Jorge’s Cantina

Unfortunate that I didn’t get to try more as I just received word they they are closed for good and facing eviction… See for yourself:
Too bad. Only around 2 years.

I went to this place twice when it first opened and just haven’t made it back in a while. I’m hoping it hasn’t gone down hill after reading some Unilocal reviews, but I loved this place. The upstairs and downstairs offered a great place to hang out and eat, but also not get rushed out. I was very comfortable and the food was good, not great, but solid good. Avocado fries were awesome. They were out of the Lagunas tacos, but I’m sure it’s not a popular menu item. I’m going to have to go back soon, make sure things haven’t slacked off in there.

{Update: they were going out of business and had announced it yet}
My girlfriend and I have always enjoyed Jorge’s due to one of their former bartenders, Bradley. He made the best margaritas in town.
This time, the bar was out of almost everything. The liquor shelf was awkwardly bare. All the taps were dry. They were out of a large portion of their bottle beers. The bartender did his best to help out the situation, but when half his supplies are missing, it is virtually impossible.

UNHAPPY HOUR! MY FRIEND AND I GOT FOOD POISONING.
Our Happy Hour tacos were so miserable. They were the size of a Chips Ahoy cookie. Just chicken, the tiniest bit of sour cream, and powdered cheese, no lettuce or anything. I couldnt believe I actually got sick from that tiny amount of food.
The Margaritas were watered down and when we asked for no ice the next round they gave us half empty margaritas with ice in it.
If you want to pay for the non happy hour $ 12 tacos go for it. Everything is horribly overpriced except for the Avocado fries, their saving grace.

Went in for drinks last night at the upstairs bar and had amazing margaritas prepared by our bartender Tyler! I started with a classic margarita that was unbelievably refreshing and my friend and I both had the avocado margarita with added jalapeño (recommended by Tyler) which had the perfect amount of kick!
Tyler definitely took care of us and I will definitely come back for another avocado jalapeño margarita!
(Four stars because we didn’t try any of the food).

I’ve gotten takeout and eaten in at Jorge’s, and I definitely recommend the takeout. The food was good both times, but the service at my dine-​in experience was less than pleasant. The food was great and came out quickly, but our waitress had a chip on her shoulder. While they have a few interesting drinks on the menu for brunch, they are not worth the unpleasant encounters with their Saturday afternoon servers. (Although I must say that the male host was incredibly friendly and helpful both times I’ve been there.)
The peppadew tacos are flavorful and not something I’ve seen anywhere else, and I definitely recommend them. All other food I tasted was good as well, although they are definitely holding back on the heat. Everything was pretty mild, and I would have liked a little more kick to the salsa and other sauces.
I definitely like the food and will go back for takeout, but am not in a hurry for dining-​in.

I thought the food I ordered was good. Arroz con pollo. Generous amount, flavorful. No
Complaints. Went back again to use the groupon and ordered the burrito with scallops and shrimp. It was huge! Much to my disappointment it was filled mostly with rice and beans. Halfway through I only found 2 diced pieces of shrimp and a piece of scallop! Not worth $ 12 !

I finally checked out Jorge’s on Saturday, and I’m glad I did. After reading the reviews and hearing completely mixed opinions from friends who’ve been, I really didn’t know what to expect. But I was with a friend who’s a Jorge’s fan and we were really feeling tacos after the Pretty Muddy run, so it was perfect timing for me to try something new.
My one complaint is that they don’t sell individual tacos and you can’t mix types, so you have order either two or three of one kind. Maybe it’s different during happy hour, but on Saturday at brunchtime, this was the deal. I typically like to try different flavors, so this was kind of a bummer.
Luckily, my friend and I both had the same thought and wanted the same ones, so we just ordered two kind from the two-​taco menu and swapped. We went with the eloitte with peppedew tacos and the poblano tacos, both on corn tortillas (you have to specify flour or corn — our server didn’t ask us so I don’t know what the default would have been). I thought they were both pretty tasty, but I preferred the peppedew tacos because I’m a sucker for corn. I also liked the creamy sauce that came on both of the tacos, and it paired well with the salsa I added. Next time I’ll probably ask for a little hot sauce because there wasn’t much heat to either of the tacos and the salsa’s pretty mild (but tasty!). Of course, we had to order brunchtime bevvies, so I went with an extra spicy bloody mary and it definitely had a kick! A good one.
Just a note for the ladies on the bathroom — it is super, super dark. Like, I thought the lights weren’t on when they were, dark. I actually had a hard time seeing when I first walked in, so don’t plan on primping in this lavatory.
There’s stiff competition for tacos in RVA right now, and while this one doesn’t take my top spot, I’m sure I’ll be back for more Tex-​Mex in the future.

