La Cantina Cocina Mexicana — Restaurant in Port Orange

I wanna start this with the food and drinks were amazing! Best queso i’ve found here so far. Now— my server Allison was unfortunately NOT amazing. I have NEVER left a bad review, but her attitude needs to be made aware since I was refused a manager 2x! Allison seemed young, so I sat on this a few days before sharing.

I ordered a pick 2 combo, no onions no cilantro and I confirmed that it didn’t come in the tamale. I also ordered the chicken quesadilla, I guess I wasn’t clear enough. She didn’t mention the quesadilla having any of those items, and since it’s usually just chicken and cheese I didn’t ask, maybe on me? Regardless, the way it was handled was naaaasty!

When she checked on us after we got our food 10 min later (the only time she checked on us) I was on the second half of my quesadilla and got a MOUTHFUL of onions. Oh well, accidents happen, well I brought it too her attention “BTW there’s onions and cilantro in here” and i’m not joking her response was “Mhmmmm you asked about the tamale not the quesadilla”. then I went to respond and she cut me off and said “Mmm you already ate most of it” I don’t know how you’ve survived in customer service Allison, but MMMMM is rude as hell. Every sentence she said started with that from there (it was like a instant defense it was so confusing), I tried to be respectful and let her know maybe it’s my bad for not being super specific but I did say no onions or cilantro. She continued to argue with me and just be down right rude. I even asked for a manager 2x, the first time she said he wasn’t there, then the second she went and talked to him herself and said he was gonna “tell me the same thing anyway!” I said “tell me what? You’re assuming I want free food but really you’re being nasty and the mmm is showing no care for customer service” Idk why, but then I said “SORRY if i’m hurting your feelings” and she said “Mmm you’re not” like…… ok. I tried to be the bigger person but honestly i was baffled lol.

BTW I NEVER ASKED TO REMAKE IT. I was just letting her know. I wasn’t rude until she was. Oh, and I was with a girlfriend we wanted desserts and food to go but decided not too. Well, after all of that we asked for checks. My friend paid with $100 and Allison stated “I can’t get change for that”, nothing about her tone was nice even from the start. I wasn’t ready to pay yet, so she had to come back. Well, she never did, i’m assuming on purpose to be petty because there were only 2 other tables and she was at the host stand on her phone. As we were leaving (my money was on the table) she goes “You didn’t even pay yet” Well…. maybe don’t be petty and leave your guest there for 10 minutes!

Miss Allison, I hope you reflect and know that you don’t need to be immediately defensive to feedback, ESPECIALLY when I was nice when I said it. Your unprofessional attitude unfortunately gave me one right back!! I have truly never been spoken to like that. Anyway, goodluck to you!

PS best blueberry margarita i’ve ever had.🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼The food was really great! Hopefully it was just a bad day and that’s not the usual, i’ll be back to retry...

Going to guve 2 stars only because thefood was amazing... However the servie was way below par. The night started out on agood note. We walked in they were not busy so we got sat right away. We were at the table for about 5 min ad a server came over to see what we anted to drink. Dribks ordered and came out fairly quickly. Food was ordered and that came out very fast. Within 5 minutes of ordering. I will again state here that the food was amazing.. But this is where the service took a turn for the worse. We finished our dinner and 5hen sat there for about 10 to 15 minutes watchig our server walk by. We never got acknowledge at all. Meanwhile we are sitting there with empty plates on the table just waiting. We had actually wanted to order desert but after waiting so long to finally get our servers attention we just asked for the check. After we finally got the check the server walked by a few more times and we had to finally flag down another employee to get the check processed. That employee turned out to be the assistant maager. We then expressed our concerns tonthe assistant manager. The assistant manager then tok the server in the back to talk to him about the issues. They were standing in the doorway andthe server was constantly pointing at us while speaking loudly in spanish. I will not post here what the translation of that conversation was. The manager and server then came over to the tabke and the server apologized through it felt fake and forced. The manager did give us 20% off the bill. While all we wanted wanted have better service in the future we did not refuse the offer. We will go back again to give them another try again in the future. If the service has improved i will happily update this review. We will see if they correct the issues that they currently face with their service staff. One last side note be careful what bathroom you try to use. They have 1 set that is apparently for rmployees only though there is no sign stating such. Funny thing is when you goto the non employee bathroom you have to wait for an employee to cme out. They have there own bathroom should they not be...

Overwhelmingly mediocre. The decor was nice but that was the only great thing. The restaurant was fairly busy but not slammed, and there were several servers around but ours hardly came back to the table. Once we were seated, it took about 10 minutes for someone to come and take our drink order. We saw the waiter three times, once to take our order, once to give us the check and once to bring the card back. They were not really friendly or nice but professional enough.

The food was alright, but not even close to the "best in Volusia" like some other reviews had said (which is why we tried it out). My husband and I are foodies and like to try all the local restaurants. Here, he ordered the enchiladas and I ordered a blackened chicken salad with no egg. They did take off the egg but for some reason also took off the bacon, and no one came back to check on us. I was going to ask them to bring it out on the side so I could just add it, but I was starving after a workout class and no one came by so I just ate it as-is. The enchiladas were lukewarm and the salad was so mediocre- the power bowl at taco bell is perhaps the same quality or better and for a fraction of the price. Flavors were alright but nothing special.

Overall it was worth it to try and support a local business, but we won't be returning. For good quality Mexican cuisine, we will continue to go to other local favorites like Juanita's, Señor Taco Too...