Casa Mexicana — Restaurant in Southern Pines

I don’t often post negative reviews. However, after the experience at lunch today while visiting Casa Mexicana, I feel compelled to do so in this case.

I have been a loyal patron of this restaurant for over a year. I’ve always been met with good food, smiling faces and good service. The experience today fell far short of those normal standards.

My coworker and I went to the restaurant for lunch today. She ordered a Taco Salad Bowl. Upon receipt of her food, she was immediately dissatisfied with the presentation.

The taco shell bowl was soggy and falling apart and the entire bottom of the bowl was filled with water. The meal did not look appetizing in any way. She took a bite or two of the salad bowl and pushed the meal away.

The waiter returned to the table to ask if everything was going OK. We discussed the issue with him and requested that the item be removed from the bill as it wasn’t edible. He left to discuss with the manager and returned to assure us that it had been taken care of.

Upon arrival at the check out counter, we were met be the manager (a young woman). The manager REPEATEDLY accused my coworker of “attempting to get a free meal” and told her that in the future she needed to be sure she knew what she was ordering. The manager was honestly extremely rude and disrespectful over this $ 6.99 taco salad bowl and my coworker ended up departing the establishment feeling embarrassed and berated. Neither she, nor I, will...

I've never ordered to go or delivery or anything so my only experience is dining in.

The food: very good Tex Mex with a traditional "combo" menu which is becoming less common. Generous portions. The fajitas for two could probably feed two adults and two children. The meat quality/quantity has gone down since C19. But it has everywhere else as well so it's hard to hold it against them. Alcohol menu is also great. If it were just the food to rate, 5 stars for what it is.

Overall yes it's a good place and most visits have been good. We missed this place when it closed briefly in '20. The 3 stars is due to the service.

The service: hit and miss. Some servers are very prompt and some are very slow. It greatly depends on the time/day as well as how busy they are. My experience is, and this is coming from someone who's done restaurant work, they seem overwhelmed when there's a rush. Could be a staffing issue or just training. Go a little early on a weeknight for best results. No hate towards the staff, no one has been rude or anything like that. There have been nights with very long wait times on food, drink refills, etc. The manager will step in occasionally but seems to be stuck in the kitchen on...

We have gone here a few times over the years. Our recent visit was the worst. Very friendly staff, however the food was awful. Guacamole was runny and slimy, looked and taste like it came out of a can. Queso dip was very watery, and had very little taste to it. Salsa was pure tomato sauce. The chicken enchiladas by far was the most disappointing I have ever seen, my husband described it as the worst cafeteria food he has ever eaten. The chicken was dry, enchilada sauce was watery, no cheese to anything else in the enchilada. Just dry shredded chicken. My daughters chicken quesadilla had very little chicken in it and had small amount of cold shredded cheese in it. The chicken fajitas had very little flavor to them, chicken was dry and over cooked. It’s tasted as if they were reheated several times. When we payed for our meal, I was blown away by how over priced everything was. Unfortunately, we won’t be visiting this...