Loooooooved everything I had. There's no frills to this place, just nice people cooking up good meals. Came in on a Sunday night and there really wasn't anyone in there. I think they are busier on Friday and Saturday nights. It is BYOB. They give you chips and salsa to start, which is super tasty. Very fresh. Definitely will find yourself finishing the bowl. For appetizer we had garlic shrimp (I don't think it's actually on the menu, but they do it). Whatever spice they use on this shrimp...I could lick the plate and have another order of them. The best garlic shrimp I ever had. For dinner I had the carnitas. They give you so much and it comes sizzling. Comes with a small portion of guac, sour cream, rice, and beans. So much flavor. I love the little crispy bits. My only qualm is that they give you soft flour tortillas, but only 3. 4 or 5 would be ideal. It is just so much meat - 3 small tortillas is not enough. It makes for great left overs and you can use tortillas at home. Great cooking here. Truly underrated. read more

Jose's Mexican Cantina - Carnitas - Mexican Near Me - New Providence, New Jersey

It was a nice experience in jose's mexican cantina it's such a shame people don't come here nice service small but nice i suggest people to come read more

Jose's Mexican Cantina - Tostada Maya - Mexican Near Me - New Providence, New Jersey

I have been coming to Jose's since the late 90's. It has been one of my favorite places for great Authentic Mexican food. I was there tonight with the hopes of having a great meal like I used to have and was highly disappointed. The first red flag should have been the fact that the place was empty unlike when I used to go there. It took 10 minutes just to be served water which is a basic thing to offer your guests. My husband liked his meal as did my mother-in-law, but mine was dry and tasteless. We got our food to go, and the waiter came back with the check as we were packing the containers. He never asked us if we wanted any dessert or even if we wanted to see the dessert menu. I was highly disappointed in this place and have no plans to come back anytime soon. read more

My Co-workers decided to order lunch for my Birthday from Jose's Mexican Cantina two weeks ago. We all ordered something different from the luncheon menu. We told Andy what time we wanted Lunch, so we could bring the food back to our office to eat and share. Everything was delicious - especially the salsa sauce. We will be going back again. read more

Wow! Horrible experience with take-out. It's been a long time since we've ordered from Jose's and we will never order from them again! We ordered the carnitas and the meat was literally burnt! I don't mean crispy as carnitas can be but black and charred! The pieces that weren't burnt were as dry as a bone. The nachoes rancheros were supposed to have jalapenoes but there were none to be found. The cheese was only on top amongst globs of refried beans. Check out my photos and you'll see what I mean regarding this order. Whoever on their staff was that let this meal leave the kitchen obviously didn't care one bit! Where was the quality control? We ended up throwing our entire order out! This was a first for us! read more

Jose's Mexican Cantina - Nasty, dry, burnt carnitas. Inedible! - Mexican Near Me - New Providence, New Jersey

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Long ago Jose's Mexican Cantina was Fabio's Mexican Cantina, but after Fabio Brid came to an untimely end in 1991 (he started the restaurant in 1981) his brother Jose stepped in and took over. In the early days there were lines out the door and hour plus waits were not unusual on weekends. There are no longer waits and the food has become somewhat mundane. Still ok, but nothing great. Good value for money for sure. read more

Jose's Mexican Cantina - a glass of wine - Mexican Near Me - New Providence, New Jersey

Very authentic Mexican food, and very friendly staff. Great for take out as well. I'd give them a 5 if they would renovate the interior a bit, but the food alone gets a 5 in my book, very tasty! read more

My family and I have been coming to Jose's for 15+ years and I can definitely say the food is consistently good! Whether you dine in or take out the food always delivers. All these 1 and 2 star reviews are crazy! The chicken soup alone is 10 out of 10 and hasn't changed since day 1. All of their dishes are made with fresh and quality ingredients. Jose's has the most authentic and best tasting Mexican food in the area by far. read more