I will never go here again. My best friend and I went here for dinner on 9÷20÷13 to celebrate my birthday. We found a groupon for the place, that was advertised as $ 30 of food for $ 16. Great! Well, we arrived and we were seated. We sat there for 10 min watching a hostess, bartender/​waitress and who we discovered was the owner, pass by our table many times without addressing us. I finally had to ask for a waitress. We ordered drinks and dinner. Drinks were mainly mix with little alcohol. I ordered the Huevos Ranchero tacos. They were terrible. It was an overly fried egg with a couple crumbs of chorizo. There was so little chorizo I couldn’t taste it. It tasted like an egg on a tortilla.
When it came time to pay, I showed my groupon and was told it was actually two $ 15/​groupons, and I could only get a $ 15 discount. HUH? I showed them how I purchased it… and how it was advertised. The owner came to the table and refused to honor it as purchased. Told me to take it to Groupon and deal with it.
Poor service, terrible food and an owner who doesn’t care to make his customers happy. Never again.

Shelley was a terrible server — slow, messed up orders and had a bad attitude. I came here for a birthday with a party of 20. First of all, sticking us with one server for this party was ridiculous.
Drinks were bad — margarita was all sweet and sour mix. So much so that I couldn’t drink it at all. I never leave a drink unfinished and I had ONE sip of this drink.
Food was terrible. Missing things ordered and cold. It also took a good 5 minutes after our food was delivered for us to get silverware.
Ultimately, excellent service can go a long way when food or drinks aren’t up to par, but our server’s incredibly horrendous attitude made the night that much worse. You can expect that none of us will be back and even though I’ve left my hometown of Richmond, I’ll be sure to let everyone from home know not to ever go here.

Went with a friend for lunch one day. Only
2 other tables besides us. The server seemed like she would rather be anywhere but there, kind of slamming things on the table. She took our order, delivered drinks and food and then proceeded to sit in the back booth the rest of the time with her cell phone. I took one bite of my fish taco and it was disgusting. My friend said his was ok and ate his meal. The server did not come back til my friend was finished and when she saw that I hadn’t eaten my food she asked if it was ok; when I said no she stated that she couldn’t believe it since that was one of the most popular items in the menu. Bad service, horrible food, will not go back.

The third star made it on its own last night during happy hour. Renee was great as was the music, the pinot grigio, happy hour specials which include two small tacos for $ 3 and great wine/​beer prices. I didn’t care for the very salty, gamey flavor or cube shape of the carne asada but count me in for the pescado tacos — yum! The hand made flour tortillas were a bit thick and less cooked which Eric didn’t care for and I was surprised by, but I liked them. They aren’t typical tortillas but are tasty.
I think we found our niche at Jorge’s. Yay!
UPDATE 2014: We haven’t been moved to go back, and we live a block away. I think the stars were only in my eyes.

First of all, before you order anything else, get the avocado fries as an appetizer!!! Oh.Em.Gee. I mean, what’s not to love about avocado fries in the first place? As if they weren’t already awesome enough on their own, they are served with a creamy, flavorful salsa blanca that will make you want to lick the dish clean so as not to let any of the delicious dipping sauce go to waste (try hard to resist the urge to do this though ;). My friends also raved about the chorizo dip, but I’m a vegetarian so I just had to take their word for it…
As for entrees, I highly recommend the Aztec Rice & Grain Salad… I’ve ordered it on two occasions now and really enjoyed it both times. Last weekend, I decided to branch out from the salad and ordered the vegetarian tacos with a side of mexican rice. They were some of the best tacos that I’ve ever eaten — great mix of veggies including peppers, onions, squash, and mushrooms, with black beans and cheese — and the rice was fantastic, too!
Plus, you can’t beat their 2 tacos for $ 3 special on weekdays from 4 – 7 p.m.
Jorge’s Cantina is definitely a new neighborhood favorite of mine, whether for a quiet weeknight dinner with a friend, or a late-​night weekend outing for dinner/​drinks with a large group. Everyone that I’ve dined there with has also been very pleased with the quality of the food and the service. If you still haven’t ventured out to Jorge’s Cantina yet, what are you waiting for? You won’t be disappointed!

This is now my go-​to for tex-​mex! The food was delicious (I had the avocado appetizer and the scallop and shrimp burrito) and the staff was welcoming. I sat upstairs where the bartender brought over a sample of beer when I wasn’t sure which beer to get.
It was casual and great for a date or drinks!

