La Reina

I recently dined at "La Reina, " and unfortunately, my experience left much to be desired. From the moment I walked in, it was clear that this upscale establishment was not living up to its reputation.

Let's start with the prices. I don't mind paying a premium for an exceptional dining experience, but the prices at La Reina were undeniably high, and they certainly didn't match the overall quality of the meal.

The portions, on the other hand, were shockingly small and devoid of flavour. I expected a bit more value for the cost, but the amount of food served was incredibly underwhelming. It was almost as if they were trying to pass off appetizer-sized portions as full meals.

The service was a major letdown. The waitresses appeared disinterested and argued with me saying the menu prices were incorrect, making me pay more than advertised. At one point, I grew tired of watching the drinks I had ordered just sitting on the bar while my waitress engaged in a prolonged conversation with a colleague. Frustrated, I took matters into my own hands and retrieved my drinks myself.

As a Mexican, I was particularly disappointed with the quality of the food. The tacos I ordered were nothing short of a disgrace. I couldn't bring myself to take more than one bite of each taco. The flavors were bland, and it felt like a far cry from Mexican cuisine I had hoped for.

What saddened me the most was that I had eagerly anticipated dining at La Reina and had even recommended it to a friend who joined me that evening. To say that I felt embarrassed for hyping up this place would be an understatement. It was a disappointing experience from start to finish, and I left with a sense of regret and unmet expectations. I certainly won't be returning to La Reina, and I can't in good conscience recommend it to others looking for a satisfying dining experience, especially if they have a passion for good food.

Food was good, but size of tacos for the price was steep. We ordered 3 seperate meals, all premium tacos. Our 3 tacos were tiny on each plate. Pollo tacos were a lot fuller than others. If you want to charge that much, a side should be added.

Came in last night and had a great experience! Food was awesome and our server Mya was great and very attentive! They also have a deal on their take home margaritas if you dine in which we thought was fun. Will definitely be back.

Really enjoyed this place! The guac and homemade salsa is defs what won me over. Service was great as well!

My friend and I love it here. We come all the time:) The baja fish tacos are amazing, along with the margarita flights! The service is phenomenal and the servers are wonderful!

Great place for Mexican food. Definitely try the pollo tacos. And my wife swears by the pineapple express margarita

Awesome Mexican restaurant with so little authentic food in the area this is a really good find!

Would not recommend for vegetarians. Menu looked good! However resturant did not have the vegetarian options available. When asked if we could make modifications to other items so they could be vegetarian we were told that wasn't an option. Leaving us no choice but to leave after an very uncomfortable interaction with our server. There are plenty of better options on the same street!

The gauc was very good. I ordered the gringa quesadilla. The salsa crema was a bit spicy for me but it does come the side without the crema, the quesadilla was very good

Michelle our server was fantastic. She was so attentive and caring. Went above and beyond for us. Giving a 5th star cause of her.

The food took a little long to come out though. I wish the portions were larger, I had the fish tacos. I felt like 2 tacos wasn't enough, usually restaurants offer a trio and also allow you to mix and match. I wish they had mix and match as an option for a variety.

Overall it was pretty good. Would come back again.

One of our favourite spots to go. Food is always great and the atmosphere in the restaurant is casual and welcoming. The ceviche appetizer is excellent and the fish tacos are my go to. Downtown Guelph vibe overall is always great and this place is right in the heart of it.

We visited this week on Wednesday afternoon. Our waitess/ bartender extrodinare loved and sang to the music playing as we did and made her own cocktail ideas up for customers. We bought a couple cans from their cooler for Margaritas to go.amazingly good also. We will come back from Meaford for a game on their TV screen and a special cocktail.tailor made. Thank u

With half the tables empty it took 45 minutes from ordering for 2 tacos to come out.

The quality of the food and drinks was good, but not worth the wait.

Will revisit and update review

Birria tacos were excellent. Fried chicken burrito was disappointing. Would have been better to have full pieces of chicken but instead it seemed to be diced up amongst the bean and cheese and so not a very chickeny experience. Seemed light on the chicken in general. The Mexican street corn appetizer almost made up for the burrito though. Very, very good. I'd like to try recreating it. I'd definitely return for the tacos and corn. Service was excellent and the atmosphere was nice as well. I do not frequent DT Guelph often, but if I do, I will return to this eatery. Sadly, I did not try any tequila, but the selection looked most excellent.

