Duluth’s Little Angie’s Mexican Cantina Review: Don’t let the patio fun fool you!

It’s a beautiful summer evening in Duluth, Minnesota and you’re strolling along Canal Park. You hear loud music. You hear laughter. You hear glasses clinging and clanging. You look up and there’s a party happening on a restaurant patio at a place called Little Angie’s Mexican Cantina. How fun.
You think to yourself, ‘Sure looks like a good time in there… And I’m kind of hungry. Mexican sounds good…’ So you head inside and put your name on the list.

Stop right there! You can still turn back! Don’t let those patio revelers fool you. This is the place to avoid in Duluth…or even the entire state of Minnesota..and Wisconsin, too. So why is it so bad? Let’s review Little Angie’s Mexican Cantina restaurant in Duluth, Minnesota’s Canal Park area.

Little Angie’s Location

Little Angie’s Mexican Cantina is located in prime Canal Park touristy territory. I bet they pay a pretty penny for the rent. If your Duluth hotel is located in Canal Park, you’ll be able to walk here.

Little Angie’s Mexican Cantina – Food and Dining Experience

Looking at the Little Angie’s Menu. Award winning fajitas? Really?  I’d like to see some citation on that.
Because if you go here, you’ll experience the worst “Mexican” food you’ve ever had. Writing “Mexican” in quotes was done deliberately. This is not Mexican food. Even if you think Taco Bell is Mexican food, you will not like Little Angie’s; just go to Taco Bell.

We read the reviews on this place, but decided that we needed to experience it for ourselves. You know how online reviews are — some people can be extremely picky and will give an establishment 1 star if the server’s tie is crooked.

This was a Saturday night on a holiday weekend, so the place was busy. We went inside to put our names on the list and almost puked from the wretched smell inside the restaurant. It smelled like a mixture of death, cheap beer and old taco meat. I don’t know how else to describe it; it was so disgusting.

STRIKE ONE, Little Angie’s! Yet, we still decided to eat here. We were that hard-up for Mexican food and didn’t feel like continuing our search

Because of the nasty smell inside, we decided to dine on the patio. The patio was clearing out because it started to get chilly, so we got a spot immediately.

We looked over the menu and immediately discovered STRIKE TWO. They charge $0.99 for chips and salsa.

We ordered them anyway, because that’s what you do at a Mexican restaurant.

Our server brought us our chips promptly. But yuck. It was like these chips were dumped out of a stale Old Home bag, with a bucket of salt poured over them. And the salsa wasn’t any better; it was wayyy too hot

All of the menu options were extremely pricey, for Mexican food. I ordered the chicken taco salad and Theresa ordered the Chimichanga

When we got our food, Little Angie’s got STRIKE THREE (and it’s out!). The food was bland and tasted like it was filled with preservatives. My taco salad was 90% lettuce – they could’ve called it a shredded chicken salad because there wasn’t anything “taco” about it – no flavor, no spice…nothing. Just chicken and lettuce with some cheese and tomatoes. I suppose they think putting it in a taco shell makes it a taco salad….

Theresa’s chimichanga had the same mushy bland shredded chicken that was in my “taco” salad and the entire thing tasted straight out of a can.

We left this place feeling completely ripped off and angry. Never again!

Final Thoughts – Little Angie’s Mexican Cantina in Duluth’s Canal Park

All this said, if you’re coming to Duluth and wanting Mexican food, this is not the city for it. I’ve tried all of the Mexican restaurants in Duluth and they are all terrible. I don’t know what the deal is, but none of them are up to par, and I’m not being a Mexican food snob (I’ll eat a good American tex-mex style meal – it doesn’t have to be totally authentic for me to enjoy it!) but the Mexican food in Duluth is so bland and tasteless. Don’t bother!

Also, Little Angie’s Cantina is part of the “Grandma’s” restaurant family that has a hold over the city of Duluth. Most of the restaurants in the Canal Park area are part of this Grandma’s chain (Little Angie’s, Bellisio’s Italian Restaurant, and the most famous – Grandma’s Saloon Bar and Grill — all three are located near each other in Canal Park). And save your money because they’re all terrible (service and food) – and I’m not a food snob – hell, I enjoy a meal at Chili’s every once in a while!

The Grandma’s story itself is kind of interesting. You can read more of it here – this historical recap is very whitewashed – essentially, Grandma herself was a pimp 😉

Have you ever eaten at Little Angie’s or any of the Grandma’s restaurants?