Maya Mexican Restaurant

My husband and I have been here twice now. We really like it. The food is good and so is the service. The prices are average. We will definitely keep going there!

I am from San Diego and have been eating a lot of authentic Mexican food. I am nicely surprise to find such a Mexican jewel here in Cincinnati. Food is authentic, tasty, huge portion and extremely reasonable price.

If you are looking for real authentic Mexican, then come here. Staff is always friendly and the food is delicious. You won’t be disappointed.

Come here for the tacos. The tacos are legit. I came here with a large group and I don’t think the staff could keep up with it. So it was a solid restaurant, but the service was lacking.

We really didn’t enjoy this. The meat was all very bland, mine was chopped into tiny squares and once I realized that they tasted like cat food I just couldn’t get past the thought enough to force myself to actually chew it. So I didn’t even eat my meal, and the waitress very skillfully knew not to ask us how everything was. The staff were slow and not knowledgeable. Our meals were boring and stand out in our memories as nothing more than well… Bland cat food covered in raw onions and cilantro.
Sorry, this one was a total miss for us.

I was in the area on business. Tried this place because I LOVE Mexican food. I was sadly disappointed. Chicken enchiladas were more of a folder taco with canned mole sauce, chips had a strange smell and taste although warm and the salsa was too hot for me. They also put chopped jalapeños on the salad and didn’t prepare me. No bar to sit at. Just disappointing. This is not authentic Mexican that I’m used to… in New Hampshire, let alone Arizona!

One of our favorite restaurants in the area! My husband loves authentic tacos and this is the place to get them! I always get the camarones a la plancha — grilled shrimp — yum! Some of the best fish tacos I have ever heard and the carne asada is aways good. Also has great guacamole and cold beer! It’s tucked in a strip mall but the food is delish and the service is always friendly and quick!

See my 6÷17÷15 1 star review. So came back to use the other half of our Groupon only to learn they no longer are accepting Groupons. They will discount your bill $ 5.00 instead. As of this week they are under new ownership. The chips were much better this outing and the guacamole was very good! Hopefully this place will get back some of what it lost over the last 12 – 18 months!

Granted, they have a pretty high turnover of wait staff so service is not always great, but I do really enjoy the food. Best torta I have found in the Cincinnati area.

Without a doubt the freshest Mexican in town. Every time we eat there, the food has come out hot and fresh. good chips and salsa, too! We moved here from Oklahoma, where authentic Mexican is abundant. Unfortunately, Cincinnati doesn’t have many places to brag about… Maya nails it and is continually improving their facilities. A must try!

On a Mexican kick lately, we came here on a Groupon deal.
We were excited by the reviews here at first, but then we saw some complaints from recent customers who claim that the quality had gone downhill since a change in ownership.
Well, our experience was a bit different from what the other patrons described. Our food came hot and fast. Our tostones were delicious as well, though we wish that it came with more sauce. Perhaps they can drizzle some sauce on the tostones in addition to those on the side?
My goat tacos were gamy and salty, but not overpowering the fresh vegetables. Her fish fajitas were made with tilapia. The fish was not overcooked. Fajita vegetables were not mushy. Neither of our food was overly greasy, which certainly eased our guilt factor.
Finally, the churro was delicious and the cream on the side added a nice touch. But it would’ve been nice if they brought the churro later in the meal instead of shortly after we received our entrees, because it was no longer as crunchy by the time we got to the churro as a dessert.

Let me start by saying I never write reviews. I use Unilocal every time I visit a new restaurant, but nothing has ever compelled me to take the time to write a review, good or bad. However my most recent experience at Maya’s has provoked the deepest annoyance that I can’t help voice my thoughts.
I used to frequent Maya’s once a week at lunch, minimum. It’s conservative to say half my meals during week consist of Mexican food. They have consistently good food and are one of the more authentic places around town. However, their service is nothing short of pathetic. There is one server that does well. One! But I was always willing to look past the poor service, undesirable ambiance, and questionable cleanliness of Maya’s because of the food, until now. My last visit, literally this will be my last, I walked up the the counter to pay and waited in line for about 10 minutes. The food comes out faster than the receipts. When I finally got to the counter I handed over my bill and credit card, my card was swiped and I proceeded to sign the receipt. Meanwhile, the man behind the counter mentioned the server had charged me less than he should have. I stated that the amount is written on my receipt, therefore that’s what I should pay. He asked if I had a little cash to cover the difference, to which I replied ‘no’. He explained the server was new and an awkward silence followed. I asked if he want to swipe my card again and he said ‘yes’. The additional cost was $ 1.25!!! Any reasonable business owner would have either eaten the cost or would be made even by the server that made the mistake. However, after making a scene over a $ 1.25, Maya’s has lost a regular patron, indefinitely. I’ll be in the market for a new go-​to Mexican joint that takes a little more pride in customer service.

