On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

Okay, it was a nice night, warm, in the summer, everything was nice, until I ate a taco here. Let me start with the pros
Pros
Great service, nice worker
Cons
Everything else.
Okay, I order a taco, it gets here alright, I wish I could say the same for my cousins food, which took a long time to get here. The taco, when I got it, it looked normal, smelled pretty normal, but the taste… it was half flavorless, and half on that flavor that leaves the meat just plain and dry. Maybe they changed their recipe there, but I didn’t have a Unilocal in July, 2015, so I could not review it then.
All in all, this place needs to rethink, and coming from a guy who is trying to be a business owner, you guys need to put more flavor in your food. It was a good thing it was taco Tuesday, so I got it really cheap. Two Stars.

This was our first restaurant to visit back home, and we were very excited for some Tex Mex. We walked in right at the beginning of lunch and were greeted immediately. We were seated in a large table with a few extra seats which was nice to be able to spread out and let the kids have room to color. Our server greeted us promptly and took our drink orders. She returned within a few minutes with our drinks and was followed by another server with chips and salsa. Our server gave us a few extra minutes to look over the menu. I was surprised with the full menu and lunch options. Once we ordered we had to wait less than 10 minutes for our food. Impressive for the lunch rush! My husband and I ordered fajitas to share, and they were sizzling!!! Our boys chicken strip meals were served hot and fresh as well. Our server was very attentive and readily available for our refills, extra items, and to go trays.

I have only ever gotten food To Go from this location so my review is based on the food & To Go servers.
Food is always good. It’s one of my favorite Mex chains. The restaurant looks clean and all the servers are friendly. I usually end up having to wait 10 minutes passed my promised time but the food is always hot so it’s not really a problem.
My only problem is the floor by the bar & to go. It is cracked, broken, and missing a piece. Coming from the restaurant industry, I know this is a serious workplace hazard. Especially by the bar where things get slippery. I suggest management take a look and get it fixed. I have included a picture.
Over all, GREAT place.

Great happy hour specials. Sit at the bar with Brendon. He’ll treat you right. Also they have a great patio. Steven, on the patio, was busy yet attentive

Great experience, our server was slammed with tables, and working non stop! The lack of employees helping out is a major issue. There were employees in smoke breaks constantly throughout the hour we were here. The food quality was tremendous, and my beer glass never completely emptied. Chad did a great job.
Need more employees to help out!

I eat out 5 – 6 times minimum every week. Expensive and cheap alike. If service is bad, I rarely complain. I just suck it up and sometimes I will not return. But it’s becoming rare that service wows you. And today it happened at On the Border on Germantown rd. I have not eaten here in several years. The whole staff is friendly and on top of it. Clean and organized also. My waitress dropped my meal at our table. In less than one minute several staff had it completely cleaned and less than 4 min my hot meal was replaced with a smile. I’m impressed. Great job. Food was perfect. Haley was my server and did a wonderful job.

Everything was great. We were seated quickly for Sunday lunch. Got drinks, fresh warm chips and good salsa. Great, quick service from friendly waitress. One word of advice, don’t order the stacked nachos as a meal. That is a family sized platter!

The service was very fast we were seated and immediately given our chips and salsa great followed by our drinks and water our waiter was on point and interacted with us and kept us laughing we had an awesome time…

Was very happy with the service and the food. Never had to wait on anything and everyone was friendly. They have great specials as well.

Terrible service. Took forever to even get water. 2 out of 3 of our orders were incorrect and the one that was right was dry and tasteless. They took the wrong orders back to the kitchen and hand picked the wrong things off of one and covered the wrong sauce up with the correct sauce on the other. The table was covered with plates and trash that needed to be taken away but they just kept piling cups and chips up. Won’t be going back.

Service was great, thank you Chad. Food was mediocre at best. The first dish was the tortilla soup, which was not bad but definitely below average. You would think that a Mexican themed restaurant would know how to make decent rice… No! The tacos were street tacos that were filled with meat which was way over peppered (black not spicy) on a single corn tortilla that fell apart, that’s why any self respecting Mexican restaurant/​household/​food truck uses two. The fish tacos were good but drenched in sauce. All in all we won’t be going back!

Not a good experience.
As we walk in the front to be seated we noticed a lady on her hands and knees cleaning the underside of a booth. Normally a good sign until that ended up being the hostess and when she saw us she threw the rag in her waist band, wiped her hands on her chest and than got our menus. Not a good start, I was half expecting her to wipe down our table with the floor rag.
After dealing with a waitress, who I couldn’t tell if she was new or just didn’t care about her job we waited almost 35 mins to get our meal. There were only 2 other couples in the restaurant at the time, that’s the kicker. Once we got our cheese dip it was so thick the chips we were using to eat the dip were breaking off in the bowl. My wife ordered the lunch chimichangas and I had the lunch fajitas. We had trouble finding the meat in her dish… The fajitas weren’t to bad.
The last thing I have to say is u better make sure u have $$ in your account because it was extremely expensive for a lunch meal. We paid $ 35 for our two meals, cokes, and cheese dip.
If your looking for some Mexican food I would not choose this particular establishment.

