Polanco Cantina — Restaurant in Sacramento

A 50th birthday treat for my husband was dinner and a Kings game. Unfortunately this restaurant kinda set a bad tone for our night by embarrassing me…We were not drinking nor did we order unusual amounts of food but they pre-authorized my card for the exact amount of our dinner. When my card declined for the second charge (I wanted to die) I was told a tab was opened “in case” we ordered more. That did not make sense because they only “pre-auth” the EXACT amount for our bill not a penny over for the “just in case” charge? When I go to pay, I can’t because the charge for the amount that was pre authorized was “holding”. I had not budgeted to have to cover the fee for dinner 2 times to walk out the door. The manager Daniel assured me they did not charge my Venmo and the money will be returned to me in a few days depending on my bank… as he requested another card or cash for payment of the dinner (I had already paid for.) I didn’t have one. There were a lot of people around and it was embarrassing to have to explain that I didn’t have another form of payment… I had to transfer money from one account to another while he waited for me as he explained it was in case we ordered more… or didn’t know exactly what we wanted?? Then he explained it wasn’t personal. Is that the problem? Nothing is personal.? When I expressed I would have preferred to either pay up front or not eat there vs having to a hold placed on my card or paying twice if I’d been given the choice. He sighed as though I was taking too much of his time during this rush where my only mistake was coming to get dinner and not having enough money to pay twice? I called to get a receipt sent to me - as I was not provided one there. I was texted a receipt with a voicemail from Daniel saying I can call back tomorrow if I have any other troubles once that sale “closes out” on his end… I am not sure what that means except I paid and they still have a hold on the other money… but truly that doesn’t matter. What matters to me is that I didn’t have money available tonight as planned because I paid for dinner twice. Oh I mean - pre-authorized…so watch your credit card charges, know exactly what you want upfront and say that and be prepared to pay 2 times at least until the bank decides to give you...

where to start with this place, I’ve been here multiple times and never encountered any kind of problems with customer nor the staff. Well this past Saturday 11/26 myself and a lady friend of mine decided to go up to Polanco after have a few drinks and a meal at yard house. When we go to polancos everything was still in the restaurant setting, we may have been there for an hour before they change into the club setting for the night. My friend and I ordered a Cadillac margarita, very strong so we decide maybe sip this one for the next Hour of so.. time goes by music is going good, we start to dance accordingly to the genre of music, Hip hop to reggaeton to cumbias ! We danced like everyone else danced. After a few songs we find ourselves back at the bar to order what we thought would be our last drink for the night. Bar tender refuses to serve my lady friend because the “manager has decided to cut her off for the night” is what 3 bartenders told us ? I ask for manager to figure out the issue, he approaches me with one of his security as if I’m a threat. Uncalled for if you ask me, I ask him the issue and he tells me “I’ve had my security guard watching you two since you walked in and you guys are both stumbling and falling asleep at the bar” i was completely thrown off by that comment, because from the moment we go into Polancos we were on our feet, Dancing !!! my question for the manager is if you seen us stumbling since we came in, why didn’t you deny us service from the beginning? How do you continue to serve someone alcohol that was stumbling into your establishment and falling asleep at your bar ?!? Anyways once he commented why he wasn’t gonna serve us anymore I looked around and noticed something, me, my friend and ONE other lady with a group of friends were the ONLY COLORED people inside there, then I questioned the manager and security and said is it because we are Black. Once we said that he made sure we were escorted out. I didn’t put up any kind of fight knowing he was looking for a reaction from the both of us. I’m just letting it be known for other colored folks out there who put their hard earned money into these Racist “Hispanic...

Not a fan myself.

The positives were primarily the decor. I thought the colors of the lights inside the place were nice. The food and drinks that came to my table and others looked great.

The negatives were quite a bit more for me.

First off, I got a Caesar Salad with Chicken (wasn't really feeling like eating something heavier at the moment). It looked fantastic, but the first thing I did was eat a chunk of chicken. It was VERY big, which is a bit difficult for a salad. Secondly, it was cold. Not even room temperature. It didn't seem undercooked. It was as if they made my salad and put the chicken on top then just kinda let it sit there while the hot food was being prepared for the rest of the table.

And to top it off, the chicken had zero seasoning with it. There were even grill marks on it to make you think they did something with it, when it feels they just took it from the fridge, tossed it in a pan of oil to cook quickly, and then burned some hash marks on top.

Beyond the chicken, the salad itself was one note. It was so big that I just couldn't finish it. At a certain point it just felt like I was eating a head of lettuce dunked in mayonnaise, which although is the primary ingredient in caesar dressing, kinda ruins everything when it's the only thing you can taste.

Then I had to use the restroom only to see one stall has vomit in and around the toilet (which I flushed before walking out). Then when I went in 20 minutes later, there was paper towels in the urinals because the customers are doubly gross.

The last two part were that somehow it was colder inside the restaurant than outside, when it was already fairly cold outside. And the music was so loud I couldn't hear the people sitting across the table from me, and I had it vibrating up through the floor into me, which probably influenced my lack of wanting to eat anymore.

So if you want a place that's super loud to get overpriced, nice-looking, but bland food, and good drinks, this is probably a place for you. But if you wanna get good Mexican food, Sacramento has soooo many...