Two or three years ago this place was the best Taqueria in the city. Then somewhere along the line they decided to become a «restaurant» and started serving the same typical greasy, cheese and sour cream covered, fried, fake mexican, crap you get anywhere else. Somehow, their tacos got worse too. What used to be tasty tacos for a good price are now… bland. I mean the food isn’t terrible, the prices are good, and the run-​down dive of a spot at least has good service, but based on what it used to be? It’s shameful.

I wish I could like this place. It’s near our house, and as a lifelong Los Angeleno, I really miss good Mexican food. But Maya just failed: bad food, inept service and no atmosphere. If you like fluorescent lighting, mostly unadorned brown walls, and splashy brown tile-​look vinyl flooring, you’re going to love Maya. They had three TV’s visible from my seat, but no murals, no Mexican music, no color, no fun! Drab décor under bright fluorescent lighting. Bleh.
When we entered the restaurant, we weren’t sure if we should wait to be seated or to seat ourselves, so we stood around for a few minutes and tried to catch someone’s eye. No one greeted us, then or ever. Eventually we sat down, and then grabbed a passing waitress to ask for service, and that was how the service went from then on. Nobody noticed or asked if we needed anything. They were responsive only if we stopped them while they were walking by, and then our server was pleasant enough, if unobservant. They seemed to have no system for waiting on customers. This got annoying after a while.
But all would’ve been forgiven and forgotten if the food had been good. We ordered guacamole (chopped style and tasted okay), a carne asada torta (only okay), shrimp quesadilla (not great), carne asada taco (pretty good), and enchiladas verdes. The green sauce tasted canned, and the cheese inside wasn’t melted. Pretty poor excuse for an enchilada. Nothing was garnished and there was no attempt to present the food attractively. My enchiladas came with small portions of rice (tepid and tasteless) and beans (also tasteless), and a small portion of «salad» which was elderly and thinly shredded iceberg lettuce topped with two slices of tomato. We were sad.
If you want to visit a Mexican restaurant with a similar menu where things are done right, try Taqueria Mercado in Fairfield. It’s prettier and yummier, and the service is better.

Visited Maya Taqueria on the recommendation of my parents and was very happy with the experience. It sits in a strip mall and might not appear like a good place to get a really tasty meal but it is. The service was good and we really enjoyed ourselves.
We ordered the pozole and a combo meal that came with a gordito, sope, and an enchilada. Also drank a couple Negra Modelos since they just had the standard Mexican beer selection. I am a huge fan of pozole and if you are not familiar with it I recommend you try this delicious soup. The pozole here is a delicious meal sized soup filled with hominy corn and pork and colored a deep red from all the spices. It comes with a plate piled with lettuce, onion, dried red chili peppers, and a sliced lime for squeezing. They also serve a stack of large round crispy tortillas for crumbling into the soup. I mixed in the accompaniments and started eating and this soup was absolutely fantastic. This delicious soup is hearty and filling and comes in a large portion that is a full meal by itself or could be shared with two people as we did. I will definitely return to enjoy more pozole.
The sope is a thick bready tortilla that we ordered topped with tongue and it was delicioius. The gordita is the same thick tortilla as the sope but sliced open and stuffed and we tried that with the tasty fried tripe. The enchilada came covered in salsa verde (not sure if there is a choice as to what sauce you get) but filled with chorizo it was very good. I really liked that they had the choice of sopes and gorditas along with the typical tacos and enchiladas because I really do enjoy that thicker breadier tortilla that they use for them. The combo also came with the typical beans and rice and that is standard at Mexican restaurants. While I have had better tripe at some restaurants it was still good here and I would eat it again. Otherwise, I don’t know if their meats tasted better or worse than other Mexican restaurants in the Cincinnati area but they were all very good.
Overall, I would definitely eat here again and was very happy to find this place with it’s delicious pozole, sopes, and gorditas.

