On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

Pleasantly quiet on my visit. The cool air was a welcomed relief. The waiter suggested the fried avocado. It was devine and I suggest having the cream tomatillo sauce with it. Have the queso and guac for a starter and a great sweet tea.

Let’s start with the parking lot, shall we? I suggest whomever designed this spend one month as a handicap person and see if they can’t do better next time. If you are picking up a to go order, you have parking right in front! If you are handicapped, you will have to park around the side and make your way to the front door. Some priorities this place has!
Service, once we got it was good. The problem was nobody knew who our waitress was supposed to be so we got chips and salsa and no water. No water. When the waitress showed up she was nice and apologetic. She knew that we had been there long enough to already know what we wanted so she took out eat and drink orders together.
My margarita was good. The only thing that was. Mom sent her spinach quesadilla back because the spinach was old and tough. Manager did stop by the table and removed from our bill. I shared my meal with mom, which was just ok.
Bottom line, food is not that great, service is ok when you get it, parking lot is not handicap friendly.

Tried it for the first time… Fun setting, friendly staff but the food was a huge disappointment! Both my husband’s and my dish were way too salty (beef brisket tacos and beef chimi) that you can’t taste any other flavor. The chips and salsa were decent. The only was good on my plate was the Mexican rice. We will not go back for the food. Maybe good for happy hours because of the nice sized patio seating.

Oh mine where do I start. Out of all the places in Tyler I picked this one. I have eaten at this place in Dallas several times and it was always great. I had 3 of my granddaughters with me today. And I was going to impress them, but no the food was horrible, tasteless and cold after a long wait. Our server Sheyanna told us the food was ready, but it was served 10 minutes or so later. Tortilla soup was loader in rice and I mentioned this to the server, the response was am Mexican and whatever that meant. Then after tasting the refried beans with a little unmelted cheese on it, that they was cold, she said nothing, and of course she never asked about how is your food! I rarely ever talk to a manager but in this case on a 72.00 ticket I did talk to the Manager whom was very nice and did take off the bowl chicken meal and the smallest 5.99 bowl of Cheese dip that I ever saw. Drinks 2.69 that’s out the roof. Money is not the issue its the Quality of the food and service that counts for me. I will never eat at this on the border again. I didn’t leave a tip I left a note for the reason. I had a 10.00 tip ready, but Sheyanna took about 10 more minutes to come back to check me out, I felt like she thought she was punishing me. I was a server for 10 years and you can’t control the food but you can act like you care and do better than this. Sorry for the long post but, you can read between the lines. A restaurant only has a one time chance to impress.

I eat On the Border chips and salsa at home because they are my favorite. I eat there on occasion because of that. Last night my wife and I ate dinner there. The section we sat in had only 4 customers and Jace was our server. We were served chips and salsa quickly but had to wait for him to go through the ritual guacamole side order preparation at the customers table which takes about 10 minutes. In the interim we were eating our chips and salsa with nothing to drink. The salsa bowls are rather small and we were out before he got to the table. I don’t dip, I scoop and I eat a lot of salsa. The entire night we were waiting on Jace to do something. I ran out of my drink and it took another 10 minutes to bring me another. Remember, there are only 4 tables for him to wait on. Where he disappears to is beyond me. The food was good but not great. I had the chicken fajitas and my wife had cheese enchaladas. Both were good and I would order them again. The poor service reduced my rating, so I really don’t dislike the restauraunt.

Best Chili Relenos I’ve ever had! My husband loved his Chicken Chimichanga! The chips are crispy and warm and the salsa is delicious. My husband thought the salsa was too spicy but I thought it was just right!

Awesome every time we come here. We are regulars at this location. All the staff is great, Eric, Cat, Jace. The chips and Salsa guy, Ishmiel is super nice and keeps them coming fresh. New kids stuff added to the kids menu recently. Everything we have tried here is delicious. Tacos, grilled Mahi tacos, enchiladas, flautas, salads, fajitas, border bowls. Try it all. Daily specials Monday through Friday. I have never been disappointed with anything I have tried yet. I can’t count how many times I have eaten here.

Fantastic and surprisingly welcoming staff set this restaurant far above the others for me. The food is wonderful and the environment is inviting!

This is a great Mexican food restaurant and Cantina. We ate there probably 2 to 3 times a week. The service is always good and the food is always good. Recommend the restaurant five-​star

I work at a tex next place in Tyler but I love coming here. Everyone is ways so friendly. I love the margaritas and the chips. It’s very kick back and relaxing after a long day also. Thanks so much guys.

We were seated at 8:40 pm and ordered within 15 minutes. We didn’t get our food until 9:50. Our food was luke warm, like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for an hour. In between that we had very poor service. We complained to the manager and he comped our drinks and food was half price. However, it took our server 3 tries to make the tickets right. We didn’t walk out of there until 10:40.
Oh, we were a party of 8.

We went for brunch got there when they opened we sat in the bar Todd the bartender was great trying too eat his breakfast and take care of us all was good service and food. Good job!

The only reason this got two stars instead of one is because the food came out decent. I think the staff here is all on drugs. The hostess didn’t greet us and then rolled her eyes when we asked for an outside seat «yah I gotta clean it.» The chip girl was laying on the ground with her legs spread open on the bench talking with the to go girl who was playing on her phone. Our server didn’t remember anything except that we had water to start with. Is there a boss working today?

We have gone the past three times and received horrible service. The white female at the front who always has her hair pulled back seems bothered or annoyed when more customers roll in. Customer service goes really far in any business and this place really lacks good customer service. Regardless, times before — we received excellent service from Vickie and also from George (Jorge).

Service was inferior. Waiting several minutes now for check. Chicken over cooked, almost burned. Cilantro lime rice flavorless. Never refilled chips or salsa.

This used to be my favorite tex-​mex in town. But now it’s nothing but mediocre. The service is great. The servers are nice and my drink is never empty. But the food is not great. I’ve been twice this past month, once for work and once with family and both times the kitchen was super slow. Like a turtle trudging through molasses. And they were not very busy. The second visit the food was lukewarm after we waited for it forever. My cheese enchiladas were closer to cheese bricks. One person in our party didn’t even take theirs to go when over half was left because it was so bad. Good service. Cold food. Overly long wait. 3 stars, but only for the waitstaff

Not a favorite there are much better places to eat. Even when I lived in Dallas, Texas I was not impressed with this place. I would suggest it as a last resort.

Pretty good for tex mex, but come here for the bar.
They have an amazing bar with unique drinks and corona-Rita’s (I’m aware these aren’t new to Texas but my other traveling friends have never seen these) On may 5^th they have the biggest celebration ever, live band and great fun!
It’s really got a wonderful atmosphere.
HOWEVER I don’t know if it’s understaffed or what but the service is typically horrible. They always forget half my order because they don’t write it down.
But really. I’ve almost walked out a few times.

I’m not sure why anyone purposely would ever dine here. The food is overpriced, the drinks are generally weak, and the service is spotty.
Now, to the positives: On The Border does have a great outside patio. If you come during Happy Hour, drinks are reasonable, albeit weak. So, my advice: stick with the beer. As far as the food, keep this simple too. *Don’t order fajitas, etc. here. Quesadillas, Queso, and other apps, are *somewhat* decent.
Tyler has too many better options for Mexican.

The last time I went here, it was terrible. The hostesses were rude and the waiter just wasn’t with it.
I went the other day after work though and it was really good. The queso and tacos were really good.