The Lyon Cantina

My family frequents here often. Not a whole lot to choose from in South Lyon for sit down meals that isn’t a coney. Not the best Mexican but good enough! Staff is always friendly and we like the atmosphere. Chips and salsa are good. I will say that tacos are not their forte. Bland for my liking. I usually get the taquitos. Their fajitas are good and other specialty items. Regardless it’s definitely better than taco bell which is the only other «Mexican» option.

Service was good… both servers on duty seemed really sweet. The manager came over during my meal to make sure things were good.
As an ex server I only complain when the timing is right. Everyone was too nice to tell them about how bland the food was.
Chips and salsa were okay… I got three tacos that came with onion, cilantro and avocado (sounds delish right), rice and beans. Everything was bland bland bland. I got two chicken and one steak. The steak tasted old… I have observed that I am rare when detecting old meat… but it does happen.
Service good… maybe something other than the taco dinner may be good for you!

Standard Mexican American. Good chips and salsa, great bar. Better than most restaurants in South Lyon but not in the area.

I am updating this because we decided to try this spot again. The service was decent. The salsa was better and the chips were warm, although about half of them were broken too small to dip into salsa with. My taquitos were «strange» they were not crispy like I expected but were more like an enchilada. Portions were good sized and rice and beans were good. I was surprised the fajitas did not come with guacamole. The iced tea was good.
Worst thing of all was that it was COLD in there. Its November and snowy and we had to leave our coats on to eat.
Overall, probably won’t be back anytime soon. Nothing was remarkably good. Just a so-​so experience.

Pretty good Mexican food for being close to home. Good for kids and prices were reasonable.

This place is not Mexican. Its tex-​mex. service is spotty. The food is covered with lots of cheese and just below average. The building is nice and gets u in there once but if you want real Mexican I would
Skip this place but if you like Tex-​mex American food you will probably like it. If you really want authentic Mexican check out burrito king in wixom.

New owner has let the place go downhill. He sits at the bar with family and uses foul language while we are trying to enjoy dinner. Also a couple kids who he was friends with were drinking beer that looked about 14. 82 degrees out and patio not even open. Such a shame. We loved the old owners! They would come around and make sure everything was great. Food was ok. Probably won’t be back.

My friend and I came for drinks tonight and we ordered nachos and the food was great! Service is great as always. Beer specials are pretty good :)

Our go to restaurant in South Lyon! Surprised at some of the reviews I’ve been going for years and have never had a bad food or staff experience. Even the one time an order wasn’t right it was fixed in a flash with obvious extra toppings for my inconvenience. Nachos are abundant enough to be a 2 adult +1 kid take out dinner. Mexican pizza is my other favorite. Great chips good salsa though I like mine hotter w/​heavy cilantro. I’ve met one of the owners a couple times, very personable and approachable.

We use to come up here almost weekly, the owners have changed … The food isn’t as good. The cheese nachos were always so good now you might get a spoon full of beans. When sharing one person gets the bean the rest were dry chips. Tried it a few times always the same. Went last night to try one last time. Halle was our server she was terrible. We had fajitas so our table was full. She also brought us two dirty plates for us to eat on. Never picked a plate up as she came back and forth, I finally asked her to remove the empty glasses and take the empty plates. It was a mess!
The vegetables in the fajita was cut in huge pieces and onions unlimited I bet I had two on my plate alone.
One more thing the tables on the booths are a discussing mess, all cracked up, peeling off. They really need to fix this.
We won’t be anytime soon

I don’t know how it happened, but we gave the place a third chance. Still awful. Maybe even worse. I have no idea what people are thinking when they rate this place anything beyond two stars. The chips and salsa are passable, but if you go in on a weekend it’s obnoxiously loud and full of drunk folks and the food is even worse than during the week, if that’s possible. Salty, pre packaged, dry meat, and just generally gross.

