Playa Cabana Hacienda - Toronto

Stopped in here around 9 PM on a weeknight and got a couple of great seats at the bar right away.

I came here to celebrate my sister's birthday and we had a good experience.

Decor not too Mexican. Food was just passable, a bit cold. Drink was OK. This place used to be a steak house but they did it over with uncomfortable seats. Service was acceptable but neither friendly nor great

We live in the neighbourhood, and really wanted to love this restaurant. After three visits, this seems unlikely. The positives: The warm, casual, intimate atmosphere - both inside and outside - offers a good first impression. The menu is limited but has a nice selection of tastes, and many of the taco dishes are quite good. The neutrals: The prices are reasonable, but considering the small plates, they're actually on the high side for what you get (for just a bit more you can get a nice dinner at other local spots). The negatives: The service, while superficially friendly, is poor. The other problem is a surprising rigidity. For example, on the back patio, you can only order wine by the bottle, not the glass. The bartender's only explanation was that the patio was 'a totally separate restaurant.' While we didn't expect the menu to be exactly the same, we were obviously disappointed and explained we didn't feel like beer or mixed drinks. At any other restaurant in the world, they would have opened up a bottle of their basic house wine and poured us a couple of glasses. Not at this place. All we got was an indifferent shrug. We won't be back anytime soon.

Restaurants are a dime a dozen here in the city of Toronto, and we have some amazing ones! But if the service is poor, than you have no restaurant at all! Playa Cabana Hacienda, is one such restaurant! Even in spite of the food being good, the person that manages it, Matt, makes the experience bad, even if the food was good! He is rude, aggressive and is clearly not fit to be in the service industry! It shocks me that Mas Playas, with as many restaurants as they have in the city, they actually employee this imbalanced, mentally unfit, and abusive person to run their restaurant! Scroll down to read the other reviews, and you'll see that I am not the only one who mention's Matt. Because of him, I will never step foot in this two-bit operation! Shame on you Mas Playas for not living up to your mission statement! If you're "ever-growing" passion for hospitality is what you care about, then remove that individual who manages Hacienda! He's appalling!