A GEM. A friend showed my partner and I around Milwaukee for the first time & introduced us to this restaurant. Simply put -- The food was BOMB. I ordered the Mojarra Empanazida (fried tilapia covered in a very spicy and flavorful chipotle sauce) and as you can see, the portions here are massive. The rest of our table ordered a Molcajete Mixto, molé enchiladas and mango margaritas. The staff were friendly and attentive & the music was great as well. This is one of those places that's so good you leave extremely satisfied but also a tad bit sad because you wanted to try every single thing on the menu lol -- I've already planned out my entire order for the next time we come back to Milwaukee. read more

La Canoa - Mojarra Empanizada - Seafood Near Me - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

We ordered the tongue and the chilaquiles and they served us this disgusting food. The food was so spicy that we couldn't even eat everything that was served on the plate, those who serve are justified by saying that Mexican chilaquiles are peaks, I'm Mexican and this couldn't even be eaten! Very bad service, the food is very Expensive and the food is not good. Now I understand why this place was empty! It's not what it used to be. The atmosphere was heavy, the waitresses only criticizing us when we gave our feedback about the food. Without a doubt, I will not return to this place! read more

La Canoa - This was tongue in green sauce and green chilaquiles. - Seafood Near Me - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

I do like me some Mexican food and I will always advise getting into the ethnic neighborhoods before going to a chain Mexican restaurant because go where the people actual eat. The greater area around this restaurant has so many good Mexican restaurants I want to try them all. I got rock star parking right in front of the so I didn't investigate if they had off street parking. The place is colorful and I was shocked that it was totally packed with like one small table left on the very end in the dining room, I haven't seen this since before C19 so I must be in a good place. They have a nice bar to the right as you walk in so I sat at the bar so I didn't take up a table for just me when they were really busy, it's a Monday at 12:30 for my visit. I was given chips and salsa with multi colored chips and three salsas all were very low in the containers with a green, red and a ceviche style. The red was ok while I didn't like the flavor of the green at all and the ceviche was my favorite. My blended lime margarita was not bad because it had good flavor and some booze in it. I ordered a blended lime margarita while I looked over the massive menu and I ordered the combination plate with meat substitutions because beef and chicken were only listed and they were fine with it. My combination dinner would be a Asada taco, ground beef enchilada and a carnitas tostada with rice and beans. My order took 30 minutes but they were slammed so I'm not complaining and I'm just noting. My plate looked amazing and very cheesy. The Asada taco was just cilantro and onion and very good with tasty Asada. The ground beef enchilada had plenty of meat and cheese and also good. My carnitas tostada was also meaty and good topped with crumbled cheese and sour cream. The rice and beans got mixed together like I do and they were tasty and the cheese got very melty when all mixed together with big string cheese pulls with my fork. Overall my lunch was pretty good because the food was seasoned nicely and tasty with no skimping on the meat. This is definitely a good choice and I would have no problem meeting friends here for a meal and drinks. read more

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Very authentic Mexican food. I've never had Mexican food that tasted this good! Lots of choices on the menu. The host was very welcoming and our server was great! I will be back again soon. read more

The food and the atmosphere was great, But the customer service was terrible, very unprofessional. read more

Ugh. Not good. Sangria was Coca Cola with fruit in it!!!! Food was not good at all. We ordered one of the pots for 4, and it have a mix of meat and seafood! Yuck! We were terribly disappointed. I rarely give one star, but I just don't see a reason to give them more than that. We were visiting from Phoenix and Ft Lauderdale, and that was one meal we wish we could forget from our trip. read more

