed to be house made daily were some mysterious green object of no flavor and was very tough. I had the Red Hot Burrito which was not good at all, just had a really weird flavor. And no it wasn't because of the spice because it really wasn't all that spicy. My mom had the enchiladas which were super sweet and were not very good. I believe the salsa that came out with the chips was probably canned and not very fresh. And we still payed $31 for some pretty disgusting food. The best part of our experience was the water which might have only been good due to the fact it felt like 104 degrees today. I would not recommend this place to anyone, if you want some good Mexican food come to Herraduras in Michigan. Or any place in Michigan, it will...

EDIT: I cannot be sure, but I’m fairly certain that I got a norovirus from this restaurant. A day and a half after eating here, I came down with symptoms of a stomach bug. We cut our vacation short because I was so sick. The rest of the week involved serious stomach issues and two bouts of passing out. I ended up in the ER with severe dehydration and gave them my timeline of events. They agreed that it was probably from there and stated that 80% of these illnesses are foodbourne, namely someone who is or was sick not washing their hands after using the bathroom and then preparing food. So gross!!! Not only will I NEVER eat here again, I’m fairly certain I won’t be eating in any restaurants any time soon. This is absolutely not only dirty and disgusting but can be harmful to people’s health.

We love Mother’s and have been going here for years. My husband and I went to Mother’s for lunch on our first day in OC for our vacation. We shared guacamole, I got the ground beef tacos and my husband got the birria tacos. Everything was delicious. That having been said I don’t think I’ve been in a dirtier restaurant. The table was greasy, I picked up one of their hot sauces and it was so sticky there was no way I’d have used it. The floor was really dirty. A table of 6 left while we were there and no one wiped their table off. I would love to eat here again because of the food but won’t because of the cleanliness. It makes me wonder what the kitchen looks like and how clean it is. Especially in today’s climate, cleanliness should...