The boyfriend and I are always on the hunt for good authentic Mexican food. The service here was really good, super nice and attentive. Margaritas were pretty good, can’t complain. My boyfriend loved his burrito and he’s a tough one to please. I ordered the fajitas and they were average. Not extremely flavorful but not super blan. All in all, not very authentic but still pretty good given the atmosphere, service staff and decent food.

Not a huge fan… I was served taquitos with cheese wiz on them. The Margarita had too much sour mix, but the salsa wasn’t bad. MI zarape in Brighton is much better (worth the drive)

I really wish this place was better, as it’s the only thing in town besides Fortuna Inn that serves something other than American food. I’ve been here at least 4 times now, hoping for better, but I’m always disappointed.
The chips are cold and stale, the servers are very young and inexperienced, and the food is bland. The portions are gigantic, but don’t really taste good. The seating is uncomfortable no matter where you sit. The booths are very, very high, and my shorter eating companions have had trouble reaching the floor with their feet while seated! The tall tables aren’t much better. This place seems to always be noisy, even when it’s not very busy.
Despite all this, I was still willing to go in from time to time (there really is NO selection in South Lyon) until our last visit. We requested to split the bill on two credit cards, and our server simply rang it up wrong. For some reason she put $ 5 on one, and $ 26 on the other. We told her this was incorrect and she went to try again. Her manager comes over, yelling at us about it being our fault because one card was overdrawn. Thanks for letting the whole restaurant know, man! In the end, we had them try again, and it worked, but everyone there already thought we had money problems. Of course, there was no apology from the manager or the server. That solidified my decision to never go to the Lyon Cantina ever again. Brighton isn’t THAT far away.

The food is less than suitable for human consumption, they used nacho cheese for my dish, and some of the sides tasted freezer burnt. The server was ok, but a bit preoccupied with her phone and kept sitting at the table behind us counting her tip money. Never again will we come here. I don’t get the dollar bills taped to the ceiling thing, it’s tacky and not sanitary knowing money is the dirtiest thing one can touch.
I would eat canned dog food before I recommend this place. Drive the extra 10min and go to Novi or Brighton.

Ive been here about ten times and have had 2 excellent experiences but the rest were negative.
Pros: really friendly manager, good salsa, good drinks, excellent prices.
Cons: service isn’t the best, the food is rarely fresh, food quality, bland flavors.
I’ve had awesome nachos and an awesome steak quesadilla here; however, the food usually tastes like it was frozen or made two days ago and put in the fridge. I’ve also had questionable meat that caused an upset stomach. The sauces that accompany some of the entrees seem like they are canned or premade. I’ve also found the food to be bland.
I would go here for cheap drink specials to catch a game, but my days of dining here are over due to so many bad experiences. I really hope they get their act together, I’d love to have good texmex in south lyon!

Creative location and décor. Large bar, good happy hour and friendly staff. Not authentic Mexican, though if you enjoy American-​Mexican, it is good! Large portions, free chips and salsa along with fast service. I will be back!

We’ve taken our family to the Cantina several times over the past three years and tonight was our best visit yet. Lauren, our server was exceptional. The place was packed on a Friday night. The food was fast and there was a TON of it. Every plate I saw served was piled full. The nachos could have served all three of us as a meal. The food and veggies in our meal were fresh and cooked just right. Our son devoured a hill of Spanish rice.
This is what I call American Mexican. Not true authentic mexican, but good food. Fair prices. They have a great mix of beef, chicken, shrimp and vegetarian options. Props for having veggie burgers on the kids menu.
You won’t leave hungry.

I was a little wary having read some of the other posts, but had a nice dinner with my boyfriend on sunday. Not too busy. Wait staff was friendly and attentive. Good chips and salsa. Nice amount of toppings on tostadas and tacos. Would definitely come back again.

Terrible service. We went here with our 5 year old around 1 pm for lunch and the songs they were playing were not clean versions, the word «Bit**» was clear as day, very classy, huh?
Food sucked. Really that’s all I can say. Whoever likes this crap just really doesn’t know any better. Hard to actually find authentic Mexican here in Michigan but it wasn’t even good American versions. I’d go back for beer and that’s it.