If you’re looking for authentic Mexican food don’t waste your money here. The food is subpar, overpriced and service isn’t great either.

One of my "go to" restaurants. Very unique atmosphere, super fun. Food is great and I love the margaritas! It's fun to order a few dishes for the table and share. A great date night or girls night out

Beer was the only good thing. Staff seem like they hated their jobs. I felt super uncomfortable going solo for a drink. Not again. Also the drinks were much more expensive than most local places around I found out after. Walk around find somewhere better. They claim to be a Mexican restaurant no where close to it

EDIT: I should of read the reviews before going.

Been here a few times, the food tastes good but the portions are way too small and the margaritas are too sweet.

Mixed feelings. It took 50 minutes for two of us to be served four tacos. I'm hoping it was a blip, as it's important to note we went on a Friday night. I got the spicy shrimp tacos and they were quite good, though they lacked depth of flavour. The habanero sauce served on top was quite exciting, as it was deliciously smoky. It's important to note the tacos are quite tiny.

A friend and I sat on the patio. Wait for a table wasn't bad but after we got to our table we waited 20 min for a waiter to come to us. Food was good but portions were so tiny! I ordered enchiladas for $24 and my friend ordered tacos for $16 and we both left and got ice cream at another place after because we were still hungry and they didn't have dessert. I would not eat there again.

First review I gave was 4 stars wishing the tacos were bigger. Went back recently and let's just say Mexican food is supposed to be good and then give you diarrhea. This time I was served diarrhea. Probably not going back.

Always good food and drinks when we go there. Staff is always friendly. Definitely need to get the Mango Sticky Ribs! We love the tacos, get 6 between the 2 of us and get the ribs as a side, don’t the forget the Margaritas!

I've been to La Reina multiple times now, both for dine in and take away. I honestly don't know what to say. Sometimes I've enjoyed my meal quite a lot. Their tacos can be quite well done, with fresh and delicious corn tortillas. I've also enjoyed their Al Pastor burritos to go. But it seems everytime I go there, I'm also very disappointed by something. One time it was the ceviche which had way over cured the fish leaving a stringy texture. Another time the cocktail I had with lavender was so poorly mixed it tasted like I drank a bottle of a grandma's perfume. I also orders the Party box with my roommates for dinner one night. It was awful.

To say the least, La Reina is highly inconsistent. On a good day they can provide a very enjoyable, if slightly overpriced meal. But on a bad day it's a disappointing experience all around. Honestly, I just don't think I'm going to try anymore (at least for food, their Margheritas are pretty good).

Baja fish tacos were fine but the food took forever to arrive. We were served after a number of customers that arrived after us. Waitress cames out a number of times to tell us they didn't have what we had order. Overall it was just a bit of a meh experience. Servers were very nice.

I was blown away by the deliciousness of the vegetarian tacos. Full flavour, lots of colour, beautiful presentation. Definitely going to come here again! Emma, our server was wonderful, the service was fast and friendly. Highly recommend! Don't miss this wonderful Guelph patio experience!

Our server (who said she is a supervisor) was amazing. Other than that it was a complete let down. From waiting almost an hour for food to arrive after being ordered, to burnt enchiladas that weren’t filled, just disappointing. The hostesses that greet were quite rude and made us feel as if we were an inconvenience when asking to be seated. Again, our waitress Anna was great, but she is the only good thing about this place.

This place is not worth your calories and money. Plus, customer service is horrible and it is the least authentic Mexican place I have ever been. My recommendation is to try so many other places in downtown with better food and more friendly staff. STAY AWAY!

My daughter had a practice at Guelph so went here to enjoy patio and dinner. Patio was nicely spread out and clean! Service was great and they were training my waitress and of course she deserved a tip.

I had street corn app which has cheeze on it and chili and limes. So creative and tastes way better than I thought based on my description. Added lamb barbaco taco and nice flavours and textures. Margarita of the day was nice compliment to meal. Great vibe to place also.

