Casa Bonita

I have taken many children, groups of children, our out-of-state visitors, and my family to Casa Bonita repeatedly for over 30 years. Everyone has enjoyed it and been greatly entertained! Both my g'children live out-of-state and we can't wait to take them to Casa Bonita this summer! I am a long-time fan of Casa Bonita!

Pros: Great fun for kids!

Ever heard the term "You can put whip cream on a turd, but its still a turd." This term applies to Casa Bonita. Learn this lesson, parents will only get hosed one time for the love of there kids, before they implement the distraction method. A little slight of hand and $10, my daughter will gladly take a happy meal and some fun in the play area. Although, I would gladly buy her a full size pony before making me take her back there again. I'll do almost anything before going back there again. You can take your automatic cheese pumps, cold expensive food, and start a line a frozen dinners, but please don't charge me $18. On a lighter note, my sopapilla was good.

Pros: potential? sopapillas

Cons: too many too mention

So after living in Denver for many years I finally gave in and decided to head to Casa Bonita to see/hear what many locals rave about. Needless to say, I wished I had held out a little longer. The food is the worst ever. It was an $11.99 tv dinner. Honestly it was so much worse that I ended up with an upset stomach afterward. To top it off a fountain drink will cost you $2.50 and its a regular sized drink. Do yourself a favor and skip this ridiculously overpriced establishment. Never again will I pay $80 for beyond crappy food!! (total for 4 people) And don't believe what you hear about the sopapillas, they are just as bad. Edible but bad. I give it a one star rating for the sopapillas as they are the only thing that's edible.

Pros: Establishment is entertaining for kids

Cons: THE FOOD & THE PRICE

we went to the one in Denver on sat. wow there food has went down hill. it actually just tasted like you bought a microwave mexican dinner and threw it in the microwave. people are so packed in there its not a great atmosphere. people go from table to table trying to sell you toys. even when you say no they come back to bother you. as a warning, don't go. just go to taco bell. the food there is much better.

Pros: fun place for kids to run around wild while other people are trying to eat

Cons: terrible food.

Upon our Saturday night visit to Casa Bonita, we were herded like cattle through a maze of twists and turns only to find that for $12.95 we got a cateteria style plate of subpar "Mexican" food. The enchiladas were smothered in some form fake processed cheese that even the 8 year olds turned down. Dinner for four with 2 kids was $75 including tip and tokens for the arcade. Half of the arcade games were not in service. The atmosphere was the highlight of the experience. The entertainment was parralleled with 5 stops on the way home to various restrooms around town. Do yourself and the kids a favor and take them to Taco Bell and go to Dave & Busters. Your stomach, wallet and kids will thank you. We won't be going to Casa Bonita EVER again.

I remember going to Casa Bonita years ago. I loved it. I have been about once a year the last few years but have decided "no more". I'm sorry if it's your kid's birthday but I'm not spending that much money again for what you get. We were there early, gathering for my 14 yr old niece's birthday get-together. The lines weren't long, which was good. But, alas, when we were at the section where the food comes out the little windows, we entertained ourselves by keeping the flies off the food. They were everywhere. The girl handing out the food also had to run and get the drinks for us, leaving the food unattended. They managed to sit us all together at the bottom of the cliff diving pool. Not bad except at one point my brother in law had to swat a 6-legged(roach) running across his table. The food was cold, we actually had to replace my mom's meal. I love the sopapillas, always have. But, now you have to ask for the cinnamon that used to come on the sopapillas automatically. Hopefully you get that before they get cold! I spent $55 for 3 of us to eat cold, cafeteria style mexican food. I'm sorry, I'm done with Casa Bonita!!

Pros: Sopapillas but much better with the cinnamon you now have to ask for.

Cons: Flies, 6 legged friends.

