Maya

Located on the ground level of a large office building, Maya sports a small lounge/bar area right at the entrance, and a much larger dining area to the right of the entryway. A large group of us came here to celebrate a birthday, and Maya’s dim, decadent interior was more than able to handle our large (~16) and loud party.

The service here wasn’t outstanding, but it was more than acceptable given the size of the party. The food here was quite varied and tasty, which is on par with the higher prices for the entrees as compared to other restaurants with similar cuisine.

Not to be missed is the wide tequila selection, including some premium choices that are hard to find elsewhere.

Mexican food is one of several types of cuisine that can be very good even when it is super-cheap, and, in some cases, when it is expensive, it is actually LESS good.

Even though I had heard some good things about Maya, my expectations were still not that high, mostly due to the above fact.

Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised (though not blown-away or anything).

The decor is nice and the place is large, so you can go with big groups. The service was okay…there were a few minor mishaps we had with the service, but they remained friendly throughout it all, so it wasn’t too bad.

To start with, you can taste the freshness in their tortillas and their chips (it reminded me of the tortilla chips I’ve had many times in Mexico itself…though, of course, in Mexico it costs about one-tenth the price).

I started with three tortas that were solid and very fresh-tasting. Other appetizers we tried were also quite tasty.

The hangar steak which I had was excellent…very flavorful and done perfectly. They had a pork tenderloin dish which was good, and I tried some of the salmon enchilladas, which were also solid.

The desserts didn’t disappoint either. I had a bread pudding which looked a litle bland, but, when I bit into it, I found it was actually very flavorful and tasty!

Best of all, is the price: only $40! It presents itself like a fancy, $65 place. If it were, then I’d think the place was okay, but nothing too special. However, at $40, Maya is barely more expensive than Chevy’s!

All in all, I was pretty impressed.

Portions are smaller than your ordinary Mexican restaurant, but the items on the menu are more interesting. The tacos with handmade tortillas are very good.