Ngl my burrito had a lot of fat in it and was gross, no interesting flavours or textures. Vegetarian friend found a piece of meat in burrito. Churros as comp were super undercooked. $8 a small taco is way too much, and only 2 - won’t fill up most people. Drinks too expensive. Don’t recommend

Love that they supported their hometown basketball team #nighthawksnation by letting them host the fans in their space. I'm not sure why the servers neglected us for the first 20 minutes we were there: (

Amazing food everytime, lamb tacos and a nortena burrito makes for an amazing night would highly recommend! Oh and also don’t forget to try there salsa flight it’s good enough to hit every taste bud. Thanks la Reina

It was so nice to finally be on a patio after so long. The patio was on the road, but the road was closed for the restaurant patios to be opened! We ordered the green mole enchiladas. It seemed expensive, but in reality worth the flavor, even after you take it home! The ceviche del Mercado was pretty good, but it didn't have too much fish. I liked the chips that came with it. It wasn't too salty and it worked well with the 4 different salsas and ceviche. The al pastor tacos had pork and pineapples, lime, onion, and avocado salsa. I liked it, but if you don't like pineapples, it may not be for you. I would definitely go back again. The vibe on the patio was awesome!

My group of 5 arrived early expecting a long wait (cuz covid) and the hostess told us its a 2 hour wait. We said okay, and put our name on the list for a table of 5 people. The girl was so rude, acting extremely annoyed at my presence, barely speaking to me. But I get it, its busy. We waited around for the text and finally received it, so we rushed over to claim our table. When we got there, the hostess said they can only seat maximum 4 people, even though provincial regulations allow 6 and other restaurants had no problem accommodating us. We offered to wait longer if they could add a chair to a table, and they turned us down. I asked to double check how many people they put my name down for on the list, and they said "5". Why would they accept 5 people at first and make us wait 2 hours for nothing? Absolutely unacceptable. Go to Sip Club instead, they'll be happy to seat you.

Saturday evening Sunday shenanigans started at La Reina where we had tacos and tequila.
Their new patio is designed with dining in mind: comfy, private, and fun background music. Food was good and the service was terrific. See you again soon!

They can’t handle high demand at all, I had a horrible time waiting to get seated on Jul 3rd 2021 and after writing our name in the wait list and waiting for 3 hours I had to run to Beertown hoping they would still have the kitchen open to have something to eat. But the way, they never send the text giving me a table and we even asked many times to the staff if we could still get a spot, their answer was: “please hang around, you’ll receive the text soon”.
I’ve been at La Reina before and the food is really good, this is why I was willing to go from Waterloo to Guelph and wait 3 hours to get sited, I thought food worth it. But after this experience I left extremely disappointed of the service and upset because many of the customers were not even eating, they were there only for drinks. So if you want to have a good dinner and enjoy good food on summer you better give it a second thought before waisting your time here.

It's definitely a great vibe and a fun place to hang out. The drinks are tasty! We had the tacos and they were okay. The guacamole isn't fresh, and there's a lot of mayo/cream added to the taco. The pulled pork was also dry. It wasn't the worst but also not the best. I did enjoy my time though.

Sarah the Manager has no people skills! I asked to have an umbrella moved 2 ft for shade and she refused! Said due to covid, and if she did it for me she would have to move umbrellas for other customers. I said thats EXACTLY what you should be doing for your customers.
Chef Adwardo later came and apologized for how she handled the situation that escalated rapidly! The Mexican Chef is awesome! Makes the best Mexican food we have had ever! We definitely will be back again.
I gave it a 4 star instead of 5 because of Sarah! Promote her to dishwasher manager.not dealing with Customers!
I own a business myself, and if a Customer asked me to move an umbrella so they are not baking in the sun. I would do it in a heartbeat

Extremely Disappointed. We went from Waterloo yesterday, as usual, to have dinner here, and we put our names on the waitlist at 7: 56 pm.

We were advised by the waitress about the wait time around 1 hr 45 mins and received a message saying that our seating time was gonna be at 9: 56 pm.

We hanged around waiting to eat the good food that we like, and at 9: 56 pm I asked the waitress, what happened with the waitlist, and she said it was a crazy night, and the list was pretty large, she recommended to keep hanging around and soon I was gonna received the message for your table.

Guess what? At 10: 56 pm, we decided to leave, never received a simple message, nor anything. When I saw the tables from the people seated, people were just chatting, with empty beer bottles, etc. I wasted 3 hours of my time, and traveled from Waterloo to eat some good food, and was a bad experience.

Does the restaurant have time limits on tables? Because it seemed there was no rotation on the tables, and I felt like they lied. I will never trust again in their SMS system for the waitlist again, and maybe I will no be there again.

Fun ambience, enjoy the patio & street closure in downtown Guelph. Food pricey, menu trying to be fancy instead is confusing. Not typical Mexican food, no rice or beans as sides or substitutes, limited vegetarian options (some income fish?) & small portions/no sides.

Friendly staff.