Fronteras Mexican Grill & Cantina

I read the prior Unilocal ratings about bad service, and I’ll say it has completely turned around. The service and food were great. Using the Unilocal,Check In, app feature awarded us with a free guacamole and salsa and chips. I ordered La Bamba which was a loaded shrimp and corn tortilla cheesy meal in a cast iron tray with rice and beans. Hubby had 2 tacos, $ 3 each alacarte. Asada beef and the chorizo, also great. Their salsa is a dark roasted super flavorful non spicy mix of spices and warmth. Such a large salsa portion we took it home with the leftovers. I would suggest for the restaurant, two small bowls of salsa, and spike up one with the expected heat found in a salsa, so a person can have a hot bite, followed by a mild chip bite. I will post a photo of our meal.
Drinks at $ 4 for well drinks and $ 4 margarita were also a bonus, we like being early birds… but 4 til 7pm is what I thought I saw is a generous happy hour time window to take full advantage of it. We forgot to go upstairs to see what it is like. Downtown Alhambra is the New «old pasadena» with better FREE parking and tons of restaurants.
The tables have an attractive vinyl cover that is very clean, brick side wall adds personality, grante curved bar separator, and plenty of barstools. This used to have outdoor seating, and I wish they would bring back the open air option because we go to dog friendly restaurants much more often than interior only places. Lighting is nicely intimate, romantic, and teardrop lights over the barstool area… not bright like so many other Alhambra restaurants that focus on white, clean, and flourescent which seems to becoming back from the 90’s. Give me ambience any day!
On our way back, we saw Ricks stage had a DJ pumping out tunes, so we danced and got some exercise in. The stage is located around 3^rd st on Main, and many nights are music filled including open mic night on Wed’s. Alhambra is making a huge effort to become super pedestrian and parking friendly.

From the greeting to the food and meeting the owner, I give this place-​restaurant 5. And the DRINKS, r the best. I’m SURE, I’ll be back!!! SOON!!!

Love the food! Love the atmosphere!
I always have a great time when I am here. Love there Happy Hour Specials also on drinks and food!

Fronteras Mexican Grill & Cantina. About as Mexican as Taco Bell. The food is not bad but nothing is OMG delish. The menu is simple and decently priced. The service is anything but spectacular — seat yourself and hope someone brings your table chips and salsa to signal the servers. Sadly, this is the only Mexican food restaurant in the area so I have been here several times hoping to satisfy my spicy taste buds, but I would rather grab a couple locos tacos and read the saucy hot sauce packets at the drive thru. However, there is a great patio space upstairs that may make for a fun time but otherwise, yo quiero taco bell.

Bad customer service. I came here for a friends birthday, and my boyfriend wasn’t let back in for smoking outside of building in the back. It doesn’t even make sense he wasn’t in the back by the parking lot and when we came back around through the front they said he wasn’t allowed in. Anyways not coming back again. The service during happy hour isn’t that great either. So save your money and go somewhere else.

Happy is 3−7PM everyday which is nice. I ordered chicken nachos for $ 5 and another $ 3 for meat. The wait was about 15 – 20 minutes and there were NO other patrons inside eating! Just two people at the bar drinking! But for some reason the food took forever and really it’s a bunch of empty chips under gucamole & sour cream.
Not good & would not order again.

Customer service is horrible. What is even more horrible is that the selection of Mexican food out in the area is highly limited which I think they are aware about. The food is descent but I rather go to chipotle then. They don’t have any specials as most Mexican restaurants do on selected days. it every upsetting to come with your family and get an order of guac and not get chips almost 30 mins later.. It is best to just call in and take an order home than to come in to dine in. …
What is worse that I asked what was going on and the server just gave me a smart remark and was never apologetic.
Point blank don’t come here with your family. It is not worth it.

California Burrito wasn’t what I expected. It was just pico de gallo in a tortilla and a few pieces of chicken. They charged me $ 10 more on my card than what I owed without telling me until I checked my bank account.

