Cantina Real

I realize the place is closed down now but feel it necessary to send a message out to local restauranteurs. When you pick a so-​so location and bring the new store online in only a matter of weeks, do you really have high-​aspirations for success?
I don’t knock the owners for trying, as such, but it appeared that staffing had no requirements for the hiring of kitchen help. Wait staff appeared to have come from other lines of work as well. I think I won the lottery for how long this place would last (months) so that was a good thing.
The restaurant just around the corner from this on MBB most likely will be gone in less than a year as well. That would make at least 3 attempts at a sit-​down store there in about 5 years.

One of my favorite restaurants in Manhattan Beach! I’m always working, so I usually bring my computer and work while I eat. The staff is so accommodating! I wrote a full review on my new blog too. Check it out!

I wish I had thought to read the reviews before we went here. I can pretty easily echo what’s been said before on this site. We got there about 4:30 PM, the place was empty, seriously, no one else there. We placed our order and waited and waited for quite awhile, so I was expecting piping hot food. Not happening. The plate was hot, the food barely warm. My husband had the Veracruz shrimp and it was unbelievably bland. I had the chile verde and it was OK but had no kick to it at all. And it was not hot. The rice and beans were just warm. We were still the only ones in the place, not a good sign. Thank goodness we had a 25% off coupon, but it took 3 members of the staff to figure out how to apply it. We decided we wouldn’t go back. I wish I’d thought to go to
El Gringo instead.

Excellent food, friendly service, can’t ask much more than that. We used to go to the cantina real on the pier and just tried the new location. While it’s obviously not the same as eating right next to the beach, it’s still a nice place to go with the whole family.

Oh geez don’t waste your time or money. Disgusting food for a lot of money. I feel bad because it puts the servers in a situation that’s not their fault. Owners need to change or need to change the chef because the food sucks. This place won’t last.
Got my son a steak quesadilla and the steak in it tasted old and bad. Told the waitress who told the owners sitting at the bar and seemed to be upset I wouldn’t feed my son questionable food. Took one bite of the Taquito and didn’t touch it again.
Food all came out at different times so it was a little rude but that’s not the servers fault although you could tell she was a little frustrated.
We were pretty much the only ones in the restaurant so unless they do something I don’t see it lasting long. Hey guys wake up, you’re in Manhattan beach, get a better menu and chef. Sorry… just honest

Stopped in for lunch with a friend on a very warm weekday. Waited at the front for someone to greet or seat us for a long time. Only a couple tables were filled and no one around that seemed to work there. Finally a waitress came out and told us to sit anywhere. We sat in the sunny part by the windows.
Soon we realized the place was overly warm and stuffy (meaning uncomfortable). Asked the waitress to please turn up the air a bit and was told that she could not do that. Apparently, they are not allowed to do that per the owner who has locked the thermostat with a secret code! By the way, the waitress was sweating profusely and said she was also very hot. We asked to speak to the owner and she said she would go ask.
After a wait, we were told that the owner had approved the air but only the uncle who works there has the code. In the meantime, they said we should move to the dark part of the restaurant which would cool first.
I totally understand about cost savings but not if it reduces the customer’s dining experience and enjoyment. Food not memorable. Won’t be back.

I was very impressed with this restaurant. We made last minute reservations for a group of 10. We had four kids and the rest adults. I ordered the tostada salad with carnitas. The carnitas were so tasty. Some of the best I have had in awhile. My husband had enchiladas suiza and rancheros and he said they were very good as well.
The service was excellent. They were so patient, especially with four kids and all of their questions and orders.
Will definitely go back there and recommend it to others.
Reasonable prices and easy parking lot in the back.

Hola Tortillas ! We will meet again !
I’m just giving a shout out to the best tortillas I’ve ever had in my life… not kidding…
They have these hot thin amazing flour tortillas… I ate 4 of them with just rice and beans inside… so good !
The food itself was fine… we had the Chicken Picada and the Carnitas.
It was good… pretty dam good.
I can’t believe the ONE star ratings? Don’t get it.
I’d go back to this place.
Til we meet again Tortillas ! Til we meet again.

This place will not be in business for long. The two times we have been there have only been 3 – 4 tables sat in the entire restaurant. We had a party of 8 but were the only table the server had at the time. The service was slow and the food is just ok.
We had bought a groupon that we gave to the server before he brought us the check. He made it seem like we could not use it because we did not tell him in advance. Apparently we could not use it for happy hour. I get that but we ordered a lot of items not on the happy hour menu that more than covered the total on the groupon. He got our check wrong three times! Charged us full price on the happy hour items, added 5 quesadillas and beers that we never ordered. We asked for a manager and he never brought one over. When we finally tracked down the manager we started to explain what happened and our frustration. He just defended the server saying we didn’t tell them about the groupon in advance. I have worked in many restaurants and on the same cash registers — that does not matter! And why did the manager not apologize and take care of us? He let the server mess up our bill yet another time! Worst place ever! I am really annoyed this place is taking up prime Manhattan Beach real estate.

