La China Poblana

We’ve been wanting to come here after reading about the reviews. I didn’t realize that this was a Mexican place. We’ve been driving by this place all along and thought it was a pizza place. Apparently, they’ve been opened for 3 years. For dinner, I ordered Huevos Estrellados Chilaquiles with red sauce. They got my order wrong and it was returned to the kitchen and they made me another order. They thought I wanted rice and beans with 2 eggs over easy. The order was delicious! The tortilla chips were nicely fried and the sauce was nice and spicy. The eggs were a nice touch on top with the runny yolk as well. Hubs ordered the Tongue Tacos and loved it. The onions in it were a nice touch. Daughter ordered the Huevos con Chorizo and loved it as well. They also gave us a side of chips with beans, which was a nice touch. For drinks, I ordered the pineapple drink and hubs ordered the watermelon drink. They were both pretty tasty as well. Orders were freshly made so there was a bit of a wait. Service was pretty friendly. Will definitely return to try other items on the menu!

This place is fantastic! I never knew it was here but you can bet I’ll be back routinely!
Located on Route 18N in the complex following the Colonial Diner. The building says Mary’s Grill & Pizza in large red letters.
Servers were very friendly, laid back and polite. I didn’t feel rushed to peruse the menu.
Ordered: Broiled chicken tostadas, shrimp and cheese empanadas with rice and beans, pork tacos and chicken enchiladas, flan. Every part of today’s meal was perfect in flavor and portion. Prices were great.
Finally a location that has authentic Mexican food! I’m SO excited to go back. OH and it’s BYOB! Just an extra reason it’s great!

Like Mexican food? You need to eat here! Have tried a variety of menu options and all have been top notch. The sign says Mary’s Kitchen and Pizza, but come in for the fresh to order food.

The freshest most authentic Mexican food in all of middlesex county, everything is freshly made upon request, deliciously prepared yummy amazing

First time here. I don’t understand the name of the restaurant. As other Unilocalers pointed out, this place has. had… several names or cuisines associated with the place. The restaurant is now called «La China Poblana». My Spanish is rusty, but I believe that translates to Chinese village or the Chinese villager. … Regardless of the quirky name, the menu consists of what you’d find in a typical Mexican restaurant– enchiladas, tacos, Arroz con un tipo de carne, etc. The food and service were good. Our waiter was very friendly. It’s not 5 stars bc it’s not the best Mexican food I’ve had, but all the dishes we ordered were pleasing to the eye and yummy. I’d return to this establishment.

Delicious Mexican food, friendly service. Sign says grill & pizza but we come here for the authentic Mexican food.

Very, very good authentic Mexican food. Everything from their basic tacos, to full entrée’s have been amazing from this place. Guacamole is always on point, and they are extremely polite. What I love as much as the food is that they go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. The young man who seems to do a lot of the managing is wonderful. Come here if you want tasty mexican food, you will feel right at home. I wish I came here a long time ago. Support this place.

Mary’s Pizza Grill, Mary’s Mexican Grill, La China Pablano? All the same place. Don’t be fooled by all the names. Besides the multiple identity issues this place is fantastic. We are glad we gave it a shot. Food was authentic Mexican. Not a Chipotle or Taco Bell. Had the fantastic enchiladas. Generous portions, excellent flavor and a good value. You can order online and pick up was easy. I generally reserve my 5 stars for fine dining restaurants that have great date night atmosphere. I gave 4 stars because this is the best Mexican I have had yet in East Brunswick. These are some hard working locals. If you are in the mood for some legit Mexican (not Tex Mex) this is your take out spot. Also my kids who don’t like spicy food (yet) loved the chicken strips and fries, chips and Guacamole!

Amazing AUTHENTIC food. I get their spicy shredded chicken tacos in spicy red sauce. It’s addictive. The beans and rice are the perfect side. The fresh cilantro salsa is amazing with their home made tortilla chips. If you like shrimp, the shrimp enchipoltlados are excellent. I love this place. My whole family, even my young children often request this for dinner. We are frequent customers!

Don’t be discourage of the location and the limited parking because this is a place you’ll have to try in East Brunswick! This is the only place that will have authentic Mexican food in town and I recommend that you try this restaurant. Be patient though cook time can be longer than normal due to maybe only one cook being there but it is worth the wait!

Great authentic Mexican cuisine. Casual environment, large portions and reasonably priced. This is my new «go to» for the real deal!

Good food. Authentic platilllos (platters) from Puebla. Got to try the mangoladia or pina lokas… pineapple with fruits. Take it from a Poblano. Their handmade tortillas are great.

Kinda disappointed I didn’t discover this place years ago. Always saw it, but with a name of «Mary’s» I wouldn’t even think it’s a mexican place. They are in the process of changing their name.
This is by far the best mexican food I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve been all around the area for mexican food as well. Place is very friendly, food is amazing.
Instead of going to the overrated «mexican» place across the street that begins with a «C», do yourself a favor and stop by here. You won’t regret it.

