Cinco Mexican Cantina

I really liked the ambiance of the restaurant and I had the nachos. Next time I’ll try something else

Decent restaurant, but nothing stands out here for me — granted, we did grab dinner at 9:30pm, so I may just have been tired.
The spicy salsa that accompanies the chips they bring out for the table is tasty. I wanted to order the mussels app as my meal, but they were out… so I went with the chicken fajitas instead. The chicken was too dry, and the server never brought out the flour tortillas that were supposed to go with the dish.
Solid «meh» for this place. I may go back. I may not.

Cinco is a modern Mexican restaurant with four locations in the Atlanta metro. This review is for the Cumberland outpost, the company’s only (barely) ITP location, found in the sprawling Akers Mill Shopping Center at the corner of Cobb Parkway (Highway 41) and Akers Mill Rd. Cinco is one of the few businesses on the property to actually be located in its own standalone building.
The restaurant is big and spacious. The building has two levels, a large bar, multiple dining rooms, and a nice patio. The interior is simple and contemporary. It looks like this place can handle large groups and private parties with ease. Reservations are available on OpenTable, so book online and earn free dining points.
I’d passed on Cinco for years thinking it was just another Americanized Mexican chain. Unilocal’s three-​star average rating (at the time of writing this review) didn’t help either. Well, the first part is still partially true. However, I came here with a coworker for lunch and enjoyed my meal. Service was good too.
At lunchtime, the restaurant was quite busy. Cinco has everything on the menu you’d expect: tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, quesadillas, soups, salads, even flatbreads and sandwiches. There are several different varieties of each. I ended up trying the fish tacos ($ 10.99) and chicken quesadilla ($ 9.50). In a nutshell, the food was simple, but good.
There are at least seven different tacos you can order. The fish tacos come three to an order. The fish is tilapia and you can have it grilled, fried, or both. I tried both and can’t say I prefer one cooking preparation over the other. They were equally tasty. The tacos are made with flour tortillas, a «tropical» slaw, and poblano mayo.
The tortillas were soft and the ingredients were fresh, flavorful, and in the right proportions. I really enjoyed the poblano mayo. The fried fish had a thick, dark golden brown batter. This batter is thicker than I’m used to seeing on fried fish taco fillets. The batter had some flavor to it and it actually reminded me of the crispy fried chicken batter from a fast food chain like KFC or Popeye’s. The grilled fish was nicely cooked and had a little pleasant spice/​seasoning of its own.
The tacos were served with Mexican/​Spanish rice and black beans, which were A-​OK. You can substitute charro (cowboy) or refried beans instead of black beans. The beans are topped with a bit of melted cheese.
The chicken quesadilla was tasty. It’s made with the same flour tortilla as the taco and filled with grilled chicken, cheese, grilled onions, and bell peppers. Sour cream and pico de gallo are served on the side. The cheese was the highlight of the quesadilla. There was lots of it and it was melty and delicious. The chicken wasn’t bad either. Tender and savory. If you like quesadillas, you probably won’t be disappointed with Cinco’s version.
While the food looked formulaic/​generic/​chain-​like, ultimately it was tasty, which is what matters most.
Kate was our server and she did a good job. She was polite and efficient. Most impressive was how fast the food came out from the kitchen. This restaurant is adequately prepared to handle a peak lunchtime work crowd. Kudos to them for that.
I had a good experience at Cinco and would return. It seems like a worthy option for a meal, snack, or drinks before or after an event at the nearby Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

We used to love to come here for their awesome margaritas, food, ambiance etc, but we have noticed how much this place is coming down, we do not know if is management change or what? margaritas machine always have issues and also in particular on the «specials «day, we have noticed this for a while? Mexican restaurantes with no working margaritas machines is not a Mexican restaurant.

