Maya Mexican Grill and Bar

Everything from the logo, to the décor to the atmosphere, screams authentic Mexican food and they do so with style. My server Erica was wonderful and attentive and I wish I had more money to tip her with.
The food was savory and succulent. I had the steak burrito which came with fresh vegetables, perfectly cooked rice and beans.
One thing that sold me was the chips and salsa. The tortilla chips were still warm from being freshly made and the salsa was unlike any I’ve tasted before and as an aficionado of salsa I thought I tried them all. This was clearly being made by someone’s Abuelita! I recommend to anyone who’s tired of Chipotle, and Qdoba taking the flavor out of Mexican food please do yourself a favor and GO TO MAYA!

Great food and service! Strong drinks which are definitely worth their price. Food is amazing.

My first time here, I like the Mexican atmosphere. The salsa had just enough kick, the chips were fresh, I had the honor roll they were delicious! I most definitely will be back and I recommend you to give them a try.

I have been here twice. The food is good and authentic but the service is terrible. On my second trip we almost decided to walk out but ended up staying. The food was still good but probably won’t be back just because of the bad service. Stick with lindo mexico a few blocks up the road.

I have been here a few times, the 1^st time I had the nachos and they were great, the next time had the fajita’s and they were pretty good also.
Tonight I came and decided to have the Fire bean dip„ well it came and for what they charged I thought it would be more than just a little plate. it was pretty bland I have to say, not sure what to think, as of yet, I will probably give it another try and see how the food is the next time I came in.

Decided to go here because I saw they had plantains and I loved it. It’s kinda pricey for Mexican food but their menu is huge. Plenty of things to choose from… So many more things I wanted to try but i only have one stomach, right? :-p

I got the steak tacos– steak wasn’t as flavorful as I’d like; not a fan of the cubed cut. The red hot sauce tasted like it was out of a can. Overall not very impressed.

I always like to try the new Mexican restaurants Wyoming. There is some tough competition. Being hungry and not motivated to make my own lunch I thought I would try here. The reviews made is sound like a good place to try the word «authentic» was used a few times, so it couldn’t be bad. I was quickly seated and promptly given a nice bowl of chips. The salsa was a bit mild and watery, so I asked for the spicier salsa. Sadly it was just darker red and not very spicy. The menu didn’t seem very authentic to me, more like American-​ized authentic. They had the regular «combo plates» like every place. All the items in some sort of sauce covered in cheese and all tasting the same. I opted for the Bistec Ranchero. It was okay, nothing bad, nothing good. They were pretty skimpy on the number of tortillas. It was a step above the Taco Bells and Beltline Bar type places. With so many other good choices in the area, I’d be hard pressed to go back.

While Lindo Mexico is my #1 favorite Mexican restaurant in GR, Maya comes a close 2^nd. The food was flavorful and authentic and arrived quickly from the kitchen. The server was friendly, and warned me before I tried the El Yucateco habanero XXXtra hot sauce. I love heat in my food but I’m glad he warned me. I will definitely be back and strongly recommend Maya to all fans of authentic Mexican food.

People who know me know I love Mexican food. I especially like it as authentic as possible. I am not of Hispanic or Latin heritage. But I am not at all a fan of the fast-​food Tex-​mex that often passes as Mexican food today (No quiero Taco Bell). I also don’t think you have to get all hoidy-​toidy about Mexican food to get authenticity. I love Rick Bayless, but his food is not what you would normally see for sale in a vendor cart on the streets or cafes and restaurants in Tijuana.
Maya is kind of middle of the road there. I still think the three best Mex restaurants in town are Lindo Mexico, El Granjero, and Maggie’s. But I will not hold that against them. That’s a tall order.
That being said, I most definitely will return to Maya. It is located in the old Big Boy at Rogers Plaza. They have mostly rebuilt, repainted, and redecorated the place and it has a very nice atmosphere. Roomy with a small lounge in the back.
Luisa was our server and my wife and I both really liked her. She was not perfect as she is new, and the restaurant opened only yesterday, so she was not 100% familiar with the ingredients in the entrees. But she was very helpful in asking the chef for answers to our questions.
We were first greeted with a basket of chips and freshly-​made pico de gallo. It was not a huge basket of chips, but you could get more for free, and as they were hot from the oven, we certainly did not complain. The pico was good enough that we bought a cup and brought it home. It’s not a menu item, but it was a fair price, and I would encourage the management to put it on the menu as a take-​out item with a standard size and price. It could be a hot item.
We are not big drinkers so we did not order anything alcoholic. To drink, we ordered water with lemon. I was curious see what we would get as authentic Mexican restaurants will often give you limes instead of lemons (limón can mean either in Spanish). But it didn’t really matter, because we just got plain water anyway! But it was good water with no off-​flavors, so we didn’t say anything.
Looking at the menu at the seafood section and there was only one fish dish., Everything else was shrimp (or «srimp» as it was spelled more than once in the menu). They also had a seafood stew. The menu said it had crab in it. When I asked if it was real crab or imitation, I was told it was imitation. They should really change that on the menu, or change the way they make it so that it as represented.
My wife ordered the Vegetable Burrito. It was FANTASTIC! I will come back just for this. All of the ingredients were fresh and they did not suffer from what often happens when you cook veggies inside of a tortilla – getting so soggy the tortilla disintegrates. None of that here.
I ordered the #1 San Diego DInner (or «Dinnneeer» as it was spelled on the menu). It consisted of a poblano relleno (stuffed poblano pepper) that was coated and deep fried. I loved it. My wife liked it too, but she does not like very spicy food and it was too hot for her. I like mine super spicy, so I was happy to see a bottle of extra spicy «El Yucateco» habanero sauce on the table. Yummy!
My meal also consisted of a chicken taco. It was not at all impressive, but I’m not a fan of chicken tacos. Next time I’ll see if if can sub it for beef. If they won’t, then I’ll just get beans. My meal also came with a single beef tamal, typical thickness and about 4 inches long. Very good. It was not served in the corn husk, which I would prefer. That’s half the fun of tamales is unwrapping them. But I know they cooked it in a corn husk, because you could taste it. I love that.
Even though it was only the second day of business, they were fairly busy, with a couple of larger parties. The workers interacted well. Where I was sitting, I could see into the kitchen a little and I could see that they had a stack of taco shell bowls for taco salads that looked they had had made them themselves and had just taken out from the oven.
We were going to get the flan for dessert, but were told that they won’t have any until next week. Excusable as they are new and probably are having some supply issues until they get all the kinks worked out.
All in all, we were both very happy, took some food home, and only $ 22.46 poorer before the tip. The staff was friendly and they greeted us coming in and leaving. We will certainly be back.
As were were getting to leave, I saw someone was being served a large glass of horchata. Dang! I forgot to get horchata. Now I KNOW I’ll be back!