The Cantina

Good food. Great atmosphere. Sit on the deck for a great experience. they have a pretty wide variety of food, I am not a Mexican food fan, but there's always something for me to eat.The atmosphere outside is awesome, the service is friendly and fairly fast.I have lived in Estrella for seven years and I've eaten there at least 25 times. You will love it.

Decided to try Cantina for dinner last night and I have to say the overall experience was extremely underwhelming and lacked the polish I expected from its location. I called to place a to go order and the first thing the female employee told me was that they are closing soon. Her tone felt put out to have to take my order. It was 40 minutes to closing time and i was already on my way there, I didn't anticipate a problem ordering. When she started to take my order I had to stop because of the high pitch noise coming from her end of the phone. I ask what the noise was and she giggled and said they are vacuuming right by her and that they were almost done. Eventually they shut off the vacuum and i was able to order. It felt as if the server was occupied elsewhere as there were many times that she would pause and not respond to something that I ordered and I would have to say, "are you there?" and then eventually get a response. Nonetheless, I finished my order she repeated it correctly and we hung up. Upon arriving at the restaurant it was totally different than what I imagined. It feels like a fast casual restaurant where I should order up at the register and pick my own table. The black holders on the table lack elevation and were a big eye sore I couldn't stop looking at. When I walked in there was at least 4 employees in the front of house. They were chatting and casually doing side work. Not one of them welcomed me in or acknowledged me. I walked up to the register and the server there had my boxes of food and still without greeting me opens the boxes and showed me the food. It looked good and she packaged it up. There were no chips and salsa so I ask for those and happily packaged up a really nice size portion and bagged it up for me. It's important to highlight the lack of service in the restaurant. The servers seemed more into their own conversations than helping the guest. The bar and front register area were a wreck, and overall just didn't feel inviting. Then there was the part that was alarming from a health standard. At least three of the servers were chewing gum, let me rephrase that, chomping on gum- opened mouth and totally unacceptable for a restaurant staff member. I also in my short time in the restaurant observe two servers grab plates going out to customers with their thumb in the dish. It made me question the sanitary condition of my food. The only thing that put me at ease with that was that from where I was at I could see into the kitchen and the guys working in there seemed to have a good handle on the food they were working with seemed to be working well together. Not once did I feel the presence of any front of house leadership, and the lack of customer engagement showed that. I ordered the cheese enchiladas for my Dad which he really liked. I ordered them without the black beans and corn inside because he wanted traditional cheese enchiladas and those are a bit too Texmex for him. I had the chicken and steak combo fajitas. The chicken and veggies were good. The steak was cut really large, was tough and after trying two pieces I pushed the remaining off to the side and didnt eat. The rice and beans were good and it came with plenty flour tortillas. I don't think it's a total loss cause, but I think that the leadership in the restaurant need to urgently work on Elevating the areas mentioned and probably need to spend more time on the floor demonstrating and coaching to a hyper focused guest experience that hits all areas of the restaurant. I'd be open to trying it out again and might even try dining in, I just hope that there would be noticeable changes in the overall environment in the restaurant during that visit.

Our server was great, the actual food service was slow. The food was ok. I got the taco plate and did 3 different meats-asada, pollo, and barria. The rice had a funky flavor. Cute little place, but better Mexican options out there-just nothing in that area.

Love the food here and is close to home. Great addition to Estrella Mountain community

Food was good, but they screwed up on the orders several times. However, when they screwed up, they gave us the meal and drink for free!!! Bonus!!!

A Nice and Relaxing DinnerLast night we had dinner at The Cantina for the first time and the food and service was very good. On this visit my sister, friends and I shared the fish tacos, carne asada burrito, beans, rice, and chips & salsa. The chips and salsa were served fresh and hot. The chips were light and crispy and the salsa was full of amazing flavor, the perfect strat to a great dining expeirence. The food at Cantina is just delicious. The Fish Tacos were served are Flour Tortillas, Beer Battered Cod, Cabbage, Cotija, Pico, Chipotle Crema and they were were flavorful and delicious. My sister had the Carne Asada Burro Classico, and she said it was packed with Pinto Beans, Pico de Gallo served with rice and beans. She said everything was good to the last bite.The service, food, atmosphere are simply amazing, stop by forva great dining exoeirence.

I loved the homemade salsa & chips, and they have the best Elote (grilled street corn)! Other favorites are; Shrimp or fish tacos, chicken enchiladas, beans, and the guacamole. Nice place to go for drinks on the patio. Also very friendly staff!

Service is terrible food just ok. Hours of operation sporadic. Woulld do zero if possible

We had a really great experience here. The ambiance is very inviting and cozy! We tried so many different dishes on the menu and I have to say that the fish tacos were sooooooooooo good!!! The Birria tacos were extremely flavorful as well and so delicious!!! I got the steak fajitas and it's crazy to say but I'm happy they use THICK CUTS of steak! It's actually steak. Now, for dessert we tried all 4 desserts!They were ALL AMAZING! The churro waffles were so crispy and warm with melted gelato on top! The lemon cake was so bright and airy we enjoyed it so much! The creme brûlée was delicious with a hint of cinnamon, my only critique is that it was cold and not warm.The tres leches cheesecake cake was part cheesecake and part fluffy cake! Soooooo good! Honestly everything we had was so enjoyable. The only mishap in our experience and service was that the ceviche tasted like water and had NO FLAVOR. Also, our server was really great just a bit distracted and we had to keep asking for water refills.Such a great place to eat!

The food is awesome! A little disappointed that a refill of chips and salsa was an additional charge. The service was slow, but it was a Saturday evening. The margaritas are decent, tasty and very refreshing! I probably would have ordered another drink if I had chips to munch on until our food came. We ordered the trio fajitas! They are so "delicious"and there was enough for two people! However the rice and beans were portions for children. We just ordered extra. Ok this was out of their control, but let your guest know that you will be fighting off flies if you eat outside!It was really bad. We saw several people leave before being served.Overall it's a charming place and so close, you can't beat that!!Please go if you haven't already been...sit inside for your first experience!!!