We held our baby sprinkle in their back room area and it was great! They let us decorate however we wanted, every staff member was super nice, food was hot and delicious, the margaritas were strong and my virgin piña colada was perfect! read more

Me and my daughter went to this restaurant. The food was very good but the service sucked. I tried to get the attention of the waitress and multiple times and they just kept pass me. They continue to keep walking past my table without acknowledging me. I asked another guy in there for a cup of ice and a straw, and he looked at me like he wanted to cuss me out. read more

Wasn't sure what to think about this place, being at its located in the strip mall, but I am sure glad that we decided to go here. The service was outstanding, (not a ton of people in the place) but the food was great and they had an amazing selection of Mexican beers on tap. Go to place, for sure!! read more

La Cantina - Chorizo con Pollo, Chori-Pollo. SO delicious!!! One of the better ones I've had and would do it again!! - Mexican Near Me - Marion, Iowa

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The food was very flavorful. The restaurant gas a beautifullayoutt and a full bar. I truly enjoyed the decor and large menu . The food was delicious, and the service was amazing. Our waitress was knowledgeable, fast and very friendly . I would deffinatley recommend it. read more

Well , I don't know the Mexican food scene in Iowa but I was impressed by La Cantina ( much better than 3 stars). Came here for dinner without a clue. The service was very good, helpful and swift . I was greeted by a smile , a basket of chips and a very nice selection of draft beers ( they have all of the Mexican favorites). So in addition to the chips and homemade salsa I opted for the queso dip as well . The server recommended a chicken fajita wrap so I took her advice. Delicious . In sum , I couldn't ask for more - the menu is huge so plenty of options read more

La Cantina - Chicken fajita wrap - Mexican Near Me - Marion, Iowa

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I took my daughter to this place for lunch, and what a disappointment! The food was sub-par at best. We each had a taco salad and asked for ranch dressing with each. We also each had a jumbo margarita. My daughter's drink had a small bug in it, so they took the drink off the bill. The bill had 4 - $1.25 charges for each of the 2 Tablespoon servings of dressing! When did restaurants stop including dressing with salad orders? My margarita which seemed watered down, was $12! What on earth? Maybe I am out of the loop on drink pricing, but it seemed very overpriced. I paid over $50 for this lousy meal and with tip it was $60. The waitress was pleasant and did a good job, so I gave her a decent tip, but this was the first and last time I will be going there! read more

I've frequented this restaurant quite a few times. Each time has been pleasant, with good service and decent food. A week ago we decided to go with a group of friends- their first time visiting. Me and my friend decided to get a dish called "aguachile", mind you I've had this dish before (not here) and it's a very delicious and refreshing meal. First off, it took a long time for us to get our orders in. Then it took about 40 min to get our meals. They brought out 4/6 meals, me and my friend were still waiting on ours. While everyone is already eating and finishing up their meals they finally bring ours out. They said it was bc our dish took some artistry....not sure what they meant as I only saw a sliced avocado on top and slices of cucumber on the side of the dish. I was genuinely confused when I saw the dish as it looked nothing like aguachile. This was essentially shrimp swimming in mango puree with bits of mango and pineapple in it. Not really a typical aguachile dish. The cucumbers weren't even IN the dish, they were used as a garnish or as a decorative piece.. typical aguachile dish has diced cucumbers in it. The dish was so spicy we could hardly eat it. As my friend put it, this tasted like a spicy mango shrimp smoothie. We left it all. We just ate the avocado that was on top. If this dish wasn't $20 I would've let it go. But that was $20 too much for spicy shrimp smoothie. I did call the restaurant 2 days later to give them my experience and said someone would call me that day or the next. Unfortunately no one did. I do want to say my husbands dish was fine and no complaints whatsoever, he enjoyed his meal very much. I just wish someone would have addressed this issue so I didn't feel like I had to write this review. read more

La Cantina - Aguachile - Mexican Near Me - Marion, Iowa

This place is my go to for mexican food always. the service is so good and everyone is so nice, and the food is always fresh. I always recommend this place to everyone! read more

