Chino Cantina

Tried to go here two weeks ago. Lights out. Now being used as extra space for iFish next door.

Between the bar, the price of food, the quality of food, this review should be a 4-​star. The only problem was the service is really bad. I have been here twice and it was the same story both times. Which is really sad considering how few people were there both times.
The food the 1^st time around was really good. The burrito’s are amazing! They are giant as well. I could not even get halfway through my burrito. Another reason for the lack of a 4 or 5-​star review was they charge for chips and salsa… What kind of Mexican restaurant charges for chips and salsa? Especially when they come in a plastic bag and are heated under a heat lamp.
We only had an hour the 2^nd time i went and joked it would take 45 minutes to get our pitches of margs… yep, 30 minutes later we walked up to the bar to ask about the pitcher since we had asked the server twice and both times she did not return with pitcher in hand. The pitcher had been sitting on the bar for 25 minutes.
Both times it took over 15 minutes to receive our checks (1^st time was 15 mins, 2^nd time was closer to 30 mins)… Good thing we were in a hurry.

There are some places in life that pop out at you and scream, «come try me!». There are other places that you get a Living Social gift for. Chino Cantina is the second one.
My mom bought the bf and I a Living Social here because it was some kind of buy a gift get a gift and she really wanted that damn massage! Anywho. We came in here and had a somewhat odd experience.
When we came in, we were the only people here… minus the creepy guy sitting by himself at the bar undressing the waitress with his eyes. Hey, dinner and a show! Our waitress was really helpful and helped us navigate their menu.
We got the ceviche for an app and all I can say is that this is probably the second to worst ceviche I have ever had. It was supposed to be combination seafood and all we got were itty bitty chopped up pieces of shrimp, HUGE chunks of raw jalapeño and onion, and two (TWO) tortilla chips. The predominate flavor in this was cilantro (like someone just shot you in the mouth with a cilantro gun) which was weird because I saw ZERO evidence that their was cilantro in the dish… odd.
The bf got the chicken burrito which was HUGE but kind of gross. He didn’t finish it and he didn’t take any home. This coming from the guy who will eat anything is really saying something.
I had the taco sampler and got fish, tongue, and carnitas tacos. They were really, really good and the saving grace to our meal. However, I finished each one in two bites. We were definitely still hungry at the end of the meal. While they were ok, I don’t think we will be back.

How I found this place is almost as good as it’s taste. I was trying to go into a nearby restaurant that was apparently closed, when a guy ran past me and said «Hey there’s a better Mexican place up the street, I work there. You should come in!» And I thought «What the heck». So I did.
The guys name was Nick. He was obviously very excited and proud about the joint, as was the other bartender, whose name I didn’t get. It was $ 1.50 taco night, so I went with a pollo, a chorizo, and a barbacoa. The barbacoa was beef cheek, every tender but seemed a little lacking in flavor. The pollo was good, it came with a chipotle sauce that was tasty, but the chorizo was delicious. He also suggested their red sauce which had a good amount of heat to it. The salsa was great, medium heat and the chips were fresh. Combine the red sauce with the salsa on one of these and you’ve got some serious flavor. The house marg is made with lime juice, too. Very good.
There was a regular at the bar, the guys working were friendly, talkative, and truly a pleasure to be around. I really felt welcomed and was happy the whole time.
The restaurant itself is small and slightly cramped, so I might go a little nuts if I was there during a busy time. There’s some kind of special every day, and even without the price is inexpensive. I’m really looking forward to trying the burrito next.
I’m going with 5 stars because the experience was so good. Hats off to you guys for taking so much pride and enjoying where you work.
Cheers! I’ll be back soon!

aside from the fact the server forgot HALF of our order they got the remainder out pretty quickly. Flavors are meh… ok. Beef taco was flavorless, avoid them! Prices are decent for what you get. take a little walk and go to Margs instead.

Are we glad we came here! My husband and I were on our way to a game at Coors Field and this was just the ticket. The Mexican Burger was the absolute best! I had tacos, but my husband had the burger (wrapped in a tortilla and covered in green chile sauce) and I was JEALOUS. The wait staff were pleasant, friendly and super efficient even though it was CInco weekend. Thanks for the hospitality, great meal and being close to the ballpark. If we return to Denver, I am coming back.

Sit at the bar. Cory is a walking margarita menu. Food is inexpensive and okay… fair value.

