Cascadas Mexican Restaurant

good margaritas, nice atmosphere if you like the artsy/inner city vibe of Beacon,Main street.
Bland food, edible but bland. The salsa was nice if a bit mild. The filling in my enchilada was lovely pulled chicken, but the chicken in the fajitas was positively horrid. Like a bad stir-fry horrid. odd.
waitstaff SLOW but nice.
def not 5 star, but not a tragedy either. Meh is a great way to describe it.

My girlfriend and I stopped in here after strolling down Main Street one evening not too long ago. I had just moved to Beacon, and we were trying to get a lay of the culinary land in town. After making a mental note of a few good looking places to visit in the future, we made up our minds to decide on a place to grab our first meal in Beacon. As we came up on Cascadas, I eyed up the quaint little front porch - al fresco Mexican and margaritas? Sign me up!

Upon entering, the first thing I was hit with was a sweltering wave of heat. This place was easily running into the mid to upper 80's inside, and it was a good twenty minutes before there was any hint of relief from the AC unit far above our heads. The interior of the restaurant is nothing to write home about - it basically feels like a big empty room with a bar thrown together on the side. The televisions had some Spanish programs playing on mute, which gave it that dive-y touch that initially had my interest piqued.

We ordered a couple margaritas to sip on while we looked over the menu, which turned out to be the best thing I'd have that night. Stiff and a little salty, but that's how I like them - my girlfriend, not so much. From what I remember, I ordered a Carne Asada meal, and she got their 'Mexican sandwich'. During the long wait that followed, we noticed a few things - for one, the waitresses were perhaps the least attentive I have ever encountered. Having worked in food service before, I can totally spot that 'walk quickly, look busy, look at no one' move. Believe me, this waitstaff are professionals at looking too busy to stop by your table. From what I recall, there's what, maybe a grand total of 6 or 7 tables in the place, split between two servers? We literally didn't have anyone stop by our table for at least a half hour after we ordered our meal. For such a small place, there's no excuse for that. Also, about an hour in we realized that we hadn't received the chips and salsa other tables that came in after us were receiving.

Not too long after this, our food finally came - and boy, was it a disappointment. The steak was completely unseasoned and cooked down to a gray, leathery mass. The side "salad" was a heap of iceburg lettuce with a few tomato slices. The rice and beans were your standard, microwaved or premade fare. My girlfriend's "Mexican" sandwich was something of the order that a drunk college freshman would throw together after raiding the cupboard at a house party. Same leathery steak, mayonnaise, bland cheese that probably came pre-shredded in a bag, and some lettuce all thrown on a lopsided, stale roll. We ate what we could bear to before quickly flagging down a waitress for our check, which took another ten minutes to finally come.

You've got a waitstaff and chef that seemingly can't handle such a small number of tables, much less cook anything worth eating. My advice is to not waste your time - even the bar patrons were feeling the pain waiting for drinks and simple appetizers as I overheard, "How long does it take to make freakin' guacamole?" Pretty sad. That said, we won't be going back.

Margaritas are pretty good, free chips and salsa, friendly staff and you can sit on Main St and watch the world around you. All good things in my book.