Cinco is hard to review. Some aspects of this place are great, but other considerations are pretty bad.
The good:
–TWO awesome patios. The rooftop patio is probably the best in Cobb county.
–Really good drink specials.
–Convenient location and parking.
–The entrees are good, but don’t expect authentic Mexican or even traditional Tex-​Mex.
The bad:
–Worst appetizers ever. Terrible nachos and the most pathetic order of queso I’ve ever seen.
–Prices are a little high on some items.
–I tried to pee in a bush behind the restaurant one drunk night and stepped in a mud puddle.
As a happy hour location, Cinco is a 5-​star home run. It has everything you need — kick ass patio (heated in the winter), cheap drink specials (e.g. $ 3 margaritas), and free chips & salsa. As a restaurant alone, it mostly falls in the mediocre 3-​star category.
Your opinion on Cinco will probably just depend on what you’re looking for.

Not good! Service was horrible.
Had appetizers and drinks and dessert.
The food was ok but dessert sucked and they had to take the one recommended by the server back.

I hate to be negative but I’m placing bets that this place will not last long. We came with a goup of 20+ (I believe) for a coworker’s going away dinner. The 2 waitress did the best that can be… I try to be understanding since it was a pretty large group. The food is a big disappointment, not that tasty or fresh.
However, one of the waitress forgot my appeitizer and I got it after my meal. Disappointment and I should had listen to my bf to cancel the order.
I order the GRILLED shrimp taco… what I got was mircowaved shrimp tacos. My shrimps did not have grill marks at all or am I mistaken what grill is suppose to mean?
I wouldn’t come back here, food is too pricey for such a disappointment.

Eh this place was ok, just ok. Great outdoor ambience, loved the water mist with the fans on a hot day. I expected more from the food, the menu had limited options for s Tex-​Mex restaurant.

Let’s cut down to the chase on this one. I can’t say enough about the rooftop patio at Cinco. There’s not much to see besides the other retail stores in the same shopping center and other highrises in the area, but there’s something about rooftops where you can catch that breeze that you ordinarily wouldn’t in other patios. Rooftop is first come, first serve. They also have a TV at the bar if you want to catch a game you can’t really hear. There are also mist-​ers on the patio so even if it’s a really hot day, you’ll stay cool.
I can’t say much about the food since I only their complimentary chips/​salsa and we ordered guac to go with our drinks. They have Dos Equis specials on Saturdays. I had a passion fruit margarita and it was good but on the sweet side. Service was just ok but much appreciated how our server would check up on us for additional beers/​drinks. I think I’ll keep Cinco’s on my radar for future afternoon hangouts. I definitely liked it more than Noche’s outdoor seating.

Living in the area for a while, it was a matter of time before I made my way to Cinco. The humor in all of this is, my husband and I make fun of the name on a regular basis. We joke about opening called Five. Back to the review.
We went in on a Friday night, jonesin’ for Mexican food and we didn’t want to go too far ITP. The wait was short, but once we were seated, it was in an awkward area where you can hear the music outside on the roof but you can also hear the music inside where you were sitting (not the same music). It was very noisy and off putting. We didn’t want to be sat outside because we wanted to enjoy our meal and not have to yell across a table at each other.
When we did order, we got ourselves some margaritas. My husband got the basic margarita, and I did the Agava margarita. Both very strong and delicious. I then opted for the enchilada plate and my husband chose the fajitas.
My meal came and it didn’t necessarily blow me away. I’ve been to these gourmet/​American/​Mexican restaurants before, and I was just left wanting more out of the experience. My husband’s fajita plate yielded more food and they charged us $ 8 for guacamole with our chips.
If left with the decision to come here again, I would certainly come back for a happy hour for some drinks and appetizers.

I was craving some Mexican food so I stopped in for some take-​out. I ordered the chicken tacos with a side of guacamole. The chicken was super dry. I tried putting some of the salsa on to see if that would help. It didn’t.
The guac was flavorless so needless to say, I was super disappointed. I would skip this spot and go to Chipotle instead. You wont be disappointed and save some $$.