There are an abundance of good Mexican restaurants in the South Bay… but this isn’t one of them.
The service was friendly… and that concludes the list of positive things about the experience. The food REALLY missed the mark. The portions, especially for the price point (which felt higher than they really should have been) were a little skimpy and although I can put away some food, I weigh right around 100 pounds… so if the portions seemed small to me… hey folks, they were small. The options were so-​so and the food we ordered was BLAND! Bland I tell you, bland! Bland Mexican food is an abomination! Haha! We weren’t going to complain, because the food was so underwhelming across the board it seemed sort of pointless. We just wanted to enjoy our time out and leave, but then the owner stopped by and asked how we were enjoying our meal. We (VERY nicely) told her that while we were having a great time we found the steak specifically to be nearly unseasoned and we weren’t really enjoying our food. She (nicely) told us that that couldn’t be, that they DO season the meat. We chatted amicably for a bit and she left. We looked at each other with raised eyebrows and went back to unenthusiastically chowing down. She later returned to the table and told us that she talked to the chef and that he DID season the meat. No offer to remake the steak, no offer to make it right in any way. I was a bit shocked. Please let me be clear, she was very polite and was friendly… but I spent a hearty portion of my youth waiting tables and tending bar and 30 minutes into my first day of training at my first job I could have told you that THAT was not how to keep a customer happy or keep them coming back. We paid the check and left.
The restaurant is a little noisy (lots of hard surfaces and open to the bar) but that’s really neither good nor bad. I didn’t enjoy anything about our meal other than the friendly waitress (their only saving grace)…the restaurant was not busy, but even so the noise level was a little annoying. That alone would not have been a deal breaker though.
Had the owner handled the situation differently we might have gone back, but after seeing the reviews and talking with friends who have given it a try, it doesn’t seem much worth it. There are too many solid alternatives.
I hope they turn it around, because the owner seemed sweet, but based on other reviews I’m not seeing a miraculous recovery in their future.

Not the best service …
Really slow … 15 minute wait for drinks …
Didn’t ask us how we wanted our meet cooked.
Little to no flavor on their fajita plate.
My wife also ordered a steak with no mushrooms and guess what. They put mushrooms.
We had to ask for our soda refills.
The fasted service came when we asked for the check.

My Avocado, tomatoes & cheese omelet… Not the best! Who cooks avocado??? Well they did it here, and it didn’t taste good. The rest of the food my party order was good. The service was nice but I just can’t get over the COOKED AVOCADO!

Been seeing this place every day as I go to the post office across the street and looking for a new place to try on the weekend so the wife and I decided to stop by about 1100am on Sunday morning. The wife was quite happy that they also had a breakfast menu.
Arriving at 11am we were the only ones in the restaurant and by the time we left around noon there were still on 2 other parties which kind of worries me because the food was good the prices were reasonable and the servers were very attentive; and I would really like to come back here in the future so I hope they have enough business to remain open.
Wife had Chorizo and Eggs and was very happy with the taste and portion size, I gave the Chili Relleno with a crispy chicken taco a try and was also pleased with the taste and quality.
A solid 4 stars

Wow was impressed, came in for drinks, food was great, happy hour food was impressive and margi was on point. I will be back and this should be the new local stop

We had a great experience overall! Very clean restaurant, ample parking, amazing staff. We got there right at 11am when it opened so we were waited on with fast service. I found the food to be good — very typical Mexican. My brother didn’t like the refried beans though.
Grandma and I got Mexican coffee. Yum.
Service was quick, waters were always refilled, chips kept coming. I would definitely recommend and would return if I come back to the area.

I thought the food here was pretty good, I had a fajita salad and the wife had a veggie burrito. Portion size was good and everything tasted good. Service was a little slow, especially since they weren’t busy, but reasonably friendly and the food didn’t take that long. Worth trying.

