4. Restaurants

La Cava - Mexican Restaurant and Cantina

1810 N Coral St, Coralville, IA, 52241
  • (319) 625-3030
  • Store is closed

La Cava - Mexican Restaurant and Cantina Menu

  • Omelets
  • Huevos Rancheros
  • South of the Border Burritos
  • Breakfast Menu

Healthy Meal suggestions for La Cava - Mexican Restaurant and Cantina

  • Omelets
  • Huevos Rancheros
  • South of the Border Burritos
  • Breakfast Menu

  • Chris C.

    Just ate dinner here tonight with our family and I have to say I don't think I'll be going back. It wasn't that any particular part of this restaurant was horribly wrong, but rather that everything seemed so consistently poor. The margaritas tasted as though they were virgin. The food wasn't awful but it was somewhat forgettable-- I had fajitas with a shrimp, steak, chicken and chorizo mix. Perhaps the most disappointing part of the evening was the service. Everything seemed to take so long. Chips arrived and drinks came 10 min later. Even our kids were asking about theirs. My three year had even had it enough that he made a small scene attracting an adjacent table's waitress to bring him some water as our waiter had disappeared. My favorite moment of the evening though was when our belated waiter arrived with the ice cream that came with our children's meals and apologized that it had melted but still "tasted like ice cream." Meh.

    (2)

  • Brad A.

    The food can be real hit or miss. Sadly, the service is more miss then hit. I used to really love this place, but in the last 3 months they have really gone down hill. I hope they turn it around for their sake.

    (2)

  • Jason L.

    Same boring Mexican food you get at all of the other Mexican restaurants in town. Same gross salsa, same "meh" menu. The only good thing I had here was fresh guacamole, but I can make that at home in 5 minutes.

    (1)

  • Caleb-Michael F.

    Had been suggested this restaurant so we took a group of 11, at 7pm on a Friday night. We made reservations and arrived right at 7. We were seated immediately and our drink order was taken, followed by our food order. Here is where things started getting bad. Our waitress who had ONE table couldn't take care of us.

    (1)

  • Craig D.

    Food is good, but the service has gone downhill since they opened.

    (3)

  • Kelly V.

    My family enjoys La Cava. Fast and friendly service and the food is great! The queso is yummy!!!

    (5)

  • Matthew C.

    Food is decent and service is average. My wife entered a drawing for a free meal and was selected, however they did not honor their end of the deal. Her name was written on the weekly winner board and everything. I don't understand the point of a free drawing if you can't cash in when you have won.

    (3)

  • Jaime S.

    Just visited the restaurant last night. I have been a frequent customer to this restaurant, and at times the service was not great but last night really takes the cake. We were at the restaurant for 2 HOURS, and not by choice. We arrived there around 7:30, we had a group of 8. Of our group of 8, we had a 2 year old & a 6 year old, which only made matters worse. After sitting in the restaurant for about 15 minutes I inquired with the "host" as to who our server was, and he was going to "get right on it"....approximately 15 minutes later, he saw we still had no water, no chips, no salsa, he came over to the table. I confronted him about my frustrations & he snapped back at me, and proclaimed, "what do you want me to do!", I replied, you could get us some water, chips & salsa (apparently that was beneath him??), after that was said, our "server" came out with our drinks, chips & salsa. I had a bad feeling about how long our food would take & I was right, we got flat out lied to MULTIPLE times as to where our food was & why it was taking so long. As many mexican restaurant customers know, this food does not take long to prepare, and some of it is pre-prepped. At one point I was practically begging for them to bring out at least the food for the children...Sorry for the long rant, but we will NOT be returning. PS...They didn't even offer to compensate us or take ANYTHING off the bill - pathetic customer service!!!

    (1)

  • Denver J.

    I was not impressed with their seafood enchilada. It was not very warm and was mostly filled with what seemed like imitation crab and frozen scallops. At least the beer was reasonable priced....

    (2)

  • Josh B.

    This is like blah city. Tables were kind of messy. The restroom was a disaster. The wait staff was completely unorganized. And the food was merely passable. From the outside, it looks like a nice place. But it is not great.

    (2)

  • Colby D.

    This is a great option for Mexican food. It is always clean and the staff is very friendly. The food has a fresh taste to it unlike some. Would highly recommend!

    (5)

  • Mark G.

    Not a huge fan, pretty mediocre. Has all the things of a typical looking Midwestern Mexican restaurant. So they have the ambiance down. Food isn't terrible but it was just basic for me. I have had the bland problem many times in the midwest. For me I want my meat and sauce to come out swinging with flavor, to me they didn't attempt to be the best.