We got off to a real rocky start at Cinco’s. We had a party of 6 on a Saturday night and and called ahead and they said to come by and there would be no wait since we were already in the area. As soon as we got there they said there would be 45 minute wait and not offered any apology.
Once we got to our table things to did pick up in a more positive manner. The service was good. I ended up getting the Burrito Cinco and was very satisfied with it. The avacado tasted fantastic and at $ 10.99 it is a great value as well.

This is one of my friend’s favorite places to go or I wouldn’t have come back based on my previous experience here. I’m glad I gave it a second chance because my experience this time was so much better than before. I’ve yet to find a Mexican place I would recommend in this area, but hoping I’ll stumble across one soon!
This time, we sat at the inside bar and it was much less crowded. I think the rooftop bar experience is basically just for the atmosphere and you’ll have to plan on mediocre drinks and cold food just based on the fact that it’s too busy for them to keep up and they have to cart the food up from downstairs.
The service was still slow at the inside bar, but again, this seemed due to under staffing, and not due to the attentiveness of our bartender. Christopher, who waited on us, was fantastic, but seemed to be quite busy filling the server’s table drink requests, waiting on everyone sitting at the large bar, and trying to get the kitchen to give him the chips/​dip/​food, etc.
I did the swirl (margarita/​sangria) this time, and enjoyed it. Also packed quite a punch for the price tag! I drank two and was glad I wasn’t the driver. The chips come out warm and the salsa has grown on me too. Our food came out piping hot, and although it didn’t blow me away, and was certainly on the more bland/​Americanized side, everything was edible and tasty. We did chicken nachos and chicken fajitas. It was exactly as you’d expect, and I did try the rice again this time and it was good.
Anyhow, still would only go if my friend really wanted to, and would prefer to stick with just drinks but it’s not bad for the area.

In all honesty, this is used to be our EVERY FRIDAY night spot. My husband and I would come here every Friday night, sit at the bar, and Matt would serve us. When we came one day and Matt was gone (we were told by another regular patron he got fired?!?), we didn’t come back for over a year. Maybe it was the fact he was gone and we were bitter, but we didn’t think our drinks or food were good that night.
We gave Cinco another try this weekend with some friends before a show at Cobb Energy Centre. Our waiter was Paul, we sat in a booth in the bar area, and he was AWESOME! Kudos to Paul if any management reads this! He was extremely personable, our drinks were great, and my beloved Pollo Adobado was wonderful. Paul might have given us hope to start coming back more often. The only reason I can’t give 5 stars for our Friday night experience was because Matt is still gone. But, we’ll be back to see you soon, Paul!

I have stopped by a few times at Cinco’s to have dinner with coworkers and friends. This location is always busy when I dine here which is a good sign even though their spacious restaurant. There’s different dining rooms which I liked. There is a second level dining room that opens up to offer outdoor seating in warmer weather. On the first floor, there is a dining area with tons of booths, a bar/​kitchen in the center, and a covered patio dining area. For parking, I just park in the shopping center next to it because there’s almost never any parking spots in front of the restaurant.
FOOD:
— Chips & Salsa: chips & salsa are complimentary at all times. The salsa is very unique and different here. The salsa takes very tomato-​like with a hint of cracker pepper.
— Guacamole: I liked the Guacamole. It went great with the unlimited chips.
— Queso Americano: Also a great dip for sharing. Could not get enough of queso!
— Salmon Salad: I am a fan of this salad. I don’t think you can go wrong with this salad. The agave green chile vinaigrette that came with it is very good.
— Steak Quesadilla: very good and cheesy. This tastes great with the queso, salsa, and guacamole dips.
— Nachos Cinco: I thought these nachos were okay.
— Steak Tacos: the taco entrée comes with three tacos; two dips: salsa verde and salsa; Mexican rice; and refried beans.
— Pollo Adobao: I really liked this entrée. The two grilled chicken breasts are juicy and tender and it goes great with the red pepper sauce. Underneath the chicken breasts is the sweet corn risotto. The risotto was very good. The entrée was so plentiful that I had a bunch for lunch the next day and it all was still good.
— Carne Asada: the skirt steak was very good and it went well with the chorizo mashed potatoes (which I found very unique).
— The drinks are pretty good here. I liked the pomegranate margaritas.
Service is pretty good. One time I dined here for a friend’s birthday and they gifted the birthday girl with a tres leche cake with a lit candle which I thought was nice.
Overall, I will continue dining here as I would like to try more of their entrees. It makes a great spot for after work drinks with coworkers since the space is so large. They also have daily drink specialis.

