On the Border

I’ve been here a few times over the years and quite honestly, I wasn’t impressed with the food. Recently, I decided to go back because I was looking for a decent happy hour that wasn’t too far from home.
Drinks are fairly priced and majority of the apps are half off during Happy Hour. As of now my favorite drink is the Watermelon Margarita! I’ve had it a few times and it has been consistently good. They have a really good bartender here! Definitely worth going for the drinks. Needless to say I’ve tried a few other cocktails here and they are good too. No bad drink yet!
Now for the food; the problem here is inconsistency. Sometimes you’ll get a good dish and other times you may not.
— The Texas Wings remind me of the «wing dings» or whatever you call them that you get from the hot bar at Giant.
— Guacamole is missing something. I’ve tried adding lime, salt, cilantro and nothing spiced it up. Maybe it’s the type of avocado’s they use but I am not a fan.
— My favorite so far is the Brisket Quesadillas! It has shredded beef brisket, sautéed onions, pickled jalapeños and mixed cheeses — sour cream, pico de gallo, guacamole and jalapeño-​BBQ sauce.
Customer service can be a little iffy at times. When you walk in — you are usually standing at the front for a few minutes waiting for the hostess to come greet you. I’ve yet to see it crowded so getting a table has never been a problem. I’ve had waiters and waitresses that were very attentive and ones that were just «there».
I usually sit on the patio and enjoy the weather and a nice drink but from the looks of things you may have quicker and more personable service at the bar with the bartender.

The food was ok. The service sucked and the restaurant was dirty. The poor bartender was slammed and the lazy manager couldn’t have cared less… walking around with his sunglasses hanging from the front of his shirt. Very disappointing.

Food was good restaurant is clean staff is nice but they can’t handle holiday specials like Cinco de Mayo it was too busy for them the wait was extra long the restaurant was overcrowded even with the tent outside the best time to go is for regular happy hour or just dinner

The hostess sucked, but how waiter was awesome. They definitely keep the chips and salsa going! So much that you are basically full by the time you get your food. The food was delicious. I had the ultimate fajita. Everything was seasoned well and overall delicious. I would definitely come back!!!

I love on the border but it’s clear that all locations are not the same. I’ve visited the OTB at the Bowie location 3x. Each and every time I’ve been extremely disappointed. The menus are always dirty! The salsa seems watered down, and it just looks grimy and dirty. Especially in the bar area. The happy hour menu isn’t the same either As other locations. The food just isn’t good there or the drinks. The empanadas are either burnt or not cooked enough. The drinks are usually watery. I will not be back at this location. The one in Columbia, md. never fails.

Service was pretty great! The server knew what he was doing and got our food as fast as possible!
The only complaint I had was when I was trying to get the server attention for refills he was no where to be found. Other then that everything was good.

Worst experience at a restaurant. This place can’t get their stuff together. We were sat at a table very quickly; that’s the only positive thing I can say. After that we sat several minutes waiting to be greeted before I checked the time. After another 10 minutes, my husband stood up to ask the hostess if we had a waiter when someone finally stopped by with chips and salsa and said they would get our waiter. Another several minutes later and the hostess returns to take our drink and meal order. Finally after about 20 minutes we had drinks and never saw the hostess again. About 40 minutes in our waiter finally shows up with the wrong appetizer. He says he will fix it, 45 minutes in our meals come (someone else delivered it) and then at 50 minutes in our corrected appetizer comes out. That was it. That was the last time we saw someone there. Our waiter stopped by our table twice in total and we didn’t even know who he was until we had been sitting at our table for 40 minutes. He never checked back in and neither did anyone else. After all that time in the restaurant, we checked ourselves out on the table top device and that was it.
As someone who used to wait tables, I try to be understanding of confusion or miscommunication but this was just unacceptable. Is the food there good? Sure. The service however is unbelievably bad and no amount of good food can make up for that.
*Note– all listed times were from when I started checking the time, not from when we arrived.
**Edited to add: Check your receipts before you leave. We didn’t check closely enough (we just wanted to get out of there) and realized later that the way our waiter «corrected» our appetizer was just to add another to the check and he never took off the wrong order, so we were charged twice. Such a disappointing experience.**

