Tacos Madre Kitchen & Cantina — Restaurant in Santa Ana

Tacos Madra in Santa Ana was disappointing all around. We were celebrating a birthday, we had a party of 25. We did not all show up at the same time, we kind of trickled in. My parents, partner and I walked in around 5:45, there is no one at the door behind the desk, no sign saying wait to be seated ( that I saw). We walked in and went straight to our party. There were three tables we can choose to sit at. The 4of us sat at one of them tables after greeting birthday boy and the rest of the guest. We waited 45 mins to be acknowledged. I tried to stop three other people who worked at the restaurant, all three ignore me. The fourth try I was able to get someone attention. Just for them to tell me " I will call your waitress". So I said okay, another 15 minutes goes by and nothing. Finally stopped the sixth person which was apparently the hostess, who said I didn't know you were even here I let the waitress know,( we were in the middle of the restaurant) and then I said can you let the waitress know we're here we're part of the party. She said okay, another 15 minutes goes by. Finally our waitress makes it to us, we get order a drink and an appetizer. They mix up our drinks, we put in an order for food. We also had to ask for that. We were watching the staff, take our food to the wrong table and we had to correct it. The food was cold when it came out, wasnt good. My parents food lost,they had to redo and yet the food was still cold when it came out. The tortilla couldn't even fall without ripping. Needless to say we will not...

Check your bill!!!! I was excited to try this place based on the reviews. We're local and we're hoping to find the next great restaurant. Honestly, this wasn't it. The hostess was friendly and seated us immediately. The server was friendly but the service was slow and awkward. The first appetizer came without share plates. When the fajita made it to the table, the steak was leathery overcooked. When I asked the runner if I could please get lettuce and sour cream (it came with refried beans and rice) he said, "sure for an extra charge. When I mentioned fajitas usually come with it, " he said, not here!" We ordered happy hour appetizers $14 for Brussels sprouts, $17 for street corn. When we received the bill, we had a random $5 charge plus the one of the appetizers was full price. When we questioned the server, they took of the random $5 charge but not the appetizer discount. We questioned him again about it. He said it was taken off manually. It wasn't, but I was done with the discussion because dining out shouldn't be like this. The lettuce/ sour cream was $4 on a $30 fajita. The entire experience was uncomfortable and it won't be a place...

Found this hidden gem. Came down on a Wednesday. Im sure it gets packed on the weekends because of the atmosphere. The food was pretty good.

Food 4/5 ⭐️ I ordered the Taste of Mexico Molcajete. It was super delicious. It came with everything! I wasn’t a big fan of the bone marrow but everything was so delicious. It did come with rice, beans, and handmade tortillas! My favorite was the carne asada, shrimp and the cheese. The guacamole was really good as well. I wasn’t a huge fan!!! Now the carne asada fries could have been better. It lacked flavor.

Service 3.8/5 ⭐️ It took a while for someone to sit us down on a slow Wednesday. I get it since there was only one server. Once we sat down our female waitress was super nice and helped us with recommendations.

Atmosphere 5/5 ⭐️ I enjoyed the atmosphere. It had flowers and a couple of octopuses hanging from the wall. It had a real nice bar. This is definitely a cool spot to hang out at.

I did place the bill so you have an idea what...