Fuego Cantina

This restaurant is beautiful. Their outdoor seating is set around a cobble stone accented fire pit with spicy-yellow umbrellas to shade modernistic tables and chairs. The inside is dark, lush, and exotic without cramping or over-stuffing the atmosphere with tacky and assertive decor. If only things had stopped right there.

My co-worker and I went for lunch. As this was our first time here we needed a minute to review the menu. So we ordered chips and salsa to satiate ourselves during the confusing attempt to understand what style of cuisine this place was. Corn and crab nachos? Nathan's Hot Dog's? Philly Cheese Steak? A Cuban sandwich? Fish and Chips? Or classic fajitas? Is that "fusion" or something? Anyway, we winded up just eating the wonderfully salted chips since we could not figure out how to get the red, chunky water to stay on the crispy chip. We looked past this as most hopeless lunch rushers do when we see red flags.

Our server was super-duper nice and enthusiastically suggested the seasoned beef burrito. "They are super-huge and really good." Although her passionate description of her favorite menu item fluttered from her heart to our ears, we passed and opted instead for the foot long Cuban sandwich and the Santa Fe Wrap. I would tell you how it tasted but you see I gave the place one star. I wouldn't go back unless someone was buying me drinks or I would get a turn swinging the the wrecking ball into their condemned kitchen. Nine dollar hot dogs must be joke? Right?

Last thought:

Had I just been going to get a drink here with no expectation to order and eat Mexican food then this place's atmosphere and setting would easily generate three stars. They need to wake up the menu and the service.

If I could give a no star rating I would. I had dinner on my birthday a few weeks back and had a horrible dining experience at this restaurant. The waitress seated us and did not return to our table until thirty minutes later to take our drink order only. We actually told her that we were ready to order but she left anyways. The bizarre part is that it was a slow evening and she passed by our table about six times but refused to stop after we attempted to wave her over after the fourth time. I almost decided to leave after the initial lack of service but my boyfriend convinced me to stay. However, by the end of the two and a half hour period of delayed service and attitude from the waitress my boyfriend regretted convincing me to stay. I reported the young lady's lack of professionalism and poor service to the manager via phone the next day. Overall, I will never return to eat or drink at Fuego Cantina because of their horrible quality of customer service and courtesy.

Ruh roh, Fuego.

We went here at 4pm on a Saturday and as expected, it wasn't busy.  There looked to be only two other tables seated.  The young lady, who was very nice, came to our table within a few minutes to grab our drink order.  Here is where it went down hill... It was 25 minutes before she came back to take our food order.  I only know this because we had one hour to dine, so I was keeping up with the time.  Blerg.

Since things ran late, one of the members of our party had to leave without his food.  No biggie.  We just got it To-Go.  Sadly, we found out they got the order wrong when we finally delivered it to him.  Blerg.

If you're going to get more than one margarita, I suggest getting the pitcher.  The $7 house margarita comes in a very shallow, authentic looking glass.  I could seriously have taken the whole thing down in little more than one gulp.  Blerg.

Finally, they charge for salsa.  Whatever, that's not the end of the world.  It just seems that if you're paying $4 for a small thing of salsa, refills would be included.  They weren't.

Blerg.