La Canoa

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.

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.

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.

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.

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