Latin Bistro

I thought the owners/​service was lacking and kinda rude. The brunch they do on the weekends is okay at best.
The thing that was unique about this place is the kitchen is right in the dinning room and you can take cooking classes here, which is kinda neat!
All the best and neat concept, but need to keep a closer eye on service and the freshness of the food out during brunch.

Guacomole, salsa, and a few items on their menus were delicious. We waited a long time for our food because they were understaffed, so chef Tito gave us complimentary guacomole. Lots of wine on their menu but most not in stock, however, the wines that were available paired with our dishes.

Last night we had the worst service of all my years of eating out! Got to the Latin Bistro @ 6:30. Thought we would be there in plenty of time to go to a 7:50 movie afterwards. We have ate there before knowing good & well that they are slow.
We made sure as soon as we arrived we knew exactly what we wanted-​two dinners of fish tacos, hot sauce & chips, a order of guac & 2 margaritas. I had a groupon for $ 25 I paid $ 13 for. We were brought chips & regular salsa… not hot! Then the guac & margaritas. 45 min’s later we received one order of fish tacos. Tito brought the one order of fish tacos only to find out we ordered two & told him we have been waiting there 45 min’s for our entrees.
He went back to get another order of fish tacos. Both filets of fish were under cooked due to them being so slow & inept to provide us a meal that takes no time to fix. Then he tried to blame it on the waitress that had just given her two week notice she was terminating her employment. He took off one of the fish taco dinners that led to us being screwed @ $ 7 of our groupon. Then he was talking & laughing w/​the other three tables of patrons instead of taking care of our discontent! It took another 10 min’s just to try the waitress how to figure out the bill w/​the groupon. I just wanted out of this so called restaurant! Not to mention we didn’t make the movie we were going to at 7:50.
I will never return to the Laten Bullstro again!!!

The food is so good here! Chef Tito is great! Food is made from scratch and the menu gives you so many good choices. You can watch the chef cook and he makes sure you enjoy your meal. It’s not in the best location but once you eat there you don’t care! The inside is nicely decorated. Not typical Mexican but gourmet !

First I just don’t understand some of the not so great reviews — –I have been half a dozen times and tried many dishes and while I have my favorite, the quality is simply head and shoulders about any of the other Mexican chains in the city.
And, I am a picky foodie, so while the service as been spotty at times, the food quality is excellent. I do wish they had fresh chips to go with that amazing fresh fresh salsa, but the salsa is so good it almost doesn’t matter. I have yet to find any restaurant that can match the hand made tortillas common in old towne San Diego — –Chef Tito are you up to a challenge?

This place is a pretentious rip-​off. I don’t understand even the semi-​positive reviews.
First, the décor. They seemed to have kept or taken décor from an old 80’s it Italian place. There are dusty, plastic ivy strands and cheesy paintings that have nothing to do with «authentic» Mexican cuisine.
The «cuisine». On our night out, we observed our waiter coming out of the back ripping open a plastic bag of «tasty, home-​made chips». My husband ordered a shredded pork dish… We watched the owner scoop out cold, who knows how old, shredded pork from a lexan pan and then make a huge show out of «cooking» it for us. Gross!
Why do you have a huge open kitchen only to show your guests how well you can warm up nasty food from the refrigerator? Taco Bell is across the street if I wanted that.
This is not a nice review, but there are so many other places in KC that are authentic, cheaper and made by hard working people who put love into their food. Is zero a rating?

HORRIBLE — AVOID, AVOID, AVOID. We waited 45 minutes and never had our order taken! We waited 10 minutes to get ONE menu to share between the two of us. Another 15 minutes to get our drink order, another 10 minutes to get our drinks and another 15 to have someone take our order — at this point we were so disgusted, we just told them to forget it. They still expected us to pay for our beer even after the horrible service. DH handed him a $ 5 bill and we fled as fast as we could, NEVER to return. We ended up at a new mexican restaurant on 1 – 69 and Englewood — Real Jalisco. It was amazing! Wonderful service, food, margaritas and overall fabulous experience. If you want good, authentic mexican food with personality — go to REAL JALISCO not Latin Bistro.

First and last time here. The food is mediocre at best. And one of us ordered a build your own burrito explicitly with NO cilantro (everything else we had was buried in it.). The waitress said that was fine. When the burrito arrived it was FULL of cilantro. He did not eat it and sent it back saying he did not want another. The chef came over and essentially said he was stupid for having ordered it that way. And we were still charged for the burrito! We will never return.

