Jorge's Cantina Waco — Restaurant in Waco

My husband and I visited the restaurant around lunchtime on Saturday. I expected it to be busy, but thankfully, it was only moderately full. The service was impeccable. Our server, Chris, was attentive, checking in anytime he passed by, and gracious throughout our entire time there. Sadly, the food underwhelmed us, but it was our first time there, so I imagine it's a matter of finding what items on their menu they do better than others (since every restaurant has something they do well and something that's just there to fill a category).

Let's start with the starters. We had complimentary chips and salsa, which included a salsa verde and a salsa roja. The green salsa was the spiciest of the two but had a tangy flavor we enjoyed. We also tried the queso blanco but decided against trying the chicharrónes offered with it. The queso was okay. I've had similar, so it wasn't groundbreaking, but it was tasty if you like queso blanco more than salsa. The chips were enjoyable, crisp, and not oily.

Our meals were the most underwhelming part of our afternoon. I get the feeling Chris would've tried to do something about it had we complained, but it was our first time dining there, and I did not feel like complaining when the food was edible; it was just under-seasoned.

I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak (I know, "Who orders Chicken Fried Steak when it's a Mexican cantina-style restaurant?"). I had a craving for it, and it was there! Sadly, it is not their specialty (even though they have it until Specials). The breading was thin, crisp, and well-flavored, but the steak was bland. It's a round steak, not veal, so naturally, I did not expect it to be that tender (which was fine); the chewiness was not something I would complain about. However, if you're serving a steak and hoping the breading and cream gravy (which was Hatch Chile flavored, not that strong) carry the flavor, you'll be sorely disappointed. The steak would've benefited from being marinated to make it more than a bland piece of beef. Marinating it also would've helped with the tenderness, depending on your choice of marinade.

The sides were good. The papas fritas (fries) were delicious, and the chipotle ketchup was a great accompaniment. The Mexican Street Corn was okay, but I am biased because I've had elotes from authentic Mexican restaurants, so anything else would be less than impressive by comparison.

My husband had the 'El Chingon Akaushi Hamburgesa,' and the same issue I had with my steak was his issue with the burger patties. The patties were decently thick, but they had no flavor whatsoever. With everything they had on it, you'd think each bite would give you a decent amount of flavor, but it did not. Most of what you taste is the cilantro. There was cheese (Chihuahua cheese), mayo (Cholula mayo), pico de gallo, guacamole, roasted poblano, and carnitas spiced bacon. When we tasted the bacon on its own, it was delicious, but flavored ingredients will not save bland burger patties. I imagine they grilled it from a frozen state, which is fine, but even frozen burger patties can be pre-seasoned before they are frozen. He also got the fries, the saving grace of his entire meal.

Even though we were underwhelmed by what we ordered, we'll likely go back to try their enchiladas and tacos. Hopefully, their other menu items have more flavor than what we ordered on Saturday. I also like their lima limón soft drink, which is similar to Sprite, though they use cane sugar as a sweetener and make it in-house, which was very good. We also tried their lemonade, which was tasty and not too sweet. The service was excellent, though, so we look forward to returning and giving the menu...

I was really looking forward to Jorge’s since I’m a huge fan of George’s. I know it’s their second official day since the grand opening, so please know that I’m writing the rest of this with love and affection.

There’s major room for improvement. Unfortunately, the only thing that went mildly right was having our reservation time honored… that was after they asked me if being seated at the Cantina was okay because they had given the intended table away (the reservation was for dining room seating for a Friday lunch at 1:15 in which I arrived shortly after 1:00).

I’m not sure why but the floors are dangerously SLIPPERY (across the entire restaurant). For being an active young adult, I was afraid that I would slip and fall, so I was cautiously walking heel-toe heal-toe. I thought it was just my shoes, but even the chair legs easily skated across the floor while I was seated.

The bathroom signs for the men’s and women’s doors are awfully similar. Double-check that you’re entering the correct one. The women’s bathroom was out of soap and one of the paper towel dispensers was out of order. I know it was the lunch rush, but these things matter.

