Maria Maria

I have been to their location in Danville numerous times and never been to impressed as (in my opinion) pretty expensive and the food was never Gr8 ~
WELL I STAND CORRECTED!!! I was going to the wrong location, Walnut Creek was impressive. Granted just cocktails~ me A DELICIOSO RED Sangria & my daughter had a Margarita ~ both excellent ~ also chips & salsa of course.
Next time in town I will be back ~ plus the WC setting along the creek is nicer too!

Great frozen margaritas and steak nochos!!!
Kids buttered noodles are awesome as well.
I go here alot & I have to say I run into a bad waiter from time to time.

I really enjoyed Sunday Brunch. It is very difficult to find quality food and a place very welcoming to my dogs to, Maria Maria’s was a good choice.
We ordered the Huevos rancheros, steak and eggs, mimosas, pomegranate margarita and Churros. The Huevos rancheros were average, but the steak was spectacular. We enjoyed mimosas to some fantastic live music. We finished with Churros. Craving those Churros as we speak. This is my 3^rd visit here and deserving of a 4 star rating for consistency.
If you want good Mexican food, margaritas and the pleasure of bringing your four legged furry friends, Maria Maria’s needs to be at the top of your list.

Tried to give this place a second chance, but it’s only gotten worse in terms of food quality. Their steak is old, and has a rancid flavor to it. I would avoid at all costs. I only came to dine here because they were selling their gift cards for 50% off at Costco and I thought I’d give it a shot. Even though I paid half price, it’s absolutely not worth risking your time or dinner for this place

I spent over 60 on this. Need to find another cook for sure. the people I work for gave me a gift card for mothers day. In going to talk to manager about complete tefund

Located in the heart of town however it will never find a location on our hearts.
We went with a group of 9. First of we did not like their attitud. No welcome/​waited for 20 min.
This lil’ guy came ivan. What a rude cabron. Barely spoke English and was unapologetic of the terrible welcome.
Food was allegedly gourmet mexican! Yeah very gourmet grossican.
Not to mention Live Musician literally sucked!
A new management seems more than necessary! Lost 9!
Way better places to spend your money/​time in WC.

Meh. I mean that’s the most accurate description.
Love: Outdoor seating, location to downtown, free chips and salsa
Like: Happy Hour, seafood dishes
Meh: Most other food, taco tuesday so dry.

TLDR: Ok food for an ok price, IF you go at the right times.
We decided to come here after being drawn in by the allure of $ 1 taco Tuesday’s. We sat at the bar and there was a live band out in the patio. The atmosphere was pretty good, especially for cheap happy hour.
BF got the 3 taco chicken plate with a frozen margerita and I ordered shrimp fajitas. The tacos were pretty basic, just a tortilla with some shredded chicken in it. Not impressive, but you get what you pay for. The fajitas were around $ 20 for one serving and came wIth A LOT of food. We both ended up eating the fajitas because BFs taco portion was so sad that he had to fill up with my order.
The fajitas themselves were just ok. They definitely werent the best I’ve had, and I don’t think they are really worth ordering again. The $ 1 tacos were a pretty good deal, but you have to order a drink with each plate which kind of negates the savings. Its also kind of hard to get full off of three tacos so you’d probably have to get 6 tacos with a side of rice & beans to really be satisfied. That, plus the mandatory beverage come it to be around $ 12 (if you get a cheap beer). That’s definitely not a bad price, but also isn’t as great as it initially sounds.
If you decide to come here, get the 6 taco platter as opposed to the three, as it will help offset the price of whatever drink you get.

Thank God I gave this place a try. Talk about a foodgasm! Yes I said foodgasm! It’s real people.
Anyways back to the topic at hand, the food. The food here is very thought out. The flavors of each dish dance in my mouth. I will start with the drinks. Honestly expect to pay a price that some may consider a little steep but it is well worth it. I tried both the hand muddled and the Maria Maria margaritas. Hand muddled has a very complex flavor profile which makes for an amazing margarita. You can get a pitcher of the Maria Maria margarita for $ 40 and it is enough for two Irish men for a casual drink or four average people who want a healthy portion of spirits. Chips were on point. Quite fresh and a good level of salt. The salsas were good too.
Appetizers were very good. The chiviche was very refreshing and the guacamole was smooth. Guacamole portion was a little small but still worth it.
Dinner was delicious! Went with the steak fajitas and the supernatural buritto. Let me just say the steak in both was soo soft. Very easy to chew. One could say it almost chews itself! They both were radiating joy from bite one all the way to the last bite. The mole sauce was supernatural. It was smooth and light. Not like many places where it is gritty and very thick and heavy.
Desserts were lime pie and chorros which were fantastic! Really can’t go wrong with either of them.
All in all, expect to pay a fair amount but honestly it is worth it. Food costs on a lot of their dishes aren’t cheap so you will see a reflection of that I the prices but some dishes I feel were actually a little under priced.
Definitely go here at least once in your life!