    (2)

  • Matt U.

    Been meaning to go here for sometime and my expectations of mediocrity were met. We came with a group in the middle of the day and were seated quickly. The margaritas were decent, but nothing special. The food at the table was a good mix of standard American Mexican, but unfortunately missed the mark on the staples. The tacos, enchiladas and fajitas were middle of the road. The guacamole was good as was the queso. Chips and salsa were good as well. Overall, another of a growing number of mediocre Mexican places in the area. Nice folks working here, but Mexican food isn't hard enough to make to get us to go to places where it's not great.

    (3)

  • Jessica Z.

    First time trying La Cava and overall I found it to be average. Service: The service was pretty slow however I was with a large group and there seemed to be another large group in the restaurant at the time. Also, it was during dinner time so I can understand they were busy. They were more disorganized than other restaurants I've been at when accommodating large groups. Most other restaurants have a system for taking orders so the food goes to the right person but the servers here just walked around the table asking who got what dish when the food came. Also we had to wait a while for boxes and the check (we didn't even split checks) so while I can understand food taking time, this should have been taken care of quickly. Food: The food was average. I ordered the Fajitas La Cava. Portion sizes were quite large and everything tasted pretty good but nothing spectacular. The others in my groups seemed to be overall happy with their food. Will probably not go out of my way to return but if someone else suggests La Cava I wouldn't mind coming back.

    (3)

  • Michael K.

    Not my favorite Mexican restaurant in the area but I often find myself here because of the location. I prefer El Dorado/Ranchero's vegetarian entrees. The service can be inconsistent as well.

    (3)

  • Abigail J.

    Came here for the first time after I received a free appetizer coupon. The staff was really nice however I was not too impressed with the food. The chips were a little stale and the salsa was nothing to brag about. I ordered the Nachos Acapulco appetizer because I love seafood. Unfortunately the seafood was not fresh and had a very fishy taste. I would not order this dish again. I also got a chicken taco,which tasted average.

    (2)

  • Deep B.

    Being a native angeleno its been a struggle adjusting to the midwest take on mexican food (the exception being irressistable gooey artery clogging queso) with La Cava i finally found a place that reminds me of home. The guacamole looks and tastes like it was made from real avocados as opposed to that deplorable grocery store paste other joints in town try to pass off as authentic. I had the cajun style shrimp tacos, the flavors of which took me back summers on the venice pier in los angeles. Its not exactly as same being a child eating fresh seafood with an ocean view, but its just close enough to warm up the memory. Overall great restraunt, great for work outings and trying to impress on a date.

    (5)

  • Piyush D.

    It's a pretty decent place. I like going here once a month at least. Would recommend this place to anyone looking for nice, not too greasy Mexican food.

    (4)

  • Vic N.

    Stopped here for lunch as we were driving through Iowa. What a mistake. When we first walked in half the tables in the restaurant were still messy from previous customers with no signs of anyone making the effort to clean them up. The nachos they brought out prior to the meal were hard and of Dollar Tree quality. The salsa that accompanied it was overly spicy without any flavor. Now I eat Mexican food a lot and I like heat. But hot without flavor is pointless. I had a taco/burrito combo. The taco only had a little lettuce and a smidge of waxy cheese. The burrito had nothing inside but chicken and was smothered in what appeared to be only tomato sauce. It was as if this food was made by a college student in his dormitory. Truly one of the worst Mexican restaurants I have ever eaten at. Chipotle's would have been way better and cheaper.

    (1)

  • Sidney T.

    The last two times I've gone to La Cava the service and food have suffered. Once my party was seated and sat for 20 minutes with no service. Nothing. No drinks, no orders taken, not even a stop by to say, 'hey we're busy and will be with you as soon as possible.' We walked out after 20 minutes. The time after that my son had two huge chicken bones in his chicken enchiladas. We've cut back going to La Cava because of these two experiences. I'm hopeful these last two visits were aberrations and will probably go back occasionally with the hope it is different.

    (3)

  • Sarah G.

    I was suspicious of this place before I walked in the door but I was pleasantly surprised. This is not an authentic Mexican restaurant. It is an American restaurant dressed up as Mexican. The salsa is "Iowa spicy," as a friend of mine calls it. It's not hot. So, that said, if you love cheese sauce or guacamole and you don't mind that this is not anywhere near authentic Mexican, you will find something to suit you. One interesting veggie option is mushroom fajitas. They could have more flavor but I was glad to see a meatless dish on the menu. I had the chicken enchiladas once and chicken fajitas once. My fajitas had way more onions than peppers, which was annoying but okay because the portion was so big. I hear it's a good place to watch the games so I'll probably be back. But if I want Mexican, I'll be going somewhere else.