Very nice patio with a good happy hour. The day of the party the tap beer was out upstairs. No elevator so no Ada (disabled) access to the patio boy was my father pissed had to sit down stairs for the whole party. He want to get his attorney involved I told him to sit and think about it we will see what happens. The food needs to be overhauled its out dated and you can taste the freezer burn on most of it. I understand it’s a bar and food is second but honestly it’s not hard to make good Mexican food from scratch and keep your food cost inline. The venue is great and it’s the best patio in Alhambra they just need someone to fun it better.

I waited several minutes siting in the bar, bartender passed by me several times there, were two guys behind me that where greeted and served I kept waiting
I stated to feel very uncomfortable about the whole situation after trying to make eye contact with the bartender finally she stands in front of me to chat with a guest
Then I asked, am I invisible! Then she gives me the worst fake smile I have ever seeing It was very uncomfortable to stay in palace where you ignore in such of way
I walked out

soulful sunday brunch is everything!!! Great brunch menu, great house music and goes from 12 noon to 9 pm! Great energy and top notch DJs!!!

I tried the California burrito and it was good!
The inside of the restaurant is relaxing not as much light and they have TVs around. Great atmosphere to eat with a friends or family. Also the waitresses are superb.

An update:
I called my bank to dispute the dispensaries additional charge and they were able to take care of it. The next day, it went back to the original charge of $ 87 from $ 105.
Word of warning to all: Use cash to save yourself the stress.

This place should be a ZERO star if Unilocal allowed me to do so. Here we go… upon arrival, our group was whisked into a corner of the restaurant apparently disappointed we were not going to be bar patrons for the evening. Thereafter, no one attended us for 45 minutes as we watched 6 drunk men at the bar trying so desperately to pick up on 2 early-20’s gals clearly using the men to get free drinks and dinner meals. What a circus!
Accordingly, the bartender finally came from around the bar and in a less than professional stated no servers were available to attend us. Clearly she was annoyed because she was not at the bar attempting to get more tip money from drunk horny Senior men.
Finally after waiting for an hour, the manager of the establishment took our order and never apologized for the delay. It appeared she took our order correctly, but when our food arrived 25 minutes later, one of our guests didn’t even receive her meal. We tried to address the problem with the bartender, but she was busy strutting her plastic silicon boobs towards our ever present drunk Senior men.
For unknown reasons, the main chef knew something wasn’t correct and came to our table admitting he forgot to add and deliver the missing order. He never apologized, just added a second taco to the order and whispered to me it was no big deal… WTF!!!
Although the meal was tasty, it could not override the consistent horrible service we received. After 2 ½ hours of countless stupidities, our less than talented bartender brought us the food bill. To reiterate, I was not impressed with her lack of professional services. The most inattentive server I have ever met!!!
Then she puts a 15% gratuity tip to the overall food bill. For what??? She never served us… I was thoroughly insulted. Out of frustration, I paid the bill using my bank Visa card. As I reviewed my Visa account, I received an alert stating an additional unauthorized $ 23.00 was deceitfully added to the original food bill. I immediately filed a dispute with my bank and provided them copies of the original bill showing I did not authorize such an exuberant tip. Really, 40% to someone whom didn’t even serve us a napkin or a glass of water!
To all consumers contemplating on going to Fronteras Mexican Bar & Grille in Alhambra, CA… Be forewarned, this is not a trustworthy establishment. From prior Unilocal reviews, many other patrons have expressed similar disgusts and negative experiences with Fronteras. They truly don’t care, and will not address any of their deficiencies.
However, if you still desire to visit this pathetic place, pay for your meals and drinks via CASH ONLY! You’ll save yourself the headache of credit card fraud by employees their that clearly will overcharge your order via tip money hoping you don’t catch completing these deviant acts. ZERO ZERO ZERO RATINGS DUE TO SUCH A DESPICABLE EXPERIENCE!!!

