Jalisco Cantina — Restaurant in Whitefish

We had a very disappointing experience. Short story: It took over 3 hours to get our food. We were overcharged. The entrees we received were not as described in the menu. I would not recommend it. Whitefish has far better offerings, such as Pescado Blanco.

Full story: My wife and I came to Whitefish specifically to try this new restaurant. With 4 young kids, arranging babysitting for a night like this is difficult. But we made it happen. Upon arrival at 6:30P.M., the hostess informed us that they would not be taking any guests for dinner because the owner was having a private party for 40 friends. She told us that if we were willing to wait, we could come back at 8:30 and be seated. Since that was our plan for the evening, we walked around and waited for two hours. We came back and the hostess recognized us right away, seated us and took our orders for iced tea. After about 20 minutes we were informed that the kitchen was still dealing with the other group and we would have to wait to put in our order. They offered us chips and salsa while we waited to be able to make an order, which we accepted. Having waited this long, we were invested in our attempt to eat here. After a few more stops with our waitress telling us they still weren't ready for an order, we finally got to make our order at 9:20 P.M. Our food FINALLY arrived at 9:45 P.M. That's an hour and 15 minutes after they seated us—after the two hour wait we already made.

Now for the food. I tried to order enchiladas, but the waitress informed me they don't serve enchiladas—even though I was pointing at on their menu. We opted for carnitas instead, at her suggestion. We also ordered the chile relleno, which was described as being stuffed with chorizo and potato. When our food arrived, we were so disappointed. The carnitas entree was just 4 small tortillas—smaller than the palm of my hand. No sides, no beans, no rice, nothing at all. They were tasty, but hardly an entree portion. And the chile relleno was the big disappointment. It was STUFFED with potato, but there was no chorizo. And there was hardly any cheese either. I asked the waitress about the chorizo and she said, "It's just all mixed together with the potato." I'm telling you, if there was chorizo in mixed in, you'd need a magnifying glass to find it. Or, as I suspect, it just wasn't in there and she didn't want to deal with it. Their chile relleno is basically a pepper stuffed with potato.

We tried to stay pleasant for the entire experience and still leave our waitress a good tip. But as the night went on and we were just waiting, we felt that the attention and kindness of the waitstaff started to go down as well. We obviously were not as a high a priority as the big party by the owner or those who were ordering large amounts of alcohol.

When it was all said and done, they not only charged us for our chips and salsa which they offered us when we were waiting and waiting and waiting to even have a chance to put in our order, but they charged us more than the price listed in the menu. Is it a big deal? No. But there was really almost nothing that they did well tonight.

If there were any positive elements, the hostess was very friendly and some of the waitstaff were as well. But that is to their own credit, not to the restaurant. The decor was also very nice. But the wait was just exasperatingly long, the food was not as described, and they couldn't even throw in a free order of chips and salsa or an apology for it all. I would not recommend this place.

Whitefish has many other great restaurants. Pescado Blanco has tasty, artisan Mexican food, and others like Mambo Italiano and Whitefish Lake Restaurant are very...

HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU GO SEOMWEHERE ELSE FOR LUNCH. As we get here let me start by saying the atmosphere is very nice. The building and set up is beautiful. The only reason I rated 4 and not 5 star for atmosphere is because of the lack of places to sit and waitbin the shade. I would recommend adding benches to the left side of the entrance where it is shaded in the afternoon. It would even look great and keep with the very nice natural wood theme inside. The lunch menu was HIGHLY disappointing and BASIC. Basic salads, only 2 entres to choose from and 4 different taco options. That's it. You have to pay $6.50 for chips and salsa which REALLY should be called Pita chips and bland tomato soup. Unquestionably the worst chips and salsa I have ever had in my life and would have been mentioned even if it had been free. If you have sensitive or weak teeth don't even try to eat the chips. Service was HORRIBLE. If it was not for my group having invested so much time getting to this point with hungry children we would have gotten up and walked out. We waited over 30 minutes for our drinks we ordered and when we asked our waitress (due to us noticing tables sat 15 minutes after us had received theirs) we were given attitude and told that there is only one bartender in the half empty restaurant of which we were the only table who did not have drinks. I feel it is important to note that the restaurant was more than half empty and 90% of the drinks on the other tables were beer and wine. As a former bartender in busy restaurants (and the only person behind the bar) This was insulting and a joke. As we sat there having our moods downed and patience run out by our red headed server that CLEARLY did not care because she was receiving auto gratuity. I have been writing this with all of my spare time being BEYOND ANNOYED. Maybe dinner is better, certainly couldn't be worse. It seems the building and decor got all of the thought and consideration and the menu and function of the restaurant was left at the wayside. Again, BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL environment with fresh open air carrying into the restaurant and really nothing but a let down after that. It really is a shame and a massive letdown. This review would definitely be a one star experience if it was not such a beautiful indoor/outdoor environment. Everyone in our party was astonished as to how rude and curt the "server" was and was mentioned by all in the...

I hate to not give this spot five stars, but our visit just didn't live up to the hype! After multiple attempts to dine here in 2021 with no luck, we made this our first stop in Whitefish in 2022. We arrived early and we were seated right away. The ambiance is really perfect. I love the decor and bright dining room. We were promptly greeted by Mitch, who was very personable - asked our names and quizzed us on his (took us a little off guard...but different personalities...). We ordered a round of drinks and apps. The apps came out quickly, but drinks took much longer. We understand restaurants are understaffed and didn't think much about it; however, the service seemed to decline after that. Once our drinks were finished, we had to look for Mitch to order round 2, and it was another 15-20 min turnaround time before they arrived.

Moving on to the food - we ordered several items - tacos, enchiladas, the steak (bisteca), chile relleno and pozole. My friend spoke very highly of the pozole, my husband enjoyed the tacos, and my friend's husband enjoyed the steak but mentioned the chimichurri sauce was supa spicy (it was delish - I love spicy). My enchiladas were okay - I didn't love the sauce, sadly, and there was a lot of it. We were slightly disappointed that there were no cheese dip options on the appetizer menu, but that's probably our cheap Mexican food addiction showing.

Overall, I'd give Jalisco another try when in Whitefish. I'd order the tacos and tell my server to keep the margs coming (they were very good). This could have been an off night - it seemed like Mitch was getting increasingly busy as our dinner progressed, and we understand it can be...