Been to Joses many times. It is consistent. Not as tasty as others. No celantro. If in the area and real hungry, you might drop in. Chilis Kahala is much better, if you can go there. They have Wow Factor, tasty. Worth higher price. Park on upper structure, enter by Ross' ramp, east or west bound, U-turn. read more

I remember a time when the food was super fresh and flavorful. This food today, is TRASH at best! Absolutely garbage. WTF happened?? Revamp the recipes. Get a new chef who takes pride in the food that come out of the kitchen! I guarantee you will see a drastic increase in profits. This is down right slop! read more

Good mole sauce and tamales, free chips and salsa, friendly service and reasonable prices, I'm a fan of this little BYO Mexican place! Serves all the usuals like burritos enchiladas tacos plus many seafood plates; four-item combo dinners are $17.50. Visited on a quiet weekday evening. Chips seem house-made and needed a little salt, the salsa was mild. Checked in on yelp to get free nachos which are just chips cheese and jalapeños, very simple. I'm a huge fan of the chili chocolate sauce called mole, few places make it, happy to try theirs over pork enchiladas with rice and beans, extremely fairly priced at $15 for all that food, yummy. My dining companions got shrimp in onion pepper red sauce, and beef enchiladas, my dining companions were very happy. Vegetarian rating: four stars, in addition to the usual apps like guac they have three first-class vegetarian entrées: cactus enchiladas, veg burrito and an all-veg Mex combo plate. The inside is dark and cut up into three tiny dining areas, I'm guessing that helps keep the noise down a little bit. Admittedly the bar is low for Mexican food in northern New Jersey & peeps visiting from the left coast might well be disappointed by Jose's cantina, but I was very glad to find it. read more

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First time coming here. Person raking order spoke English very well, however I domt think they understand it very well since my Food came out incorrect, twice. Asked them to cook the steak more, it came out charred. Just to be disrespectful. Overpriced me and showed me two different menus with two different prices. I ordered a flank steak and they charged me for a rib eye. Explained the confusion at the end and he asked where the steak was knowing I had gulped it down not realizing it was a different cut. I should have read their ratings beforehand. Never coming back. read more

Where to start.... Ok, I came here for lunch today. It was about 1:30pm and I was the only customer (now I know why) I ordered two things to go. One chimichanga lunch plate and a ranchero wet burrito. I asked for peppers and onions in the burrito and they didn't put any in. In fact, it was bizarre, it wasn't even a burrito. It's almost as if the restaurant ran out of burrito sized wraps and just used a crap load of corn tortillas. My wife counted 8 layers of tortillas in what was supposed to be a chimichanga. It's like they gave us both a weird take on Mexican pizzas lol. My wet burrito was supposed to have a nice green salsa on top and what I actually got was this weird ass grease and water mixture that tasted like sloppy joes. This food was absolutely disgusting! The salsa tasted like it came from a can, the jalapeños tasted like they came from a can, the black olives tasted spoiled, the only thing that was decent was the guacamole. I live in Passaic which has a ton of great Mexican restaurants. This place is the absolute furthest things from "authentic", it's gross. The inside of the restaurant looked awesome. But that's not enough to make up for garbage food. read more

Do not go here. Period. Its not Mexican nor Tex-Mex. Poorly made dishes lacking in flavor.

This is the WORST Mexican food ever they gave us store bought refried crap. They where super sketchy and under cooked our burritos which we payed f**king $17 for even though the menu said it was $11! The tacos where f**king disgusting and they put cucumber, peas, tomato, and onions in our rice! The website says they are "traditional Mexican food" which is 100% false. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DONT GO HERE ITS A WASTE OF MONEY FOR REALLY BAD FOOD! read more

Jose's Mexican Cantina - Mexican Near Me - New Providence, New Jersey

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Really nice staff and atmosphere. Unfortunately the food was very very bland and my shrimp tacos tasted like curry. Maybe try a different dish if you go. read more

