Maya Cafe

I really wanted to like this place. I got the Quesadilla de ??? (Didn’t have vegetables). I can tell you that if you like cheese in your quesadillas with cheese, don’t get this. I added chicken and everything was very dry.
The waitress wasn’t knowledgeable with the food or menu. I overheard her talk down to another customer and was on her phone most of the time. She never refilled our drinks either. I’ve waited tables for 5 years, so I may be overly critical.
I live in the neighborhood and will give this place one more try.

Walking into this place immediately transported me to a nice little restaurant somewhere in Mexico near a beach. I loved the house marguerita and I don’t usually like them.
The food was very good! (I would have given a 5 rating if not for the service) we started with the 3 dip appetizer. Can’t go wrong there. I had chicken enchiladas. Very very good. My husband had chicken casadisa. Be sure to get the one with spinach. So yummy!
Going back for sure, maybe tonight

The thing I like the most here is the drinks. Sangria is great. All the margaritas are made from scratch and are among the best I’ve had.
As far as the food, it’s pretty good, but nothing really amazing. The entrée type plates are good and include foods from a variety of regions. Most recently I had the street tacos, which I would give about a ²⁄₅. Very bland and a lack of personality compared to Mission Taco, which would be my go to for street Tacos.
Environment is nice, but could use a bit of an update. If you’re only going for drinks though I’d give it ⁵⁄₅.

I love their food! Lunch today was the Pollo Verde — it was delicious! Mixed their Pico de gallo with some hot chili sauce with chips! Excellent!
They have great Margaritas too! I have always had good food everytime I visit!
Friendly staff too!

The inside is funky, the staff is friendly, and the food is tasty. My only wish is that the margaritas could be larger.

I’m here now with a group of seven people. We all agree that the service was good and the food was exceptional. Try it you’ll love it.

Very bad experience! The service there could not be worse! We were the second table arriving there, but they kept us waiting for more than half an hour for the orders. I asked the waiter and waitresses more than three times, they told me «everybody arrives at the same time». Waiting, waiting, and waiting…

First time here and I will definitely will be back. Excellent Margaritas, salsa and Enchiladas. Everything was very fresh, made from scratch. No powder mix Margaritas — fresh squeezed lime juice. Everyone that works here is very very friendly. Service is a little slow, but who’s in a hurry when your having a great time with friends!

The food itself was not bad. But the staff was dressed like they were in the middle of spring cleaning; kinda messed with the experience. The «host» looked like a kid who usually spends his time outside on a skateboard (or whatever it is kids do these days).
I was looking forward to trying it, but I’m not sure that I would actually go again.

Love love love this place! I have enjoyed everything I have eaten here ever. I don’t remember the name but they had a salmon special with a light sauce. It was beautifully flavored and served. The margaritas here are phenomenal. Maya café has become our go to spot for dinner.

We are so happy to have this establishment in Maplewood. They were closed for some time due to renovations and other issues and we waited with anticipation for them to reopen and when they did we were there! It was such a happy day when they opened their doors again!
First off, hands down one of the best margaritas in the city! They are made fresh and they give you quite a generous pour. The house margarita is my personal favorite but they have a variety of different kinds to choose from.
Secondly, the service is always amazing. Everyone we have ever had has always been incredibly nice, knowledgeable, and attentive. Nights that they have been busy with possibly a little understaffed, everyone is as nice as can be.
Finally, the reason for trying Maya is the incredible food. Upon arriving to the restaurant, you are supplied with chips and a house salsa which has complex flavor and a slight heat but not overwhelming. If you are interested in appetizers, you can’t go wrong with their house made guacamole, queso fundido, or their trio dips. Each one has it’s own unique sensation without being so large your appetite is ruined for dinner. Entrée suggestions are the Tacos de Pescado and Sangre de toro Beef Brisket as both were visually appealing and yet incredibly savory. We have had the specials before (which change frequently) which did not disappoint, and recently Dan tried black bean and chorizo soup which he absolutely loved. The one dish I was not particularly crazy about was the Lechuga Asad which I had fairly late in the evening which may have been part of the problem.
This is a stop one must do if they are visiting Maplewood. From friendly staff to delicious food, this is one establishment that has brought all the cards to the table.

I have been to this café several times and have always had a nice experience. I did not try their margarita until yesterday, however and it was really good. Why is it the highlight, you ask? Because it is easy to make margarita out of a mix, just add tequila (and wham bam!) you have yourself a fairly difficult to mess up drink but this place does margarita differently. Theirs is made from freshly squeezed limes which I have never seen in other Mexican/​Latino restaurants. Some places may claim to have awesome margaritas but nothing like Maya Café!
As far as their food goes, I have always been a fan and have tried their brisket, their pork dish with coffee rub, and most recently, their enchiladas with brisket. I enjoyed every meal I’ve had at Maya and I will definitely come back for more of their good food and awesome margaritas.
My only complaint is that service is a little slow and slightly lacking. Hopefully this improves when I come back.

