TR Cantina & Margarita Bar

The service was quick and great! The pulled pork nachos were delicious. The red and green salsa were our favorite!

Food was good! The brussel sprout bowls were tasty, shrimp quesadilla was also good and the chicken enchiladas were flavorful. Great cucumber lavender margaritas! The negative were the hostesses. upon greeting us they were not friendly (3 of them), proceeded to tell us we would have a 45 minute wait with about 10 empty tables in full view. I believe they were more interested in their after work plans than seating customers. Tried to encourage everyone to eat upstairs and not downstairs… very interesting. Proceeded to do their hair at the hostess stand and talk on the phone. The guava juice we ordered tasted like water and there was a problem with the machine.

Had a great experience here! Good food,
Great service. We tried the salsa
Sampler, the papaya was excellent! I ordered quesadillas and he had the burritos which were both good. Prices were reasonable, will go here again!

Excellent food, margaritas, and service!
The shrimp tacos are delicious!
Great ambiance too:))

The salsa and margaritas were delicious. The salad was fresh and tasty. Our waiter Drew was professional, courteous and friendly. We will definitely come back and try the tacos and burritos.

Have the churros! Comes with two dipping sauces, caramel and chocolate. Deep fried deliciousness!

This place was a really pleasant surprise. Thanks to our server Drew who recommended the perfect dishes! We shared. I had the short ribs asada. Melt in your mouth good! They were soaked in a delicious sauce (almost a broth) with mashed potato and onion straws. My wife wanted the chicken mole but thanks to Drew she got the pork chops with mole on the side. Terrific decision. The pork chops were juicy and just perfect. In fact I preferred them without the mole sauce. The margaritas were good, not great. The salsa sampler was delicious, especially the mango papaya salsa. Very unique flavors.

Great margaritas and fahitas. Great service lots of salsas nice ambience. A fun place especially upstairs. Good view too.

We meant to go go to Tortilla Republic, but ended up here instead (we didn’t realize Tortilla Republic was upstairs). No reservations needed on a Sunday night at 8; we were seated right away.
The bar seats aren’t all that comfortable, but the service was pretty decent. If you check in on Unilocal,you can get the free salsa tasting (the green one is my favorite). If you don’t get the salsa tasting, everyone still gets free chips and salsa.
I found the food here to be pretty bland. I had the catch of the day fish tacos, and the fish was too dry. The tacos had nothing else on them except lettuce (no salsa). The salad was bland. The ceviche is very mediocre; you get some shrimp, a bit of fish, and a lot of mango chunks.
Portions are really big and the prices are fair. Food is okay but nothing great or special, but will fill you up. There was also a really long wait to get your food (the chips and salsa came out right away, though).

Initially, we stopped here for a drink during Happy Hour — 4−5PM and half priced drinks. Got to love a Margarita for $ 4 — there is plenty of seating (table tops) and bar space on the first floor with 1 – 2 tvs which is awesome. Great service and yummy drinks. The only down side is they may run out of local beers quickly depending on the delivery schedule.
Anyway, we came back a few days later for dinner since our cocktail experience was very good. It was packed, but they have pagers so you walk around and shop while waiting to be seated. It’s located in an upscale shopping plaza so there is a lot to see and take your time with. We wound up sitting in the bar area again (we’ll try the upstairs next time) and had a great meal. The portions were HUGE — literally my burrito could feed a village or 3 people. Others had the fish tacos which look great as well.
I was pleasantly surprised at how good and authentic everything was. Looking forward to coming back!

Had the Pork Chop Al Pastor, very good Pork Chop. Cooked perfectly medium, not dry at all. Not the best Chop ever, but very respectable.
The real winner of the nights? Brussel sprouts. HO-​LY COW! It made the meal an easy 5-​star and a great choice! Glad I went!

Sometime I really don’t get how a restaurants can have so many stars!!! fish taco was not fresh… I mean not fresh at all, It smelt. the guacamole was ok, the quesadilla was super greasy. they obviously put everything on the service and nothing on the products and it seems to be working (4 stars, seriously!?)
I had a painful digestion for 2 hours post-​dinner.
to avoid!

Mexican street corn — so good
Salsas — pretty good
Burrito — low meat ratio which was sad but otherwise good
Nachos — highlight of the meal
Also this place has lots of happy hour specials, both food and margs

We had the most amazing brussell sprouts EVER! It is worth the trip here just for the brussell sprouts — seriously. We came here twice just so I could have them one more time before we left.
We had the salsa experience which included a mango habanero which we were excited to try as we like things spicy. We were sadly disappointed as there was absolutely NO heat whatsoever. The other salsas were bland as well but we expected them to be but when habanero is in the name, come on let’s have some heat!!! We also tried the guacamole and it was good not great.
The drinks were okay but the service was really good both times.

