Ed’s Cantina & Grill

Good food but after seeing their inspection history, I won’t be back.

Fantastic food! They use Colorado grass fed meats. Soups are excellent as well as desserts. You must try this place!

Our party of 8 adults and 2 young kids showed up on Jan. 2 without a reservation. We had to wait but only about 10 minutes. We did have to sit at different booths. Half in one and half in another but the place was very busy. We were all very satisfied with our food. I had a Mess Burger with bacon, cheese, avocado, grilled onions, was delicious. Instead of fries I ordered the fried green beans. When the plate came it had fries on it. I said I ordered Fried Green Beans and they brought me an order of them. I loved them! We also ate the french fries too though. My husband had a Mole Burrito and seemed to like it. We all had plenty of food. Our daughter’s boyfriend had the elk soup and seemed happy with it. She had some sort of Wrap. Service was good. We always enjoy Ed’s.

Best Mexican food I have had yet in Colorado. Very affordable menu. The serving of guacamole with the chips and salsa was very generous. I ordered the fish tacos and I will definitely be returning next time I’m in town. We went the day after Christmas and were seated immediately. The food was brought out promptly. Very impressed!

The best guacamole ever! We enjoyed the atmosphere, the food was fantasize and service was professional.

Unilocal lied! Unilocal lied! Last Saturday we came here at 845 because we thought they were open until 10, but they were only open until 9! So we looked douchey-​er then Scott Disick on the Kardashian’s show when he got drunk and stuck a $ 100 bill in that waiter’s mouth in Vegas.
Decent bar food, good house margaritas, cute mountain bar ambience. They cut my friend off thinking they drank too much, but let me finish their drink :) Not many choices in Estes, so if you just want a simple meal, go on and roll through Ed’s.

It was ok and pricey! Nothing to rave about!

Great margaritas, especially at happy hour price ($ 5).
Smothered in green chili? Huh? Apparently they don’t do that in Estes Park. I had to order a side and smother my own. The tomatillo sauce was good.
Bison meat costs extra and tastes like ground beef.
Our waitress was a bi**h. Checking her phone while at our table, exasperated sighs, that kind of thing. She gave my six-​year old attitude and an eye roll for daring to ask for ketchup to go with tortilla chips. Cow.
In sum, three stars. Lucky to get that.

Consistently good. We’ve been coming here for years. If you’re not a fan of some spice on your food, you’ll want to talk to the server a bit, but if you can handle a little, you’re in for a treat! Tonight I ordered the fish tacos. They were the perfect balance of flavor a crunch and with generous portions, I was sure to leave with a full stomach. The fried beans were good on our last visit and my husband has enjoyed everything he has ordered. This is a very popular restaurant though, so try to go at an off-​season or off-​meal time. There’s always a wait and the parking lot is consistently full.

Great food! Super quick service. I went with a couple of co-​workers. I had the fish tacos, Chips and Salsa and the Guacomole. The only thing I did not like is that they actually charge you for Chips and Salsa. Most establishments do not.

The nachos with pork are great and well presented with a nice homemade salsa, fresh guacamole and sour cream. Fresh jalapeños NOT from a can, the small nachos definitely satisfied us. We also each had a taco, I had the buffalo and my man had the fish, they were better than average but nothing to write home about. I had a decent old fashioned when I learned they couldn’t make a fresh mojito. My man was served an ice tea with a Splenda packet wrapper in the drink, kind of freaked him out, but the waiter quickly replaced it when we told him. Overall it wasn’t a bad experience, and the elk walking up the creek provided a nice ambience until it created an animal jam with the tourons. Double check your bill and make sure you actually get the happy hour prices!

This is a very good Mexican restaurant — for CO, I think it’s on par with what’s to be expected (probably a 3.5 is more accurate star rating). They do a really good job with the meats here, and, yes, if you’re adventurous with your food, try the buffalo!
Watch out for hidden costs here… chips and guac for the table? That guacamole was $ 6 I think. Eep. Also when ordering a burrito, the waitstaff casually asks if you want guac, sour cream, etc. added in – those do come at an extra cost if you weren’t paying attention.
However, the food itself, is good Mexican food. The meat options are really good. I had a pork carnitas burrito and it was very meaty (my husband said it was great after I let him have it from me!). My toddler was a big fan of the rice and beans in my burrito too. (Did I even get dinner?) The kid meals are very small — appropriate only for a very small child; over 3, you probably want to order larger unless you have a very picky eater.
The servers are efficient and they check in at appropriate times. The water is served in large tequila bottles which is kind of fun. The restaurant is popular and it can get crowded (make a reservation!). The parking lot outside is almost nonexistent so plan to park and walk over.
If I were back in the area, I wouldn’t avoid this place… but I wouldn’t really go out of my way to come here again. My husband might for their mixed drinks though! Ha!

