El Barrio Cantina

Stopped here for a beer and some tacos. Well, when I saw pulpo on the menu- had to try it! It was so delicious- served with potatoes and a chimichuri sauce. The place was not busy at all for lunch - not sure about the dinner crowd. Will definitely return

First off just know that their website is a work in progress. Our server had to let us know after we were seated. He also let us know about 10 times through our meal that he was new and didn't really know anything about the menu.

They do NOT have an all day menu. They only offer a lunch happy hour menu until 5:30pm and then it's their dinner menu from 5:30pm on. The lunch happy hour offerings are minimal. We ordered tacos and cocktails as we planned to order from the dinner menu at 5:30pm. Worst tacos ever. Dry crumbly tortillas, dry meats, dehydrated nopales and no salsa on any of them. They also charge for chips and salsa. The salsa was super bland and had zero heat. Came to find out this salsa is served with everything on the menu.

We were tempted to just leave after the tacos, but decided to stay and try some of the items from the actual dinner menu. The birria ramen was actually just a mediocre ramen with "birria flavored" chashu. The carnitas chile verde was actually just two chunks of carnitas with a drizzle of green sauce over black beans.

Super disappointed with the entire experience especially after looking at the gallery photos on their website.

Do not recommend.

So I just recently went to El Barrio Cantina for a wonderful and special Yelp event. I enjoyed the food and the ambiance so much that I went the next day with my husband. I knew he would enjoy this place, and I was 100% correct! He’s already planning for our next visit, lol.

I enjoyed all of the food that I had during the Yelp event, so I decided to get pretty much everything that I had that night. I wanted to share my experience with my husband. We were able to make a same-day reservation for that night. The last time I came, parking was a bit of a headache. However, this time around, we were able to find parking right away in their tiny lot across the street. Whoo-hoo! My hubby was already happy. When we entered, we were greeted by the GM, Jennifer. She sat us right away in a nice cozy booth. Our waitress (so sorry, I forgot her name) was the only waitress working the floor because they were short-staffed. She gave us the heads up, and she still was quick, and we never had to wait around for her.

We started off ordering drinks and an appetizer, the Uno Mas , the La Chica Fresa, and the Taquitos de Papa . My hubby loved it all so far, his eyes just lit up. Haha.. Next, we ordered: Camarón Marinero (shrimp ceviche), El Peruano (Peruvian style ceviche with red snapper), and the Mexican Fried Hot Chicken. The Mexican hot fried chicken was a bit spicier than I remembered, but nonetheless, it was still excellent. Again, hubby was blown away! After we stuffed our faces, I had to get dessert! If you read some of my other restaurant reviews, I always have to get dessert after dinner. I order the Panna Cotta Flan. My husband actually wanted one for himself, we usually share, but he wanted his own, which was odd because he’s not really a dessert person. I asked him why, and he said since everything else was terrific, be believed, so will the flan. Trust me when I tell you that he was obsessed with that flan! He literally indulged in every single bite. I, too, really like the flan; it’s not like the traditional
flan. This one was more refreshing and light. Lastly, we ordered two more drinks, Flowers for Benny and J +J Paloma. Both were good!

We had a really lovely evening. My husband wants to come back, and he’s already told his friend that he wants to hang out here and said it’s going to be our new little spot. I look forward to exploring more of their menu. I stuck to what I had at the Yelp event, so I’m curious to see how the other dishes are. We might go back today! Haha…Thank you, El Barrio Cantina! I will see you very soon.

Seems like the veggie entrees are really good (cornbread French toasts, potato tacos and corn on the cob), the chicken plates are eeeh. I highly recommend these vegetarian plates. My margarita was really good. The flan was like a sponge.

We tried this place few days ago with group of friends. For Tapas, their sizes were bigger than expected. Lani was our server and he was amazing! We ordered spicy margarita which wasn't on the menu, but they made perfect glasses for us. Food was mostly really good. Squash pasta was fresh, soft, tasty, and Zucchini was super fresh. Cauliflower was really good. Chiviche was fresh and tasty. Small short rib was of very decent size. It was tender and soft. I didn't like the fact that the tortillas that came with the short rib were super oily. Fat from the meat would have done it and the condiments that came with it also had enough fat. Potato tacos were ok. They were deep fried which I didn't like, also potato filling was very less. We also didn't care for cream cheese empanadas, it was pretty bland. Chimichuri that came with empanadas was really good. I'm dairy sensitive so I only took a bite of it, but my husband had it all and he also experienced some discomfort in his tummy. Spicy chicken wings was not that great either. You can taste the hint of spice, but it was bland. We had more food and they were all great besides the ones mentioned here for my personal taste.
Overall experience was great.