Garcia’s Cantina & Cafe

This place is very hit-​or-​miss. Sometimes I have an awesome experience, other times it takes the server 15 minutes to take a drink order. The food is usually pretty good, especially their burritos.

Decent food. Decent prices. Odd atmosphere. Loud, crowded, crazy artwork. Cheesy, definitely cheesy. Some people love that type of kitsch, though. Overall, I had a pretty good experience. Not my favorite Mexican joint in the Anchorage area, but all in all, not bad. I heard they have live music? Guess I’ll drop by sometime to check that out.

Nice fajitas, good margaritas at the bar. But TVs are distracting and noise level is very high. Hard to have a conversation

This place used to be great. Went here tonight on our way out of town and it was awful. Great service. Bad bad food. Beans were straight from a can. Rice was dry and crispy. My beef chimi tasted like it was beef out of a beef stew and smothered in a weird chicken pepper gravy with green onions everywhere. Best thing at our table was the chicken strips and fires from the kids menu. Won’t be going back.

New management, updated food and bar menu. Most excellent bar and wait staff. Welcome back Garcia’s, I’ve missed you!!!

This place is on the rise. Live music is now a happening thing at Garcias. They feature local musicians. Then to top it off the food is delicious. It has improved greatly since years past now that it is under new management. The also mix some delicious Jalapeño Moscow Mules. I highly recommend this to south of the border lovers.

Love it! This place is so perfect for an after work get together. Great food and great drinks.

This place is awesome! My mother-​in-​law and I had a blast at the bar. The Tacos and Flan were amazing and the staff was even better! Thank you Vivienne, Jason, Nate Dogg and Joelle! You guys made our visit :)

I usually judge mexican restaurants is by their peppers. Love em. We try and eat here whenever we come to town. Great atmosphere!

We have been faithful customers of Garcias for many many years (20+ years) every single time we have been here we have never been disappointed. Excellent service, fantastic food, margarita are wonderful! Even the bartender has stopped by our table to say hi to the kids. We love the chips and salsa. Their to go portion of chips and salsa are very generous and we always order a bag to go. Fun & rustic décor has us coming back again and again.

Friendly staff and good food, certainly best Mexican in Eagle River. The Pollo Fundidos is my husband’s fav and I like the chicken fajitas, stay away from the steak fajitas though. I find they are tiny shards of steak that seem to remnants of something else.
Great bar!

Stopped in for a to go order. First they got my order wrong. How hard is it to make something off the dinner menu… it looked like a 4 year old had packed it, there was sauce all over everything. ugh… after returning the first wrong order, they got it right. kind of, ordered the chili colorado burro… Got it home, all the way to Palmer, tried to cut into it and the «beef» was so tough I couldn’t even pull it apart. The red sauce tasted like it came out of a can and the chips were old and stale. I am done with Garcia;s. Getting a decent meal once in a while isn’t enough. It should be every time. I have complained before and was comped my next meal. So I tried again. It is awful. Wish the old owner was back. I want my $ 30.00 bucks back.

Good atmosphere
Let me start off by saying get the spicy salsa some of the best salsa I’ve ever had everything else here is okay. I judge Mexican restaurants on how well they season there beef fajitas, yea needs major work. Owner feel free to message me for a sample recipe. The best thing here are the street tacos and blue moon combo. All in all I visit this place more then any place n eagle River it’s not bad.

The service was ok but their food wasn’t so great. That may also be because they got my order wrong. I asked for a super simple burrito with just rice beans and cheese only, nothing else. What I got was a rice and bean burrito swimming in enchilada sauce. No cheese (or very little).

An ERAK icon. Margaritas and Mini-​chimis; breakfast of champions. In a land not populated with chain restaurants back in the day, Garcias was once a lone chain outpost in the Great White North. I understand that the Eagle Eagle establishment is no longer affiliated with the chain. Good for them.

After 30 years of eating and enjoying food here… I’m done. My beautiful bride and I grew up on Garcia’s mini chimis, polo funditos, and fajitas. I’ve eaten here. Hundreds of times…
But the meal I just had was absolute garbage.
It’s obvious that the ingredients/​maker of ingredients have changed. The preparation has changed. Something awful has happened at my favorite restaurant of old.
My wife has never… NEVER not finished her meal.
I have never… NEVER not finished my meal.
We both enjoyed out mini chimis, but when the main meal came… It was a few bites each and we were done.
Whatever has happened at Garcia’s … It’s a travesty!

Up until recently I always had consistently good food and service when I come here with the family or with groups. We loved the place and I’ve been coming here almost as long as I’ve lived in AK.
Though i will admit on an early Friday evening in August 2014 we visited and the food was barely palatable largely due to basically being burnt (beans for example had started to break down & separate and entire plate looked like it had been under broiler too long).
Our server had a major attitude, including talking badly about other staff (who I might add were more friendly and helpful than her) and acting like we were inconveniencing her. This was very disappointing and we were one of three tables she had and I noticed another customer just get so disappointed they just asked for the check in less than half the time we were there.
We picked at our plates, took some home, but mostly just ate the chips which quickly ran out and were not even offered to be refilled despite ordering 3 entrees.
We drove out from South Anchorage and as my wife stated, it is no longer worth the trip and we’ll go somewhere else unless we are already in Eagle River, then maybe we’ll consider it.

We came here as part of a group that consisted of approximately 120 to 175 persons. This place was not equipped to support such a large group and the layout doesn’t help either. Everyone was scattered all over the place (which was not conducive to the reason for meeting). The servers appeared to have a hard time being able to take orders with our group plus the others in the restaurant. They are really hard workers and we could tell they were trying their best. However I didn’t like that amidst this chaos the manager would tell them they were doing things wrong and «no more mistakes!» which I found was inappropriate and just cold considering these people needed more staff and even the manager himself was running around like a chicken with his head cut off :-/​they deserved some credit. Aside from this get together, we have been here before. I find their food to be pretty average. The portions are plentiful and almost overwhelming. There was too much going on in my plate and it could fully satisfy two adults easily so in that sense you get your money’s worth. This isn’t my top choice for Mexican food but we still continue to visit once in a while.

I have lived in Eagle River for over 16 years, I have been here plenty of times in my life, and it never gets better. I always hope but it doesnt. Its mostly just a well known Eagle River place to be at. The mexican food is not good at all. The only thing that I like there is their chicken little changas with sour cream. Go any place in Eagle River for mexican but this place!

I eat here often — a must get is the Pollo Fundido. I’m always happy with it, so I don’t take a lot of chances with anything else on the menu.
I’ve always had friendly and prompt service, so no complaints there.
They’ve added a gourmet drink menu as of late — I tried the piña colada, not the best but I’m always pleased with their margaritas.