Run far, far away from this place!!! We have been regular customers for the past year, but now will never return again due to the unethical behavior of the owner, Chef Tito.
Over the past year, we have visited LB several times. When a Groupon recently appeared for the place, we purchased it without hesitation ($ 13 for $ 26 worth). There were only two items in the Fine Print. First, dine-​in only. Second, must purchase at least one food item. Sweetie and I each ordered an entrée and each ordered a cocktail. When it came time to pay, the waiter said that the Groupon didn’t include alcohol. We pointed out that the Groupon made no such specification in the Fine Print. The waiter then asked the owner, Chef Tito, within our hearing range (the restaurant is an open place) about the situation, and Chef Tito refused to honor the terms of the Groupon. This refusal was not only unethical, but it also broke federal law. (Inducing people to purchase something– in this case the Groupon– with a set of promises, and then refusing to honor any or all of those promises once the item has been purchased, is indeed illegal.)
Our entrees together didn’t cost $ 26, so we lost money on the Groupon. And we were forced to pay the entire cost of the cocktails because we couldn’t exactly walk out on the bill. (The police could have been fraudulently called on us if we had done so.) In addition, LB overcharged us significantly for those cocktails, which is another violation of law. (We didn’t notice the overcharge until we got home.)
The sheer idiocy of Chef Tito is almost incomprehensible. In swindling us out of less than $ 18 (in addition to the Groupon cost), he lost two regular customers. We never will return. And we will be sure to tell anyone who mentions the place the facts of what happened to us.
(In spite of this, we still tipped the waiter more than 15% in cash on the full, non-​Groupon cost of the meal, since he did a good job.)
(UPDATE: We contacted Groupon after all of this happened. Groupon replied that Chef Tito had violated the terms of the Groupon by refusing to allow the value of the Groupon to cover alcohol. Groupon further said that the only way alcohol can be excluded from the Groupon is if the Fine Print specifically says so. And, without our even asking, Groupon refunded us the price of the Groupon. We were impressed with Groupon’s handling of the matter. Five stars to them.)

This place is fabulous! The chef’s counter is in the restaurant like a kitchen at home. This isn’t typical Mexican at all. It really is gourmet food. Try the Sunday brunch. It is great with a large variety. Be prepared to eat too much.
Pat

Never really had a chance. We had a groupon, it was expired by one day. We went in to try anyway. I showed them the groupon and asked if it was ok to use it, with the understanding that it probably would not be. We hear the chef LOUDLY yelling about how they don’t know anything about the groupons, they don’t know where they came from, and they would not honor it.
After being treated like criminals, we figured the $ 5 we spent on the groupon was no big loss, and we left.
BTW — it was empty at lunchtime on a Saturday.

The atmosphere’s cosy and warm. It isn’t posh, but it’s nice. Great for dates and families. It could come across as odd to some, and while the décor has a «homemade» look to it, I think that’s part of the charm. For the price points, I don’t think the atmosphere is lacking. It’s definitely more decked out than other strip mall restaurants that are non-​chain.
We were given salsa in two variants, one mild and the other spicy, to go with the chips. Chips were normal, the salsa was good, especially the spicy one, which isn’t too spicy, but has enough of a zing.
The food’s great. My chicken breast enchiladas were very flavorful, not overcooked. It came with a generous serving of rice (savory indeed), with a side of broccoli. The whole dish was very well-​presented, not like what you see in most Mexican restaurants.
I think Latin Bistro tries to offer Latin food with a twist. It’s not the Taco Bell variety in terms of presentation and flavors, and the menu is very large. You will have a hard time deciding.

4 stars, with a disclaimer: At Groupon prices, this is UNBELIEVABLE! At regular prices, it’s pretty good.
But… It is not for the faint of heart. It has a strange location, stranger atmosphere, and the service is mixed at best.
I’ve been here for dinner twice and each time the food was great. But the service is eclectic, lacking a knowledge of wine (at all), and the atmosphere is haphazard. Very odd.
But the price for the quality of food was good. I encourage folks to give it a try. If in doubt, grab a Groupon as they do them often. At least that way, you won’t be terribly disappointed if it’s just ‘okay.’

In short, the Latin bistro is just ok… When we first got there it was completely empty. We got a table and some very tasty (but predictable) salsa with chips. I ordered a margarita that had good flavor but not enough alcohol to distinguish it from its virgin counterpart. The food unfortunately did not live up what we had hoped at all. The chicken chipotle was essentially rice and chicken but the meat was almost too tough to chew. It had good flavor but that’s where any positivity ends. My wife’s taco reminded me of a brined greaseadilla that looked more like a two day old taco.
All in all I probably would not go back for anything other than the salsa :(

Well, I hate to drop my previous review by 2 stars, but after an absolutely awful dinner last night, I can say that we certainly won’t be back, or at least definitely not for dinner. I still have faith in the burritos that are on offer at lunch time, but dinner was just nasty.
I don’t know if it’s because Chef Tito wasn’t there last night or what, but I should’ve been tipped off that things weren’t going to go well by the terrible service. There was one sever for the entire dining room (granted, that was 3 tables, including us), and he was one of the slowest, most incompetent servers I’ve ever had. The man could not multi-​task to save himself. First, we sat, at our table without menus, waters, etc. for a good amount of time while we watched him ineffectually try to close out a couple of checks. Then, he brought us a basket of chips, no salsa. A couple of minutes later, we got salsa, and then I requested hot as well as mild, which took even longer. THEN, he came back to get our drink orders. Eventually I got my drink, but he forgot my husband’s oh-​so-​complicated Diet Coke. After my husband got his drink, we actually had to ask for menus. At that point, I was pretty much ready to go. It felt like this all took 30 mins, but it was probably more like 15. Regardless, it was ridiculous.
When we finally managed to order food, it didn’t take too long to come out, all things considered. But that was just another disappointment. My husband ordered a chicken dish that was «cooked in olive oil», and there was a huge puddle of oil all over his plate. His entire meal was soaking in oil. Disgusting. I ordered the chile rellenos with shrimp… which was served in a BELL pepper that hadn’t been cleaned out. WTF?! The name of the dish indicated a chile pepper should be involved (and I’ve never had it when there wasn’t a chile pepper used), so… yeeeeaah. The rice that came with the dish was cold and crunchy, so after one bite I left that. The shrimp were the highlight of the meal — I dug them out of the bell pepper, ate them, we paid, and left.
The whole meal was such a disappointment, especially after the fantastic burritos the last time… now I don’t even know if I’d make the trip for another burrito. Sad.