We recently visited for my cousins 21^st birthday on Saturday ⁷⁄₁₈.
The drinks: they were good, there is really no doing wrong when it comes to drinks, so that was fine.
The food: was okay it wasn’t the best. We ordered the El Rey platter, salad, tacos, wet n wild and taquitos.
Here is where we didn’t like the service. The waitress ran around with her head cut off like a chicken, and she was NOT the only waitress there. She was very very nice. BUT once we went up to the roof top she ended up in trouble because they manager found out she didn’t card my cousin, and we DID NOT give them a name since we did not have a name. She immediately was called up and got told something and then came to our table and was telling us we could have gotten her fired. When we NEVER gave a name or even said anything. After she told us that we were offended. Not only did she get 18% of our 154 bill, we allowed her to keep the change.
They were suppose to be open till 2 am and they closed at 11. It was empty and the dj was never there and the same music was playing over and over!
My family has lived in alhambra for years and they loved coming here, and now we are all questioning why… never again…

I’m not usually a spontaneous person and just when I finally decide to be a little spontaneous, this bar totally failed me.
My friend and I saw a sign for happy hour drink special, and we decided to give it a shot since we we needed to kill time before a dinner. They had $ 4 drafts, well drinks, and special cocktail drinks.
I ordered a Micheladas (not sure about the spelling), but it’s a beer-​based drink infused with a number of different juices and spices. If you haven’t had it, think along the lines of a a Bloody Mary but beer based. I wouldn’t order this again, but I’m glad I tried something different.
Why I give this place 1 star is because the service was horrendous. The bar wasn’t even that busy, and there was only 1 bar tender. There was one group ahead of us, and the bar tender she would be right with us. A full 10 minutes later with no menu or water or anything, she goes on to cater to another group of people. We were so close to leaving, but luckily a staff member brought a basket of chips to hold us over. 20 minutes sitting at a non-​busy bar, she finally hands us a menu and describes to us the happy hour specials.
We finally want to close our tab as we spent a little bit longer there than we would’ve liked, but she charged us more on each of our bills!!! The advertised amount is $ 8 but we were charged a couple dollars more. In my mind, I thought they just included a tip with the price, but there was still a tip line to add on. I hate when businesses do this because it seems shady and just trying to squeeze a couple dollars out of us. We brought this to the attention of the bartender, and she said it was a «computer glitch». PLEASE!!! The group that was before us ordered the same thing, and I glanced at their bill, and it was charged correctly.

I’ve now been waiting 45 mins… for chips & guacamole… They still can’t tell me when my food will be out. If it’s not out soon I will be leaving.
The poor waitress is running around like a chicken with her head cut off. She’s so sweet and trying her best to help everyone. I feel bad for her

This place has terrible service!!! We walked in and nobody status down the waitress is the bartender at the same time. It took them 20 minutes to bring out chips and salsa.
The food was too salty and flavorless .
I do not recommend any on to eat here!

$ 3/​$ 4 beer during playoffs/​happy hour!
Nice cheap place to grab a beer and watch a game
Super laidback atmosphere. Possibly a bit low on staff (only one person at the bar and walking around) but it wasn’t too busy when I was there

I have been coming to Frontera for the last three years and it’s been a pleasure every time.
Full bar, sports TV all around dinning area, patio upstair (usually busy with private events on weekends). I’d love to have a basket of chip, a bowl of ceviche, and a margarita on this Sunny and breathy patio if it’s ever available on a weekend afternoon!
Being a quesadilla freak, I compulsively order the Low Rider 2 out of 3 times. The presentation is eclectic, the ingredient and fill is generous.
You also can’t go wrong with any of the tacos. «Build Your Own Street» is a self-​serving feast that get you busy and creative with your tacos.
A fair-​sized parking lot in the back of the restaurant, shared with a couple of other business in the same lot.