Had fish taco, tasteless. Chorizo taco was good. Shrimp quesadilla was good, shrimp in every bite, cheesy and flavorful. Tostada ceviche was the best thing about the meal. Chips were unsalted and salsa was okay, needed hot sauce added. Soda was over carbonated. Server was good, we followed her advice on the food. We were traveling, but would return if in the area again. We could see being regulars if just for the ceviche. Average rating since nothing bad, nothing great. $ 35.00 was high for the experience, specials were more expensive on the board, than in the menu, what’s up with that?

As a disclaimer before you read on… My husband and I miss authentic street tacos from SoCal so every time we check out a Mexican food place we could care less about the ambience or if they have margheritas or not. So, we ordered steak tacos, a pork tamale, a chicken tamale, and an horchata!
First, they have REALLY good tamales. The corn meal has such a good gritty texture and it rich and savory, but we thought that the pork one was much much better than the chicken one. Chicken tamales always seem to have a funky after-​taste so I think we just don’t like the flavor of steamed chicken and cornmeal. The tacos were actually pretty good! The steak meat had great flavor and good carmalization and the tortillas seemed fresh. Their tacos are NOT fancy like what you get at mazunte or bakersfield otr, they are simple street tacos — fresh warmed tortilla, cilantro & onion, meat, and a bit of that good juicy/​oilyness, done!
They brought us 3 bottles of different sauces so we were really excited but unfortunately all the sauces fell a little flat. They were all either way too spicy or not seasoned enough. We prefered dipping our tacos in the salsa that they give us with the complimentary chips.
Now, for those who like horchata… they have REALLY good horchata. Our guess is that it’s not the kind from the machine but we’ll have to ask the next time we visit.
The biggest down side of this place is their prices. I wish their tacos were a bit more affordable, because then we would come here ALL the time — considering it’s so close to our house.

This used to be THE BEST Mexican restaurant. New ownership has destroyed what was once a unique experience. The first time we went after new ownership we could tell the salsa was different in a watered down, filler added sort of way and that the carnitas were clearly prepared in a substandard, dry as a tumbleweed sort of way. Why mess with perfection?
Today we sat for over an hour without having a chance to place an order. We got the attention of the server 3 desperate/​separate times only to have her shrug her shoulders twice and on the third time offer up a gesture that suggested ‘it is what it is’. A guy next to our booth mirrored these sentiments bc he told us he waited 45mins for 1 plate! He agreed that this place has gone down the gutter since new ownership.
Long story short: you’ve lost our business.

Solid strip mall Mexican joint. The place was super clean and tidy. We were the only customers the entire time we were eating. We ordered the guac and some mexican beers to start.(-1 star for no margs!) What kind of Mexican joint place doesn’t have margaritas? The guac was the highlight of the meal. It was super fresh and we could literally hear him making it across the counter. It had a little too many tomatoes in it for my taste, and since they are out of season they made it a little watery. But still, this was some of the freshest guac I’ve ever had. Unfortunately the chips were old and not very good and the salsa was very watery.
We ordered four tacos to split: the steak, the chicken, the pork, and the chorizo. The steak was the most flavorful. The meat was chunky and marinated to perfection. Topped with cilantro and onions it was the perfect bite. The chorizo was crisp, juicy and grilled perfectly. As for the chicken and the pork… it seemed the meat had maybe been sitting for too long. Both were dry, and we didn’t eat them.
The service was super friendly and we had a cheap lunch at only $ 14 bucks for 4 tacos, a beer, and a large guac. Overall there were some highs and lows, but our visit was really inconsistent. Just A-​OK for now.

This is a strip mall restaurant, and that concept is continued into the the dining area. It is a clean, simple, no-​nonsense establishment. Service is quick and efficient. It is a family style restaurant, with many tables set up together.
First impressions: the salsa is fresh, has a good flavor and is spicy enough to be enjoyable. The salsa is very runny, so be careful of drips. The chips taste good and are not greasy. The menu is simple but covers the bases well. The prices seem quite reasonable.
I ordered the grilled vegetable burrito, size large based on the pantomimed proportions of the server. When it came out, it was HUGE; easily twice, if not three times the quoted size. I typically stay away from these types of burritos at other places because I find the mushy onions and peppers to be greasy and generally unappealing. This burrito had beans and mushrooms as well. The flavor was nice with lots of fresh cilantro, and the cheese was amazing, but it was definitely heavy and greasy. This should be a late night shop or they should get a food truck, because this is exactly what I want after a Friday or Saturday night out drinking.
They have Mexican soda and beer, as well as a selection of hot sauce.
I would go back for sure, but probably order the small burrito and possibly pass on the fajita style.