Contessa’s Cantina

Friendly wait staff, great service. Food was average… taco salad and tamale plate. A little pricey for mediocre food.

I live on Mexican food. I try every Mexican food restaurant in every town I have the pleasure to visit. For me, Contessa’s hits it out of the park. The meal started with chips and salsa — not just one sauce, but two. I could tell one of the salsa’s (green) was Hatch Green Chili based and wow, was it good. Their red sauce was also outstanding. My meal was no less of a culinary delight and I left full and happy. I have tried several of the other Mexican restaurants in Bisbee, and this one is easily my new favorite.

My husband and I visited today because he had been there before and swore it was really good but we didn’t experience that at all today. We should have realized when we came during lunch and the place was a ghost town with our table and only two others occupied.
It took quite awhile just to get drinks and it almost felt like an imposition just to ask the waitress questions because she kept trying to run away from the table before we were done talking.
The food came out fast but incorrect. When my husband pointed out that his food was wrong, instead of correcting the issue the waitress tried to argue that he asked for it that way. My good was greasy and disgusting. I thought there was supposed to be some actual chicken in the chicken enchiladas but obviously I was wrong because they were almost all cheese.
We were hoping to have a lunch with good food and service but that was not the case. We will NEVER return.

They are under new ownership so I’m updating my review. We were one of two tables in the entire restaurant, so of course we were shocked when our drinks (two margaritas and a water) took 15 minutes to come out. We ordered a taco salad and chimichanga, it came out fast, but what a disappointment. The chimichanga was OK, but bland. The taco salad was inedible. The ground beef had ZERO seasoning/​flavor, it was tasteless. The salad itself consisted of shredded lettuce, 5 pieces of diced tomato (and I asked for no tomatoes), a tiny bit of shredded cheese and no dressing. They did bring a side of sour cream and guac with it. I didn’t eat it and they took it off the bill, which was nice. The waitress, I wont mention her name because she was awful, zero personality, it was like talking to a door. There is no way they’ll be open much longer with this kind of service. We won’t be back.

First time visitor & must say one of the best mexican restaurants i have eaten in. There salsa was the best loved every bite

Ate here on our last night in Bisbee. I’ve been a regular at Santiago’s whenever I’ve been in Bisbee, but I think I’ve found my new go-​to Mexican place here in town: Contessa’s!
The food and service were both top-​notch. It was clear a lot of care went into the preparation of our meals — they tasted like home cooking and the portions were generous. Our server even brought us a complementary dessert! Don’t miss this place!

Better-​than-​decent Mexican food for the area. A little heavy on the enchilada sauce. Service is friendly and quick. Our big, dumb Labrador was welcomed to sit outside with us next to our table.

For Bisbee, with delectable dishes around every other corner — and in Contessa’s case, just across the street or right next door — this place just doesn’t cut it. It’s not bad, it’s just not great.
Super nice servers, though.

I’ve been to Contessa’s twice while visiting Bisbee and I love the place. The Pozole is really amazing with huge chunks of tender pork (melts in your mouth!). The restaurant is a little quieter given the location, which I prefer (it’s usually pretty restful if you’ve been walking in the sun all day). They also have a nice outdoor patio in front of the restaurant and an authentic Mexican ambiance. The service is super friendly! Recommended.

Beautiful restaurant with a great staff! The house margarita was delicious and served in a nice glass. Their salsa and chips are good. I particularly loved their spicy chunky salsa and the chips were served warmed, which is a plus. However, the food was just average. Because of the quality service we will be back! Hopefully, we will find something we love on the menu.

Great food, prices & amazing service! We left there full & satisfied, then my husband realized he forgot his wallet with $ 600 cash in it. We called down there, they had it & were holding it for us. When we got there we were pleased to see it still had all of the cash. you can bet we will be back.

Great spot if you are in the area. We sat on the patio which was a great way to do some people watching in a busy area. I had the shrimp fajitas and they were really good. The tortillas were fresh and tasty and the side items were great as well. Chips and salsa were good but not fantastic. Service was fast and friendly. My friend got chicken fajitas and loved those as well. I had a horchatta and it was very flavorful. We were there for work during the week and a lot of places had limited hours but they were open! Glad they were because it was the best meal I had in the area during the week I was there.

Good guacamole but was served on a bed of moldy lettuce. Spoiled tasting canned refried beans. Dry, rancid tasting rice. Carne Asada fajitas were warmed up and crispy dry. Salsa was entirely too hot and most likely came from a bottle
Service was very good. Should have gone to Santiago’s!