Only one visit so far, but we are very favorably impressed. There are not many places in this area to get something other than the standard Mexican or Tex-​Mex usuals, and that alone is a big plus here. The décor is also a bit upscale and whimsical (there is a painting of a mustachioed George «Jorge» Washington and his soldiers, all in sombreros and serapes, crossing the icy James River, with downtown Richmond buildings in the background). The one complaint is it took forever for the waitress to take our dinner order, but otherwise everything was good. If everything holds up on subsequent visits, I’m going to up my review to 4 stars.

I was pleasantly surprised with Jorge’s Cantina, after reading the Unilocal reviews. Their chips and salsa were delicious! I ordered an additional «citrus, mango, and red chili» salsa, which was pretty disappointing. But the waitress gave me a sample of the corn and black bean salsa, and it was also very good. I think their standard salsa was the best, though.
I also got a burrito bowl with scallops, shrimp, rice, green peppers, onions, and lettuce. It was great, and was a TON of food! I had to unbutton my pants, and still had plenty to take home for left-​overs. There was a $ 1 up charge to order a bowl instead of a burrito, which I must have missed on the menu.
Renee was our waitress and she was really great! I want to go back and try the tacos next!

I was hesitant to try this place based on Unilocal reviews and fear of bros, but my friends and I were into the idea of a post-​bike ride margarita, and Jorge’s was closer to us than DLB. I have never been so pleasantly surprised.
We were glad to see that both margaritas and tacos were on special for happy hour, which runs till 7. We ordered a couple different tacos to split, and each of them were very yummy (loved the huevos taco). Our bill for 2 people included 4 fancy tacos and 2 margaritas, which only ran us $ 13 total. That’s good for a cheap date night even if the food had kinda sucked (which it certainly did not).
Friendly service at the bar, and a very comfortable environment. Will definitely be returning for happy hour again.

This place was horrible.
A bunch of us wanted to try a new place and were craving Mexican, and the menu looked really creative and above standard mexican food with things like peach carnitas, avocado fries etc.
Everything sucked. We ordered $ 6 margaritas that came in rocks glasses, but somehow the table in front of us got them served in pint glasses.
The creative food on the menu was NOT anything like it was described. Seriously. It was such a let down. It was simple and standard AT BEST and definitely overpriced for what we actually got served.
The wait staff, while nice, took forever. They were barley half full. We waited longer to get the check and finally pay than the time we spent eating and ordering. Such a let down.
I hate paying 30 bucks for a place that is crap, so don’t go here, it’s not worth it.
oh and ps. when ordering a side of veggies (most things came with a side) our waitress told us not to get them, cause they suck. SERIOUSLY.

Great atmosphere, great menu, good service.
I went with a group of folks… my girlfriend and I shared some sea salt and cracked black pepper guacamole and had some margaritas. The guac was awesome. The drinks… not so much. Way, way too sour (house special margarita) and expensive for the size.
Looking forward to sampling other items from the menu!

Four stars for the service and décor!
Two stars for the food…
I originally had two stars but upped it to three not to discourage people from going here. The reason for the three stars is purely the food. It was underwhelming and I’m not really sure if the people making it have tried it.
We started with the «legendary» fried avocado fries and while they were interesting, they lacked any seasoning and shouldn’t have been served with the salsa blanca or chipotle ranch (which tasted like the salsa blanca with chipotle seasoning). They needed a light dusting of salt and pepper and should either be eaten without a sauce or with some sort of gourmet ketchup or salsa, even. If we went back, I would hands down order these again and season them myself.
Next, we ordered the torta and steak fajitas. Having had one of the best tortas ever from Habanero’s set the bar very, very high for me and ultimately, I was very disappointed in what I was served. A bun that had something lightly smothered on top and bottom of the bun and then pulled pork and mexican cheese? That was really it. Lots of bread and chewy seasoned pork… I loaded it with the onions served on the side and lots of hot sauce. You can never go wrong with hot sauce, it can always fix a meal. So my torta came with a side, and I ordered the tater tots and let me tell you, it’s a sad, sad day when tater tots are the best part of your meal. That and tequila.
The fajitas were tasty and a generous portion of meat and extra generous portions of green peppers and onions. I don’t really have much to say about these and thought the price was relatively cheap compared to other places.
All in all, the front of the house staff did great and I’m hoping that maybe since it’s only been a week that they have some refining of their menu and/​or kitchen staff but I’ll give this place a second chance it just won’t be for a while. Last recommendation, please get a drink menu so I don’t have to take freaking forever to figure out what to order.
I really hope that this place works out its kinks and becomes a fan standard. This location is almost doomed for anyone… I’m hoping that this changes though!
Take care & Savor it up!