Pinche it is not. HOWEVER, since they are similar concepts (taco/​tequila joint), I’ll compare it to Pinche.
The Good: Food is comparable… that’s saying something. Their tacos are good and slightly less expensive, the ceviche is good (although the menu says it is seafood when really it’s just shrimp). Salsas are solid. Happy hour is decent. That is where the similarities end to me.
The So-​so: Their margaritas, while cheap for happy hour are just okay. They are on the sweet side. They are served in a pint glass which is nice, but I prefer the smaller higher quality (read not so sweet) coin style margs at Pinche. The first time we visited we asked for a coin style margarita and the bartender looked at us like we had two heads. I understand it’s not super common, but for a taco/​tequila joint… that is unacceptable.
The Bad: The service is rough. Each time we’ve been there, the staff has been unremarkable to bad. They are either understaffed or when they are staffed appropriately they still, somehow, manage to suck.

What an… odd place… with tons of potential. Quick summary before I open my novel:
Pro: AMAZING food; cheap happy-​hour prices, you can actually walk in and get a seat (unlike Pinche Tacos)
Con: LOUD, Hipsters & sorority girls, so-​so margaritas, spotty service, some items (chips & salsas, guacamole) ridiculously priced.
We’ve been here twice now, and each time walked away with identical thoughts. This place is like Pinche Tacos crossed with Illegal Pete’s crossed with Chuys (sorry, Arizona reference, Chuys was a Baja beach-​shack-​themed joint I worked at in college that was a popular college pre-​party place for kids looking to get their buzz on, before the places got busted for hiring illegal aliens).
So I’m just not sure what they’re trying to be – A Pinche-​type place, featuring high-​quality food and drinks, or a happy hour/​pre-​party place for kids preparing to go dodge left-​hooks at the infamous LoDos Friday night meat market-​slash-​dance party?
The food is pretty darned good if not amazing. I’ve been stuck on their tacos, and a couple I have had, in my opinion, would do quite well in a Pepsi-​challenge versus Pinche Tacos, which another reviewer compared this place to. The Chorizo y Queso & Carne Asada in particular are unfreakingbelievable.
They also have house-​made salsas, six total I believe, and most of them are stellar. I enjoy the smoky arbol (their «hot»), the orange habanero, and their roasted jalapeño green the best. My wife has also had their shrimp ceviche, which is huge and very good (and she’s a pretty tough judge on ceviches). Finally, I saw someone last night with the «Mexican nachos» and they looked simply amazing, with cotija cheese sprinkled liberally around. So the food is legit!
Here’s where it gets odd. While the food is amazing, they seem to be catering to the drinks to the cheaper happy-​hour crowd. While they use some pretty good tequilas (100% agave, even in their house) in their margaritas, they don’t do coin-​style, and instead have a «house made» marg mix that is marginally better than sour mix from a bottle; and they then drown them with cheap triple sec and an overly-​abundant shot of sprite. The end result is more like a tequila press or spritzer than a margarita. This is a shame because while they have a fairly limited tequila selection, they are all 100% agave, and there are some really unusual and creative choices there.
Both times we’ve been in the crowd has been on the young side, with hipsters knocking back PBR’s or college kids playing drinking games with a deck of cards and shots. Add in crazy-​loud Taylor Swift from the jukebox and it certainly isn’t a place to hang with a friend or SO to relax and have a relaxing conversation over food and drinks. But at least you can come in on a Friday night and actually get a seat, unlike Pinche.
Their happy hour is pretty amazing, running until 7PM, and offering deep discounts not only on drinks but their stellar food.
My only last comment is that the servers, while really friendly, aren’t the most attentive or efficient, especially if some friends and/​or regulars come through. But overall they seem nice and grateful for your business.
So in summary, this is no Pinche Tacos – Which could be good or bad depending on what you’re looking for. But their food is legit and quite competitive with many of the other tacos y tequilas places proliferating across Cowtown right now.

3 tacos for $ 6, yes please!
Just a really fun, funky little restaurant in Ballpark neighborhood. We dropped in after some brews at Great Divide to use a Groupon. Glad we did!
The tacos were tasty. I really enjoyed the Chorizo one. And, the chef even came out and to ask how the food was. Super cool.
Unfortunately, they only had 2 beers on tap, Bud Light & Pacifico. But, I heard from my friends that the margaritas were quite tasty, even though they had to settle for the unfrozen style (the frozen marg machine was not working properly).
I love that this place is so close to Great Divide & River North. It would be a great place to pick up some takeout on our way to the tap rooms!