Within the last 6 months 2 new eateries opened on this corner. Tried the Indian place a few months ago (will not return) and tried this place last night (ditto).
We are regulars at El Gringo across the street, but decided to give the new joint a shot. When we walked in the hostess stand was empty, a busboy came by and said the hostess would be back in a minute, then 2 minutes later another gent (maybe a manager?) came and sat the two of us. Took a while for the waitress, but she did eventually come by took our drink order.
The menu is standard (boring?) Mexican fare, so since it was our first time I asked our waitress for a recommendation between the chicken mole and the carne asada. She proceed to say that the mole dish was popular, and people like their sauce. I asked her if the carne asada was a full steak or just grilled steak meat. (its a real steak). Then she offered the kicker — that she was a vegetarian, and had never tried either. DOH! TIP: find a carnivore colleague and ask them how the food is — or a job at a vegan joint. but dont tell somebody you dont eat it. hard to be taken seriously as a server if you can’t offer real recommendations.
Chips and salsa were nice, but personally I like my salsa a bit spicier.
My margarita was okay, but the wife didn’t like hers.
I don’t even know what the wife ordered, but she left half of it.
the steak was okay, thicker than other carne asada dishes I’ve had, mushrooms were a nice (different) touch. the tortillas were good, too
I think i’d return only to hang in the bar area for a game or something, or if i wanted more than just beer. Have to admit, looking out the window and seeing El Gringo across the street while having our dinner, I felt like I was cheating.
El Gringo, I’m sorry. I’ll be back next week.

While I used to go to the Cantina Real on Pier Ave., I stopped because the food was really bland and margaritas were just awful. But people went anyway because of the patio.
Well, their new location doesn’t have a patio, but at least the interior is new, open and clean. Very good service, too. However, the food is every bit as bland as it is at the other location. It looks like Mexican, it smells like Mexican, but it tastes like… Kansas. Honestly, fire the GM, burn the recipe book, fire the bar manager and find people who know what they’re doing. Sure, there’s a market for white-​bread Mexican, but I think the South Bay is getting sophisticated enough to move beyond it.

The old location in Hermosa sorta matched the low-​quality food, but now they have moved into a fancy new location and the low-​quality food does not match. They need expert help with their food and margaritas.
I love margaritas and there is something about theirs that made me pucker-​up and I had to stop drinking it. Never getting my water refilled added to the trouble.
I am always searching for a good Taco-​burrito ever since Taco Bill’s closed and I was excited to see it on their menu and ordered one tonight. I felt like I ate a soggy tortilla with nothing inside of it. It was covered in a heavy ranchero sauce. The beans had no flavor and the rice no better.
My wife had an enchilada suiza and although it was filled with chicken, the chicken was dry. I did like the flavor of their green sauce, however.
I highly recommend they get professional help with their food and drinks. Now that they are in the high-​rent district, you won’t last long with this low-​quality food.

I live right around the corner from this place & was surprised that it popped up as fast as it did. I work in Torrance so I’m rarely around during lunch, but when I happened to be in my neighborhood for lunch today, I stopped in to try it out.
The place was quite empty, only eight other guests other than myself. The hostess handed me a menu & I sat up at the bar. Upon opening the menu I immediately started regretting choosing this place. Reader, it is overpriced like you would not believe. I was apprehensive to order anything because of the price, but down the bar from me was a business man who’s food had just arrived. The bartender showed me on the menu that he was having the Chicken Ranchera Burrito. It looked good but I noticed that fresh from the kitchen food… had zero steam rising from it. My spider-​sense began to tingle but I ignored my better instincts for the sake of posterity. It looked good so I said, «I’ll have that.» The bartender, Michael, brought me a basket of chips & some salsa while I waited for my food; both of which were quite decent.
The restaurant only had nine people in it & it took almost a half hour to get my food. The bartender had to keep informing me that my food «will be right out.»
I was sitting there filling up on chips, salsa, SportsCenter & water watching the two owners shuffle around in an imaginary urgency as if this practically empty restaurant was just poppin’ off. Their behavior seemed to say, «if we look busy, people will understand why food’s taking so long… because we’re so busy.»
My food finally arrives. The bartender tells me to be careful the plate’s hot. The plate was hot alright but the food was warm-​ish; popped into the oven after sitting out for too long… or whatever. The burrito had beans & rice on the side with a dollop of sour cream. This burrito was only a tortilla filled with chicken (that’s it), covered in a very fair ranchero sauce. The rice was flavorless & clumpy; the beans, just flavorless. Bland & gringo food, indeed. I ate as much as I could being hungry & having paid 12 DOLLARS for this mess, but I was so deep in disappointment I had already begun to disassociate from the trauma of being robbed.
This place needs to STEP IT UP SIGNIFICANTLY, or this building will be back up on the market (AGAIN), in no time.
Cantina Real? More like Cantina Real Bad.
Save yo’ money, honey!