On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

Went to OTB last night. We were a party of 7. We received chips, but didn’t receive any salsa for about 10 minutes. Once the food came out, it was noticeable that it had been sitting under a heat lamp for some time. I wouldn’t even call it luke warm. Someone sitting at my table had ordered chicken soft tacos and one side if the flour tortilla was hard and the other was super soggy because it had been sitting in its own pool if grease for so long in the kitchen. He had to send it back. The worst part for me had to have been the women’s bathroom. So appallingly gross; tissue strewn all about, paper towels overflowing from the trash, no toilet paper in one of the stalls, no cover on one of the soap dispensers, and crusty looking faucets. Makes me cringe just thinking about it and what their kitchen must look like since the obviously don’t like to clean. Euuu. I won’t be back.

I just went back to One The Border yesterday and man what a difference! Great service and food. I got the chicken fajitas and they were perfect. I can see that have hired new waiters and it has made a difference. Keep up the good work! I think with Mattitos down the street they needed to make changes and it has worked.

Told the manager i wouldnt write a review in exchange for being allowed to leave the restaurant without paying (as we never got to eat). however, after mulling over what transpired i feel its a MUST to let my fellow Unilocalers know what happened.
1^st off this was supposed to be a fun night where my husband and i took good friends out to eat with our kids to show them love for being great friends through a really hard year for our family and instead it was absolutely destroyed.
WALKED IN. NO hostess. there are 3 tables in MAIN dining area occupied and one table in bar area with 3 customers at bar. empty place and its a wed night at 730pm. we wait 6min to be seated. 3 employees walk by. everytime someone walked up we thought it was the host but they just walked past us.
it takes another 7min for waiter to come over to our table. he doesnt have a name tag and never told us who he was. dark haired guy. he takes drink order and brings our iced teas dout after 10min! my friend orders a tall double shot vodka with sprite and lime & what she GETS is a quad shot of straight vodka in a glass… waiter fixes that but it took another 5min!
as he is walking away we say we are ready to order «oh» was his answer. we have 4 adults and 2 kids. he comes back 2x after 15min and asks EACH adult about our meal (what we had, what meat or veggies, sides…) so after 15min we realized our food NEVER got put in because waiter didnt write down order or couldnt remember. mine was no cheese ANYWHERE on the plate he said «I x out cheese» yet my food arrived AN HOUR AFTER ARRIVING (was actually 15min past an hr) and there was cheese WRONG! my husbands order had NO SALAD! there were extra tortillas but NOBODYs meal came with or required extra tortillas. things were missing. it was awful!
immediately decided the evening was OVER as everyone dish except the two kids were incorrect. so now we would have to wait longer to eat!
very embarrassing to invite friends out and have this happen! Our waiter looks all over the place for the manager a tall white guy.
when it take so long to locate a manager its obvious why the place is terrible. nobody is supervising.
we had two alcohol drinkers at the table. they were the ONLY ones to get refills! the blue moon beer with orange was delivered with a dirty fruit sticker still on the orange (so you dont wash your fruits and veggies!!? if you did the sticker would be gone, how can you clean germs under a sticker without removing it?) the waiter who brought beer (not our waiter) said «hey alcohol cleans things right? haha»
my exact reaction was «thats not exactly a funny thing to say to paying customers, its disgusting»
he replied with a scoff and eye roll. WOW!
soo Unilocalers i HOPE you heed my warning. you have always looked out for me and i hope this review helps you steer clear of disaster and embarrassment! happy eating (just not here)

I love our waitress. She is so friendly. I’m on a Valentine date and I’m able to talk to my date and hear the replies. Great food too

Stopped here for lunch on a Tuesday. Ordered fresh guacamole. It was brought to the table slopped on a plate. A mashed up avocado with a couple pieces of diced onion. Nothing more. It was tasteless. That’s $ 6. Don’t waste your money. Ordered chicken fajitas for the main entrée. Chicken was dry and overcooked. Beans were scorched and the rice looked like it was cooked 3 days ago. All in all the food seemed not so fresh and not well cooked. The wait staff including the manager seemed to not care. Dont waste your time or money. You can get better Mexican at taco cabana or Rose’s café. That’s pretty sad. As for the restaurant itself, it was dirty and had a musty smell. It needs an overhaul and a bottle of bleach in my opinion.