As for the food, the tortilla chips arrived halfway stale. Not sure when they were made, but it was definitely not fresh. Be aware that cilantro is present in a lot of the food served. If you’re not a fan of cilantro, make sure that you state that while you’re ordering. Our waitress had put in the orders correctly, but my order came out wrong. She had offered to send it back; however, the restaurant was very busy, so I did not want to add to the frenzy. I’m not one to send an order back, but I could not get past two bites. The meal was over-salted— bordering on inedible. There was no amount of lime that could neutralize it. I had to let the waitress know. She offered to have the kitchen remake my plate but informed me that since it had been eaten, she would need to charge me on top of the order. BAFFLED was an understatement. Keep in mind, I had taken one bite from the first quesadilla and taken a bite from another to make sure that it wasn’t just the first quesadilla that had been over-salted. By this time, it was nearing 2:00, and I had eaten a whopping 3 stale tortilla chips and two measly bites of the incorrect order, so I hadn’t much choice and was obliged to have my order sent back with the proposed additional charge. She came back several minutes later saying that she had spoken to the manager, and that I would not be charged the additional fee— how being charged extra for them to correct something that the kitchen staff had made a mistake on is beyond me. The waitress said that my order would be prioritized (I knew that was wishful thinking). Half an hour went by before my correct order arrived. During the time we were seated, staff members constantly came by and checked on the table— a little too frequently, asking how things were going. It was just easier to pretend that things were fine. Let’s be real, I’m not about to unpack my subpar experience to a different staff member every 3-5 minutes. Checking in once every several minutes is fine. However, the over-checking to gauge overall customer satisfaction was too much; resulting in disruptions between conversations throughout the entire dining experience.

All in all, there’s a lot of room for improvement. Hopefully, the novelty will wear off in the next few months, and the experience will be better on...

What could be more wrong? A good friend of mine and I made a reservation on Sunday to visit this restaurant today at 3:00 p.m.. This restaurant is new and I understood the necessity for this. We arrived early and informed the friendly friendly hostesses that we were not supposed to be sat till 3:00. They told us a table was already open and we were ready to go! Great job! A server, Alexis, was following us awkwardly to our table, asking what we would like to drink. I told him mine and he hurriedly ran off. He didn't ask my friend anything. We sat at a high top table in the bar and as we placed ourselves on the stools we both started sliding and nearly fell off the stools. Not stable, big failure!! A young lady brought us a bowl of cold broken pieces of chips and a red and green salsa. Both salsas were excellent. When our waiter returned, we asked for hot, whole chips. Our server was very very nervous and almost skittish. I ordered a queso as an appetizer. It never arrived. Failure #2 He immediately followed with asking what we would like for lunch. We said we had never been and needed a few moments. He made no suggestions and left the table. I had Mexican food earlier in the week so I decided to have Jorge's version of chicken fried steak with refried beans and fries. I had ordered a dos Equis Big O and a diet Coke. I received the beer in a warm glass with no lime and a glass of soda that looked as if it were for a child!! There were probably eight small pieces of crushed ice in the glass. Fountain soda actually requires a lot of ice to mix properly. Failure #3. My lunch arrived! I was very hungry. The beans with queso fresco arrived and I immediately tasted them. No salt no pepper, very bland. My fries were cold and hard. The chicken fried steak? Very chewy and the breading was falling off with every bite. The gravy was not even warm and already starting to congeal and wiggle like jello. Again, another failure. When we were ready to leave, I finally stacked our plates. When our waiter finally returned, we asked that he take the plates away, He looked very caught off guard and nervous. Another failure, what a shock! We were here for a little over an hour and a half and we were treated to watching the bartender prep her margarita mix and listen to her throwing glass bottles in the trash can rather than just sitting them on top of existing trash. We also got to listen directly to employees stopping by to gossip. We would like to have watched the TV over their heads, because it would have been more interesting than listening to afternoon bar prep. The bar area was absolutely huge so why do your prep in front of many of your guests? My friend had two short frozen margaritas, but it tasted like blended, frozen Gatorade. I advise that you either wait for this restaurant to mature or save your time and go elsewhere. Two small margaritas were $20 the large beer was $5. Our total was $62. We expected much better from Jorge's after all the hype. The restaurant was absolutely gorgeous there was just nothing good inside of it to eat today. Waco has too many good restaurants and good waiters to settle for...