Great tacos, great prices, good beer, relaxed and laid back. Think of it as a Pinche Tacos without the maddening wait, distant location, or the Mexican crema on everything.
Come, relax and eat some real good food — Lengua taco is the best.

After much deliberation, my colleagues and I have decided that Chino Latino is a worthy place for of our weekly lunch gatherings.
Why the change of heart, you ask? For one, they’ve made several iterations to their menu where it’s now pretty kick ass and priced well within reason. They’ve also added a ton of specials and extended their happy hour time window, so that there’s really no bad time to drop on by for a delicious Carne Asada or Chorizo-​Queso taco or a cheap $ 1.50 Tecate on Wednesdays.
The service has also gotten quicker and the quality of meats have improved greatly. In a city where food is no monkey’s business, these guys seem to know what’s up – even if it took them a little while to get there.

Great new taco joint in LoDo! They have some really awesome daily specials too ($ 1.50 tacos on tues, $ 1 tamales on thurs, etc). While this place may not be as amazing as pinche tacos its a great addition to the neighborhood.
These are street style tacos. so you are going to need a few to fill up. My favorites were the steak ones, and chorizo. The others are good too, but those blew the rest away. The place is a bit on the smaller side, but its usually not crazy busy. I sat at the bar and the server was very nice and attentive. They have a very nice (and big) TV behind the bar and another on the wall in the dining area. Considering the daily specials this could be a nice spot to go for sports games.

If you go — only go during happy hour — that is when the prices are worth it.
It is a not bad sized place, but both times i’ve been ther have not been huge crowds.
The first time was absolutely terrible as shea, john w, and carly b explained. So John w and I decided to give it another shot on «date night».
We got there about 7 minutes prior to HH ending and they were sorta willing to get us a couple things.
The ceviche was super weird, comes spread out on spicy sour cream on a flat tostada. hmmm. The salsa’s have gone up in size, but not worth the non-​happy hour prices.
Tacos are ok — grilled fished was great, fried fish was meh, canitas just ok,
Beer — not cheep
Staff friendly — but they tend to only have a bar tender and they get tied up.
All in all, it could be a good HH spot, but nothing to race back out to.
The one bummer is the fact that you can’t get any internet inside, hard to check into Unilocal,i have had to check in out on the sidewalk!

COMPLETELY UNDERWHELMING. The menu is VERY limited, and they don’t offer any vegetarian items. We ordered margs (which were just ‘eh’) and ate chips and salsa before booking it out of there. Our waitress was bizarre, not only because she asked «Did you hear about the Aurora shootings?» THREE DAYS AFTER IT HAPPENED.
Shootings? What shootings? I just came out from under my rock and know nothing of this…
Anyway, dumb waitress aside, for us to go to a Mexican restaurant and not see ANYTHING on the menu that looked appetizing, well, that’s pretty much unheard of.

Tried it on Wednesday evening, and i was not impressed. we arrived right after their happy was over and there were about 20 or so people there. There is no ambiance and the place feels somewhat sterile. Between the music and the drunk patrons, the place was very loud.
We sat at a table and the waiter brought us their menu which is still quite limited. We ordered 2 beers and the waiter came back to ask for a credit card to «open a tab» quite strange for when you are sitting at their table for dinner. The menu had a few options for chips and salsa all at cost… given that I was comparing it with Zi South that has great tacos just 1 block away and gives you unlimited chips and salsa for free I was not impressed.
We ordered a combo of 3 tacos, one chicken and 2 pork. The 3 tacos were 6 dollars which sounded pretty good but when they arrived, they were small double tortillas with a tiny amount of meet and lots of lettuce. The pork taco with habanero sauce was pretty good, the other 2 were ok but nothing special.
I think I will stick with pork taco at Zi… they are 4 dollars but quite filling and delish

This place absolutely blew my mind. From the flavors with the chicken taco and the spicy habanero type sauce. To the Fish and Steak Tacos. Friendly employees. Nice Atmosphere. Seats only about 60 people but thats awesome. And they have Monthly beer specials.
It was Bud Light Platinum for 2.50 when i visited. Cant beat that. And they offer coupons as well. Next i will have to try the Fried Dessert Ice Cream.