I'd heard good things about La Canoa and they've recently been pushing their advertising, so I thought I would give them a shot. It was dead when I visited, only one other table had diners. I liked the vibrant color scheme and decor, lots of bright shades of blue. My server brought out a trio of salsas. One was a basic thin salsa, one was a little thicker and had small chunks of avocado in it and the third was actually more like a ceviche. All three were very tasty. She also brought out a complimentary empanada. The pastry was cooked well but it was "filled" (there wasn't much of it) with fish, and it tasted "fishy." Don't mock me! Fish is not supposed to taste fishy when it is properly cooked. I ordered Puerco en Salsa Verde as my entree. The menu described it as tender chunks of pork tenderloin, which sounded great. I requested a side of flour tortillas with it. When the plate arrived, I was surprised to see white rice instead of the typical orange hued rice I was expecting. That was fine with me. I like to see restaurants change things up. I was hoping that something had been done with the rice, but that was not the case. No cilantro...nothing. It tasted fine, so no worries. The beans looked very much like the refried beans one would expect to find at a Mexican restaurant but they didn't taste as good as other Mexican restaurants. I'm not sure how to describe them. They weren't bland. They had a flavor. I just didn't care for it. I planned on rescuing my dinner by putting the pork tenderloin chunks into the flour tortillas and eating them like tacos. The problem with that plan was that I don't believe these were chunks of pork tenderloin. I'm not a butcher, I don't play one on TV and I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn last night, but I believe they brought me pork spare ribs. There were bones galore! I almost didn't notice because of all of the salsa verde, which was good by the way. I used my knife and fork to pry away what little meat I could from these chunks of bone. Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed. The saving grace were the tortillas. They were very warm and very soft and very delicious. I rolled them up and scooped up the salsa verde and the beans and that was enough to prevent my dinner from being a disaster. I asked the waitress if they used ribs instead of pork tenderloin because there were so many bones. I did not complain about it though. I merely asked the question and made the statement. When she came to collect my plate, she noticed a pile of bones with little bits of meat still on them. She must have put 2 and 2 together because when I got the bill there was a 10% discount on it. Again, I did not complain. She took it upon herself to read between the lines and try to make up for it even though I did not expect her to, not even hinted at it. Therefore, her act of good customer service was rewarded in her gratuity. I have had bad experiences at restaurants on slow nights in the past. You would think the cooks have more time to cook with care but maybe the food is just reheated leftovers from the day or two before. I don't know. I don't care. I doubt I'll be back to find out. There are too many other options for good Mexican food in Milwaukee. read more

La Canoa - Puerco en salsa verde - Seafood Near Me - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Authentic Mexican second to none in Milwaukee. The refried beans were impossibly smooth and flavor was incredible. The steak had lot's of crunchy bits that were flavor heaven. If you appreciate Mexican food and live Milwaukee this needs to be your new favorite. Hands down the best I have had. read more

Well , sea Food was ok 7 mares I think I can do better at home , but the place is filthy, I tried it . I don't like it , just to see all grease even the menu was upsetting. Not coming back. read more

Food is great just takes time for it to come out. They need to add more fish in h the aqu

Fantastic find! I saw that it has been a while since anyone wrote a review for here, so I felt compelled to do so. Chips and salsa are, of course, a pretty standard complimentary starter for Mexican restaurants, but the difference at La Canoa is that one of the three salsas is actually a really good ceviche. I hadn't seen that before. The margaritas were some of the best we'd ever had (we split a pitcher of them). And these were just your standard house margaritas - not the top shelf variety. Very impressive! I had the Parrilladas Para Una Persona Mixta, which was the individual-sized serving of Parrillada Mixta, a combination of pork, beef, chicken, shrimp, octopus, clams, mussels, calamari, crab, quesadilla, and cheese. I say individual-sized, but I left with enough leftovers for easily at least one other meal. I only had a few bites of the pork, beef and chicken so that I could concentrate on finishing off the seafood - reasoning that it would not reheat well. Everything was fantastic! Every variety of seafood was cooked perfectly and it had a delicious spicy sauce. The calamari and clams, in particular, were the most tender examples of each that I've ever had. My wife had the Tlayuda Oaxaqueña with barbacoa. This was kind of like a monster-sized quesadilla. There were three large wedges and my wife ended up taking two of them home. She was a huge fan! The menu for this place is huge and has so many unique dishes that I can't wait to try more of them. We'll definitely be back. read more

The most amazing selection of sea food and drinks I've only seen on Pinterest and Instagram usually! Everything is next level, the alcohol, the plates, the food. They even give you ceviche which is a Hispanic seafood dip for free which your complimentary chips. I ate seafood out of a pineapple. It was great read more

La Canoa - Seafood Near Me - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Really excellent food. An unusually large set of options for the seafood lover. And good margaritas, to boot. But... totally unsatisfactory service. They need to improve that. read more

We rode by this place on bicycle shortly after I was lamenting the fact that we still hadn't discovered a good seafood restaurant in town, and that, my Yelp friends, is what is known as serendipity. It's worth a trip here just to look at the chairs. Not a fancy place, but rather, fanciful, in terms of decor. Bright, pastel, and fit for a seaside resort town. All the customers were Mexican or Mexican-American, but our waitress also spoke fluent English, so you Gringos don't have any fear, you'll feel welcome here. The service was friendly and competent, but you're coming here for the absolutely delicious seafood. They seem to serve quite a selection of steaks, but I didn't see anyone ordering them. They've got a wide variety of fish to choose from, I recommend either one of the whole fried or baked fish, the Mexican seafood paella (not really much like Spanish paella), or one of the half a dozen different shrimp dishes. The chief of staff ordered one of the shrimp dishes, and it was quite tasty, but I can't remember which one it was. Don't wear white here, many of the entrees are messy, and the red sauce stain I got quickly became permanent. Even factoring in the price of a new white shirt, this place is quite reasonable for fresh seafood, and so far, this is the absolute best seafood restaurant I've found in the Milwaukee area. read more

Great food and will definitely be coming back soon! Our service was very good and my family and I have no complaints.

