Review of El Barrio Cantina & Tequila Bar

Let me start by stating it takes a LOT for me to leave a bad review for any business.

We arrived to no hostess but a young waitress in a hurry mentioned for us to seat ourselves and she’d be with us shortly (without ever breaking her frantic stride). We quickly learned why. She was not only waiting on tables, she was answering phones, mixing drinks, and for all we know cooking the food! We actually felt really bad for her.

She brought out complimentary chips and salsa, and I asked her if they were gluten free. She said “I think so”, and I conveyed to her that I am severely allergic, and needed to know for sure, if they are GF and cooked in a dedicated fryer (one that doesn’t also fry food that contains gluten). She checked with the “chef”, and confirmed that they are gluten free.

A while later she returned with the 2 orders of Chicken Fluatas. They were so overcooked that I thought they were sitting in a bed of refried beans. It was actually the chicken that was burnt to a jet-black crisp, and broke free from the rock-hard tortilla wraps that  just crumbled when we took a fork to them. My wife and I took one bite and quickly realize they were inedible. We flagged down the waitress, who then went to her manager, who then took them off our check and gave us cards for a free app and margarita (which we instantly knew, we’d never use). Never once did we see the manager.

We then had to tell her that she had yet to take our main order (this was after being there for at least a half hour). Not feeling confident about the safety of the food, I ordered something hard to mess up — pork carnitas. She then asked corn or flour tortillas, and I replied “Well it has to be corn, because as I mentioned, I’m highly allergic to gluten”. I then asked if the Mexican rice was GF. She replied “what’s Mexican rice?”, which threw us all for a loop. After going back and forth, she finally said “oh, is that the stuff that has different colors in it?”. I replied “yes” and she said it was.

When she returned with our food a loooong time later, I asked if I could have a refill on my soda (my kid’s got a refill earlier). She took the glass, but never returned. Ended up not mattering, because I only took one bite of the carnitas and a few of the rice. The carnitas were cold, mushy, and had some disgusting tasting slop at the bottom of them. I wanted to spit out the bite, but managed to get it down. The rice was flavorless and undercooked, so it was hard.

My wife had a similar experience with her food, and mentioned that she thinks they just took canned beans and boiled them — Zero flavor.

We got the bill, and noticed she charged us for all 3 soda refills. We then had to wait for her to get her unseen manager to correct it. BTW, the waitress made the rookie mistake of handling all of our drinks by lifting them from the rims with her bare fingers (instead of the base where one's mouth doesn't touch).

To make matters MUCH worse, I got gluten poisoning from the little bit of food I ate (2- bites to be exact, not including the chips/salsa). That was the deciding factor to finally leave this review. I now have to look forward to what could be as much as a week of burning hives, debilitating brain fog, sweaty palms, and sleepless nights, due to pure incompetence and negligence.

How confident are you that this establishment takes safety precautions against cross-contact?

— Not at all

Is there a gluten-free menu?

— Gluten-free items are marked on the main menu

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Some

How would you rate the taste and quality of the gluten-free food you tried?

— Poor