La Catrina — Restaurant in St. Louis

OK, the reason they lost 1 star is I didn't even get out of my car and walked on the sidewalk when I heard the following: we don't allow dogs here. Now, if he had handled it differently, I wouldn't have been so offended. It would have been nice to hear: is that a Service Dog, and it would have been a totally different experience for me. I told him he's a service dog if he would like to see his card, which I got out as soon as we walked in the door. That's a first for me ever on top of it all. For the waitress whose name I didn't get, she was so nice to me & Skippy. I asked if I could get a bowl of water for him. The menu is extensive, and the prices are comparable to other restaurants of this type. What sets them apart is the food, the amount of food, and their cheese sauce, too. I thought their chips could have been a little fresher. That would be my only criticism on food. We decided on the Fiesta Nachos that have both beef & chicken along with sour cream & and guacamole, which was very fresh & tasty. Little brother got the combination plate with a beef burrito & chicken tostado. Myself I got Catrina Alambre, which is my favorite & I try it at all Mexican restaurants. Their offer a little more like scallops, Crab, large shrimp, catfish, steak, bacon, chicken, onion & Jalapeno if you like it spicy. I always nix the jalapeños as to enjoy the flavor of all proteins, rice, and beans with cheese sauce. Overall, the food was hot and very favorable with perfect spices. Abundance of meat, too, so thank you. We tried almost all the Mexican restaurants around our area, and by far, this one beats them out. You just need to use a little more couth when talking to people with dogs, especially service dogs.

Update March 2024, set outside this time as the weather was so nice. Ordered a Pina Colda and was surprised they have frozen drinks other than margaritas. Will definitely be back for another frozen Pina colda. They could use more flavor along with rum, too. Got our favorite feista nachos and Catrina Alambre, which never disappoints. The food was great and frozen Pina Colda fabulous along with reasonable price. No problems this time with bringing Skippy in his...

Great food and a lovely outdoor atmosphere. However, I would never dine here after the service my 77 year old grandma and I received. Believe me, for me to write a poor review you would of had to do something egregious. With it being our first time, I was captivated by the rooftop patio setting. We decided to sit up there and the hostess let us know our male server will be up shortly.

Our server is a shorter guy, nothing wrong with that. However, he was rude from the start. We never knew his name, and there was no effort to be kind. I do not know if he was even a server or a cook. He repetitively asked us what we wanted to drink in an attempt to rush us. "Drinks, drinks?" I get it, he was upset we were the only people up there (which there was one other guy, but I guess he left by the time we got up there). I could tell in his tone of voice he never wanted to deal with us. Just say the upper patio is closed, that's all.

He brings our pre-made margarita mix drinks rather quickly. For some reason he puts my grandmother's drink across the table away from her instead of anywhere near her. His tone of voice and body language was rude again when it came to asked for our food orders. I let him know we would like the double fajita skillet (I forgot the name, it comes with shrimp, chorizo, chicken, and steak for $31). The paradilla skillet I believe.

It came out within under 10 minutes, which was quite impressive. Great portions and well-made. However, our server's attitude made us feel like we did not belong there. He brought up a to-go box to us without us asking, and rushed us in regards to the tab (check). "Ready to pay, ready to pay?" We had to scramble up with a credit card in the middle of eating which is rude.

The person who came up with the check was not even him, yet it was the hostess as he sensed how upset we were with his service.

As much as I liked the food, I would absolutely never come back here because the hospitality is horrendous. The lime margaritas are also pre-mixed as you can tell by the color and flavor (if...

The food and atmosphere is wonderful, the drinks are wonderful, and most of the staff is wonderful. I would give this place a 4.5/5 instead of a 3, but my boyfriend and I had a poor experience last time we were here. We ordered food to-go at the bar, and our bartender/waitress only took an order from him after several minutes waiting for her to come back (she did not seem extremely busy otherwise I would understand). She ignored me and seemed annoyed when he grabbed her attention because I also wanted food (he was a little rude, but was grieving 2 very recent losses, and apologized to her afterwards for how he approached the situation). Our order came out with extra food because he was under the impression of getting 3 individual fish tacos, but she had placed 3 whole orders of fish tacos, making our bill go up about $30. She refused to take it off and he was willing to still tip $20 after that mistake partially because he felt bad from the prior conversation, but with how rude she was back to us and not sending us extra help like she said she would since she was busy, we scratched the tip off and left. I get service is busy and frustrating, but ignoring customers and acting annoyed because you didn't check on the other person at the table is not cool. Refusing to fix an order because neither you nor a customer understood what they wanted is not cool. A lack of understanding and a lack of caring about the service you give is all I saw.

I absolutely love this place and have enjoyed every time I've sat down to eat or picked up a to-go order. I unfortunately was kind of mad at this experience because it was completely unexpected. I doubt this happens all the time and don't want this review to steer people away because the food is wonderful, but please be courteous of your customers and don't get visibly annoyed when someone doesn’t understand what all is included in a menu item.

And maybe have a little empathy when someone apologizes, given we explained why it happened - if you were grieving I'm sure you could come off as rude...