Good food but service was lacking common sense… For example my 9 year old nephew burnt his hand after being handed a very hot plate. There was lots of help available so this should not have happened. Another example, a table of 6 getting one tiny bowl of salsa and then having to ask for more 3 times, also the kids portions being extremely skimpy with big prices. This restaurant has been given a four star rating before on Unilocal,that’s why we decided to give this a chance. Now on the bright side, the vegetarian dishes were absolutely scrumptious. Management did try to leave us with a good feeling about the restaurant, so for that I will give them kudos and I will leave them with three stars instead of one.

This restaurant is losing 2 stars for a few technical reasons. First, it took them over an hour to seat us (a group of four). Normally this would not be something I would take away for because that’s just what happens during dinner rush hour in restaurants, but every group that came in after us were seated before us. Another couple came over and asked to be seated in the dining room because the bar area was too loud and were seated at a four-​top before us when we were next on the list, even though they were asked before being seated if the bar area would be okay. We were also told that our wait would only be 20 – 25 minutes, and it was TRIPLE that.
This restaurant also is Tex-​Mex but makes you pay for chips, which is super weird. The table-​tops and floor were also both dirty and covered in crumbs.
Other than that, the food was great and the wait staff was friendly. The food also came out quickly, which made up a bit for the long wait. As far as food taste itself is concerned, this is probably the best restaurant in Estes Park based on what I’ve had. I had the tomato/​avocado/​pesto grilled cheese with corn chile soup and it was really, really good. However, the wait was just completely unacceptable.

Following a hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park, we were looking for good Mexican food and per on-​line reviews, came to this cantina. What FALSE ADVERTISING!!! This is not a Mexican Cantina by any stretch of the imagination!
First, you have to pay for chips and salsa… that is the first clue this is not even a Tex-​Mex place. We sat outside in their beautiful patio with a roaring river behind which was the only highlight of the experience.
The food was such a low point! I ordered spinach enchiladas which were really full leaves of spinach stuffed in a tasty corn masa covering with some creamed corn and chips on the side. Oh-​the chips were horrible. very oily and no crunch.
My husband ordered chicken enchiladas… HORRIBLE! The chicken inside was actually huge pieces of chicken not shredded and with NO taste. His came with a squash salad that was the only tasteful thing on the plate.
Overall…very very disappointing experience. Wish we went to the other dive Mexican place we walked by.

Delicious food, great ambience and tasty margaritas to quench your thirst! I definitely recommend this restaurant after a day of hiking in the park. I would come back for sure!

Better than average Americanized Mexican food with generous portions and quick table service. If you have a large appetite and craving for Mexican, this is a safe bet. We have eaten here twice and both times have been satisfying. The burritos are huge and flavorful, and the beer list is average.

I want to start this review off with the hostesses were fantastic. They were attentive and friendly; seated us relatively quickly. It went down hill after that. We were never brought chips, the server only checked on us after we were done. I had the super bland bison tacos consisting of boxed fried corn tortilla with ground bison and a sprinkle of cheese. Not the worst place but definetly not going back.

I was on a wonderful weekend vacation in Estes Park, and in desperate need of some Mexican food. I went to Ed’s and I was not disappointed! The Bison Enchiladas were great! The ingredients were fresh and it was an excellent value. I would definitely recommend Ed’s to anyone!

I echo the same comments as other Unilocalers. Meh, boring, yawn.
I suppose I am spoiled when it comes to Mexican restaurants… why do I need to pay for chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant? The menu stated the salsa was made in-​house, but it definitely di
d not taste like it. It tasted like canned, chopped tomatoes with some onion. Zero spice, very little taste. The guac was the same; too creamy to taste homemade, needed salt, needed spice. The chips were the same– boring and stale. I mean. for $ 7, what a rip-​off. The spinach enchiladas were boring as well. I added some of the canned tomatoes to add some umph to it.
If you are craving Mexican food while in Estes Park, go elsewhere and save your money.