    (3)

  • Nan K.

    The food has always been good. However the last visit ob black friday ar around 5pm was a train wreck on service! Waited at least 10 min at a empty table with no waiter is site when we finally got one he said "sorry for wait the staff was on break" at 5pm?? They cant handle large amounts of people apparently so go at and on a off day/time

    (3)

  • Kent L.

    HUGE servings. See my picture to get an idea of how large their Burritos are (the utensils were included for scale). My friend ordered a "taco salad" and the damn thing was like one ridiculously large taco. It reminded me of Taco Bell's XXL Chalupa, but LARGER (I would probably say it was equivalent to over 6 normal tacos WTH?). Just a note, it does not seem like La Cava has very spicy food. Our waiter cautioned me not to order too spicy of sauce, so I only went with mild on my burrito, but needless to say, I didn't feel the burrito was at all spicy. Last note is that we all agreed we received great service when we came here for lunch last week (thanks, Alex189). Refills were not only quick on drinks, but also on chips and salsa (without needing to ask). I would come here again.

    (4)

  • Matthew S.

    The decor and environment was nice. Our server was very good, and understood the value of chips as both appetizer and dessert :) The food was a little overpriced and only average quality given the environment. I honestly expected a bit more from the quality of ingredients as well as serving size for the price. Menu was what you'd expect. I'm a connossieur of hot salsas, and I do have to admit they have a pretty good one.

    (2)

  • Emily C.

    Burritos are huge and for a great price too!! Service is OK but it seems like a very clean place to eat. We have been there for several gatherings and always enjoy the food.

    (4)

  • Walker D.

    Absolutely horrible experience. Never been the best place but tonight is exceptionally bad. Menus are sticky & gross. Chips are stale. Bartender is inept and rude. Only having guac & cheese dip, which took forever to get, but haven't received silverware or napkins. No waters. A six top just walked out after sitting for 10 minutes & no one approached the table. None of the staff seem to move w/ any sense of urgency, lackadaisical and apathetic. Come on, act like you work at an effing restaurant.

    (2)

  • Mike D.

    My wife and I haven't been there in a while but due to a friends birthday gathering we had plans to go there. The restaurant itself is pretty nice and it was nice that a Mexican restaurant had all the football games on. The service was less than average, it seemed like the service came in shifts. For example, one thing would come and then our waiters would disappear untilthe next item came. Hard to get another drink or more chips. The burritos looked excellent and very large. The prices weren't bad either. Will probably go back.

    (4)

  • Bruce W.

    Not a favorite anymore. Skimpy on meat in fajitas. When they opened, portion sizes were decent. For some reason, on my recent visit, they placed tons of green peppers and onions in my fajitas? Margaritas are mostly all ice and very little drink. The chips and salsa are alright but nothing to get excited about.

    (2)

  • Fashion I.

    Ate my last meal at La Cava tonight. Not sure what was the final straw...the waiter, who stated "you just missed happy hour", the dried out ice berg lettuce, the nasty water from the tap or the soupy salsa with greasy chips. The beef tacos had barely any beef, mostly grease and the tiny dab of guacamole was ridiculous. Nutrient value score of my meal was probably 20 out of 1000. This was definitely the Mc Donalds of "Mexican restaurants". In a word...GROSS!

    (1)

  • Michael V.

    I have no idea what Joe K is talking about. I LOVE La Cava. Easily the best Mexican in the area! The atmosphere is outstanding. There are a ton of margarita choices. And to clarify, a properly made margarita doesn't have a strong tequila taste. The service is great though sometimes there is a bit of a wait. That's easily solved by enjoying the chips and salsa! As for La Reyna, are you kidding me? La Reyna is at the bottom of the pack.

    (5)

  • Cary B.

    1/13/2012. Short wait to be seated. Excellent service and not one complaint about the food. Portions quite large. Keg o' margaritas topped it all off.

    (5)

  • Ottis B.

    With all of the new Mexican Restaurants being built in the area, I think La Cava will do the best! They have a nice variety on their menu (along with american food options) & their drink list is pretty good too! The atmosphere & staff service is very good & unlike other mexican restaurants you don't have to watch soccer 24/7. They have a variety of seating arrangements & a nice meeting/group room in the back if you would like to have a larger gathering.

