Front Street Cantina

This is worse than Taco Bell. Tacos with American cheese and meat such as dog food Take cantina off the logo far from authentic.

Just found this gem. I had the Chicken Tortilla soup, which was THE BEST I ever tasted, including my own, which is pretty darned good! I also had the BBQ Chicken pizza appetizer, also outstanding, and my husband had the fajitas, which he raved about. The portions are very large, so expect to take half home IF you can stop eating it!
This will be a regular thing for us, we were just in that neighborhood and tried it, so that was a pleasant surprise.

The bartender’s, older guys, are really aloof here to customers. They are reading newspapers, talking on their cell phones, often not behind the bar at all, to wait on customers having a drink, and mostly not engaging with customers at the bar. I have been to other Front Street Cantina’s but this one really lacks any personality behind the bar. Cold tacos at lunch too. I would suggest visiting the Front Street Cantinas in Naperville, Lemont, and Wheaton, to see how customers at the bar should rightly be treated.

Very disappointed in this place and it is not the first time. Don’t know if it is the location and good chefs are hard to find or management! The carry-​out orders twice now were «meager» with missing ordered food items that were clearly gone over with the receptionist when the order was placed!
When one is paying for service there is no excuse
period to get an order wrong and carry out does not mean sloppily prepared meager portions! It still costs the same!
Just had surgery and was absolutely craving 2 of the items that were missing!
Manager was nice and offered a gift certificate but that did not take care of my hunger today!!!
Chefs… Please pay attention to details!!! You never know who you are preparing a meal for and what their situation is!!!

So my boyfriend and I still went to Front Street Cantina despite the numerous poor reviews. I will say the salsa was very disappointing. We love chips and salsa and it felt like I was eating out of a can of tomatoes. The chili con queso dip was wonderful though! We had a macho burrito and flautas. It was pretty good, but nothing special. The cabo wabo magragita and the raspberry margarita we amazing. Best part of the visit. I don’t think we will be back. There are other places closer to home with more reasonable prices that are just as good, if not better.

The service is good but the food was disappointing. It felt like everything was microwaved to order and it was $ 10 for 2 small tacos with very little steak and a lot of rice and beans. If you like microwaved beans and rice with a side of 2 sad tacos, this is the place for you.

This is by far one of my favorite Mexican restaurants around. They have a pretty good variety of meals on their menu, and I think the portions are pretty big for what you pay.
The food is delicious and tastes authentic, and I love their margaritas! They have indoor seating and a small patio you can wait for if you want to sit outside.
The service is either pretty good or very good; I guess it just depends on the person you get serving you. There was one bartender there who seemed a little irritated when I asked him for a food menu before ordering a drink, but I’ll continue coming back.

Pluses:
–indoor and outdoor seating avail
–location…park across street great stop w kids, shops in Downtown nice for nearby walk
–fairly kid friendly (typical $ 5+ menu)
–complimentary chips and salsa on table
–typical pricing
Minuses:
–crowded, unkept, not clean lately
–all portions + vegetarian options shrunk! Menu and servings smaller
–used to be so fresh & flavorful, w different options than other places, now just average
–service used to be great, now sub par
— used to be favorite, slipping from list
We left without eating at all this visit after a series of unfortunate events. This used to be a favorite of ours, but every visit became less enchanting down to disappointment today. When this place first opened the menu offered many really great vegetarian choices, all but one standard veg burrito are gone. So is the fast service, plentiful portions and clean atmosphere. We called ahead tonight being Father’s Day, but we were told by the hostess that it was not at all busy and there was no need for a reservation so we headed over immediately. We arrived to a packed, dirty, understaffed and backed up restaurant. How did that happen in 20 minutes? While we waited, we watched the hostess unwrap and re wrap a bunch of silverware frantically at her standing spot (cleanliness?!) and witnessed many other frustrated customers do the following: wait well beyond what they were told, find their own tables outside, ask to sit there and offer to carry their own menus just to hurry things up, alert the hostess of unkept bathrooms (nothing was done), and look around in disgust and anger at the many tables and booths everywhere that sat open but uncleared and filthy (on top and underneath) while the wait line continued to grow. We finally got called to our spot but it was truly unacceptably dirty (we have several kids and don’t expect perfect but even with a hostess’s unenthusiastic and insufficient rewipe of benches and seats it was still too gross to sit). The other dirty spots were not only holding up other diners from sitting, but it gave such an unappealing view to everyone, including those already eating. The hostess and few wait staff that were present seemed uncaring and unfriendly. Even when busy, how hard is it to crack a smile? That impersonal, unkept, poorly running account is not representative of the place previously but was more becoming the tendency we witnessed on our last visits and it was too much to bare for our dinner plans. We used to love this place, not one bit tonight and not at all like we used to! We didn’t end up hanging around for tonight’s showcase of slow service or any food (which may have been disappointing as well as was the case with a few dishes on previous visits). We ended up leaving very frustrated without ordering and found a different Mexican restaurant where it was clean, friendly, and had no wait (Friaco’s, will review).