Ate here with my husband and one of our kids after a wrestling meet. It was busy for a Thursday night and the gentleman who seemed to be the manager was friendly, but the waitress was not for some reason. It seemed like she actually slammed our silverware and queso and drinks on the table in an angry fashion but I have no idea why. The chips were good but we quickly ran out with three adults and it took quite a long time to get a refill so then we finally had queso getting cold and no chips. The food was OK, but my fajitas were burnt. It was actually kind of hard to chew it because the chicken was so dry. Wondering if this problem could be solved by decreasing the temp of the skillets it comes on? I've been to several Mexican restaurants and it's one of my favorite foods in general so I've seen lots of hot plates but these were insanely hot. Kept cooking my food faster than I could eat it. ;( read more

La Cantina - Chicken fajitas - Mexican Near Me - Marion, Iowa

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Always great service and good Mexican foods BUT the MARGARITAS ARE OUT OF THIS WORLD! So good! My husband and I usually share the steak fajita's and get extra tortillas with it to take home. Always leftovers with this one! The Parilladas is another one of our favorites. It says it serves 2 people but I would say more like 3 or 4! For $25 you get ALL THIS! Thin-cut ribeye steak, chicken, carnitas, sausage, veggies, queso fresco, avocado and corn. Served with tortillas, rice and beans. read more

We ordered carry out from La Cantina in Marion this afternoon as part of Yelp's Big Night In event with the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City group. La Cantina is our go-to spot for great Mexican food in the area. I was glad to find them open with an updated website addressing the current situation. They are doing delivery through GrubHub but I decided to call in directly and pick it up myself (mask on). It was strange seeing the place with nobody dining in. I was greeted warmly from a distance and my order was ready on time. I didn't bother checking the bags and after arriving home we discovered... as you might guess.... We got exactly what we ordered, piping hot and ready to enjoy! If you expected something less positive, you've been going to the wrong places... come to La Cantina and you won't be disappointed. I went with the Carne Asada with Fried Eggs and added the Guacamole Salad. The flavors were spot on. I'm trying to watch my carbs so I passed on the rice but said yes to the beans. The combination of eggs and avocado was better than expected. I'll definitely do that order again! My wife ordered the Fajitas Al Pastor and enjoyed it. She said she'll go back to the Tacos Al Pastor which was her usual order but she wanted to try it out. She prefers the fresh onions in the tacos over the sauteed onions in the fajitas in this case. Both dishes looked amazing. They also gave us a bag of fresh chips and salsa. Such warm and friendly people and in the past this place has never been empty. It's good that we can continue to support local businesses this way during this trying time. read more

What happened to this place? Went there for supper tonight. There were three people at the bar and one table had two people and us two. The overhead music was at an ear splitting level. There was one server and the bartender. The table we chose to sit at was dirty, the booth itself had dried on liquid running down the backrest. The quality of the food is awful. One be back. read more

