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Awards
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2009 |
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Finalist Restaurant and Catering Association NSW Awards for Excellence Mexican Restaurant |
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2009 |
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#1 Mexican Restaurant Sydney on Urbanspoon.com |
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2008 |
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Winner of The Chopping Block 2 |
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2008 |
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Highest Score The Chopping Block Seasons 1 & 2 4.5 out 5 Stars!!! |
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Overview of Baja Cantina and Beer Garden
#1 Mexican Restaurant in Sydney (Urbanspoon.com) Winner of the Chopping Block 2!!! Highest score ever given by the critic for both seasons. 4.5 out of 5 stars awarded!! "I could marry the Mole." Baja Cantina opened its doors in May of 2006. It was the Chef/Owners vision to bring quality California style Mexican food to Sydney. Backed with 17 years of working with great Mexican chefs in California and all over the US, he has aquired the skill and knowledge to deliver authentic and fresh Mexican cuisine. Tired of too many Sombreros, but unauthentic Tex or Aussie Mexican food, Baja Cantina was conceptualized. With the only authentic Tamales, Baja Fish Tacos, home-made Mexican Chorizo, Carnitas, and real Home made Refried Pinto Beans in Sydney, if not Australia, we aim to satisfy your Mexican cravings. The Chicken Mole, Nachos and Fish Tacos were recently featured during filming of The Chopping Block 2, to rave reviews. The beer garden in the rear will also delight, nothing like it in Sydney or any other Mexican Restaurant. Come give us a try, we promise to remind you of your last Mexican fix over seas, whether in Mexico or California. Best Mex in Sydney!!!
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User Reviews on Baja Cantina and Beer Garden
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 143 comments
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| Overall |
 
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Average |
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Food 6 |
Ambience 6 |
Service 6 |
Value 6 |
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Slightly dodgy service, plastic tablecloths, oodles of cornchips, guacamole, sour cream and refried beans. I still find it funny when people get all preachy about places not being "truly authentic" experiences of the like they experienced whilst trekking deep in Mexico...others feel it's too "tex-mex" we got exactly what we expected, which was cheap and a bit dodgy fajita's/taco's etc.
Prices are cheap, portion sizes huge and the red wine undrinkable, but if you have a craving for this kind of food give it a go.
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Blairegourmand -
See my reviews 160 , 29 August 2010
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| Overall |
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Recommended |
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Food 10 |
Ambience 6 |
Service 4 |
Value 10 |
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In my opinion this has the best Mexican food in Sydney. With that said the competition it has to contend with is not that high. I love their food and for my wife and I who has been to Mexico many time, and live in the US where Mexican restaurants are plenty it filled the void while being on this side of the world.
The service is not that great for the size of the establishment. The staff tends to get lost focusing on the larger parties and smaller party end up getting looked over a bit. Beside that flaw I enjoy this place.
The Value is second to none in Sydney. We go to fine dining and pay 4x the amount and get less food and make a stop at Maca’s on the way home. With Baha we over eat drink a good amount and come out satisfied.
I would recommend this place to true Mexican food lovers. If you think what you get in Sydney is Mexican food and you Enjoy that then don't go to Baha because it will be very different from what you are used to. If you like Sangria, Burritos, Nachos, good guacamole, Queso cheese sauce and salsa with true Mexican species, then make a reservation and enjoy the Baha experience.
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Juzzy_wazzy -
See my reviews 2, 27 August 2010
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| Overall |
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Below Average |
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Food 2 |
Ambience 3 |
Service 5 |
Value 3 |
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Where to start. One cold July night I took my friend jack to dinner for his birthday @ Baja Cantina and Beer Garden in Glebe. It was not the mexican experience I thought it would be.!
The lady on the phone when I booked said we would be sitting in the beer garden out the back and it might be cold which I said no problem I'll bring a jumper. She forgot to mention we would be sitting in a marque tent in the back dirt patch. No flooring or bag storage (I had to put my bag on dirt) and our seating would be round plastic tables that have the bench seating attached to them. Which would look more at home in the public school across the road or at a UNI.
After having to get up to ask for menus we were given several old laminated menu's that were curling up on all the sides and were dirty. Ok that should have been the warning sign that these people didn't care about their business and it was going to reflect in their food.
The menu was repetitive and made a claim that patron is the best available tequila in Australia? Not true. It tasted like a large portion of food was sourced from a can and not much thought had gone into any dish. Everything was just mounded into its own section on the plate and it tasted like it had been sitting in a bain marie for a while.
NOTE: portion size does not make up for quality creativity and overall disappointment.
The last thing you want is for an experience like this to be repeated, but in my stomach it did for the next day. The prices didn't represent the effort or substance of the meal they served and although the waiters were polite, they had to be called over to take any orders.
Yes this is TEX MEX a american bastardization of the Mexican cuisine but when done properly it is homely and quiet delicious. There are a lot of great mexican restaurants in Sydney, unfortunately, this restaurant doesn't meet their standards.
In my opinion I felt ripped off because I love good food and thats why I'm making these comments. I not only understand that little things go wrong and you can't be perfect, but hopefully they read this and make improvements to their business. This is assuming they care until then beware.