We took our three young children here for the "warm -fuzzy" reasons mentioned in previous posts. The place HAS NOT changed a bit in over thirty years. I don't believe its been maintained or cleaned in that period of time either. As for the food, well, what I was able to choke down was revisited approximately two hours later. My husband and I got a kick out of the Ms. Pac-Man and Centipede games that must have been originals and still probably had our grimy little kid handprints on them. My kids were not so impressed. The Ice Ball games were nailed and renailed so the lanes were uneven and nearly impossible to score with. The cliff divers were entertaining. I'm not sure if the food was the cause of my illness or the smell of fat frying mixed with the Pine Sol bathroom smell everywhere was the cause. i hope the kids don't request a repeat visit!

Pros: young children are entertained by it

Cons: food, cleanliness, smell

everyone says how crappy and old it is... well duh. its suppose to resemble mexico. which is old and crappy and possibly decrepit. if the designers were going for that, then they did one hell of a job!

I'm a native Denverite and I managed to go 32 years without visiting Casa Bonita. So when I went with my kids, I did not have the warm, fuzzy memories that my friends have of this pit. If you are a germaphobe like me, your skin will crawl the minute you walk in. You HAVE to buy the food and if you can get through the line without tossing your cookies, I would suggest not even touching it. The whole place smells like chlorine from the divers (I would worry about my child if they were employed as a diver there).

So this place is touted as being for the kids which is all fine and good, but when I went with my kids for lunch (we had family in town who insisted on going) in the middle of the week, there were middle aged men, sitting alone (I would assume to eat lunch ick). If the draw is not the food, why on earth would you spend your lunch hour there, hmmmmmmm? So basically, watch your kids when you are there.

Finally, there used to be an Office Depot next to Casa Bonita. When it closed, my mom went in to buy some clearance office supplies. She wanted some bulk paper and the person helping her said he would try to find some reams that had not been chewed through by the furry creatures that come over from Casa Bonita. Okay, when furry creatures come over to eat paper versus the food at Casa Bonita, you know you have a restaurant that must be on the take with the health inspectors office.

Pros: nada

Cons: everything

What an awful place. The food is the worst Mexican food ever. I?ve had much better food from street vendors in Cabo. I can?t believe that anyone thinks this is a good place. The so called great atmosphere is terrible. The interior is cheap and old and the place is in a bad part of town.

Pros: nothing

Cons: everything

Haha Yeah, the food is not that good but it is a cool place to go. The sopapillas are good, and the fried ice cream is great. There is a little flag pole on all the tables where you raise the flag when you want more food, its all you can eat. If you go at the right time (4pm-4:30pm) the line isnt that long. Oh yeah, when youre in line after youve ordered and paid, pay attention!!!! lol the mexican ladies in the kitchen will yell at you if you are not moving fast enough. The plates are hot and they throw them across the counter at you. Its actually quite amusing!!!!!!!

This is the asbsolute worst place I have ever been to in my life. I recently took my 2 sons to Casa Bonita since they'd been begging me to take them after seeing the South Park episode all about Casa Bonita and how GREAT it is. (lol) Let me first start by saying how LONG the freaking line was - you think it's not that bad but then after waiting 20 minutes and moving a little, you turn a corner and realize you have another 20 minutes, then another corner, then another....it's ridiculous. I have NO idea why this place is so crowded all the freaking time. While trying to keep my kids entertained when waiting for over and hour in the line, and having to dodge people left and right who were going to and from the bathroom, I kept telling myself this place must be AWESOME if this many people are willing to wait this long. I WAS MISTAKEN. We were given menus with about 6 options to choose from. I had already been warned of the 'velveeta-esque' style mexican food so we went with the fajitas ($15 a plate mind you) and then after waiting in the FOOD line, and then realizing that it was OUR responsibility to carry our own trays to our table (let me remind you it's just me and two small children here...and 3 trays...my kids would have dropped their food on the floor in seconds had I not hunted down some employee to help us to our table. The service was SO slow (or nonexistent is more like it) and like the others, I could not get up from our table with my kids to see the cliff divers, because they hunted me down and made me pay my bill while I was watching the show. Which, by the way, was just a long skit and a stupid cowboy jumping about 10 feet into the water. Ridiculous. We made our way to the arcade, which most of the games didn't even work. My shoes were sticking to the floor, THIS PLACE IS SO FILTHY. Bought the kids some light sabers and light-up guns - they were like $10 each. UNREAL. This is the MOST overrated and disgusting place I've even been. DONT GO!!!!