Sorry to say, just not good. Nice varied menu, but the food did not live up. Hate to complain about free food, but the chips were thick, hard and not warm. Salsa was worse- tasted like they found a jar of chi-chis salsa from 1995. Flamenco queso appetizer was small and very greasy. Jalisco steak tacos (a specialty of the house) was also exceedingly greasy, the meat was USDA grade eh, good enough, one small ramekin with a dab of sour cream and guacamole. Rice and beans were not warm. And then the check came- not itemized, and I couldn't get the numbers to work out, but I just paid the inflated total so I could leave. Very disappointing- won't be back. read more

Delicious and authentic food, fantastic service and the setting is perfect for dining in.

I've already reviewed but ITS SO GOOOOOD. Been coming here since I was like 5. I lived on the west coast for 14 years (including LA and Phoenix, Mexican food hot spots) and dreamt of this place often - finally moved back this way and am within driving distance again!!!! read more

Tortilla chips are thick and crunchy, not crisp. They're tasty. The salsa is a bit watery and thin but tastes OK. When I arrived staff was watching futbol on TV and it remained on for abt 15 mins of my visit. After that music was played and the have was on mute. The service was great. The ambiance and decor is great. The food was tasty. My only negative was that the pico de Gallo had more peppers and onions than tomatoes and cilantro. It wasn't a good balance. read more

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My husband and I had dinner here last night, and it was very disappointing. In recent years, we have been eating Mexican food at a different place, but this used to be our "go to" place. We happened to be in the New Providence area yesterday evening, so figured we would try it. First of all, we weren't even sure it was open - the entrance looked unappealing (when we used to go here years ago, there were lines to get in!). They were open, but at the front of the restaurant there was a pile of about 9-10 chairs right when you walk in. The little room in the front was dark (used to be a waiting area when busy). We were seated right away - we had to ask for water. We were given a basket of chips and salsa - the salsa was a poor quality (like the inexpensive stuff you purchase in the grocery store). The menu was fairly extensive. My husband ordered a beef burrito and I ordered chicken enchiladas. The burrito looked more like a large enchilada - not like any burrito we have ever seen. My enchiladas were uninspiring. Both dishes looked pretty similar - smothered in the same bland red sauce we had with the chips and some cheese that appeared to be pre-cut squares melted on top. A little bit of shredded lettuce and some jalapeños were on both dishes. The food was.....barely adequate. Service was nonexistent - the server came back once to check on us and fill my empty water glass. There were about 5 other tables occupied when we were there. The table next to us asked for several additional things because he thought his order should have come with tortillas and sour cream. Compared to our usual place, the prices were higher, the portions were smaller, and the food was not very good. It's really disappointing that this place has declined so much - it used to be the premier Mexican restaurant in the area. We will not be back. read more

Ordered food for delivery and I remember the food being much better. It was good but not great. Food was delivered and I was not contacted when it was delivered and it was left by my door with the commitment of a text which never happened. Shrimp was overcooked and food was barely warm. A bit too expensive for just good not great food! read more

great local long time mexican restaurant with a friendly staff and hot mexican food very authentic read more

