Cilantro Mexican Grill 5 Points

Reviews

• Mariah H.

  star star star star_border star_border 2 June 2026

  This restaurant is supremely average. (I'm reality I'd give it 2.5 stars)
  
  Atmosphere: the front of the restaurant will make you feel like it's a trendy Mexican restaurant and a bit upscale. Once you get inside, you're basically in las palmas. Overall, everything was clean.
  
  Food: not much flavor. I ordered the Texas burrito, which is supposed to come with shrimp, chicken, and chorizo ( I subbed this for ground beef). You would think there would be equal parts of all the meats - false. There were only 2 shrimp on the entire burrito. Overall, the plate was pretty bland.
  
  Drinks: I had a frozen strawberry margarita. When I got there apparently they hadn't turned the machine on. My drink was hardly frozen and filled with syrup. Not great. I will say, I was lit after one drink, so it wasn't all bad.
  
  Also, my waiter was pretty good, friendly and attentive.

• Katie H.

  star star star star_border star_border 29 May 2026

  There was nothing supremely special about Cilantro, but also nothing wrong. Just a fantastically safe bet when it comes to Mexican food. As a visitor to Nashville, I am assuming there are probably lots of other delicious options for great food. I received the wrong drink (ordered a cranberry margarita but ended up with a cucumber one instead - it was still good so no major complaints here) and the chicken chimichanga covered in queso dip was nothing exceptional but didn't leave me hungry either. Service was great and attentive and refilled our chips, salsa, and water regularly.

• Caroline W.

  star star star star_border star_border 20 May 2026

  There are a lot better Mexican restaurants in the area. The service here was decent but nothing great. The same goes for the food. I won't be returning.

• Nicholas Y.

  star star star star star 18 May 2026

  Given the crowded weekend atmosphere in Nashville, this place had lots of room and was FAST. If you don't feel like waiting 2 hours for sub par food from a place because it's "trendy" then come here. They were crazy fast! And the food was DELICIOUS! And AMAZING!

• Johnny T.

  star star star star_border star_border 16 May 2026

  Welp, here we are. For all its hits and misses, Five Points Cocina was a Main Street staple and a familiar part of Edgefield. To replace it with... another Mexican restaurant??... is an interesting gambit and time will only tell how well this works for them -- especially given that the local/neighborhood food landscape has drastically changed from when FPC opened.
  
  If you've been to Cilantro's Melrose locale, you know what to expect: crowd-pleasing Tex-Mex that doesn't always please the crowd. I'm not such a purist that I can't get down with some good Tex-Mex (especially given that a lot of folks who scream for 'authenticity' can't name the various states of Mexico, much less the regional differences in cuisine; 'Mexican' food really isn't a thing) but I do need it to be good. I don't know whether this location is too new, I came on a bad night or too close to close but I don't think that best efforts were in play.
  
  One thing that stood out: all the waiters were very nice... and there were a lot of them. I sat outside (I think everyone was outside) and there were a swarm of waiters. What there wasn't, was light. And, when sitting outside, you need some. I used my cell phone to read the menu. I started with a watermelon margarita, frozen. It came back to the table relatively quickly. It was fine. It didn't make me dance like the pineapple margarita I had on my most recent Tex-Mex adventure. The watermelon flavor was faint (to be expected) and it melted quickly (we were outside). It was fine and when I finished it, I didn't bother to order another. I thought about it, though, considering I was never brought water. Again, new/bad night/close to close? I dunno. But, I needed free hydration. I didn't get it.
  
  I considered the tacos but I couldn't get myself to pay $10 for 3 tacos -- even if they came with a side of beans. So, I went with the Monterrey Chicken. It's exactly what you would expect: flat, pounded grilled chicken breast in some sort of semi-cheesy sauce and the rest of the white space of the plate filled with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, guacamole, and rice. I'm not saying this to shade them. I'm saying that it's exactly the Tex-Mex plate you expect. Nothing more. Nothing less. It, too, was fine.
  
  I don't know that 'fine' pays the rent in Edgefield these days. We'll see. Cilantro has the advantage of muscle memory wrt location and food type. What people experience once they get there, though, is a different matter. Let's hope things improve with time.