Came here for Walnut Creek Restaurant Week 2016 since it offered one of the BEST lunches — essentially a 4 course meal with chips/​salsa, full sized soup, super full sized burrito (or taco or enchilada), and a mexican sundae ice cream. Our bill before tax/​tip for 7 people was $ 70… how awesome is that?!
Their reservation system is through Unilocal,and it was easy to manage and change. The venue is big, and can seat alot of people. Staff was friendly accomodating to fit 7^th person, super attentive to water & chips/​salsa needs, and the food came out FAST with no errors on who ordered the vegetarian friendly soup and who wanted the particular surf and turf taco combo.
Their chips and salsa is addicting. Their tortilla soup is very hearty in flavor, leaves a nice spice in your taste buds. Not enough crunch texture but chips are an easy addition.
Their Maria burrito was giant, smothered in multi-​colored sauces, and delicious. It’s a particular flavor that only legit mexican cuisine uses… not sure what. I took the other half home and it made my car smell amazing.
The sundae is like a cinnamon toast crunch chips with vanilla ice cream and chocolate drizzle… my portion in particular was only half a scoop (sadface).
Everyone in my group left happy… success.

WORST service ever. I’ve been her numerous times because I REALLY WANT TO LIKE IT. Unfortunately, there are only 1 or 2 people are worthwhile servers.
Only gave it 2 stars because they have a decent patio.

Came here for restaurant week and I have to concur with many of the reviews below about Maria Maria. Thoroughly a 3-​star restaurant with high prices and lacking authentic flavor, but a beautiful setting nonetheless with live music.
The appetizer, which consisted of corn mixed in with sour cream, cheese, and assortment of other ingredients, was tasty enough but the enchiladas fell short of the flavoring I had grown accustomed to after having lived in Central California, where an over abundance of taquerias had most likely spoiled me. Dessert was alright as well.
I have been to Maria Maria in the past for Taco Tuesday and I found that to be a much better deal than restaurant week. The live music was nice at first but grew to be overwhelming and my friends and I found we were unable to keep up a conversation simply because we couldn’t hear one another.

Underwhelming in every sense of the word. We’ve only been a time or two over the past few years, but last night we got take out and it was just what I was expecting — bland! Nothing is ever seasoned reasonably, let alone as aggressively as I expect from good Mexican food.
— Ceviche was bland and I think the fish is imitation fish. I’m down with mango in a ceviche but I don’t think it pairs well with anything else in the dish. No flavor, no seasoning.
– Quesadillas were bland and mushed up all weird. I know to-​go isn’t as elegantly plated, but this had turned into a pile of beans and greasy, mushy tortilla. I like my quesadilla with a bit of sear and crunch.
+ Chips were okay.
+ Carnitas burrito was okay but nothing I couldn’t get at any other place in the area for half the price.
+ Ordering online through Eat24 went well, even if I wasn’t happy with the food itself. We only live a few minutes away, but we’d spent all day cleaning and looked like trash. The Eat24 experience was painless.

I really enjoyed Maria Maria. The service and food were great. It was a beautiful sunny day and the temps were cool so I decided to grab a seat on the patio. I was immediately brought chips and salsa. I decided to order the Maria Maria margarita and the steak quesadilla. The margarita was made well and the quesadilla was delicious. It was an overall great experience!

Maria Maria had been here awhile. probably was another mexican eatery. previously…
huge menu. looked pricey. settled on weekday lunch menu
eats: chicken enchilada suiza (10.99) lunch
–2 chicken enchilada. on a microwaved plate. (hot! i was warned.)
–fresh chicken meat, veggies, with some chili spiciness.
–this style of enchilada new to me.
–no rice nor beans accompaniment
big basket of housefried chips (shining looking) gratis
*semispicy green and red salsa addictive with chips.
-
leftovers:
–service very attentive, nonobtrusive, gregarious waiters
–food not sure about, chips fabulous, crunchy and fresh.
–mex music thruout, not mariachi.
–Carlos Santana, the guitarist, is involved financially.
–3.5 stars food, service, ambience 5 stars
can choose dining spot: patio, bar, inside table, etc.