Cons: NO PROS, ALL CONS. THIS PLACE IS DISGUSTING AND OVERPRICED.

This place had the worst food not just worst Mexican food, but worst food i can recall eating at a restaurant. I can see where the cliff divers are entertaining. Past that, it was not worth the $12.00 a plate paid. Mind you, it is all you can eat, but i didnt even want my first plate let a l one a second. I got a cheese enchilada plate which i swear was made out of a very cheap processed cheese. it was inedible.

The place REQUIRES you to buy at least 2$ worth of food to even enter the building. (note a soda was a whopping 2.15$!) I also didnt like the fact that instead of charging me at the entrance for my food which i had to immediately order off their VERY limited menu. in stead, when i went to walk around the building i was told that at least one person had to stay at the table OR i had to pay before i left the table relinquishing my right to more horrible food, but also to more soda, water etc. I can see where kids would get a big kick out of this place, but 12$ is not worth the entertainment you get..as you will nearly immediately pass on the food as it is not edible in any way.

Cons: everything.

It's pretty much the best place, ever. All you can eat food, all you can eat sopapillias, and flippin' cliff divers, people! Cliff divers being chased by MONKEYS! And sheriffs! And pirates! There's like mariachis, and black bart's cave, and video games, and fortune tellers, and all sorts of awesomeness! Beg you parents, I know I do every day!

Seriously though, kids love it, and the food ain't exactly the draw. It's truly an experience. A big, cadillac-pink experience.

Pros: Fun, Cliff Divers, Pirates, Monkeys

Cons: Food

This place is foul. Expect less than a theme restaurant experience, more a grade school talent show with prison quality food at no bid contract pricing. The Interior of the building is formed as a giant series of caves and grottos in some tropical locale, complete with plastic palm trees and extreme humidity, from the pool no doubt. Sadly that tropical air is also saturated with atomized fryer grease giving every surface a disgusting feel and every breath at least 9 calories. As noted above the food is worse than bad. My wife had chicken fajitas which consisted of a very dry grilled chicken breast and some oily yellow onions served with an enormous mound of shredded iceberg lettuce and gumball sized (literally) servings of canned guacamole and sour cream, probably the worst fajitas I have ever seen but not totally inedible. I had the enchilada plate, a real horrorshow attempt at one of my favorite foods: one cheese enchilada, made with an ultra creamy low quality processed chese and topped with an even lower quality pump cheese sauce, completely inedible under any circumstance, also on the plate were two "meat" enchiladas, the filling looked, smelled, tasted and felt like warmed mighty dog and was drowned in a vile red chile pepper muck masquerading as enchilada sauce, edible only if you are starving or feel bad about leaving $11 on a plate untouched. The sopapillas were only mostly bad, as hungry as I was after passing on my food I could have eaten a grease soaked napkin dipped in honey without noticing a difference. If you a drink get a bottled beer, then at least you'll know its' not a virgin like that carafe of cheap margarita mix my wife and I could not drink. After eating those parts of the meal which do not induce a gag reflex there are no shortage of broken and outdated games which vend tickets with which you can trade for cheap bits of pastic which have a life span equivilant to the time it takes to escape, I mean walk to the door.