Great service. We were seated immediately and our order was taken as soon as we were ready. The burrito macho was excellent. The back beans and rice on the side were delicious. The service is fast and everyone is very polite. I will be back!

You can always find decent, even if it’s not authentic, Mexican food here.
The tamales are strange here. Stay away from them.
Pretty much everything is basic Americanized Mexican food.
I love the fajitas here. I usually get a mix of steak and chicken and I love the char and seasoning. It’s a bit annoying that they charge extra for sour cream and guacamole but I get that they don’t want to serve it and have folks throw it away.

My husband and I have been going here for years, probably once a month or so. I always get the chicken enchiladas with mole and have always been pleased. I’ve even told friends that their mole sauce was one of the best I’ve ever had. The past few times we’ve dined here the chicken enchiladas with mole have been gross. They barely have any mole sauce on them and the chicken is very bland. I don’t know if they changed the recipe or got a new chef but the food isn’t even halfway decent anymore. I refuse to spend $ 12 on food that is bland and gross. This was one of my favorite places because of this dish but we won’t be going here anymore. :/​So sad to see that they’re skimping on their spices, seasonings, and sauces just to save a few bucks. Looks like they’ll be losing a lot more money because of this decision.

I visited this location a few weeks ago on a Monday night for dinner. Definitely like the Naperville location better, it’s more fun and upbeat.
I started with the side of guacamole and chips. Not worth it. The guac lacked any flavor and I just wasn’t impressed.
I got the shrimp fajitas as well and for $ 17, I would get something else next time. They didn’t come with any lettuce, cheese, etc like most fajitas do. They were flavored ok, but that’s it. My friend got the steak fajitas and I tried those and they were very good. I would probably get those next time.
I just feel like this is the type of place that is probably better all around on a Friday night or Saturday.

Authentic? Its definitely more ‘tex-mex’…I’ll give them that but its not authentic Mexican food.

The one star is for the pear margarita and the server! The food was bland — I had to add salt and pepper to my food! Mexican food should not need all that! If you’re looking for authentic Mexican food go else where! The food trucks have better food than this place.

We always have a good meal here. Sometimes the service is a little slow, but we tend to go on evenings when we can linger anyway.

The queso findido is really the only thing worth ordering. the food is usually not filling, and is rarely what is expected. The chips, and salsa are free at the bar seating, but the salsa is hit or miss. You can’t have all tomato and expect to call that salsa. But the only saving grace for this place is it’s margaritas, and stock of Mexican/​American beers lol. I usually drink like 3 margaritas when I’m there with free chips, and just split after that they should redo there menu or something

I love the bbq chicken pizza and chips w/​salsa. I have had rude service though. One time. I will still return for that pizza n salsa.

