First off, Cancun > Casa Manana anyday. For those millions of Americans who judge a "Mexican" restaurant by its margaritas, you all have drinking problems. And I also imagine that you have some sort of diabetes because you are too drunk to notice that you just consumed 2 - 3 pounds of sugar. Seriously, go to Casa, eat a "cheese ball" and have a glass of water and see how you feel. I promise you will pray for death.
On to Cancun restaurant... Cancun Mexican Restaurant was established in 1827 by Mexican immigrant Juan Galindo. I found some very old royal documents at the Moss Bluff Branch library that seem to suggest that Juan was kidnapped by Jean Lafitte and brought to the United States some time around 1823. There were also rumors that Napolean's treasure was buried under the restaurant but I have dismissed this as a clever early marketing scheme and I have the documents to prove it! Everyone knows the treasure is really under the CN tower.
Anyways, to me, the restaurant has always been about the "Taco"s. The recipe for the famous "3 taco plate (beef or chicken)" has been passed down for centuries and the flavor just keeps getting better and better. The beef is carefully hand selected from Ryan street Albertsons and marinated all day under a heat lamp. It is true Mexican essence. But most Lake Charlesians know Cancun for the amazing "queso blanca" which became colloquially known by the local Creole culture as (and I'm not sure about my French dialect here) "some uf dat melted white cheesewiz stuff". The white cheese is the buzz about town and even the thriftiest deadbeat dad won't mind coughing up a few extra dollars for the pleasure of double dipping into this cheese of the Gods.
All in all, great place to eat and bring the family. There are plenty of activities to keep the kids busy. A true taste of Lake Charles and it's fine people.
And as for the "overwhelming smell of urine and unflushed toilet" that Allison mentions, I imagine that is just due to Cancun's unfortunate proximity to McNeese State University. It only occurs seasonally when the locals are driving their trucks through campus trying to pick up fat girls. It is a natural phenomenon that most locals have grown accustomed to but if you are from out of town and it really bothers you that much, go during the summer :)
By Brand Carlsen
Nov. 21, 2014
I need to share a story with anyone looking for reviews of Cancun. This is a true story and I hope anyone that finds this will think twice before going to Cancun. It was a chilly autunm afternoon in Lake Charles and me and five of my boys were in town and we were thinking about where to get some lunch. F was from Houston so we wanted to show him a good time. My friend A suggested that we have a traditional adventure down Ryan St and stop at Cancun mexican restaurant. I said that last time I went I got a couple of tacos and some of the meat wasnt cooked and tasted very rancid. I got made fun of by B for being a wimp and 'that's just how cancun's tacos are you wuss'. So it was 4 to 1 and we decided to go. There weren't any cars in the parking lot so I thought maybe they were closed for a holiday, but it was Wednesday at 12:30 PM and definitely not a holiday, and besides casa ole across the street had a healthy cloud of steam coming from their microwave vent on top of the restaurant. At least we got a good parking spot. I cracked a joke asking if anyone thinks the toilet smell would be worse than usual upon enterting, and sure enough, we enter the restaurant and are hit with the strongest smell of Diesi's little Capitol style pungent urine and toilet waste scent. There was even some toilet paper on the bathroom in front of the cash regsiter, but interestingly, there were't any employees to be found. No one behind the register, no one kitchen from what I could tell. I thought well I guess that's why theres no cars, they're closed, and they forgot to lock the door or something.. we better leave. But B said no the door is open and we're staying, we're going to just wait for someone to serve us. So we walked to the 'left' side of the restuarnat, the good side, with the giant vintage big screen tv, which was off. J plugged it in but couldn't figure out how to change the channel so we just watched Fox news until a waitress came. I really wanted some chips and that white cheese so bad, actually.. that's definitely the sole reason this restaurant exists is the white cheese. 10 minutes, still no one. 20 minutes. were getting pretty irritated. B gets up and literally just walks into the back to see what is going on. No one in the kitchen. He opens the fridge and sees a pitcher with the words 'QUESO BLANCO' written on the outside which means 'cheese dip' in spanish. It was still warm.. it must still be fresh, he thought. He straight up takes it out of the fridge and just brings the whole pitcher to the table. We feast on the cheese and with chips left in a basket left on another table that hadn't been bussed from earlier. All seemed very right with the world, we were enjoying good times, great friends, and great cheese dip.
About 40 minutes go by and literally not a single soul ever walked into or left the restaurant. No one checked on us. We were seriously considering just getting up and leaving since no one was around, but J thought he might as well just go behind the saloon style wooden doors on the left, which no one has ever seem to ever gone in before. Maybe there was someone back there. He entered and the next thing you know he is like YALL come See this!!! we dashed into the other room and there was the old man on the floor decomposing and a team of about 6 mexican ladies sitting around the body eating his body like it was 7 layer dip!! they were using the old man's corpse as chips and dip!!!! WHAT THE HECK??? WHAT Kind of place is this???? One of the women looked up with bloodshot eyes and said 'Que pasa' which means casa manana on nelson Rd. I started to gag and just turned my head and ran out the door. I darted out the restaurant and waited for my friends to come but they never came out. I was too scared to go back in so I called J but he didn't answer his phone. i called 911 and said that the police ned to get here ASAP because there was a murder and satanic ritual happening in the saloon and all my friends were stuck inside. The dispatch said "sir, prank calls are illegal' I said no no no no I"m dead serious I need help! but I turned pale white when the lady said 'sir, cancun burned down in 2009..."