I really hate giving one star reviews. My mom worked in the restaurant industry and I know how difficult it can be. However, in this case, I have no choice. Our experience on this night warrants a one star review. We arrived at around 6 PM, there were four of us, and upon entering the restaurant we were neither greeted nor had any clue where we were supposed to go in order to put our names in to get a seat. You seem to enter at the side of the restaurant and the hostess station is in the middle of the restaurant. This leads to some rather awkward positioning of tables and entering right into the side of someone's meal. When we did finally find someone willing to take our name, as soon as we indicated that we wanted to sit outside, she very rudely instructed us to just seat ourselves anywhere we found. When we got outside, there were only two other people on the patio, both of which had empty glasses and it looked to have been needing service. That should've been our first warning. When we sat down, there were only two menus on the table, so we had to go back inside to find additional menus because the person that sent us outside did not give us menus. From the moment we sat down we were swarmed by flies. They were everywhere. I have never been on a patio in which there were more flies buzzing all over. After about 10 minutes, someone finally came out to give us some water and then five minutes later returned with chips and salsa. Five minutes after that they finally came and took our drink order. About 30 minutes after we sat down, someone finally took our food order. Mind you, this person certainly did not look like they wanted to be taking our food order. We actually thought he may have been the bartender but turns out that was not the case. Sidenote, while we were out there, another couple came onto the patio and asked us "is the service as bad out here as it normally is?". I shook my head to the affirmative and that couple left the restaurant. Once again, that should have been a warning sign. We are now 45 minutes into our experience at the restaurant. We are being swarmed by flies, our drinks have been empty most of the time we have been here. Our chips have also been empty. We have not seen anyone in a while. At some point, we thought about sending up a smoke signal. Eventually, I went into the bar to get refills on our drinks. At that point Someone noticed I was getting refills and told me to head back outside and they would send them out. It is important to note that our waiter actually passed me three times while I was standing at the bar with empty drinks and never once made an effort to get refills. Finally after about an hour and 15 minutes, our food came out. Well, I should say half of our food came out. The half that did come out was cold and the other half didn't arrive for another five or 10 minutes. When that came part of the order was wrong and we eventually just asked to have some boxes so that we could just take our food and leave. This was a horrible experience. There was really nothing about this that was acceptable. Had I been able to find a manager I would've expressed this to them. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anyone in charge that I could see. read more

Ate at the Marion location tonight, had fajitas. Food was great, as was the service. Thumbs up!

As much as I love the food here, this restaurant leaves much to be desired when it comes to their HORRIBLE service. I ordered thru Grubhub and was quoted with a 30 minute wait time. After 45 minutes my food had still not arrived but I could see thru the Grubhub app that the driver was there 15 minutes after my order was placed. After an hour, I finally called the restaurant itself and spoke with the poor excuse of a manager named Carlos. He very rudely informed me that they had too many to go orders and the kitchen was backed up. I politely informed him I understand restaurants get busy, but their lack of staffing accordingly wasn't my problem. He then tried to pass the buck and fault to grubhub, which I promptly shut down reminding him that I can see the driver has been there the whole time waiting. He then literally told me, "we don't start cooking togo orders until the driver gets here because sometimes they don't show up." I told him bulls*it (literally) and told him once again it isn't grubhubs fault and asked him what HE planned to do about it, to which he replied "nothing" told me if I wanted a refund to contact Grubhub, and then rudely asked me if I still wanted my food. I said yes, send it. After the call food was here within 15 minutes. Got the food, food was messed up, which after waiting over an hour for i just ate it. As good as the food is, I will NEVER eat here again. And need to hire a more customer oriented manager that isnt such a d*ck! read more

La Cantina catered a baby shower for my daughter. They did such an amazing job not only serving quality food, but went above and beyond setting up and arranging the food beautifully! She also took the time to create delicious "mom"osas and "dad"daqueries! Everything was perfect! We appreciate all the work she did to make our baby shower such a memorable event. Thank you so much La Cantina! read more

Seafood enchiladas and shrimp tacos fantastic! Chips and salsa solid. Service can vary based on waitress or waiter pretty drastically. Not consistent service. read more

Got seated right away, 8 mins later took our drink order, 10 mins later finally got menus, 5 mins later finally got our drinks. Drinks came out wrong. Princes have gone way up. This will be our last time here :( Flies where horrible, drinks were watered down. Meal was ok, not enough tortilla shells for the fajita. Have to pay extra for extra chips read more

We ate here Saturday. I love the big space they have in this building. We had Smoked Margaritas which were to die for. They took a hand held smoker and smoked tequilas bottles and the glasses with smoke then closed up the tequila bottles to capture the flavor. It was outstanding! They also have igloos on their patio and food trucks for events like covid. The only thing i was a little worried about was the bathroom. The toilet paper holder was missing which means you have to hold a roll by hand on the back on the toilet which isn't very comforting and the paper towels were not in the same machine. Other than the cleanliness it was great. I would have had 10 more of those margs if someone would have asked. read more

I am a regular that eats here atleast 1-2 a week, their food is amazing and I've tried multiple Mexican restaurants around this area and haven't found a place that taste better than here. I highly recommend this place especially if you like your margs strong!!! read more