My family and I visited for the first time tonight after walking around supporting local small business shops.
This place looked promising from the outside so we decided to try it out.
Upon entering, we were greeted by the hostesses and were told there was a 15-​min. It turned out to be a 30-​min wait. In the meantime we waited, I told my husband to look at Unilocal.Well… the reviews were not promising.
We were seated and chips and salsa were good (not great). Our waitress was nice and pretty fast.
The look and feel of the inside of the restaurant:
Its open floor plan — zero privacy. The hand painted Aztec art/​murals on the wall are pretty cool. The lighting is a bit depressing. They could dress up (cheer up) the place a bit more though. Needs better lighting and it can use some other Mexican decorations — maybe hung from the ceiling. As is, it feels cold, empty and depressing.
My son and I both ordered the «Chile Relleno» dish ($ 11) (Mexican stuffed pepper), which was one poblano pepper stuffed with Chihuahua cheese, rice and supposed «refried beans»…
The pepper was good (they did use chihuahua cheese) with the exception tht they melted cheddar cheese on top which is a no-​no (just put a dollop of sour cream on top please).
The Mexican Rice was not authentic. It tasted like out of the box rice. The pinto beans were not «refried» as they said they were — they were ok.
Normally, any good restaurant would offer you corn or flour tortillas or both. I was not asked what I wanted — they brought us flour tortillas.
My daughter ordered the kids Ground Beef Quesadillas — she tried one bite and did not like it.
She said it reminded her of her old grammar school food — that is not a compliment.
My husband ordered the Corona Battered Fish Tacos. He was not impressed and said he’ll never go back.
My little guy ordered a ground beef burrito — he didn’t complain much but the cook popped in the microwave to melt the cheese on top and over-micro’d the burrito because the tortilla was dried and hard (micro moisture zapped) on the corners.
In a wrap, this is more like barely Tex-​Mex and definitely not authentic.
I would suggest they get real and talented Mexican chefs and spruce up the place a bit.
This visit was a bit disappointing because after visiting a couple other Mexican restaurants in Plainfield (north) none have impressed me yet. There is a HUGE opportunity for an authentic good Mexican Restaurant here if anyone is interested? ! :)
Even a simple taco and burrito corner joint here in Plainfield North would be a big hit so long as the quality and flavor is there.
Disclaimer: I am a darn good Mexican cook (as well as my entire immediate family) and have been cooking for 30+ years (since i was 10). I KNOW what great authentic Mexican food should taste like.

Steak taco, great cut of meat, burnt and greasy, didn’t get it how it was ordered. Pastor taco same. 5 for one steak taco 4 for one pastor. I just saw the blond who posted on here walk in and start working. Definitely a place for regulars. Food was little below white castles with the prices if a 5star place. Only saving grace is queso fundido although extremely greasy very tasteful. This is my last time in the place not worth going again.

The Corona battered cod tacos are so good! I would definitely return for more of these. The fish had a good taste and a hot, crispy batter. I wish I had the recipe for the chili guac sauce that was served on top of the taco with cilantro. It was the perfect meal for a warm, sunny afternoon on a patio. Go for the patio, go for the fish tacos!
The black beans with my fish tacos were terrible, and the rice was just okay. The black beans appeared that they were partially mashed into a paste — the texture resembled refried beans. I had 2 bites and left the rest. The rice was tolerable — a little undercooked and underseasoned, but I ate it anyway.
Normally, I’d order a crispy, crunchy, greasy, gooey chimichanga smothered with cheese, but I knew I’d leave with a brick in my stomach and no desire to work out that evening. No regrets, the fish tacos were totally satisfying. My husband had the enchilada, taco, chimichanga platter, and the chimichanga didn’t look too impressive.
The chips and salsa were okay; I was skeptical when they brought out a soupy looking salsa with big chunks of tomato. It looked more like a pico de gallo than salsa. After a few bites, I was liking it, so chunky salsa is just the «thing» here. The chips weren’t anything special.
I also had the skinny margarita. A little bit of booze and a little less guilt than usual, I’m in! But for $ 8.50, it seemed a bit pricey. I know this is downtown Plainfield, but it’s also just Plainfield.
Total cost for 2 entrees and 2 margaritas (before tip) was $ 48. This is a little steep for Mexican, downtown Plainfield or not, so I’ll probably stick with La Mex or Señor Tequila next time. I would definitely go back for the fish tacos and the patio though.