Taco Cantina DC Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Washington

Went there for dinner on a Thursday evening. The service was fantastic; there was a lone server (named Elsa... I think?) who was very friendly and attentive. The menu is well laid out and most dishes have little flag icons showing the country of origin of the dish. There's pretty good culinary coverage of most of Latin America and Spain; I'm of Dominican origin myself and there were several Dominican dishes on the menu, which was nice to see.

We ended up getting a regular margarita on the rocks which was decently good. For food, we got the patatas bravas and the chicken paella, and both dishes were delicious! Very flavorful, and the textures were great. Oh, and as I already mentioned, the service was great; food and drinks came out pretty fast, considering there was only Elsa serving/mixing drinks, and probably only a couple of people in the kitchen.

The ambiance/décor is decent enough but nothing to write home about. One really nice thing, though, is the music they had playing; they had a pretty good rotation between merengue, bachata, salsa, and more general Spanish pop (think of the more popular stuff by someone like Bad Bunny, for example). And the way the tables are laid out, there seemed to be enough empty floor space for the socially adventurous to spontaneously burst into dance (although we didn't do that... at least not this time, ha!).

Fantastic experience. I will definitely be going...

I do not recommend. I went for bottomless with a group for someone’s birthday. The food was good but each tiny plate took 45 minutes to come. The drinks each round of bottomless took 30 to come. We were there for 4 hours because the food and drinks did not come out. They are intensely understaffed. Our waiter was nice and tried but this was a horrible experience. I paid for bottomless food and drinks and left very hungry. I don’t even have a strong appetite but in 4 hours I was only served 3 drinks, 2 empanadas and a two tiny pieces of yuca. This was so disappointing. Maybe order for pickup but do not go for brunch.

Edit: this is after the owner first replied: We paid $46.67 per person not 19. We stayed so long because our food took 45 minutes per small tapa plate. We set timers between each round of food and it was ridiculous. We also took photos between each round cause of how long in between each were. It was clearly a understaffed problem. The food was good but it was such a bad experience overall and a waste of...

I hate to be the one but today was definitely unacceptable. From the moment we walked in to celebrate a friends birthday to the moment we left was a nightmare to say the least. The attitude of the servers, the quality of the food (Raw Wings), the disregard to multiple customer needs was just beyond me. Other party’s that came after us got their food before us. Not to mention we had to wait until our half of the table was done to pay because they don’t split checks but split the party? I’m confused by all this but that’s ok. I don’t recommend this spot at all. Especially if you’re serving raw chicken and still expect me pay for it. At this point, I just wanted to leave. Charge whatever you charge but I know one thing, never again will I come here. Also, if you do their brunch, be ready to wait 1 hour for the second round. Worse if you don’t have a refill the whole time your are there. The Service to the quality of the food is worse than a 1 star but...