Not going good at all :(waiting waiting waiting.
The atmosphere here was just right for the time of day (6pm) happy hour was going but it wasnt too rowdy .
Staff were iffy in my opinion. We had a party of 8 and you would have thought it was 20. We asked repeatedly for silver from the time we came in to when we ordered apps –ordered drinks –then apps came and unfortunately a member of the party had to get up ON HER BIRTHDAY AND GO GET THE SILVERWARE HER SELF FROM THE FRONT ! Again once we got dinner had to ask again and I saw several staff flying around looking for silverware after food arrived at the table. This is such an inconvenience and not fair to paying patrons. Out waitress seemed apologetic and tried to stay in the loop to keep us happy she even placed cupcakes we had in the back kitchen to stay cool so that was a plus.
Apps were pretty good wings were good just like I remembered on a prior visit (not this location.) we got the «live guac» which was anything but live. The guy wasn’t engaging at all ! I know its not a magic show but several people at other tables asked what he was doing and was he making you would think he would market his self more and explain the process geeshh!
Food was … Not up to par. First one members food randomly comes out and about ⁶⁄₇ mins later more food makes its way to the table … But only halfway. Wraps were missing, beans were missing, no sour cream /​cheese uuggh can we eat! The fish tacos are great and thats about all. My chicken and shrimp fajitas seemed like they could have been cooked more and seasoned. Fajitas had not flavor at all. Everyone was hungry so the portion size came in handy as they give you quite a bit .
Drinks tasted like it just had only margarita flavoring barely any alcohol and we had the regular not the happy hour specials .
Overall not a place I would come for good authentic Mexican food. I would stop again for happy hour maybe just to grab a app and juice I mean drink ! The fact it wasn’t crowded and we had to continually wait for everything was a turn off.

One of my favorite places since it opened. The menu is broad but not overwhelming. The food is really good and portions are perfect. This is one of the best chain restaurant s in the US.
I love the bar for business meetings, Jason is the best for customer service, the environment is great for business meetings.
I always come back!

We are here on a regular basis. There are two parts that are amazing:
1) Service Level — We kept going here because of the great service we get in the bar area.
2) Drinks — Not many places make brilliant drinks, but this places does.
All in all, it is a fun place to go on a regular basis and grab a drink + some food.

We are disappointed at the lack of customer service of the Hostess. She greeted no one. She kept walking around the restaurant asking about tables when there were clearly tables she could’ve used for waiting guests. She kept standing at the hostess desk with her elbow on the podium, covering her face, turned away from the door. I realize that if a business is still making money they are not likely to change things but lack of a welcoming feeling will eventually cause business to suffer. Young people these days need training in customer service.

It gets the fourth star for outstanding service!
We had eaten here in the past and been very unimpressed with the food and ambience. My wife kept a torch burning for them for whatever reason, though, and we both went tonight on one of her cravings.
I’m happy to report that the food is much improved, and the service was great. The hostess was absent when we showed up, but after a few seconds of waiting, the manager came over and seated us.
The food was much better than I remembered, and the portions were quite sizeable. I’m sure many would argue about how ‘authentic’ it is, and they’d probably be right. I was interested in some simple Americanized Tex-​Mex, though, which they delivered.
Tracy, our server, was outstanding! She was very friendly, polite, smiled a lot, and genuinely seemed to be concerned about our experience. She was very attentive, and my beverage was never empty. It she isn’t training others there on how to be an amazing server, then she should be.
Overall, a very pleasant experience, and one worth repeating. The food was good, very flavorful, and the service was spot on.

