Cabo Cantina — Restaurant in Santa Monica

Visited this place with friends on Halloween as it was part of a bar crawl event. Let's get into the details.

Atmosphere: Busy but not overly crowded. Throwback songs and newer Top 40s being played, both enjoyable. Sat outdoors/patio. Ample seating but lacking heaters. Maybe they have them, and they haven't been pulled out yet.

Food: I ordered a steak quesadilla. Slightly greasy, but delicious. Friends ordered quesadillas and chicken tenders. Everyone enjoyed their food. No upset stomach the day after either!

Drinks: For the price, they were okay. I ordered a mega margarita, and it was way too sweet. Everyone else got bottled beer because the restaurant had a fire a few days earlier and didn't have draft beer because of it, per the server.

Customer Service: The server was polite and gave us all menus. Took our orders without any fuss. We were wearing bar crawl wristbands, which is what likely prompted our server to tell us that we get 1 free shot each. Cool. Not what we were expecting, but we were interested once she said it. After our food was brought out and we were eating, she came to check on us, and I inquired about the shots. She apologized and said she's going to go and check on that. While she's away, my friend mentions that the wristbands are supposed to give us some small discount or that it comes with something, but she's not sure what.

The server comes out and informs us that the wristbands don't actually come with free shots. That's fine, and we weren't upset by that because it's not something we had been anticipating to get for free to begin with. My friend asks the server if she knows what the wristbands do come with. She doesn't and asks us if we want to talk to the manager. We say yes. Not because we're looking to get anyone in trouble, but because it's clear the server is not aware of the promotion the bar has with the company that set up the bar crawl event.

We're sitting there, finishing up our food and deciding where to go next. Our table is approached by the manager, who, without introducing himself, leads into the conversation with, "Hi, I heard you guys were complaining."

Ummm, what? That is not how you address customers, even if they're complaining which, again, that was not our intention. He didn't introduce himself, ask us what happened, or attempt to remedy it by simplying explaining there was a miscommunication. He quickly ran through a list of what the bar crawl wristband entails us to and, without being able to maintain eye contact with any of us, asked us if, "That was all?".

I'm not sure what to make of this experience. I don't know if the server was misinformed or misinterpreted what she had been told. That's okay, we're all human. We were not even remotely close to being upset about some shots. The food was really good. The music was good. We just weren't sure what the wristbands did get us at that point. We wouldn't have even inquired if we hadn't been told about the shots. The only thing that bothered us about the situation was the way the manager spoke to us and the way it was handled.

Manager, whose name I know only because I asked the server, do better. When you address customers, you politely introduce yourself. You look them in the face and maintain eye contact. You ask them what happened. You display empathetic behavior. I don't care if your server told you we were complaining. If you had spoken to us correctly, you would have seen that we weren't.

I hope you don't repeat...

SKIP!! SCAMMERS!! TRY KING AND QUEEN CANTINA!! i purchased 4 drinks total, an order of nachos and an order of chicken tacos. the drinks were buy 2 for the price of 1. if the drinks are $12.85, 2 rounds would cost $25.70 + $ 10.50 for tacos + $14.54 for nachos (also was not informed meat would cost more) that's a total of $50.74. now i have no idea where and extra $30 came from! AND i tipped 20% which would not have been $20 on an $80 tab. the math does not add up. my total with tax and 20% tip should have been around $66.00. NOT 108 ARE YOU JOKING. i called and the manager said he has to inquire with the server first and call me back, it's been 4 days. no contact, no return. i think his name was michael? or david? something common. and as someone who works in the service industry, you would think someone asking for the incorrect charges to be returned and not the entire bill is not trying to get stuff for free. i was only trying to get charged the correct price. the manager was EXTREMELY rude when i told him he shouldn't have to inquire with the waitress over a few drinks that i did not order and he raised his voice at me telling me to let him do his job. EVEN THOUGH the call started w him talking about how they had been double charging people's cards by mistake and he was so sorry and that he knows people's finances are at risk during covid, and even then he STILL didn't help. also the food was of course mediocre, and the drinks still come in plastic cups. totally not worth it. GO TO KING A QUEEN CANTINA SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER. the food and the drinks!! oh and almost forgot to mention how there was no hostess, lots of people seating themselves with confused servers approaching tables out of order. such a long wait...

The Tacos for Taco Tuesday are fantastic! But all the obnoxious stipulations are just overboard.

1. When you 1st order Tacos on the special, you can only order... which is fine except they have to be the exact same.... pointless. If you've never been there and want to try 2 different ones, what additional effort does it really take to make a ground beef and chicken taco? A steak and a veggie?

2. You can't make modifications to the order. So if you're allergic to pico or onions or jalapeño, your bad.... it takes literally nothing to not add additional things to the taco. Unless they've got them pre made.

3. It's free refills..... but only of the same exact drink. That chick just sat there in our faces and lied or at minimum didn't tell the whole truth. There's no way we would have ordered 2 different refills if we'd known they were 3.75 each.... for every drink you tried! Absolutely ridiculous! When someone says free refills, you're not thinking "only if I get the same refill"..... that should DEFINITELY be explained explicitly.

4. when you reorder Tacos, you can only reorder 1 at a time... why not another 2? Doesn't really make sense. It would save their wait staff some time.

Again the Tacos are very tasty but all the rules are nonsensical...