We stopped in for dinner on a Friday night, and had a wonderful experience. Our waitress brought us a trio of salsas to start - two delicious house salsas and a house ceviche, served w tortilla chips. Both the salsas packed some heat, and the ceviche was very fresh. She also brought us each a tasty seafood empanada, which wasn't the best empanada I've ever had but it was free! We ordered a small pitcher of mango margaritas, which were some of the best restaurant margaritas we've had - great fresh fruit flavor and smooth texture. For our entrees, we enjoyed seafood fajitas and langostinos. The fajitas were a mix of different seafood, including octopus and shrimp, and everything was very, very fresh. The Langostino's were tossed with a diablo sauce - a hot chili pepper sauce that had a slow smoky heat to it. I ordered 12 and was barely able to finish 6. The prices of the food were very reasonable, especially considering that this is probably the best seafood we've had in Milwaukee since Mocean's closed. If you love seafood, or if you love Mexican food, I would highly recommend La Canoa! We will definitely be back soon! read more

A little disappointed. The place and ambiance is really nice but when it comes to the food was too over the top. In every plate they mixed many many ingredients that at the end you can't taste what you are eating... I got a little sick afterwards... sometimes little is what you need specially when it comes to seafood where its flavors are already strong you dont need to add more! read more

The drinks were not even that good, the service was bad, it was super hot, and the food wasn't good. And it was overpriced asf. I don't know why people even go there. read more

As they say in Mexico, mucho bueno! This place is great. My buddy Troy and I go here after work a lot. We get real good and hungry so we can eat more of their delicious seafood. Tasty! read more

Excellent Mexican food with emphasis on seafood. Have had many special meals her with family and friends. Highly recommend.

Terrible service. Waitress did not know what the empanada filling was. Also didn't know what liquor the "Naranjada" had in it. Food is definitely not worth the price. You could tell the shrimp were cooked days before and refrigerated. Only two pieces of octopus in the coctel Veracruzano. Will never recommend or return! read more

Having read the previous two reviews, I had great expectations from La Canoa. Seeing a good number of locals was great first impression as it usually means the food is great. I was unfortunately disappointed. The trio of salsa was average at best and the free chicken empanada was terrible. We ordered the enchiladas which were again just average and a frozen blended margarita which was ok. We split an entree of char grilled tilapia with special sauce and struggled finishing it as we both did not like it at all :( read more

Why does this restaurant have a four dollar sign rating? There are meals that start as cheap as $7. There are options for people with little money and options for people willing to spend a lot. Anyways, this restaurant is a hidden gem in Milwaukee. I feel like people spend too much time at Bel Air or other Americanized Mexican restaurants. If you want some real Mexican food you have to go to the south side! You might not speak Spanish but thats okay! The servers are friendly and you can get by with pointing at the menu for what you want. Right away we got three salsas, one of which had avocado in it so the night was off to a great start! We also got two seafood empanadas. (Salsas, chips, and empanadas were free starters which was great because I was HANGRY which means angry because I'm hungry FYI) I ordered the quesadilla con rajas which came with beans and rice. I prefer to eat vegetarian options so this was great. My boyfriend got peppers wrapped in bacon with guacamole and rice. There was a lot of guac! Also we split a large horchata that was delicious and cheap. There were no complaints about quality, quantity, or price! The service was great and the restaurant has beautiful decor. There is a really amazing mural that stretches across all of the walls. Also, the chairs are carved and wonderfully painted. read more

Menu is definitely different than most typical Milwaukee Mexican food. Had quite a bit of authentic flavor but can tell they do a good job appealing to gringo tastes as well. Service was pretty bad and usually I'd give a 2 because of that experience but it was just slow inattentive service and everything came out fine, eventually. Was in absolutely no hurry as we were drinking and socializing at leisure and once we realized we'd wait forever for drinks bought pitchers at that point. Server just lost a big tip on a pretty good size check. Kids do not understand the game and seem to not want to hustle these days. Server lost 15 maybe 20 bucks on this table, made half of what they could have made. read more