Juanita's Mexican Restaurant

I don't know which restaurant the rest of the reviewers ate at. Friends recommended we try Juanita's when we came for First Monday.  The chips were crispy and the salsa was tasty with just the right amount of heat. It's definitely Tex-Mex, but this IS Texas.

I had the Juanita's Combo which had a taco, cheese enchilada, guacamole salad and one of the best tamales I've ever eaten. We asked for flour tortillas and honey. No soggy tortillas for us. They were dense and delicious. Our waitress admitted she was new but she was attentive and friendly.

I'm pretty picky about Mexican food, living in San Antonio and was skeptical about Juanita's, but I was pleasantly surprised.

This restaurant is really something I tell ya. Don't get me wrong its not terrible, its just you can find much better else where.

Employees seem like their always half-assing everything, including making the food. The quality of food here is mediocre, only upside I could honestly find is the free self-serve ice cream..... which is sometimes really icy.

Not recommended but you could give it a try.

The only visit to Juanita's was Saturday Dec 4th. I was in Canton as the First Monday Trade Days. These sale dates before Christmas draws thousands of shoppers and hundreds of vendors. Area merchants and restaurants have a captive clientele for a few hours and all put their best foot forward.

Well, maybe not 100%, there is Juanita's...

Driving to Juanita's requires driving West on the South service road of I-20. It's perfectly OK to do so, most all traffic is in the opposite lane having just exited. It is a little unnerving and I always wonder how many drivers are surprised with 2-way traffic on a busy service road...and how that surprise might have come to them.  

Inside the hostess arrived quickly and showed us to a booth. On the way we passed a tortilla cooking booth, the dough was being rolled and finished product was coming out the machine.

As soon as the drink order was taken I requested flour tortillas. Imagine my surprise to find soggy tortillas! Sitting no more than 30 feet from the cooking area!  The sub-par tortillas became worse when the butter supplied was some sort of yellow colored oil poured up in a generic squeeze bottle.

I ordered the Combo Plate, which was a Taco, Cheese Enchilada, and Beef Burrito along with rice and beans. The Taco & Burrito were filled with the poorest ground beef that I've ever encountered. There was something completely wrong about the texture of the meat and the flavor...well bland and strange. That meat had to be an item that was processed and delivered frozen... Or the meat might ave been cooked some days before it was served. Whichever, the result is poor, poor, poor.

To that add the cheese enchilada. The imitation cheese inside still in solid form. Over the Enchilada and Burrito was poured imitation cheese sauce. Think canned. I was charged an additional 99 cents for Jalapenos, luckily salt was complimentary.

To her credit the server tried. Lack of training was obvious. Refill glasses came fairly regularly, the empty ones never removed. Nor were plates or other pieces. When the tab came it was placed atop the Tortilla container and we were left with a table of dishes and a bad taste in our mouth...for more than one reason.

My choice next time in Canton...Dairy Queen just down the way.