Don Juan's Mexican Grill and Cantina — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

We live only a couple of miles from here and were excited to try the new place. Here's the good and the bad. The service Is exceptional. We were greeted immediately by a friendly member of the staff. Our waitress brought over chips, salsa, and bean dip almost immediately, which we loved. She literally brought out our food in under 5 minutes. It was incredible how they can turn out the food so fast. Same for the margaritas. Side note, Our margaritas were $18 each but did have good flavor and were not watered down.

The atmosphere is definitely lackluster. It looks like a Denny's with a modest makeover. Very bright lights and odd layout. The bar area looks cool and there is authentic Mexican music playing in the background.

Now to the food... I had the birra tacos, which were a huge disappointment. No flavor, falling apart, and just very bland and underwhelming. I've had great ones before and these are definitely at the bottom of the list. My wife ordered the chimichanga and chili relleno combo. The chimichanga was mediocre and the chili relleno was just okay. We ordered churros for dessert and they came out ice cold. We sent them back and they took them off the bill.

Overall, not what we expected but we will give them another chance and hope that the food is better. Maybe next time we'll...

The thing that distinguishes this from other area Mexican restaurants is the size of the menu, for both food and drinks. The menu also has photos of the food and drinks that was also very helpful. The chips came out with salsa, medium, and a small dish of refried beans as a starter, a nice touch. There are MANY margaritas on the menu along with sangria and a good beer selection, both tap and bottled.

The food was good….I had Camerones Canćun, shrimp prepared two ways. One way was in a red spicy sauce that was delicious. The other was shrimp grilled (I think) with lots of mushrooms, and no real sauce. A small dish of oil with spices was served with the dish and may have been meant for the plainer shrimp, but not sure. Served with rice. Everyone was very happy with their dishes-chicken fajitas (the tortillas looked homemade), a fajita chimichanga (!), and fish tacos. Very friendly service a few errors were made and corrected quickly. Pleasant, not spectacular. Hope they stay as busy as they...

So overall I really did enjoy the time we spent there. For apps we tried the elote and queso dip. But before we could even order they bring out chips salsa and almost like a beans dip .. all excellent. You know how this fat boy is, and I LOVE Mexican food any day of the week. I had to order. A Tropirita which was a tropical cocktail with a coronita in it upside down -- if you been to Dallas BBQ think a drink like that!!

I will definitely go back to try some other things. We had the Don Juan Chimichanga and the red snapper. Both were delicious. Chimis were served with rice, refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and guac. Red snapper came with rice and beans and was fried to perfection!!

I enjoyed the atmosphere and the service was excellent. Very authentic and I enjoyed speaking Spanish with the wait staff!!

Don't wait and don't hesitate.. take a drive out to Latham and try Doj Juan's.

Tell em Vin Vin sent you, I'm trying to see something!!

Until next time,...