We really loved this place. Awesome signature cocktails and happy hour specials. The staff knew their stuff and were fun to chat with. A few tvs if you want to catch some sports but definitely doesn’t feel like you are in a cheesy sports bar. Food is off the hook too

I’m not one to write a bad review, but my wife was extremely disappointed with beginning-​to-​end service and made sure I wrote this one up:
Like a previous review, I was «welcomed» by a hostess after I had to repeatedly say «hello» before she looked up from what looked like organizing menus?
I saw a few tables open and my wife and I thought we would get seating right away. Instead, we were informed of a 5 – 10 minute wait (cool, not bad) and she took my name and phone number down. We sat on the bench about 10 feet in front of the restaurant to wait. We watched as a few more customers get seated despite coming after us (I dismissed this, perhaps they had reservations on a Sunday night at 8pm). Anyways, after some time (I wasn’t watching the clock b/​c it didn’t feel much longer than 10 min), the hostess walks over to me and somewhat apologetically tells me that she could not reach me via phone to notify me that my table was ready. Perhaps there was something wrong with my phone? Definitely not– full service, browsing Unilocal with full LTE service.
We got sat at the same table we were looking at (just a few feet from the entrance) when we first approached the hostess. Whatever, let’s forget that and eat, right?
Wrong. Now I’m watching the clock. 10 minutes before our waitress was able to introduce herself to us. Ordered a soda, and our meals, as we had ample time to look at the menu.
Soda came out after quite some time. Tortilla chips and salsa came out waaaay after that. We had maybe like 5 chips before our entrees came out shortly thereafter. Halfway through my entrée, my glass of soda was just ice; never got a refill because no one ever checked on us. Whatever, I’ll drink my water.
FOOD: Tortilla chips with salsa — good, nothing spectacular. Carne asada tacos — meat was decent, somewhat tough to chew; tortilla didn’t exactly do it for me. Flautas de pollo (chicken rolled tacos) — probably the highlight of the experience. Highly recommended.
Meal is done now, and we are waiting a long time for the waitress to come to our table so I can ask for the bill. There is no evidence of us still eating/​drinking. I make eye contact with our waitress and she glances away before I can even make a notion. She tends to two other tables (one table twice) before finally coming to us and asking if there was anything else we wanted. It is nearly 9:30 pm; the restaurant was supposedly closed at 9.
Although I doubt it, I understand that everyone has a bad day, or perhaps they were short-​staffed. So if I take into account those two things, that takes away my complaint of waiting. It does not take away from the fact that this waitress was completely inattentive and without that «aloha» charm at a highly visited tourist restaurant. This was definitely the worst service we’ve had on our honeymoon in Hawaii.
TLDR version: TIP: get the Flautas de Pollo. WE did not receive quality service from their staff.

We ate here on a Taco Tuesday and they had a great deal for all their tacos. We tried the carne asada tacos — which had really great flavor and were our favorite. We also tried the shrimp tacos which weren’t bad but had a little too much batter on the shrimp for me. The salsa tasting with chips was a good trio of 3 salsas which were delicious — just wished the salsas had a little more kick.
Our service was great — super helpful and friendly and we would definitely go back to try more!

I, too, don’t understand the ‘average’ reviews. Excellent food, top notch service, and a great setting. If you’re like us, the last thing we thought of for food was mexican on Kauai. But after 12 days here, we thought we’d mix it up. Glad we did.
We sat upstairs after making reservations just 30 minutes earlier (on a Tuesday). For pupus, we had the salsa tasting, brussels, and ceviche. Skip the ceviche — it’s a tropical version that lacks the pizzazz usually associated with that dish. And the salsa trio was also meh. But you have to try those brussels! I’m not kidding. Those were crazy good and memorable. Even my 16 yr old daughter really liked them. We devoured those in short order.
For entrees, we had the Ancho Chili Rubbed daily catch (in this case, monchong). That was outstanding. Monchong is my new favorite white fish! We also had the Prawn Fajitas. Also, very good.
For drinks, if you’re a margarita fan, try the one made from just tequila and fresh lime juice (with a float of triple sec). Man those were good!
If you’re lucky enough to sit at the middle table along the front edge of the place, you can see Spouting Horn in the distance.
We’ll definitely be back next visit.

Great Mexican food for being far from the mainland. Price was reasonable and setting was great.
Feeling like Mexican in Poipu? Give it a try!

This place works is a good change up for breakfast or brunch. They do a fusion of Hawaiian and Mexican with some fairly decent ingredients and the result is pleasant. I enjoyed the local beef loco moco. The service is OK but some of the servers do not seem happy to be there. I know there’s a lot of snobby tourists come in but being treated friendly is an essential part of a good dining experience.
By the way try the bacon flight. Its four different flavors of bacon quite yummy