Growing up in Denver, Casa Bonita was always a fun place for birthday parties and special treats, but the food has been and will probably always be some of the WORST FOOD I have ever had. It is amusing still even as an adult to watch the underpaid, mildly bored cliff divers and entertainers, and I still have enough of the child in me to enjoy scaring people in Black Bart's Cave. My fiance and I were in the area yesterday and decided for the fun of it to go in again, but he got the bright idea to actually EAT there. I made the mistake of attempting to eat the "cheese" enchilada's--I wish that it was even that disgusting substance called Velveeta-- and paid for by vominting for 35 minutes. Throwing up after attempts at consuming the strange substances that they call food is common and always preferable to keeping it down and suffering for days after. So if you don't heed my advice and actually ingest some of the stuff, (I am not suggesting that you become bulimic), you may want to consider bringing some Ipecac. It may seem like a waste to some to pay for food that you won't eat, but either with a group of kids or a decent amount the kid in you, you can still have fun. P.S. The sopapillas, while not the best, are safe to consume. If you ask for cinnamon along with the honey, they are actually quite tasty.

Pros: The atmosphere is great and everything around is you fun

Cons: Ingesting food is not recommended and the service is better at a gas station

The first time we visited Casa Bonita was in 1976 and my then 8 and 6 year olds had a ball, as we all did. It was a truly unique experience for a family from the Midwest. Since that time I have eaten many Mexican meals and can say Mexican food is one of my favorites. But I still hanker for the Casa Bonita experience anyway! My daughter now lives in Colorado and we made a pilgrimage to CB for her daughter who is 3. I can honestly say we all enjoyed our experience as much 30 plus years later as that first time. My granddaughter was enthralled! My daughter and her husband both really know food and they suspended any critism they might usually have for such average food and just enjoyed the show. We all agreed that we needed to get my son and his family out so they could join the fun. The puppet show was the most fun for our little Alice, but she really enjoyed the "scary" gorilla, too. And those sopapillas just cannot be beat.
Go and have fun!

Pros: atmosphere, sopapillas

Cons: none that I've seen

This is absolutely my favorite stop in Denver! Our family plans our whole trip around the stop at Casa Bonita! Our kids love the food and entertainment! We spends hours there! It is such a family friendly place and very affordable! We have never had a bad experience here. The wait is only as long as you make it and the food is only as bad as you make it out to be. Trust me I have ate way worse mexican food than that! We love Casa Bonita and will continue to make it a point to stop there everytime we are in Denver!

Pros: entertainment, family friendly

Cons: impatient and rude people who ruin the fun

You don't go to this place to Eat, you go to this place to bring out of town friends to show off. This is a one of a kind place, with the live shows, cliff divers, gorrillas. I can't stress enough on how you must at least visit this place once.

Pros: Ambiance, shows, Sopopeas

Cons: Horrid Mexican Food, weekends get busy.

You've got to love the cliff-divers, and I kinda like the little flags for the food-replinishment, but overall, this gig is for the kids all of the way. If you haven't seen the South Park episode, you should!

I went back to this restaurant because I had fond memories of it from my childhood. It was just the same and did not disappoint, but might be more fun with a child. Food is not so great, but endless sopapillas are so yummy! The entertainment is fun and wandering around is encouraged.

Pros: Sopapillas, ambiance, entertainment

Cons: Price, food

It's really fun to visit this place once. Just make sure you eat before you go. Those 25 cent burritos at the super market taste much better.

Cons: Food, crowded, service

Ignore the bad reviews. Casa Bonita is a must-see for every kid. I have been taking my kids and grandkids there at least annually for 20 years, and we still love it. If you don't like the standard Mexican combo meals, try the gorditas. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water; they probably have a million calories each! And the (unlimited) sopaipillas are the best sopaipillas I've ever tasted. Unfortunately we're always too full from the good meal to take advantage of very many. Even if I didn't like the food, I'd still go for the entertainment.

Pros: Gorditas & sopaipills, Entertainment, Decor

Cons: Sometimes long lines

Casa Bonita is a definite place to take your family while visiting Denver. There is so much to see and do. The service is great, the atmospher is superb. Ask to be seated in the balcony so you can see everything that is going on. Get there early, 4ish or so, so you don't have to wait in a long line. Although, the wait is worth it. Anything bad you hear about Casa Bonita is from people that are impatient, too old and grumpy to enjoy such fun and/or negative, full of sarcasam and hate for life!!! GO GO GO..you and your children will never forget it and will want to go back everytime you are in the city. Don't go there expecting to eat a gourmet meal; but you get what you pay for. Go there expecting to have fun and enjoy life a little!!!!!