Service was nice but slow and unattentive. We were seated and not greeted nor given water for quite a long time. Had to go inside and find an employee to help me. Once our order was placed, other things we asked for were also forgotten about, and we had to repeat our requests to get them.
Food was ok. Salsa for the complimentary chips was way too spicy for me.

Walked in for lunch, no hostess, no one greeted us for almost 5 minutes. Finally we were seated and took another day 5minutes before we just got up and left. I worked in the restaurant industry as a server and management. I have high expectations for customer service and if the service was this mismanaged in the front of the house, then there is no telling what is going on in the kitchen. We will not be back anytime soon. They need new management, bottom line.

So I RARELY visit chain sit down restaurants unless there is just no place else to go and I want something safe/​fast. On the Border fell into this category during some errand running on Saturday afternoon in the Germantown Parkway area.
Now I would not call this «authentic» Mexican food… it’s definitely more Tex Mex. Their fajita salad was pretty good. Chicken was cooked perfectly, which is sometimes hard to do with fajitas… I’ve had a loooot of overcooked fajita meat in my Mexican eating days. They also have different specials that they run. This month was endless enchiladas. I did speak with a waitress who said they make all of their guac fresh. I always doubt it unless they are bringing it tableside, but I have to admit… it did taste pretty fresh.
If you’re looking for a place to just sit down, chill out and have a good meal when you’re exhausted from shopping at the mall across the street, then On The Border is a pretty safe bet. I most certainly did not give this place four stars for the authentic flavors, but it earned these stars based on the good food, pretty good service, cleanliness and FREE WIFI!

The food at this location is consistent with the chain. The service, however, is horrible. When we walked in the door the hostess made eye contact me but the refused to verbally acknowledge me. Instead she kept talking on her employee mic set. Eventually another hostess approached and say us at a table. Our server managed to screw up our very simple order. We ordered white queso but received yellow. I ordered black beans and corn tortillas with my fajitas. I received refried beans and flour tortillas. When I asked for black beans he said «ok.» The beans arrived when I was done with my meal. Another crappy dinning experience because of the horrific wait staff that is so typical of Memphis.

If you are very hungry just don’t go to this place because you will have to wait for your food. The place is nice but the floor is very sticky, so don’t wear flip flops because you will lose one. The food was bad, nothing interesting about it. The lunch margarita was good, cant complain. I guess if you just go for drinks is a good place but if you are hungry stay away.

On the border, of customer satisfaction.
I know I’m not actually «on the border» when I dine here. My expectations are very realistic when I am eating in the mall parking lot. I don’t imagine CIA grads fighting in the kitchen over who can prepare my order more beautifully than the next.
Lowered expectations stated, this was still a really lousy experience. To throw them a bone and an extra courtesy rating star, it was the end of the night, kitchen was closing in about 20 minutes so we stuck to some simple appetizers and drinks.
Service was slow, good natured, but slow (surprising since it was end of shift– I thought these folks would just want to get out of there).
Appetizer #1 standard guacamole. A few melon-​baller sized scoops of quickly browning guac were plopped on a saucer. Even had to ask for some chips to accompany this gem.
Appetizer #2 Guac «fries». Apparently avocado slices are breaded, deep fried, and served in a margarita glass. There were about 4 – 5 pieces and a bonus stray french fry. Our friend ate one and made a face, so her husband tried one, same face. When she cut one on half, really brown and gross.
We told the waiter they were really lousy and asked «you’re not going to put that on the bill are you?» He replied «well these are sort of the bottom of the barrel, and you already ate them all». If you are keeping track that’s 1 piece to gross out each friend, 1 cut in half to examine rottenness, 2 left in the glass). That’s fine, not the end of the world but definitely the wrong call by the server.
These were among the worst appetizers we have gotten anywhere, they were also not a bargain.
PS– I completed the customer satisfaction survey on the receipt, and received a Free Queso!!! (Tiny print– «with the purchase of an entrée»). I don’t think I will return.

Taco Tuesday! You can eat pretty cheap on Tuesdays, between Happy Hour specials (5 — 7 and 9 – 11), with thinks like $ 2 queso or avacado fries, or $ 3 cheese quesadilla, and the Tuesday Taco special, we spent less than $ 20 on food.

OMG why was I dragged here?
Service was great… thanks, Deon. He was also running the tortilla press.
Chips are half of a fried tortilla and a salsa that must be made from watery crushed tomatoes. My husband’s shirt was covered with the drippy substitution of normal chunky salsa.
He ordered avocado fries which were crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside. I didn’t look up the calories… I am afraid to look. They were good, though.
My husband could not finish his carne asada for which he paid $ 13.59 but his Hatch chili corn soup was good. It was served with white rice. My tortilla soup was filled with more rice and tortillas and which rapidly turned into cold mush. I did not see any chicken nor taste any flavor. I would give it a pass.
I had a CYO combo which had 1200+ calorie empanadas which were good but a horrid pork tamale which would not make it south nor very far north of the border. It was served with either refried or black beans and Spanish rice.
I lived in Austin and am used to tamales served in corn husks and are very tender. Any Mexican or Tex Mex dive in town would be better than this.