Our favorite Mexican restaurant in Marion is closed due to a recent disaster, thus when we were craving Mexican we decided to try this place out again. We were not impressed the first time we went - noisy, slow service, and fair to Middlin margaritas. This time we walked in and it was still very noisy (you cannot hear your conversations) so we sat outside on a beautiful patio with lighting. We were seated and given chips and salsa... but no menus. We waited for 10 minutes before someone came around asking if we needed anything. We replied with margaritas and menus. Another 10 minutes later we finally got our menus (by this time we had finished our chips and salsa). No drinks yet. Finally after another 5-10 minutes later we had our drinks. We were given another basket of chips and salsa (even though we did not want it) and finally were able to put in our order. We had our margarita almost finished by the time our food came. The food was decent, nothing to rave about. I had a fajita chicken quesadilla. Felt like it could have used more peppers and heat. The rice was very dry. The margaritas were ok... but tasted like mix. The best part was probably the warm tortilla chips and salsa. We both concluded that service was still slow and chaotic (we had 3 people serving us through out the night). We cannot wait for our favorite Mexican restaurant to open as this just didn't cut it. read more

This place was packed at 5:30pm on a Tuesday night. Our waitress was awesome. Got margaritas right away and food wait was reasonable for a packed house. Very good food and loved the salsa. Margs weren't bad either. Definitely coming back read more

My husband and I shared the "Parrilladas", a grill of meats, and it was a lot food. Pork was delicious. Steak was overcooked and needed more seasoning. Chicken was fine. Kielbasa, my favorite!!!!!We had food leftover. I was surprised (although pleasantly) there was Kielbasa on the plate. ...((not so much after researching "Parrilladas"))(Or whatever that thing is they serve it to you on. It also looked like there was a place to light underneath the food, but it wasn't, which made the food cool even faster.) The description said "Sausage", and we're thinking Chorizo...but No. Hell yes to the Kielbasa! My husband would have preferred Chorizo. Daughter had the chicken Chimichanga ..... she says the other location in Cedar Rapids is better. (Not sure why.) The fried ice cream was good--we shared it three ways. Service was excellent. We sat inside. It was loud, but not too loud that I couldn't hear my family at the table. Bathroom was very nice and spacious, could have been cleaner. read more

The food is outstanding and the service is... not. If you have time to kill and a desire for a good meal at a solid price, La Cantina is a good place to go. But the service is slow and the wait staff is overworked to the point of an inability to attend to customers. So if you don't have the better part of two hours to be largely ignored in the service of a good meal, maybe wait for the service To improve? read more

Called in an order to pick up today a large order I might add but was not very impressed with the food! My bill was about 70 bucks for food that was sub par! Very disappointed with this location! For this amount of money I could've fed about eight people instead of four back in the Chicagoland area! Will not be visiting this place ever again! Way overrated overly expensive and not worth going! read more

When we first started going here, food was good and service was pretty good. Tonight it sucked. Odd that your never greeted, but we were aware of that. We were seated at a wet table to start, just dry it, it takes like 5 seconds. Then no one came to take our order for a long time as others around us were seated and orders taken. Someone finally showed up and took our order only to return and reconfirm since it was not written. We waited and waited and then saw our waiter look our way with surprise and head back to the kitchen. Others seated around us that had come later were served. Didn't need to be a detective to figure out that our order had not been placed. We waited a few mote minutes and my wife called one of the waiters over. He stated that a big order had come in before us. That was a lie as others around us seated later had been served their food. Basically it came down to us calling out the lie and we left. Not before the waiter dismissed us and basically said good riddance. Crappy customer service and then lied to. Original waiter wouldn't even come to the table. Done with this place, many more to choose from. read more

We have been to this restaurant many times. Over the past couple months the service has been terrible. If you want to spend a couple hours it's the restaurant for you! read more

