Recommends

AlbertaNell

Joined 2 years ago

Great Margarita & People Watching. I go there with the girls from work and we always have so much fun. The margaritas are divine and the crowd is so colorful on Fridays!

Doesn't Recommend

valvechick

Joined 3 years ago

worst of the El Tiempo family. agree with previous poster - overall I love El Tiempo, the Washington location is the best, the Richmond location not quite as good, but this location is awful. We were there early on a Friday evening and it was deserted, so no excuse for bad service (and service was atrocious, not just bad). The menu is the same but the food doesn't taste anywhere near the quality and taste of the Washington location. Chips are stale, salsa was tasteless. Overall, avoid this place until El Tiempo fixes the problems.

Still hard for me to understand the quality variations in the taste of the food when you have the same menu. Maybe they need more training for the chefs. The spinach enchiladas at Washington are amazing. At Richmond they're edible, but not great. At Montrose I couldn't eat a second bite, they were tasteless. How hard is it to get consistency? This is something El Tiempo needs to work on.

Doesn't Recommend

kneering

Joined 6 years ago

WTF?. Let me start by saying that El Tiempo is hands down my favorite Mexican restaurant in Houston, both the Shephard and Richmond locations. Which is why it puzzles me that they would ever allowed to be associated with 1308 Cantina, which by all accounts is a total mess.

The only thing that's the same is the menu. However, none of it is cooked the same. Even the chips and salsa were subpar.

I ordered a mixed drink and it was completely watered down. So I ordered a glass of wine and it was at least a week old and smelled like vinegar so I had to send it back. My soft tacos were cold, missing cheese and were basically piles of lettuce. Service was spotty as well.

This place is a mess. WTF? El Tiempo, cut your ties immediately!

Recommends

SusanBankston

Joined 4 years ago

Great service, great food. Honestly, we almost blew off 1308 Cantina after reading the awful reviews! However, we have visited the other locations of El Tiempo and liked the food, so we decided to give 1308 a try. We had a great experience. Parking was plentiful and easy. The service was friendly and attentive. My husband had a margarita within seconds of entering the restaurant. Karla J, our waitress, offered both flour and corn tortillas with our entre. The kitchen had no trouble preparing our favorite "off the menu" item - pobla queso. The beef fajitas, carnitas, beans and rice were excellent and the portions were generous. The chips were fresh and so were the tortillas. The salsas meet the high standards of the other El Tiempos. Karla also offered us extra tortillas to take home with our leftovers! The restaurant was clean and so were the bathrooms. 1308 we will be back!

Doesn't Recommend

6483runner

Joined 5 years ago

go somewhere else. My wife and I arrived and ordered chili con queso, the best part of the meal

by far. The salsas were good, but the chips were bland and a little stale.

When our friends arrived and they began by telling us the story of their

Saturday adventure, the waiter immediately rudely interrupted. He asked if

we were going to order Fajitas and pointed to something for $79.99. We all

wondered what could be that expensive at a Mexican restaurant? Obviously the management pushes the staff to sell the expensive stuff. The interruption set the tone for the rest of the dinner..

Our food came rather quickly. The enchilada plates looked like microwavable

meals. The enchilada sauce tasted like Prego.

1 of 4 of us thought we had decent meal. So there may be hope, but we will never know.

Doesn't Recommend

travelfemme

Joined 5 years ago

Worst food in Houston. First, let me say that we have been very impressed with Houston?s variety and quality of restaurants and thus far, 1308 Cantina has been our worst food-experience. That being said, I don?t even know where to start to relay what is wrong with the food at this restaurant. The margaritas tasted like bad tequila with watered down lime juice. The beef brisket soft tacos, which are a combination of cubed fat, canned artichokes, and shredded lettuce, were a disgusting combination of cheap Italian and Mexican. The meal came with three tacos and I could barely choke down one. The side of rice was bland and dry. The beans were simply awful and I love Mexican-style beans. I tried all my friend?s dishes (various chicken, sausage, and brisket enchiladas) and they were no better than my tacos. The only reason I asked for a doggy-bag was because we paid so much money that I felt compelled to take the terrible food home for my dogs to enjoy.

The small number of good points: the queso dip was good, the ambiance was nice, and the wait staff was attentive. However, there were only a few other tables to serve on a Saturday night, which should send a message to the owner that the food is less than adequate.

I wish we would have read the reviews before going to this place, and not relied on an uninformed recommendation. There are so many other great cheaper places in Houston to dine. Please don?t waste your money and appetite at this restaurant.

Doesn't Recommend

diekosiskak

Joined 5 years ago

Not worth even a zero star ... Waste of money and time!. The food was way-way below par (judging based on food sampled on at least three continents). The meat quality was not even suited for canning!!!! If you order beef brisket, would you expect nicely cubed pieces of fat?! Moreover, I thought it was quite akward to receive a mixture of rice and past as a side ... After living in (and eating my way through) Houston for three months, I have to say that this restaurant is the worst in Houston. I feel cheated monetary wise and time wise! Putting it in perspective I have had better meals in Botswana!

Recommends

Meg291979

Joined 5 years ago

Great Mexican Food in Houston. This is a great restaurant! My husband and I go here regularly and the food is always excellent. The wait staff is helpful and the margaritas are great. The fajitas have a unique flavor- kind a mix of brisket and fajitas. 1308 also has an extensive menu with more than the typical tex-mex options. The food can be a little pricey. We usually split an appetizer and the medium fajitas, which is plenty of food and pretty affordable. We cannot figure out why this place has so many bad reviews online. I have never written a review, but felt obligated to tell the truth about this great restaurant!

Doesn't Recommend

mistavee

Joined 6 years ago

Was once good. Not so any more. Shame.... Drinks are weak and poorly executed and therefore expensive for what you get. Obviously the bartender has 'taken the pledge' and is forcing his/her hate of alcohol on the patrons! How can they not get a Margarita right!?

Service was also poor and mistake ridden.

What happened? This was once a good place at which to eat/drink?

Doesn't Recommend

von74

Joined 6 years ago

Bloody disgracefull place to mexican food. Food it's overpriced and my server was frankly incompetent. he took several minutes to get my miserable drinks, then when I was served my food it was fairly cold and with beans eventhough I specified to the server I did not want any.

When I asked the server if I could talk to the manager he said he would go look for him, he then came back to tell me that the manager was anywhere around. I wonder if the owner of this place is aware he/she is paying the managers to hang around rather than provide customer servise. One more thing, the music they had on that night was unbearably obnoxious-- it was like chisel and hammer to my bloody ears-- I think it was some sort of salsa. Not even spanish pop is that bad.

For the price of the food in this place customers deserve a much better service. go somewhere else people!