    (4)

  • Michael P.

    Had a really nice dining experience!! Would definitely recommend a visit or three!! Be sure to try a margarita!!

    (5)

  • Angie T.

    We went there excited to try it. The food was passable, not a "wow." Many much better Mexican places in IC and Coralville. But that's not even the issue. We had the WORST waiter I've ever had anywhere. My friend explained in detail why she didn't want any cheese on her burrito and he acknowledged her concern and assured her there would be no cheese. Well, there was cheese all over it! Then he was like "oh, you didn't want cheese?" My other friend's order also got messed up and the chef actually came out to defend himself, but it was kinda black and white - they got it wrong. It was probably the waiter. Let's see, what else? Oh, none of the sides came with out the fajitas. We had to ask. And the waiter seemed annoyed to have to get them. No refills on the coffee - never asked once. Finally, when we went to pay, explaining the simple, very standard way we wanted to split the check was like explaining Fermat's Enigma to a zebra. And he could not be bothered to pick up our cards. We had to get up and ask the manager to run them. On the plus side, it's clean, and a festive decor. And the manager was nice and seemed aware that his waiter stunk. I might give it another chance sometime, but probably only if I get stuck on that side of town.

    (2)

  • Doug W.

    Just went for lunch during a week day...had the fish tacos with red snapper, blackened. Pretty good, but needed plenty of hot sauce as nothing (not even the salsa) had any heat whatsoever. But for $8 with chips and salsa I was not complaining. Definitely better than offerings at the Coral Ridge Mall.

    (3)

  • Garrett H.

    Great food, little bit long on the wait for the food. No draft beers; only bottled. Great chips and salsa! Will come back

    (4)

  • Ray L.

    Posted December 2011: Been there half a dozen times. Good food, margaritas, service. I like to make small changes to what I order (e.g., no tomatoes, different sides with the fajitas, etc.) and they have not problem accommodating me. They plan on adding outdoor seating in the spring. We will be regulars there. Half price margaritas from 4 to 6 PM :-). Updated November 2013: They never added the outdoor seating and the food has really gone downhill. Plus they really messed up a number of orders. We stopped going there. Too many other good options.

    (2)

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Map

Opening Hours

    Sorry, Store hours have not been updated. If you are the owner of this restaurants. Please update the store hours.

Specialities

  • Takes Reservations : Yes
    Delivery : No
    Take-out : Yes
    Accepts Credit Cards : Yes
    Good For : Lunch, Dinner
    Parking : Private Lot
    Bike Parking : Yes
    Wheelchair Accessible : Yes
    Good for Kids : Yes
    Good for Groups : Yes
    Attire : Casual
    Ambience : Casual
    Noise Level : Average
    Alcohol : Full Bar
    Outdoor Seating : No
    Wi-Fi : Free
    Has TV : Yes
    Waiter Service : Yes
    Caters : No

Categories

Mexican Cuisine

If you enjoy Taco Tuesday, then you have officially fallen in love with the Mexican Food. The main grain of Mexican cuisine is maize. Also known as corn, maize is grown for the past 9000 years after the crop was discovered by the people in Mayan civilization. Mexican empire flourished when they started growing beans, tomatoes, chili pepper, sweet potato and cactus. Till this date these ingredients are used in cooking authentic Mexican dishes and drinks.

Great use of spices, fresh chili pepper dishes like fajitas, tortilla chips, corn chips, salsa, chimichangas, burritos, nachos and quesadillas are invented in America. But when you are looking for authentic Mexican food then you must find a restaurant in the city that serves Rajas con Queso, Garbanzo in a Guajillo Chile Sauce, Pork Filled Chiles Rellenos, Chiles en Nogada, Molcajete Salsa, Pico de Gallo and Frijoles de la Olla. An eye-opening fact – Mexican don't like their food hot. They use fresh chili and other spices to create a flavor that lingers in your mouth.

Mexican food is great for those who are Gluten Intolerant as they use Corn instead of wheat in most of their dishes. Also, you can easily find many beans based Mexican dishes. Another dish which didn't get similar glory as tacos or nachos is the Mexican hot chocolate. If you love something hot on a chilly day, then go for Mexican Hot Chocolate. On merry days, you can enjoy the authentic Mexican Drinks like Tequila, Mezcal, Tecuí, Sotol, Bacanora, Charanda, Posh O Pox, Puebla and Pulque. Mexican Cuisine is for people who enjoy strong drinks and hearty meals.

La Cava - Mexican Restaurant and Cantina

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