Cantina de San Angel
Epcot
Dinner
Date of Visit: 6/24/2007
Time of Visit: 19:03
Adults in Party: 2
Children in Party: 1
Total Cost: $29.43
Average Price Per Adult: $12.72
Ten Point Scale
Food: 9.5
Value: 8.5
Service: 7.0
Environment: 8.0
Overall Rating: 8.3
It's one of the most visible dining locations at Epcot, and thus one of the most busy. It doesn't help that its type of food - Mexican - is well-known and not seen as experimental by many folks. Thus, expect delays here in ordering and receiving your food to hover somewhere between "significant" and "hefty."

Start things off with the conga juice ($4), a blend of several natural juices like pineapple, orange, and lime. It tastes like it sounds: liquid candy. The chicken tacos ($8) came with only two soft tacos, both of moderate size. The chicken was truly excellent, and vastly exceeded our previous experiences at this eatery. The meat came not in chunks, but was of the shredded variety, and it was perfectly seasoned. More, it seemed like premium meat; there was no trace of fat. The side dishes were salsa (moderately spicy) and black beans (flavorful, but not overdone). These side dishes made all the difference to the meal. In the past, side dishes were rice and refried beans, which added no taste and lent an air of high-school-cafeteria dining to the entire affair. Not so the salsa and beans, which really complemented the entree.

The same is true of the combo plate ($9) and its identical side dishes. The entrees here were a single chicken taco, and beef burrito, and a quesadilla. The quesadilla didn't look like you're expecting; it was more of a fried "football" that tasted salty and cheesy. The beef burrito, meanwhile, was as good as the chicken taco: lots of flavor and perfectly accented by the salsa and beans.

The child meal ($4) is a chicken and cheese quesadilla that does look like you might be expecting, and it came with chips and nacho cheese for dipping. Surprisingly, there was a lot of nacho cheese. But disappointingly, there were very few chips, an incomprehensible state of affairs considering the relative expense of the two items. And speaking of expense, beware of the too-costly side og guacamole ($3), which for this price should not be such a small side cup of a couple ounces. 

The service, as noted above, is quite slow. There are only a few registers and windows, and while all are open usually, two lines share a register and this causes major delays. Also, things are slow coming out of the kitchen. The entire service model needs tweaking, or even re-visioning.

Seating can be found around the sides and back of the building, and while there is usually enough, the calculus changes as Illuminations draws closer, since people try to watch the show from here. Note that there is no indoor or air-conditioned seating, and you're at the mercy of the elements.