This is a second review of the place I’ve done, as my experience has to be told. The service and ambiance I described on my last visit here almost a year ago was ‘oddball’ but worth a second shot. I took it, and I’m not coming back.
There were about 7 – 8 tables of a 20 table or so space full with two waitresses and the chef serving, but ours apologized for the ‘madhouse’ rush they were experiencing. We got our shared entrée in about 20 minutes or so, but it was not what we ordered. I asked her about it and she produced the menu again and pointed out the dish that was in front of me as way of explanation of why they got it wrong. Despite her telling me what the dish was, it wasn’t what I ordered and asked for the right one.
Another 20 minutes go by, and she comes by with the check asking if that was all we needed. On edge, I told her we still hadn’t gotten our entrée. She wandered off to the kitchen and came back saying, and I quote, «They got confused when I asked for the right entrée. I don’t know what they expect of me, I don’t speak Mexican!»
Another 10 minutes go by, and the Chef came out with a dish to drop off at the table, while talking on his cell phone (I’m not kidding). AND IT WAS NOT WHAT WE ORDERED, AGAIN. At this point I actually was considering dining and dashing for the first time ever after waiting for nearly two hours for food.
I flagged the waitress down again and asked for what we ordered. She took away the dish without saying a word, and came back in another 15 minutes with the right food, again without saying a word.
I tried it, twice. Not a chance in hell I’ll be going back.

Not the run-​of-​the-​mill Mexican food. Chef Tito has gone to the effort to introduce Yucatan fusion cuisine to the Northland, and I am pretty happy about it. Tucked into a strip mall across from Margaritas, the ambiance is welcoming and unexpected. The staff is friendly and always efficient.
Love the fresh, chunky salsa to start the meal — request the hot because the regular sauce is incredibly mild– though the chips are just the out-​of-​the-​bag variety. Their dinner menu selection is mostly none-​vegetarian, with many chicken, pork, and fish dishes offered with a variety of sauces. The open kitchen allows great views of the cooks. The Pollo en Tamarindo was a touch sour, as expected from tamarinds, and delicious ($ 10.95). The Jamaican sauce is pretty mild and sweet. The Tequila y Limon sauce is my BF’s favorite.
The prices are a bit high, but the dining experience is always nice. I’ve been wanting to try one of the cooking classes offered on-​site as well.

Not your typical enchilada joint (I know and love enchilada joints!). Latin Bistro does a nice job of stepping things up a notch. The kitchen is practically in the middle of the dining area, and Tito obviously relishes having customers watching him prepare the meals, and listening to his explanations and tales. The place could pass for a Food Network remote site.
Sunday brunch is a good alternative to the usual weekend breakfast fare. Not the usual buffet, but wonderful breakfast dishes with a Latin flair.
The food was exceptionally flavorful, and beautifully plated. I think if you wanted a quiet, undisturbed dinner you might be disappointed, although they would likely take a hint. It’s a fun, surprising place with kitschy décor, good service, and outstanding food. «Would you prefer ocean-​view seating, or to be near the kitchen?» Have your answer ready.

this is for the FOOD TRUCK :)
The driver says he parks @ the Shell Station, 68^th & 169, every night from 6pm — 11pm but we have yet to see him back there since: P
although the fish taco was a little pricey at 2.50, it was still delish. I say go for the $ 4 burrito of any type meat & you’ll be good to go ALL NIGHT LONG!
I’ve yet to venture to the restaurant. I’m scared. I used to get takeout when they were on the corner.

Drive here! Yes, all my city dahlings, drive here! What an experience! An open kitchen where you can watch chef cook, and sing, and talk to patrons… Add in great knowledgeable service staff and some great margueritas and you’re in for a diining experience. It’s Latin food and you’d swear you are on the yucatan peninsula. Amazing shrimp with tamarind and hibiscus flower and a braised pork dish served on banana leaf! Guacamole is made to order and the advacado ice cream is soo tasty.
This experience was superb due in large part to chef Tito. He loves what he does and it’s apparent. You instantly feel comfortable here. The pricing wont make your wallet uncomfortable here either. It’s a great experience… The sound, the smell and the taste! So get in your dam car and drive here!