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I hadn't been to Jose's in years before venturing in there the day after Thanksgiving. I had gone there for Spanish Club trips when I was in school, but they kind of fell off my radar after I graduated. I'm glad I took a chance on them again! We had gone downtown for the annual Christmas Walk, and wanted to grab a bite to eat while we were there. Since we love to support our local businesses, we looked around to see which restaurants weren't too crowded. We evaluated each of the options, but realized we weren't in the mood for any of our "regular" places. The Man hadn't been to Jose's before, so we wandered in to see if they had any open tables. Lucky for us, it was pretty quiet in there. The restaurant is very tiny - our booth was just barely large enough to fit both of us, but we made do. The waiter came by with water and menus before disappearing back into the kitchen. I chose the taco dinner with steak soft tacos, The Man went for beef enchiladas. After our waiter took our order, he appeared again with some chips and salsa for us while we waited for our food to arrive. Now, I know better than to fill up on empty carbs before eating my meal, but I just couldn't help it. I love chips and salsa! While I wasn't blown away the salsa at Jose's, it also wasn't bad. I usually like mine a bit more chunky, though, so that was a little disappointing. However, that didn't stop us from eating all of it before our food came! The portions at Jose's are pretty nice sized. Our entrees themselves weren't enormous (after all, they're using standard sized tortillas), but they were served wtih big portions of refried beans and rice, making our plates practially spill over with food. My tacos were quite lovely. The meat had a bit of smokiness from the grill, but not so much that it tasted burnt. Everything paired together quite nicely, and I actually only finished about half the plate before my stomach told me it was time to stop. The Man finished his entire plate, quite pleased with how his enchiladas came out. He loved the melty cheese playing with the flavors of the sauce (mild) and the smoky beef. He practically licked the refried beans off his plate. Overall, the food was very solid. Probably not to the levels you will find in other parts of the country where Mexican cuisine is more popular, but way better than most of the other options nearby here (like Taco Bell, yuck). The only downside to the restaurant really is the size. The front area had a large party seated there where tables had been pushed together, but that seems to be the only area that can accommodate that. The back seating area where we were had booths, so you can't really push them together (not that there'd be room to move around anyway). The prices are a bit steeper than you might expect, but they're really on par with other restaurants in town. Besides, we got 2 very tasty dinners and a box of leftovers for less than 40 bucks - and I'm ok with that! This place is BYOB (as is the entire town until they finally start auctioning liquor licenses, in case people didn't know), but there is a liquor store right next door that has a decent selection. read more

Jose's Mexican Cantina - Chips & salsa - Mexican Near Me - New Providence, New Jersey

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I've been there a few times for dinner. The service is excellent and the waiters are thoughtful. However, the food quality (burritos, enchiladas, tacos from what I've had) are unimpressive. The rice, too, is just kind of meh. It would be a 5 star place if they toned down their prices to match the OK quality. read more

Growing up in southern CA, my Mexican food standards are pretty high. I didn't think I'd find myself eating at a Mexican restaurant during my short stay in NJ, but I was pleasantly surprised by Jose's Mexican Cantina. I ordered the chicken fajitas and those things were packed with taste and deliciousness. I tried someone else's order of the carnitas and those were also good (but not as great as the chicken fajitas). Definitely give this place a try if you're craving some Mexican food, it won't disappoint. read more

My family and I went a few times and the staff is lovely and the chips are complementary when you sit. It's the small things but they were delicious and the staff is quick to refill your cup of water. The good never takes long and the presentation is very nice. 11/10 read more

This place is a little pricey for Mexican food, but on par to the cost of any restaurant in northern Jersey, I guess. The food is delish, though, and I love that the restaurant is BYOB. There's a small liquor store next store, which makes things very convenient. The atmosphere is cozy and welcoming, and the service is always attentive enough. The last time I was here, the staff gladly let me and my date finish up our drinks without rushing us out, even though it was late and near closing. read more

Sorry.... But not good I was so excited after reading the reviews that I dragged my husband here... And we left so disappointed. We love mexican food, but I guess our expectations are just a little high since I'm from Cali and he's from Texas. But on a positive note. The staff is pretty nice, the place is fairly clean (although it's dark, so maybe I couldn't tell) and food came quickly. read more

Just heard of this place so we stopped in for dinner. I was a bit surprised at the prices, (13-bucks for 2 tacos and rice surprised) but the food was good enough to make the varied tastes in your group of 6 happy (total bill was $110). Service-- they were not busy, but not empty when we went and the service was very sporadic. We went with kids so we are looking for refills and our appetizer. Neither showed up at the table (or on the bill), but the refills would have been nice we got a bus boy to get us some water. Wont rush back anytime soon, but nice to know it is there. read more