Second time here and not nearly as impressed as the first. Our server was trying to get rid of us the moment we sat down saying it was about to rain. Well that was 3 hours ago and still not a drop. He forgot to give us silverware, the jalapeño we asked for with the cheese dip, the tortillas we asked for and our drinks came out almost the same time as our food.
Last time I liked the cheese dip, it was far too runny today. I did like it better with jalapeños once we finally got them.
Aztec margarita was a huge improvement over the house but also $ 8.75, pretty pricey considering bar taco has them fresh squeezed for $ 9 and so much better!
Doubt we will be coming back much if ever.

I have come here a couple times during the day for lunch.
Let’s start with the salsa. AMAZING! I have seen them making it before once and they were actually roasting the tomatoes on the grill. It tasted just like that… freshly roasted. It had a ton of flavor but didn’t have too much heat.
The chips were crispy and plentiful.
I ordered one of the combinations which came quickly and was good. Nothing specifically stood out about the food.
The waiters were attentive and helpful.
I didn’t have the margaritas as it was lunch, but I would love to go back and try them as I enjoyed everything else.

What was a cool place to grab some good, Mexican-​ish food has degraded into just another average scene frequented by large groups of loud and obnoxious revelers who are bent into converting this joint into a pasty safe-​haven for lost and bored parrotheads and corporate shills who are trying to relive their fraternity glory days.
But that’s not really why I’m docking two stars. I’m docking two stars because the prices are too high and the portions are too small. A friend of mine quipped, «Is the thing you ordered supposed to be haute cuisine?» Suffice it to say the grande burrito is mas pequeño. And why, for the love of Santa María de Guadalupe, is there corn in my beans? And why is my water glass empty for most of my meal?

We used to eat at Cinco’s all the time. The food was great and the restaurant has great ambiance. The menu is plentiful but not overwhelming and the food really is delicious, especially if you’re a Mexican fan like I am. My favorite thing about Cinco’s is their brunch on Sunday’s. It’s done buffet-​style and they always put out lots of delicious options – including all the usual brunch items (grits, eggs, bacon etc) but mixed in with Mexican dishes (Mexican rice, fajitas, beans etc) and my favorite, the phenomenal French toast and even prime rib – all for $ 15 a person I think. Where else can you get prime rib for that price?
The last time we visited for dinner, I thought the service could’ve been a bit more attentive but otherwise, the food and ambiance make this place a winner!

Cool space, nice rooftop seating and reasonable prices but other than that, no hurry to go back esp. after reading the other mediocre reviews. For my experience, food was ok and service while friendly was not so attentive (i.e., no water refills).
COMPLIMENTARY CHIPS & SALSA
Chips were the thin kind which I like but the chipotle salsa had a burnt flavor to it.
GUACAMOLE — $ 7.99
The guac was pretty good — avocado, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapenos … but not spicy at all.
CRISPY CHICKEN SALAD — $ 8.99
Salad was more like chicken fingers with a side of salad — there needed to be more salad. The three fried chicken fingers were nice and crispy and tasted just out of the fryer but a little on the salty side. Menu mentioned sliced avocado but they were MIA :(Salad had spring mix, cucumbers, tomatoes & bacon — the bacon was very good :) The cilantro-​chive dressing was just ok — tasted more like ranch.
Nice convenient lunch and happy hour option if you work near the Galleria/​Cumberland Mall area — also nearby the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

Great Carne Asada!