Colibri Mexican Cuisine Baldwin Park — Restaurant in Orlando

Colibri has been very good to my wife and I as not only vegans, but also as late night eaters due to our busy work/school schedules over the last year. The food is not necessary the best Mexican I have ever had, but it is definitely in my top 5 for quality food. We have only probably ever had one on-par/not great service experience here, but it happens, we are all human.

3.5/5 The Service: I have read many complaints about poor service here and we have yet to experience any. Yes, there were times when Colibri is jam packed with people and we have to wait a little longer for this and that, but besides one unusual night, we have never felt neglected as customers. There are times when we have to wait for refills, but the wait is never astronomical or unreasonable. It is not that the waitstaff is bad, it is the way the staff is distributed among the crowd. We have noted that our waitress will be working with us in the front corner, then running across the restaurant to wait on a table at the window, then she will disappear outside for a few minutes. I do not know what management is thinking assigning tables like this, but it would be much more efficient if one waiter/waitress would get a block of tables in one area. To recap, any less-than-stellar service we have gotten has only ever been during a packed house and specifically due to the attention of the waitstaff having to be spread across a large area rather than concentrated in force.

4.5/5 The Atmosphere: I find the atmosphere charming and my wife absolutely loves it! For holidays, Colibri always decorates with very nice decorations which switches it up. The music is occasionally too loud for our taste, but it was never something that ruined a night for us. The booths are comfortable and eating outside is great when the Florida weather is cooperating.

4.0/5 The Food: I will not lie, my wife and I get the exact same thing every time we eat at Colibri: -Veggie Fajita with black beans, no Mushrooms, cheese, or sour cream. -Extra set of flour tortillas. -Extra side of Mexican rice. -A side of homemade habanero salsa and lots and lots of fresh regular salsa. Honestly, we really like the fajita. Colibri does not cheap out and just give green bell peppers. The veggies include onions, green bells, mushrooms, carrots, and red bell peppers! Ask anyone who knows us and they will tell you that we love red bell peppers, so Colibri gets a +1 for that. We do wish that they would do some broccoli and/or zucchini, but we are generally happy with the food. Most of the time, I would rate about 85% of the time the vegetables are cooked perfectly with not too much oil, but there are times when there is just a little too much cooking oil for our tastes. The black beans are much, much better than the refried so go for those and the salsa is spectacular. There are times I just go and order the fajita so I can eat a few baskets of fresh chips and salsa.

Overall, Colibri is a great little Mexican restaurant. The service for us has always been generally good, I just recommend trying to go there not during your typical weekend dinner rush if you are picky about service. The atmosphere is cute and well done. Most importantly, the food is solid and consistently tasty even for us vegans and they are open until 9:30-10:00 pm most nights allowing us to eat late if our classes or work gets out late.

Lastly, to the management of Colibri: Please review your waitstaff assignment policies. I really believe that the restaurant will run much more smoothly if an employee just has to worry about a little square of 4-8 tables rather than running all over the...

As a server who grew into management, I've been in the industry for over 10 years. I'm not one to ever complain, or even leave a bad review, because I understand that "things happen." I've been there. But what we experienced today is completely unacceptable, especially in today's climate dealing with Covid-19. It took over 10 minutes for us to be greeted outside, and our waters came another 5 minutes later. We had just worked out, so we were annoyed.. but ready to eat and try to make the best of it. Brunch had just ended, so we understood maybe they were busy. At 3:10, I asked our server if I ordered "bottomless margaritas" (the deal ends at 3:30), if I could continue ordering refills past that time or not. Our server seemed to not understand my question, first she said it would be fine... THEN looked unsure... and ended on, "but it won't be OK after 3:30." ----- WHAT? Seems like she had a hard time communicating the restaurant's policies, and it was frustrating because my drink order depended on that answer. I just decided on just one Mexican mimosa, like my friend. My friend had also asked the hostess 2x for a high chair, once we were being seated and again about 10 minutes after being seated. She told us that they did not have anymore high chairs, and then gave one to the table next to us that sat after us.... The trainee finally brought one over. She grabs a dirty high chair from a neighboring table, and drops it off. Look at the photo I'm including: not only is it filthy with actual trash.. but it's clearly not sanitized. Who knows what else isn't cleaned safely?? Look at my water cup; I chugged HALF before realizing it was caked all in the inside with residue. I wiped it out with my napkin to see just how bad it was. Of course, my side plate had food on it as well. At that point, we were grossed out, and asked for a manager and for the check. The manager seemed overwhelmed (because I'm sure this isn't the first time this has happened), and unable to properly remedy the situation. After we explained we just wanted to bring all of this to her attention, she replied with, "we are doing the best that we can." We also thought it was strange that they didn't comp the guacamole we had ordered, since we had added, "we didn't feel comfortable eating anymore of a meal here." Very disappointed, as this was my first time here, and my friend I came with has spoken highly of this place.

I will not be coming again. I mean, upon doing some research now, their most recent health violation is that their sanitizer for manual washing and dish machine washing are not at minimum strength, and they were asked to discontinue use of the dish machine until fully repaired.

It seems like this was...

We made the unfortunate decision to dine at Colibri. The weather was beautiful so we wanted to sit outside. After looking at the menu online, we wondered where the waiter was. He finally got to us about 15 minutes later. One of the Sunday Funday specials was a frozen margarita, so I ordered one. The waiter explained that the machine needed a 2 hour prep time. The special is on Sundays from 11:30 - 3:00. It was 12:30. So I said I’ll take a non frozen margarita instead, but the price was higher. Um, what????? They would not sub a non frozen margarita for the special price. Ok. Never mind. The food order was placed and we watched 2 tables of people get seated and served their food while we were still waiting. We flagged a passing staff member down and asked to send our waiter since we had not seen him. By now, it’s at least 45 minutes later. Another party gets seated and served. What is going on here? We then ask for the manager, we’re told he’s busy but he’ll be out as soon as possible. Finally our food comes. One of our plates was actually cool. Not cold. But definitely not warm. Still no manager. We start eating. The manager shows up finally and we explain the issues. Hey, if the waitstaff is new, maybe they need more training? His excuse was that no one wants to work because they’re still getting more on unemployment. And that’s the answer. People don’t want to work so we just happened to get a new waiter who had no idea what was going on. He was nice enough, but had no clue. We ask for some sort of compensation. The manager says he has to check “with the kitchen” - I guess he doesn’t manage them and is not empowered to make that decision??? Dunno. Anyway, he leaves to go ask the kitchen if we can have a discount off our food. Then the waiter comes back and asks how we are. We say, ok, but her food is cold. So he offers to microwave it. Yup. Microwave her plate. Guac and all I guess. No thanks. We’ll eat it cold. Now we ask for out check and some boxes. Guess what? He’s gone forever. Ugh!!! Oh but we did get 10% off. That’s a pretty big insult for the amount of concern we expressed to the manager. Never again. While seating and waiting for so long, we did get a chance to look around and see how many other options here are around that area for restaurants. Next time it will be someplace else.

P. S. The view was nice. That was about all that was. Very...