The location is beautiful, loved the inside and the outside deck. The sangria I ordered (because they were out of margarita mix) was delicious.
However, those are the only positives. We passed up Santiagos because we thought this would be more authentic. We learned soon enough that we wound up in the restaurant that white people not familiar with Mexican food go to (We hear the waitress explain to 2 different customers what an enchilada was… What??)
I ordered Taquitos and I’ve had way better with Trader Joes or Taco Time. It was unseasoned chicken, in a deep fried tortilla – so bland. My husband ordered the «exotic» enchiladas. The dish came out w/​rice and beans on either side of a flour tortilla with a piece of cheese in it, just folded over like a taco, smothered in sauce.
Waitress was not good at all – unfriendly and couldn’t provide simple requests like water.

I left still hungry and paid $ 12! It could go down as one of the worst burritos I’ve ever had. Burritos to me have to be more then a hunk of chicken wrapped. Sorry I ate there. It wasn’t worth it.

Beautiful ambiance. I had the best mole and flan that I have ever had in my life here. I don’t even like flan generally, but this stuff was insanely rich, creamy, and perfectly spiced. Great, spicy salsa and fresh, refreshing margaritas. We didn’t try a whole lot of different things, but were extremely pleased with everything we had. Very good service and just an all around memorable experience.

This place is super cute! The atmosphere is nice the place seems to be very clean and they play good music. I want to preface this review with the fact that today’s Valentine’s Day. This is usually a hard time for restaurants as they are full to the gills with people dinning out.
For this place it was about 2:00 on Saturday and the place was pretty much dead. I could hear the bartender hyping her place up to the people at the bar. I also read a few reviews that this place is better than santiagos.
I couldn’t disagree with the bartender or the other reviewers more! We got a simple dish to share which was two tacos, and two enchiladas. These were the most bland things I’ve tasted. Now I also want to mention I’m a Tucson native, so I’m not misunderstanding the dish. They were lame. The salsa for the chips was good, and the enchilada sauce was decent, but I feel if the sauce was missing the plate wouldn’t do well… At all!
Sorry guys but this is V-​Day pre game and the flavor was missing! How can you expect to hit this out of the park later tonight?! Also the prices are seriously «gougy» for what was offered?
Ex. Ten bucks for a burger??? This is Mexican food not Vegas. $ 8 would be better. However, if the flavor is gone then $ 0 for me!
Sorry so harsh, St. Elmo’s did a number on me and I wanted something solid?

Good, attentive service. Very flavorful food, especially fish tacos & fajitas.
Since we brought three growing boys, the only thing we would change would be portion size. Although, we all left satisfied.

We decided to take a leisurely drive down to Bisbee today. We have heard so many wonderful stories about the quant shops in this former copper mining town.
It was just the right thing for the Saturday after Christmas. We wanted to get away from all the post Holiday Sales craziness and Bisbee beckoned.
One of the shop owners suggested Contessa’s Cantina, so we decided to walk up the hill and give it a try.
Things didn’t turn out as we had hoped though. Juan was our original server, but he had a table of fifteen, so Laura took over for him. Laura kept telling us she would be over in a few minutes, but she was busy with some guest in the bar area.
After getting tired of waiting, we decided to move on and at this point Laura came by to take our order. Since it was lunch, we went with the Beef Enchiladas with mild green Chiliis for $ 9 and the Chicken Flauta for $ 10 (see photos).
We also ordered a Raspberry Iced Tea ($ 3.00) and a glass of Horchata ($ 4.00). The tea was from a can, but the Horchata was fresh and very good.
About twenty minutes later our food arrived and we were served spicy red sauce Enchiliadas. Now I love heat, but my partner does not. We asked if Laura could remake it and we were told, «she would need to check her order ticket» and turned and walked away. Hmmm, okay then.
About five minutes later, Laura reappeared with a green chili Enchiliadas and we thought, problem solved. LOL. Well not exactly, it turns out now we had a cheese enchiladas instead of a beef one. I flagged Laura and she told us surly, «that the cheese and beef were the same price» and just walked away.
Whoa Nellie LOL, not! No excuses, no apologies, no «we’ll take it off the bill», or hey, we’ll fix it. Just, that’s that, take it or leave it
So at this point we just decided to leave as quickly as possible and put some distance between us and Contessa’s Cantina.
As for my food, it was m’eh at best and not worth the $ 28.24 we paid, except for the Horchata. My three Chicken Flautas were hollowed out and missing most of the chicken.
I don’t know what normal is for this place. After nearly a thousand reviews, I have very few One Stars to my credit. But here I believe it is wholly deserved. Return factor? A large negative number for sure. Sorry.

My boyfriend and I accidentally stumbled upon this place and we were completely surprised on the quality of the food.
I had the Mole and it was some of the best I’ve ever eaten. We both truly enjoyed the food and the experience and would recommend this restaurant to anyone and we are totally coming back.