The food was alright. I got the sampler for my meal and it was okay. The queso looked and tasted like it was old. My boyfriend got the fish tacos and patron margarita and really enjoyed his meal. The chips and salsa we got the first time around were good. We asked for a refill on the chips because it was a Saturday night, and understandably, the food was taking awhile. The refill on the chips took a very long time and were so salty, we could not eat them. The service was pretty bad. It took a significant amount of time to get a server to our table. When she did arrive, she let us know she had had a long day. She was very slow and it was obvious she didn’t want to be there.

I stopped by on my way home from work with a couple girls and had a great time. The food was great, service was wonderful (we sat at the bar) and we love the margaritas!
Our bar tender was very attentive and made sure we had everything we needed. The food came out at a decent time and was delish. We had the boarder sampler, with guac and queso and chips on the side. I will be back!

Went in for my birthday dinner, had a great time, great service, great food. Waitress heard out was my birthday asked which desert I wanted, I said none I was full. she insisted I picked 1. I said but really no! They came out with sopapillas, and sang. And put them on our bill! We didn’t want to cause a scene, so didn’t complain, but really didn’t order or want! (they were boxed up and brought to my son and his co workers)

We’ve been coming here for years. We had an amazing server. Blake. But say he has moved on to obviously better. Now that he’s not here to elevate the experience we see the true colors shining through.
The young guy who was serving us has a low and slow attitude and his give-​a-​damn is busted. Clearly.
But the kitchen is problematic. They got our order wrong in multiple ways. The manager was sort of apologetic.
Honestly my biggest complaint is that their BOWLS use that crappy shredded taco lettuce. They could use some lovely salad greens instead and the meal would be amazing!
The place was pretty empty and the service was still sorta slow. I’d go elsewhere. This place is a disappointment.

The only reason for the 2 stars was the service, the food was terrible! The waiter was extremely apologetic and nice but the food ruined the whole experience. Most definitely will NOT be back. Thanks for a terrible birthday dinner.

I used to eat here almost weekly back in the late ‘90s, and it’s been 3 years since my last visit (before this visit on 8/​7/​15.) I don’t know what has happened but this dining experience was awful.
Aesthetics: way to bright, seriously filthy, the booths along the back wall were so gross they reminded me of couches in a frat house with stains all over the backs of the benches. We had to wipe the food off the seats before we could sit down as the hostess and waitress watched.
Service: very nice waitress, reasonable wait times for a friday night. She gets 5 stars!
Food: the worst. Keep in mind I used to LOVE this place. We ordered the queso with beef. It tasted like they just dumped a jar of jalepeño juice in it. I just couldn’t eat it. I love spicy but this was awful. The salsa was not fresh, and the chips were cold and stale. The bagged OTB chips at the store are better!!!
My husband ordered a border bowl. He said it was ok, but not great. It looked sad, there were 3 teeny, tiny avocado slices about 1.5 inches long and 4 – 5 thin, dry slices of chicken with the rice and veggies. I ordered cheese enchiladas. The refried beans were so watered down you couldn’t get anything on the fork. The chili con carne sauce tasted like someone dumped sugar in it and the enchiladas were rubbery. I didn’t even taste the rice. Needless to say my plate was almost as full when I left as it was when they brought it to me. Well, the sodas were great!
All in all it was a terrible dining experience. This is definitely not the quality place I used to go to. Same location, same restaurant, tragic decline on all fronts. I doubt we will give it another shot. I really wish I could say it was better.

Terrible service, terrible drinks, terrible food! Would probably say the chips were bad too, but we wouldn’t know! We asked for chips 3 times and got them after we ate!