Ugh, the concept sounded good –celebrity chef and a world class musician would join forces to make food sounds like a good idea, but this time it utterly failed.
The service was okay and they are capable of making reservations for larger groups, so that’s a plus. However, they don’t have any hot sauce to offer you, nor do they place salt and pepper on their tables. Their chips were okay, they serve with red and green sauce. Green sauce seems legit, however the red was bland– like canned food. I ordered a red sangria that tasted more like a mix drink than a sangria. That’s a huge strike against them. How can you not get sangria right? It’s really not that difficult to make…
Also my meal was supposed to be shrimps on a pan on top of rice with cheese. Granted I thought this was a Mexican restaurant, but my entire plate was bland. Bland! Do you get that? No flavor– nothing, no salt, no spices, no grill marks on my shrimp. Nothing. It tasted like someone had melted mozzarella cheese on top of thawed shrimp and placed that all on top of red rice with no flavor. Oh and they wanted $ 18 for that…
Here’s my giant issue with all of this mess– I’m Latina and can make a better meal at home. I feel cheated.

Service was great but the food, not my favorite. It’s almost like they are trying to make things very unique instead of authentic which is cool if you’re into that but I personally prefer authentic flavors. The tortilla soup was AMAZING when it used to be the cantina but now it tastes like tomato soup. The atmosphere is nice and again, the service was great.

Just moved to the area and was delighted to have dined here last night. My friend chose this as a great place for Taco Tuesday for the sweet $ 1 Taco deal they have all night. Upon arrival there at 6:30 the place was packed, but we still got a table on the back patio right away. The live music was a nice touch too.
The service was great. In my book if you get our orders right, keep our glasses filled and don’t make us flag you down for the check your already a decent server. She was attentive, friendly and wasn’t overbearing although I knew she had her eye on us the whole time.
The food was absolutely delicious. We got the chicken and steak tacos that came with the meat shredded. They didn’t skimp for being only $ 1 each with a drink purchase. With a $ 2 side order of rice and beans our meal was completely satisfying. Flavorful and filling.
I’m looking forward to bringing the boyfriend back here as their brunch menu has already piqued my interest. $ 10 bottomless mimosas? Yes please!

El servicio es bueno, el lugar esta bonito, sillas comodas. La comida no sabe a comida mexicana pero no es mala. Todo sabe parecido. He comido aqui 4 veces y todavía no me sorprende.

Ehhhhh seeing that this is a «Catina» in walnut creek, I thought that the food would be a bit higher quality. Maybe my expectations were high, but if you were to compare to other restaurants, this would basically be a «high end» venue of a chilis or Chevys.
Our server was super nice and all, came by to check once, refilled my Coke without asking. Refilled our chips and salsa. By the way, green salsa is delicious and spicy.
My dad ordered a mojito, which by the way on Mondays is ½ off mojito Mondays. Although they had that deal we were still billed for 10 $ and my parents already had paid, so we did not bother trying to get 5 $ back as we were already on our way out.
They do not validate parking anymore however it’s free for the first hour and .50 cents every hour after I believe.
All in all I would rather go to chilis or Chevys for half the price for the same quality of food. The steak was pretty flavorful in the fajitas, though the sizzling plate was quite small for one.

Decided to have a light lunch on a patio exposed to sunlight somewhere. Driving around, Maria Maria Cantina responded to my request, here is my experience: —
Maria Maria is located on the corner of north Broadway & Lincoln. There is a parking garage right across near the public library, or metered street parking. Yes, welcome to Walnut Creek! This city collects it’s quarters from all the locals and visitors here.
We were greeted with a smile and host said seat yourself anywhere at patio. I always think that is a must for any restaurant, business, a welcoming smile goes a long way.
The patio is pretty open, right on N Broadway, so it can be a bit loud depending on motorcycle/​car traffic. It was also pet friendly, a couple close by had there lab napping.
Our waitress came over welcoming us, she was checking in frequently, she did a good job and my tip generously reflected that. We ordered some beverages and I picked the chicken fajitas, rice pilaf and black beans.
My chicken was slightly over cooked, so I had to lather with guacamole to compensate dryness. The rice pilaf and beans were ok. There was a plate of greens, guacamole, diced tomatoes as well.
So overall, this place had good service, good location, my meal however was not spectacular. I’ll be back to try the Sunday brunch due to the good service.