Pros: Inexpensive, Fun, Entertaining

Some of the worst food in America, but it's also the largest restaurant in America. If you have kids, they'll eat this place up. If you're looking for good service, and quality Mexican food, I suggest going to Taco Bell.

Pros: Black Barts Cave, Cliff Divers, Sopapillas

Cons: Food, Service, $$$

GOOD PLACE TO TAKE SMALL CHILDREN. BUT THE FOOD SUCKS. IT SHOULDN'T BE IN THE TOP TEN MEXICAN IN DENVER

No one in their right mind goes to Casa Bonita for the food, its the fun. After reading some of these other reviews, all I can say is I used to live in Colorado Springs and Casa Bonita was my kids favorite place to eat out for special (or any) occasions. No one goes there for the food, it's all for the show and the entertainment. Like another reviewer said, eat before, have a margarita and relax.

Pros: fun for kids

As an out of town guest, we did the usual tourist thing and went to dinner at Casa Bonitaas. My daughter had a great time as a visitor to the Denver area and wants to go there anytime we visit. So for the entertainment kid factor it's great. BUT, don't expect any edible food. It's mushy, bland and pretty unappetizing.

The "show" is fun if you can get a seat within viewing distance. Otherwise you hear it but don't enjoy seeing it. So beware, don't expect much except something for the kid or kids to enjoy.

Pros: fun kid factor, something different, good parking

Cons: , long lines, inexpensive

I remembered Casa Bonita from my childhood, so on a recent visit to Denver I took my 3 daughters there. I warned them not to expect much from the food but they loved the place. My 16 year old called it "The most awesome restaurant ever!" My 21 year old rolled her eyes when we drove up but guess who was the first one out of her seat every time a show started. It was worth every penny just to see them all having such a good time.

Pros: entertaining

Cons: , crowded

The biggest insult is that one has to buy a meal at this place, since it's not only the worst Mexican food I've ever had, it's the worst food of any kind. Otherwise, I could see the appeal...go with the kids, sit back and watch the show, but go elsewhere for dinner.

Affordable, good for people of all ages. Its not a snooty restaurant, and the ambiance is fun and festive. Loved the lights and music, you can't help but smile when you see the nightscape and palm trees that surround you. They give you lots of food, and the service was wonderful. I had a great time.

Pros: Affordable, Lots of Food, Cheery atmosphere

Cons: None

This is the poorest excuse of a mexican restaurant there is in the Denver metropolitan area. Sure the atmosphere is fun but the food is hardly worthy of the name. Not to mention the kids running amuck all over the place.

Pros: atmosphere

Cons: food, cafeteria line, food

Heard about this place and wanted to see what all the hype was about. This is the restaurant of the eternal lines. First you have to stand in a line (around a 15 minute wait) just to pay, then another line to get your food (another 10 minutes) and finally after a long walk another line to get seated!
After all that the "diving area" is overrated and the food is standard assembly line fast food. If you have kids they will enjoy it; otherwise don't bother.

This is a great place for kids and teenagers. The entertainment is good but the food isn't anything to brag about. It seems being young, the quality of the food isn't that important. As an adult, we would rather pay more to get quality food. The dive shows are worth seeing.

I was blessed with the opportunity of visiting Casa Bonita when some family with children came into town for a visit. From the moment we hit the door, we were corraled thru this high school cafeteria-esque line, thrown our food (which was HORRIBLY VILE) and ushered through a maze of people and screaming kids to a table in God's country... "Excuse me, exactly WHERE is the bathroom again???" The place is NUTS, and the kids we were with were bored. It's a cross between a cheesy Vegas buffet and Chuck-E-Cheese with a Latin American flair. Maybe it's cool if you have kids? It was my WORST NIGHTMARE.

Cons: FOOD, CROWD, OVERALL EXPERIENCE