I used to come here when it was Fabio's. Jose took over and for years the food was great. Long standing date night with wife on Fridays for years. I moved to California in 01. Recently I returned for a visit. The place looks terrible inside. Carpet is torn dust on everything looks like it really needs updating. Saturday night and empty. Not good. Chips were stale and tasteless. The salsa tasted like it came out of a jar. This place had great chips and salsa. The Suiza enchiladas were fair the cheese not melted and the guacamole was not fresh. I was very sad. I've known Jose for many years and he is a great guy.This place needs a complete renovation, interior and food. read more

I have been coming to Jose's for years and have had consistently enjoyable meals there. We always order two appetizers: the shrimp (camarones al ajillo) and melted cheese (queso flamenco). Both are flavorful and very good! As far as entrees go, they can be a little spotty. I used to LOVE the camarones al diablo, but lately it's been too salty and not worth the price. The crab enchilada is really good and very filling. The chili is worth ordering as well. The portions are quite large, and some meals come with a soup so we have never ordered dessert. Service and atmosphere are good but nothing special. This is our go-to place for good Mexican food. read more

This place is the only restaurant north of Texas and East of St Louis that can make a proper Ranchero style plate of cheese enchiladas. The decor depicts scenes that are evocative of the 6 months I spent living in Mexico City and the village of San Miguel. The owners and staff are conscientious, sincere and helpful. The ambience is casual and relaxed. I highly recommend this place to anyone in NJ looking for Mexican food. The beans have flavor. Nothing here is poured out of a can. read more

Jose's Mexican Cantina - I opted to try out the Chicken Mole enchiladas, and I was not disappointed. - Mexican Near Me - New Providence, New Jersey

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This was first time to go to Mexican food in Warren since me and my husband moved to NJ from NY. We didn't have high expectation for food in NJ because NYC has a lot of nice Mexican food. And we found hare from yelp..... it said 4 stars. BUT I give them 1. Because first of all it took SOOOO long to bring food for us. Maybe 30 min. And their salsa was so bad. I think they don't make it, using some kind of cheap salsa from some supermarket.... Food was soso, not so interesting. And of course NO alcohol.... sucks. read more

FOOD POISONING: I ordered the mole enchiladas, and although they were really good, apparently it wasn't clean. I contracted food poisoning and was sick for several days. I hate to give this review, but food poisoning and restaurant cleanliness is very serious, and should not be taken lightly. read more

This place is great. It is byob and the service is great. The soups are all spectacular. The dishes are well seasoned but not too spicy unless you ask for it. Tacos al Carbon is great. The lunch specials are a great deal for a very nice meal. This is as close to authentic Mexican in the area. The decor is a bit over the top but it does add to the experience. read more

Jose's Mexican Cantina - Mexican Near Me - New Providence, New Jersey

I'm floored by the reviews I'm seeing here on Yelp about Jose's. I lived in New Providence for a few years, and can honestly say I've never had a bad meal there. Granted, I don't eat there as much as I used to (I live 30 minutes away now), but my recent visit hasn't changed my mind in the least. Jose's simply has the best authentic Mexican food in New Jersey, hands down. My favorite entrees are the Jalisco Steak Tacos and the Crab Enchiladas. And the Ceviche appetizer is outstanding. A few of the one-star reviews here come with the disclaimer "I have high standards for Mexican food". Yes you do! I've had plenty of Mexican food in California, and Jose's is just as good if not better. read more

I've been here so many times and I can't believe I never wrote a review!! I love this place!! Chips are good and the guac is amazing. Love love the beef faijtas. I love them so much I don't think i ever got anything else. My hubby like the burrito too! Def come and check this place out! Yum! read more

Free nachos!!! That were delicious! The enchiladas were great and very nice service. Next time I'm bringing alcohol and putting it in their non alcoholic margs (byob)! read more

Great service, food is amazing, large portions. Everything thing is fresh. Friendly staff! BYOB keeps the cost down. Btw there is a liqueur store right next to the restaurant. Cozy friendly atmosphere. There is also Groupon coupons. read more