So i found my new favorite place in marion!!!! My friend and i went out for margaritas last night after work so we chose to try it here!!!! I was very satisfied! We sat out on the patio and i loved the way it was set up we were very comfortable and the ladies that took care of us were amazing and friendly!! The margaritas were worth the six bucks the chips and queso were amazing! We order a couple tacos and i never see my friend finish a plate and she finsh it all it was for sure worth the money and they are not that pricy!!! I will be going back for sure to try more off the menu for it all looked really good! read more

La Cantina - Mexican Near Me - Marion, Iowa

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This is a poor excuse for Mexican cuisine. The chips even sucked! Ground beef? Really? If I wanted generic taco shells and ground beef I'd go to Taco Bell. The Fish tacos were nothing but a lump a deep fried crap that completely lacked flavor, they didn't even come with a fresh lime!!! I will never go back, what a waste of $50!!!! read more

The food was horrible, the service was horrible. I got taquitos and their shredded chicken was so gross and the ends were burned. My daughters chicken quesadilla was nasty she couldn't eat it. It's also sooo freakin cold and so many flies in there read more

Best Mexican to date. Wife had a small piece of plastic on her burrito and the wait staff / management made it right instantly without issue. We will be back again food was fresh and atmosphere was awesome! Very clean and everyone was polite. I ordered the seafood nachos and they were probably the best I've had in at least 10 years! Everything was grilled before being put together and had a great smokey taste! My kids both had the Mac and cheese and that was gone right away! read more

La Cantina - Mexican Near Me - Marion, Iowa

Not for plant based or vegan eaters. So much oil on the food. Took forever to get our food. Too loud to enjoy the meal. Food looked like it was thrown on the plate - a total mess. read more

Attended a Iowa girls high school basketball event: Rivalry Saturday at the US Cellular Center this weekend and decided to walk over to La Cantina for post game dinner. Food was fantastic and our server not only worked hard to keep chips, salsa and drinks refilled, but gave great advice on the menu. We had a party of 8 and waited less than 10 minutes to be seated. Salsa was fresh and we ordered quac (very good, with just the right amount of heat). College boys ordered the El Cantinazo (major amount of food - they were happy) and my husband and I shared the Parrilladas (also, an incredible amount of food). Just had leftovers today-YUM! Found our new favorite Mexican place when attending events downtown! read more

La Cantina - The Parrilladas! - Mexican Near Me - Marion, Iowa

Great Mexican in Marion. They always start you off with a generous portion of freshly baked chips and house made salsa. First batch is always free. This may be the reason it is always so busy here!! Now even if you're not a big fan of Mexican food there are some good choices for American food as well. Let me assure you though, that everything else is spot on. My treat here is the Seafood Enchilada dinner. Too much goodness to describe here, so you are just going have to try it yourself. read more

Disappointing seeing the 4-Star reviews & having pretty high expectations. Ambience: not very clean, dusty/dirty, not much for decoration, but good music. Service: excellent - fast & attentive. Margaritas: both Jalapeño & Watermelon were delicious. Food: just not up to par. Rice bland & on the dry side. Steak fajitas - meat thin & overcooked. Guacamole was runny. Just didn't live up to the rating & for those reasons... we're out. read more

The staff is amazing. Our food always comes out quickly and correctly. It's my favorite Mexican restaurant and it's close to work so it's convenient for me. read more

I have to update my last review, since we have been coming here on a regular basis. This place has really grown on me! The food is great, the service has been excellent and the margaritas are nice and strong. Can't go wrong! read more

We had a very nice dinner this evening! My girlfriend had fajitas with chicken and I had chicken enchiladas with a green sauce and they were both very good. Service was excellent. We will definitely return. read more

Worst service I have EVER had. Got here at 10 to 6 this evening. Drinks took 25 minutes to get, no refills, excuse that they are busy. I just left with no meal, it's 700. I like the food here, but you know, there are plenty of Mexican restaurants in town. Not sure I will give you guys my money again. Get more help, or close your doors. read more

I have a hard time understanding how place so consistently horrible can stay open as long as it has. La Cantina offers mediocre service on their best days and some of the worst "Mexican" food on the planet. I would not recommend this place at all to anyone and will not eat there again. A dios la cantina. I tried. read more