Short story:
Pros: beautiful building and décor, nice menu choices
Cons: taste of food
Long story:
Pros: This building design has a great style and a well outfitted outdoor area. The furniture inside is new (upgraded) and comfortable. The menu has choices from all across the southwest rather than just tex-​mex or just Cali-​mex. The ordering process for complicated dishes is made simple. The veggie fajitas are good.
Cons: The standard salsa that comes without asking was very acidic and the chips were cold and stale. They have different types of salsa and the other two I tried (tomatillo and chile verde) were also very acidic and lacked flavor. The main dish I had (veggie fajitas) was good though.
Overall: The chain restaurant is not just dependent on its staff, who work very hard for low wages. The local and regional management who oversee product sourcing need to make sure the taste of their food is not compromised by seasonal changes. Our server was great; I blame the higher-​ups for my bad experience.

Loved the food and service was fantastic! I ordered the taco salad and it was so large and really full of flavor. I come to this location a lot and I’ve never had a bad experience!

This is your typical On The Border tex-​mex style restaurant. The only thing that has consistently bothered me at this particular location is the poor quality of service. Each time I’ve been here, whether it’s busy or dead-​slow, I have to wave down a server to get a water refill, or more salsa, or anything.
It’s still great food, the black beans are delicious! Their flour tortillas are above par. Their brisket tacos are highly recommended. Their service needs some training.

This restaurant has a great look and vibe to it and it is the only OTB with a decent party room in the area I needed, however this location is completely mediocre.
As you walk in there is a musty smell and it smells almost dirty and unclean are you walk in… which I had heard it did have a smell to it and was hoping this wasn’t true so that I could set up my party there.
Well my party will not be happening there due to the smell and the quality of service and food. The food was pretty ok, but our drinks tasted like straight up gassoline! I have never had a margarita that tasted so bad from OTB.
I will be a religious customer of the denton location but the Lewisville location has lost out on hundreds to thousands of dollars from me and the loss of my business and not having my party there due to the smell and shoddy drinks.

The TexMex Cobb. So tasty, the avocado ranch, the avocado fries make the salad. Yum! And I’m not an On The Border fan per say. Get it! Won’t be disappointed. House Marg ok but worth upgrading.
Seriously, you gotta try the texmex cobb!!!

Really enjoyed the meal and the service. It made me remember why I used to come here when I could.
It’s been a long time since I had eaten at any of the «On The Border» restaurants… I moved away and there are none where I am at in Austin. The last one I ate at was in Houston? (before here)
The food was great. From the large chips and spicy salsa on your table, all the way to the drinks on the menu.
My server was Josh. He was cleanly sharp on his waiting skills and he knew the menu thoroughly. Despite all of the information he provided, I went with the simple Fajita Cobb Salad (I think that was the name)… he agreed that it was a great choice since it was his personal favorite and he was right.
The chicken was grilled right, roasted corn, and I simply LOVE the fried Avocado. Fried you say? YES! I think that they should make that an appetizer ALL BY ITSELF!
There are many places to choose from to eat, but as I was traveling through Dallas, it was a good decision to stop in On The Border. I was able to relax, get a good meal, have a comfortable environment, and simply enjoy the time spent there.
Thanks again. I will return next time I am in Dallas or any other city that would have On The Border nearby.

I went here with 6 of my friends after a day on the lake. We arrive right around 9:30. We chose to sit outside. It took more than 10 minutes for the two tables to be cleared and pushed together.
After being sat, we were greeted by the server quickly. The first thing we said was waters all around. It took 20 minutes to get the waters. No joke, no exaggeration. When he dropped off the water we ordered our food. Most of us got tacos. We need to get our food until 10:30. Because of this, pretty much everyone filled up on chips. We went through 11 baskets of chips at the table. That’s ridiculous. After we finally received our food, no one was impressed. I got the brisket tacos. It tasted like microwaved meat drenched in grocery store brand BBQ sauce.
Thankfully the server at least brought and ran the checks fast.
I don’t plan on come back to this location.

Don’t let the bad reviews deter you from this place. The food is always good and the drinks are even better. Good spicy salsa, good service, and nice place to chill for dinner after a long day at work. I recommend the achiote chicken tacos, el patron, and la bandera. I also love the Mexican mojito and the cactus margarita. I do have to say the only negative thing is the service isn’t as quick if you sit outside but it’s really not that bad.