Its probably not a good idea to leave a used latex glove lying on the floor next to my table as well, luckily I had finished eating. Adios Baja don't think I'll be returning any time soon.
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justine merzian -
See my reviews 7, 13 August 2010
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| Overall |
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Average |
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Food 6 |
Ambience 6 |
Service 6 |
Value 7 |
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This is a very tex-mex kind of Mexican and if you are happy with that than it is ok. The menu seems to be all the same things presented differently and all come with a giant non-Mexican leaf salad filling up the plates.
The guacamole had texture and flavour and the salsa was good, however, I wasn't a fan of the cheese dip. All the mains tasted pretty much the same piled high with rice and sour cream but they were ok. I liked that they offered 2 different types of beans. They have a variety of beers and cocktails and the price is right.
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meee -
See my reviews 47, 04 August 2010
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| Overall |
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Not Recommended |
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Food 3 |
Ambience 2 |
Service 2 |
Value 2 |
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My boyfriend and I went to this restaurant to have a nice meal, we booked in advance only to find that we had been seated in basically the worst seats in the restaurant, right next to a fridge in a dark corner. The thing that most annoyed me about this was that I'm pretty sure the person who seated us there only did so because we are young and thought that we wouldn't complain. We got up to leave and he then informed us that there had been a 'mistake' on the chart and put us in at a better table.
From then on the evening got worse, the service was neglectful, food was expensive and of a low quality, and the seats were uncomfortable! In the end we got so sick of the place that we got our mains to take away. They were even more horrible take away than in the restaurant.
Oh and they say that they are byo, but when I looked on their website they charge you $4 per person per drink, whats the point?
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dani_bird -
See my reviews 4, 06 June 2010
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| Overall |
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Highly Recommended |
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Food 8 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 9 |
Value 9 |
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If its warm grab a seat outside, awesome lil beer garden. Great mexican food. Black beans are a winner! Haven't had a bad meal from these guys yet and I consider myself a regular, its a laid back not overly priced comfy place to eat and relax with a corona!
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missaas84 -
See my reviews 6, 24 May 2010
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| Overall |
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Average |
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Food 5 |
Ambience 5 |
Service 4 |
Value 6 |
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My girlfriend and I ate here last night. I ordered the burito grande with potato and chorizo and could not taste the chorizo at all. Service was patchy, they got my order wrong and then brought a different wine to what I had ordered. Fortunately, we had an entertainment book voucher, otherwise, I would have been disappointed.
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Troiks -
See my reviews 1, 14 May 2010
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| Overall |
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Average |
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Food 5 |
Ambience 7 |
Service 6 |
Value 5 |
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Booked for myself and my partner for tonight. I can't fault the service, we had a waitress take our drinks order within a few minutes, and our meal order taken within ten minutes or arrival. Overall friendly and relaxed atmosphere with funky and warm decor.
My partner's mojito was good but fresh ingredients, however, too much ice, he was trying to slurp at the ice, because the drink finished so quickly. I ordered the strawberry margarita, which had the consistency of a slurpee, not exactly what I was expecting but still pretty good. Our entree was the calamari, which was very fresh, with a nice coating, a little bit chewy but still tasty especially with the sauces on the tables.
Our mains, however, were very disappointing, my quesadilla with prawns came with rice and beans that were cold, the portions for the quesadilla itself were small and smothered with too much cheese! The prawns on their own were well cooked and flavoured but the cheese just killed it.
My partner fared worse with his tacos, the tacos weren't crisp, the salad in the taco was meager and the beef was soggy and unappetising, the food wasn't too bad but it did not come any where close to our expectations for authentic, hearty mexican food. Which is disappointing because, friends had recommended this restaurant to us. We will not be dining there again.
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lovelybubbly -
See my reviews 4, 25 April 2010
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| Overall |
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Recommended |
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Food 8 |
Ambience 8 |
Service 5 |
Value 9 |
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Seriously, I've been to this place a dozen times and I can't believe it rates so low here. The food is great, hardly expensive unless you are a serious tightarse. As for the backyard ambience, it is a Cantina and Beer garden not fine dining. Sometimes the service seriously does disappoint though. It's like you have to kidnap someone just to get a beer, they'd make so much more money if they hired a couple of decent staffers who paid a little attention and brought drinks at least! Losing revenue there. But the food is great. Stuff the FF Sisters, this place is way better.
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postmodern vagabond -
See my reviews 7, 08 April 2010
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| Overall |
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Recommended |
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Food 9 |
Ambience 8 |
Service 6 |
Value 7 |
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Been to this place a few times and think their food is great. The beer and tequila menu is really good for Sydney, and I can't get enough of their queso dip. The service can be a bit hit-and-miss though. Last time I went it was a challenge to make the booking as they don't seem to answer voice mails or emails. When we got there we had one really fabulous server who was very attentive and friendly, however, there was another waitress who seemed very nice, but not really on the ball.
Asked us for our orders about a minute after we'd sat down and had just ordered drinks, and then again after we'd already made our orders. It's the kind of place you need to be laid back about service. I think they might have a high staff turnover or something? I haven't seen the same server twice in any of the times I've been there.
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squishfish -
See my reviews 2, 02 April 2010
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