We visited on a Sunday afternoon, at about 2:00. We should have left when one couple was already waiting and there was no one at hostess stand. We waited about 19 minutes for someone to greet us and were seated a few minutes later.
Everything was painfully slow. They were out of fish for the tacos. We got chips and guacamole and queso. It was good. Meal was another long wait, as were drink refills. We had both finished eating, and took turns visiting restroom, and still were sitting with dirty dishes and no check.
I pushed the call button on the little machine they have at the table. The waitress finally came and said «oh are you done?»
«Yes, check please.“She went to another table to take a large order. We couldn’t wait anymore. We were able to see how much our meal was on the machine and left her cash and tip on the table, telling her it was there and that we could not wait anymore.
Never again. A subpar lunch took more than an hour.

Came here with 5 friends, ⁴⁄₅ of us thought the food was just a step above high school cafeteria food. High prices for subpar food, slow food service, and standard ambience. Would not recommend.

This is my second time at this restaurant. It is a decent spot with average prices. Has a good variety in its menu. The atmosphere was relaxing and calm. I will waitress was very nice and helpful. Definitely definitely attentive and was able to give good advice on menu options. The food was OK nothing to scream about but good enough to eat. We had empanadas and fish tacos.

The guacamole being made ‘live’ is so cool, but after a few times of watching you just think to yourself «quit the song/​dance and give me my food»
Overall a cool place for drinks or very basic ‘mexican’ food.
The food — nothing special, remember to add salt and some spice
The drinks — good and cheap
Will go for special events, but if you want better food drive to the Mexican place next to Texas Roadhouse (forget name of it)

Stopped in here twice with my class for lunch.
Atmosphere: the exterior was very clean and presentable. You cannot mistake the theme of the food served here. The parking lot is large and just a little strange to enter (as it is off the side road and not the primary road). The interior was very clean and the dining areas are split into several different sized «rooms» which help reduce noise levels. The entire theme of the restaurant is Central/​South America which makes for a fun environment without getting too tacky.
Staff: we have been greeted and seated promptly. The wait staff has been very polite and professional, as well as personable. I’ve had one great waitress and one good waiter (hence the drop in stars). The second visit did not have as many check ins from the waiter as the first visit. However, they were both very good. I was really impressed that the manager came over and thanked me for bringing in groups both days and even comped my meal for that day as a thank you. That’s better than many rewards programs and let’s me know they appreciate my business.
Food: I’ve ordered two different meals and enjoyed both of them: chimichanga and a special. They were both outstanding. The students (some of them who had never been before) all enjoyed their meals.
Overall, outstanding restaurant with great food and staff. I will definitely bring my students here again.

This was my first time at an On the Border restaurant. For a Friday night, it wasn’t too busy. We were actually seated right away. The waiter greeted us right away and the service was great. Chips and salsa were yummy! The main courses were subpar. I ordered a chicken salad, which was just ok. My husband ordered plain, baked chicken wings. The wings were itty bitty and were obviously deep fried. He also ordered a plate of meat empanadas, which weren’t special. We would come back here but prefer Mi Casita in Gambrills over this place.

I use to frequent this On the Border pretty regularly back in the day, but I’ve found some truly authentic Mexican restaurants to visit regularly, so I kind of put them down. I came in one Saturday afternoon on the solo tip to see if I’d been missing anything. I was seated right away and looked over the menu for any new entrees. My server took a little longer than normal to come to the table, but he was pretty friendly, nothing over the top. He brought the salsa and chips to the table and I remembered why I came to this place so often. The chips are warm with just enough salt and the salsa had just enough spice. They compliment each other well.
I ordered the Enchiladas Suiza with re-​fried beans and rice. I also ordered a frozen margarita with sangria swirl. It was so nice, I had to order it twice! Good Stuff!!! The food was good, but not as good as I’m used too from other restaurants I’ve visited recently. Nothing that I ate really impressed me. It’s somewhere nearby that I can get my Mexican food fix, but it’s not my favorite.
The happy hour prices are very reasonable and the restaurant is pretty lively. The drinks that I’ve tried are really good and come with a good amount of alcohol in them. Pretty okay spot for an after work meet-​up.

I guess I’ve had Mexican food in Texas, New Mexico and California; so if you’re going to be a standard chain Mexican restaurant, then I’m not going to be impressed. Service was friendly, fast and nice though.