Local Cantina Westerville — Restaurant in Westerville

I want to start this review by saying that my husband and I LOVE Local Cantina. It’s our favorite place for margs, chips and queso, tacos, and pretty much anything else on the menu. We love it so much that we frequent several of their locations on a monthly, if not weekly basis. We’ve been to the Westerville location 10+ times, and every time has been...meh. We’ve both worked in the service industry, so we naturally always give the benefit of the doubt. However, tonight was the last time we’ll be going to the Westerville location. To start, we walked in with no one at the host stand for 5+ minutes before being greeted, or even acknowledged, and were told they were on a wait, which was completely expected and no problem at all. We gave our name and number per usual, was given no quoted time, but regardless, we waited in our car due to COVID protocol. After sitting in our car for a bit, I received a phone call from a personal cell phone with a name I did not recognize, so I didn’t answer, thinking they would leave a voicemail if it was legit and important. A minute or two later, the same number called, so I reluctantly answered. IT WAS THE HOST CALLING FROM HIS PERSONAL CELL TO LET US KNOW OUR TABLE WAS READY! Hilarious and so weird, but still not a deal breaker. So we go in, give our name to be seated at the bar...and then there was a scramble to clear the seats that he told us were ready. After waiting a few more minutes and watching him clear our seats, we sat at the bar. Still, not a problem, but starting to feel like it’s a bit of a cluster. We then waited another 5 or more minutes at the bar before being greeted. The bartender was very nice, brought us water, chips, salsa, and queso promptly, and then after ordering our drinks, we said we would wait a few minutes to order dinner. It then seemed like an eternity for him to come back to take or order, and then even longer for our food to come. When our food came, the tacos that I had ordered were completely wrong, and my husband was missing a side of sour cream that he had asked for. Again, normally not a huge deal - I’m notorious for saying things are fine when they’re not and never send food back because I somehow convince myself that it’s my fault. BUT, with how things were going, this was just adding to the disappointment. The bartender took my tacos back and brought me the correct order fairly quickly, which I appreciated. Again, he was very nice. So here we are finally eating our meals and enjoying our beverages, and we notice a bar back come behind the bar to take out the trash...AND WATCHED HIM DRAG 2 FULL TRASHCANS THROUGH THE RESTAURANT AND OUT THE FRONT DOOR WHERE SEVERAL PEOPLE WERE WAITING TO PUT IN THEIR NAMES. Like what?! There is a back door for a reason...and one of those reasons is so you’re not dragging garbage through the dining room where guests are eating, and then through the door of waiting guests who had planned on eating, but now their appetites are ruined. Gross. Moving on, the playlist was also very aggressive, unedited and felt like we were in a club, not at a Local Cantina in Westerville, OH having dinner on a Tuesday night...which wasn’t necessarily offensive to us because we’ve been known to throw around some curse words in our daily vocabulary and listen to all genres of music, but the unedited versions of these songs were definitely not appropriate for a family restaurant. This was disappointing only because we always rave about the playlists at other locations, Clintonville more specifically. I know we weren’t the only guests disappointed in our experience, because we noticed that the gentleman who was sitting at the bar by himself next to us had ordered quite the meal for himself, didn’t eat a single bite of it, refused a box, and left without eating. I can’t speak for him, but I can only assume that his food also took so long to come out, that by the time he received it, he just wanted to cash out and leave. In conclusion, we still love Local Cantina, but the Westerville location is a cluster and needs to get their...

My wife and I really enjoy Local Cantina. We ordered it online for take-out Friday 4/1/22. We picked up the order and didn’t check to make sure it was complete until we got back home. We realized the queso and salsa container were only filled half way (this was a big bummer because we ordered at the Clintonville location a week prior and they filled both the salsa and queso to the top and gave us an extra bag of chips). $6 dollars isn’t worth spending for the amount of queso they gave us. On top of that, they gave us the complete wrong order for my wife. I called and the manager asked if I could come back so they could make it right. I took the incorrect order into the restaurant to show the manager. The manager gave me the correct order and apologized I had to drive back to pick it up. He explained that it’s a super difficult process to fix things like this and that’s why he asked for me to bring back the incorrect order and show him. He then asked me to point out which of the two bar tenders initially handed me the incorrect order so he could address it with them. Both bar tenders were standing right there and heard him ask me this! I felt I was pointing out a criminal at the police station but without the reflective glass. It made me super uncomfortable. Not to mention the poor girl I narced on and probably was scolded by this jerk of a manger. The food was wonderful, but the manager was very strange and needs to go to a leadership seminar. We’ll probably avoid the Westerville location and go back to...

No stars!! Absolutely dissatisfied with my experience here. My boyfriend and I went in on Tuesday for “taco Tuesday” a little before 2pm. WE ARE A BIRACIAL COUPLE!! It wasn’t very busy. There were three other tables in there not including us, and everyone else in the restaurant was CAUCASIAN. We were given drinks and chips when we sat down. I could be wrong but I definitely felt that our server had an attitude with us. We needed straws and I needed a refill on my water. We sat for 20-30 minutes waiting for her to come back to us, which she never did. She proceeded to link arms with another server and dance in the dining area while we were still waiting. A table had come in right after us and had already gotten their food before we had even placed our actual orders. A male server went around with a pitcher of water and filled waters for the table in front of us and the table behind us, but completely avoided us. He even made eye contact with me and proceeded to walk past us. Once the table that arrived after us had gotten their food, my boyfriend had gotten angry and we left. I would have understood if they were busy, but they clearly were not. Especially with everything else going on right now, I find this completely...