Coco Cantina

[eigoya]

Asked for hotter salsa. Only mild

[terracore]

I've eaten here maybe a half dozen times before today. The food and service is usually okay and it's always been pretty slow in there.

I wouldn't call the place "busy" today, but being mother's day it was probably busier than an average Sunday lunch time. Our food took a LONG time to come out, although nobody else's seemed to take long. My chile relleno was frozen in the middle, the carnitas were dry (like moisture content of old style shredded jerky) and the carne asada had a weird gamey taste to it. My wife's fajitas came out barely sizzling and although the cast iron thing was hot, the steak wasn't. She pulled a long hair out of her food and it was too embedded and encased with sauces and such to be one of hers. I don't like sending food back because of all the horror stories I've read about but it's not like I can eat a frozen chile relleno unless they want to start equipping the tables with microwaves.

The table next to us, one of the patrons tried to complain about his "rare" steak being overcooked and the waitress told him "IT'S RARE!". "It is?" "Yes, that's rare." At least she didn't try to convince me that the chile relleno wasn't frozen. The hot replacement came out really fast which was nice, but also made us wonder why it took so long to get the frozen one.

There were other issues with the food, but compared to the highlights would just be nitpicking. The service was good at our table.

Every restaurant has good and bad days and it's clear what kind of day today was. I'm willing to go back there based on previous experiences but it's not like today's experience is going to encourage us to make that anytime soon.

[kalianna]

Why not go to Luquinʻs? Iʻve never had a bad meal there.

[terracore]

Why not go to Luquinʻs? Iʻve never had a bad meal there.

Like I said in previous post, "Every restaurant has good and bad days".  We gave Luquins several opportunities and maybe it was just bad luck, but we never ate there on a "good day".  

A lot has happened since we wrote them off, all of them substantial (like moving to the old KFC and getting the county to approve their urinal install).  We did try them once at new location during COVID when delivery/takeout was the only option, and it wasn't inedible, but it wasn't good, we never went back.

I know a lot of people love their food and service, but we've only had horrible food and horrible service, and after throwing a few hundred bucks at them we've given up.  I know it's been years since we've tried them and everybody says "It's different now".  But we were also told that 12 years ago.  Maybe it's just bad luck on our part.  But at some point we have to declare, "Fool us once, shame on you, fool us 6+ times, shame on us."  

[Chas]

Just had Luquinʻs nachos (take out) today! Service and food excellent as usual. No experience with anything else though...

[kalianna]

Cʻmon, Terracore, give it one more shot; itʻs been awhile. Best Margaritas around, fresh chips, great salsa. Canʻt go wrong with the chili relleno.

[randomq]

Funny Kalianna, those are the only things I like at Luquin's: the Margaritas, chips, and salsa. Everything else I've tried has been rather bland.

Coco Cantinas in Hilo (at the old Lucy's location, RIP) has good lunch specials during the week. About $11 for a large burrito, or three tacos, or a protein bowl. $2 for a large bag of chips and salsa. I wish the Pahoa one had specials!

[Kiana]

Over 25+ years Luquins has been overall good for us, love the staff, love the long time local Luquin family, terribly miss the old location which was a true Pahoa event sitting in a booth looking out those jalousie windows watching the colorful peeps walk by. (and more). For us the food is good, but slightly above average. Margaritas very good and very strong, but their choice of bottled mix makes my stomach go bad later.

Coco's more average with blah chips and salsa. Best bet is their happy hour for good prices and appetizers worth the small-ish amount of money. (These days.) Good beer on tap a great price then.

Reuben's on Hilo's Bayfront is close to a fave, loving their regional recipes and sauces, with two excellent sauces with your chips. No free chips there, but worth the $2.50). They make the BEST margaritas, for me and my belly. They've been there a very long time, another good local family. Papa just passed recently, but the restaurant goes on.

[Obie]

My wife and I had a lot of influence on the salsa as it is now.
Gave suggestions to Anna and Patty.
Stood across the street with Sal the day after the fire and hugged and cried.

Try the prime rib some Friday night. My friend doesn't like prime but I talked him into having it " Paneolo style "
He loved it, it's like medium rare rib-eye.

I can't even begin to eat the food at Coco Cantina and their margaritas suck.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

What we have here is a good old fashioned Mexican standoff.