We went here based on the other Unilocal reviews. The reviews say it was a great. However I think the opposite. My friends meat was vastly undercooked. I got the nachos. They weren’t very good because the chips were also tasteless. There were kids in the front desk. I understand it was a family business but this is completely unacceptable. In regards to food safety, my stomach started to growl and it was unsettling. My friend might have gotten food poisoning from his food. I hope I didn’t get it from mine. Please avoid coming here because we were duped into the reviews and should of known better…

My friend told me about this place so we went there.
This place is completely opposite of the Unilocal review. I got the Hurache Grilled Beef. I thought it would be good. Thing is, is ccrapppppp. The grilled pork is more like cut up pork and microwaved. it was NOT grilled. It tasted SOOOO BAD. The pork was extremely underprepared. Let me make it clear, it was the first time my stomach felt bad and made me foul up the toilet 30 minutes later. it was really bad. the sauce was ok too. the blend of the saycne and that was not appealing. please, dont’ come unless you want bad food.
The Middlesex County department of Health Services is the department that conducts sanitation reviews of all restaurants. I understand it has to go through a massive amount of work to do but it is expected that it does a good job. It might have done a cursory and leisurely job with this restaurant, knowing it would be complete shit. good job for making a good point. This restaurant is completely unacceptable. I saw little kids playing in the kitchen. One kid were playing on a computer that seemed really old. like, it looked like one that was rescued from gathering dust. Also, the cooking equipment looked like they were not even commercially rated, but household rated. it just looked like, they imported 3^rd world cooking items in a 1^st world country. NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR A RESTAURANT.
The Health department needs to shut it down and review the place. The place is just drab with décor.

Lived here for a while but just found this place. I’ve had quesadillas, enchiladas and fajitas and all were very good. Convenient location too. I have to remember the number for take out next time. Better than most Mexican places in the area that I’ve tried.

If your idea of Mexican food is Taco Bell, read no further.
Genuine Mexican food, fresh and well prepared. They should drop the pizza angle and focus on establishing themselves as a pure Mexican hot spot. I ordered fajitas and they were the best I’ve had in a long time. The service is attentive and polite and the place is spotless.

Location is a tough but I saw that they had tamales (window sign) and ive been craving a tamale for a while. Got it to go, the lady at the desk was kind and welcoming. Price was cheap so u expected a rookie tamale. But was i wrong i was NOT expecting this to be SO GOOD. It’s a shame i don’t live close by to be a regular.

The general formula we use in our family for trying a new place is: desire to get out of the house + bad weather + lunch time + no one is starving. This makes for pretty much the ideal conditions for taking a risk on a local joint we’ve never tried.
We took that risk yesterday at Mary’s. Located In the space formerly occupied by Franco’s Italian Kitchen, Mary’s is a restaurant in the midst of a personality crisis. It seems to want to present itself as a pizza place, Italian restaurant, and sub shop — they even have a few famous Rutgers «fat» sandwiches on the menu — but I got the sense that eating off their Mexican menu was the way to go.
The décor is far more «taco shack» than «pizzeria,» and appears to be run by a Mexican family. Service was excellent, especially when you take into account my big pain-​in-​the-​ass kids and their weird food requests. And portions were incredibly huge for the money.
My wife had the cheese enchiladas with a green chile and onion sauce. I had the trio of soft tacos — chorizo, pulled chicken, and grilled beef. The kids had rice and beans, with a side of sour cream, and a few soft taco shells to build their own mini-​burritos. Fresh made tortilla chips with black bean dip came complimentary.
The food here is 100% authentic. If you prefer gringo-​style Tex-​Mex food, then you might not like this. Everyone enjoyed their dishes, although no one (other than me, of course) could finish their plates. Food seemed pretty fresh — not the freshest ever — and was tasty, but I would have preferred a little more flavor and heat. The green and red hot sauces served were made from scratch, but still could have used a bigger bite. And like many of these types of places, the décor left little to be desired.
But that said, I’m excited to see yet another authentic Mexican place spring up to cater to a more mainstream crowd. In a world dominated by Chilis, On the Border, and a half-​dozen other shitty Tex-​Mex chains masquerading as Mexican restaurants, it’s refreshing to know I can get a delicious, homemade meal and in the process support a hard-​working local family in my neck of the woods.
For my fellow Unilocalers who share the same love for authentic Mexican food, I can’t say Mary’s beats Taqueria Maria’s or Cholula’s, but I highly recommend you try them at least once and make that call for yourselves.
And of course, if anyone tries the pizza, I’d love to hear about it. :)

Let me start by saying, this is both a pizzeria AND Mexican restaurant, and though I feel they may be suffering from a bit of an identity crisis here, their Mexican food is VERY AUTHENTIC.
I actually haven’t tried their pizza, and to be quite honest, I have no real desire to. Pizzerias are a dime a dozen in East Brunswick, but an AUTHENTIC Mexican restaurant? This is the ONLY one outside of South River and New Brunswick.
On to the food. The dishes we’ve had were REALLY good and authentic. We’ve tried their Tamales, the Burritos, Tacos, and our favorites, Tostadas.
As much as I have raved in the past about El Tapatio in South River, the Tostadas here beat the living shit out of El Tapatio’s.
The tortillas are delicious, and fried to a nice crisp, and then topped with a spread of beans, meat (I highly recommend the Carne Enchilada which is a spicy pork), sour cream, lettuce, and some type of pico de gallo.
With all of the griping about there being too many chain restaurants in East Brunswick, I recommend giving Mary’s a chance.