Rarely do I give such a low rating for a place that had such tasty food. But as my friends have stated in their reviews, the experience left you rather dumbfounded.
First up was the atmosphere. It was nice and modern, making cool use of a small space. But even though there were only a couple other people besides our group of five, the music was at nightclub levels. It eventually got turned down due to our request, but later made a comeback.
Next the order. Our server visibly had difficulty understanding our orders, which given the small menu, were not too complicated. Chips and salsa, a quesadilla, three tacos plates, and a couple of drinks. When the tacos came out, I was missing a fish taco and had a chicken taco instead. I did end up getting a fish taco added, which was nice. There was also some confusion with the other orders, including the server bringing tacos to a couple of my friends numerous times despite not ordering tacos. Mind you, we’re some of the only people there.
The food was delicious, I must say. The carne asada tacos were delicious, as were the fish tacos. The three salsas they brought out for the chips were very tasty as well, and a steal at $ 1.
Lastly, the bill. Here’s where things went from 4-​stars /​3-​stars to 2-​stars. We had asked for separate checks ahead of time (2 couples and me), yet my bill ended up on a couple’s bill. No problem, he went and separated them. But their bill also had something on there they didn’t have. Ok, he removed it. I charged mine on my card and when I got the copy to sign and tip, I noticed it had increased. Well I went from getting charged for the 3 taco combo to being charged the individual price x3. At this point I was tired of the back-​and-​forth and just signed it and left.
I really hope this was all attributed to the newness of the place, as the food was worth the visit. I’ll likely return, but if my experience is anything like this one, it will be the last.

Three types of restaurants have been popping up all over Denver lately: Pizza, sushi, and trendy taco + tequila joints. While some are very well done with lots of thought put into the menu, some seem to be grabbing onto the coattails of existing, successful establishments. It might be a tad premature since this place has been open for about a week, but I think it falls into the latter category. It has a very similar type of layout as Pinche as it’s on the small side, has a large community bar table, and some small two seaters against the window. Even the bar was situated in the same spot and was about the same size.
First, some constructive criticism (I offered some of this up to the server as well right after I glanced at the menu)
— Please, some vegetarian options that aren’t a cheese quesadilla or chips and salsa! It’s not that hard to make a vegetarian taco out of existing ingredients: peppers and onions, salsa, pineapple, slaw, cheese and what have you (obviously not all in one, but you get my drift). For outside the box inspiration, look to the menus of Pinche Taqueria (you already borrowed the concept and layout) and El Diablo. It’s also not hard to add peppers and onions into a quesadilla.
The menu was sort of goofy overall, with happy hour drinks being somewhat lowbrow and party time. Not lowbrow in a hip way but like frozen margaritas and a shot of cheap tequila paired with a Coors light kind of way. Gladly, the server rung up my house margarita on the rocks as frozen and the margarita was not too bad.
We did get a cheese quesadilla and the cheese used in it was good (a variety of smoky white cheese), although I can wrap good cheese up in a tortilla and fry it on a pan at home and have better accoutrements for it. The three salsas served with the chips were tasty and chips and salsa are only $ 1 during HH.
The true cluster occured while we were settling up. Likely growing pains that need to be worked out in their computer system, but the checks were hard to discern (I think they didn’t have a button for guacamole which we ordered a side of, so he rung up a taco plate and took some dollars off of it). On top of that, they charged one friend’s card based on a different amount. As in, he gave them his card with one receipt and it came back with a different one. Only a couple of dollars difference, but you can’t do that.
This place is new, so I’ll disclaim that much, and it might get better. Until it’s better, I’ll just think of it as Pinche’s fratty, dim little bro.

Ok I’ll be honest. THey just opened. I’ll go back and update this review in a bit, see if things get better.
We went in on a Sunday, there were 3 other people in the place. THe music was so loud I couldn’t hear the person sitting a foot away from me.
The server had a hard time with understanding us, I dont know if it was a language issue or just loud music, but we all had to explain our orders a few times.
And when the menu has only about 10 things on it, it shouldn’t be hard to place an order. I got three Carne Asada Tacos. They were really really tasty. When i go back I’ll get them again. The rest of my friends mixed and matched tacos. Fish, pork, chicken, beef, etc. No one got what they ordered.
So yeah I really hope this was first month open issues that they’ll work thru, because the location is awesome the food is good, but the experience left a lot to be desired.
I also found it weird that chips and salsa are $ 1, but chips and Quacamole is $ 4. The salsa was really good. loved it, but if I’m paying for it I want more than a table spoon of each salsa.