Poor service, literally waited ten minutes to get water and another ten to take our order. Drinks tasted off, like I thought something was wrong (and I’ve bartended so I am not just some lame ass naggy lady). Food was bland and not at all traditional. I was so excited to go here, and left so disappointed.

Maya Café is a very refined type of – broad term here – «Mexican Food.» First off, the menu is not strictly Mexican but includes foods from many different areas including South America (like Brazil!). Their website calls the genre «pan-​Latin.» Second of all, you really can’t go here expecting your heated meats and cheeses on a plate of gooeyness which is the norm at a different «Mexican Food» restaurant. But, don’t let this dissuade you from coming, it is a great restaurant, I just wanted to let you know what not to expect.
So, what can you expect?
First, you will find FRESH. This is awesome. Everything here is like three steps up on the freshness scale. You are served chips and pico de gallo made fresh every morning (the waiter told us this). It is a cute little mason jar with a spoon and you get individual dishes to serve it out to, in case there are germaphobes in your group.
The other notably fresh item is the Margarita! These truly were some of the best Margaritas I’ve ever had. They (as we were told) squeeze fresh lime juice to use for their margs instead of a pre-​bottled concoction or just some sort of sour mix deal. You really can taste this in their margarita! The other thing is that they use pretty good liquors (Sauza Tequila) even in their non-​top shelf margaritas, but they also offer even better Tequilas. I did not try their sangria but it looked good, too.
We had a queso dip appetizer. It was a thicker type of cheese dip, but it was really good. I especially liked dipping in the cheese followed by some pico on top. It was delicious!
Their menu offers many entrée choices, all of them are refined and a bit pricier than most Mexican restaurants (I hate continually comparing it to Mexican, so I am sorry). What you get, though, is really good high quality food that seems to be made fresh for you. Do you ever wonder how your food comes out like 3 minutes after you order at many Mexican restaurants? Well, this is a very different experience. I had fish tacos and they were very good. They had three large pieces of grilled tilapia, with a spring mix, and guacamole. My entrée came with a modest portion of rice with an even more modest portion of black beans on top of it. But it was good, and there was certainly more than enough food!
One of the highlights of Maya Café is the décor and atmosphere. They set a good mood for pan-​latin cuisine. There are lots of artifacts about that indicate the latin origins, especially the religious candles at every table. They have a nice sidewalk patio and there is a lot of seating inside.
I really liked Maya Café. I think if you go here expect to pay more for the quality and freshness that you get. Also, expect to have a fresh and delicious food choice that really doesn’t hearken to a general «Mexican» fare.
Also– go Maplewood! I just love the area and all of the great dining options.

I couldn’t be happier that Maya Café has reopened. I’ve been there twice now and I plan on becoming a regular. The margaritas are delicious and its very easy to have more than one. My favorite dish is the chicken chimichanga because its not your run of the mill chimichanga. Instead of a burrito its open and everything is on a tortilla; its a nice change. The outdoor patio in front is great for people watching. Also the service has been great. The only complaint I could lodge is that its pricier than I normally pay for Mexican but the food and atmosphere makes it worth it.

So I tried to go to Maya Café last fall, and it was closed. A 10 day remodel was supposed to have been over, but it wasn’t. Then it turned into a several month closing. That was either one heck of a remodel, or there was much more to the story. So I finally heard Maya Café was open again, and had dinner there on Friday evening. Having not been there before, I don’t know how extensive any remodel was, but the place did look fine, in a semi-​over-​the-​top Mexican/​Latin kind of décor.
The menu and/​or kitchen and/​or staff must also be getting a retool, because the menu was quite limited compared to the old menu that is still online. This was disappointing because I had hoped to try the Pollo en Pepian Dulce. Our waiter said that they were adding more items to the menu as they progressed. So I guess they are rebuilding it or training the kitchen staff from scratch. Instead, I ordered the Sangre de Toro Beef Brisket, the wife ordered Chicken Quesadilla, we got one of the nightly specials — Trio Dip & Chips — for an appetizer, and had Tres Leches for dessert. Oh, and I ordered a lime Jarritos Mexi-​pop for my drink.
Many past reviews have commented on how great the margaritas are. In fact most Latin restaurant reviews seem to focus on the margaritas, and rave on them. But really, how hard is it to make this stock drink? And I’m not worried about the drinks when I go to the restaurant to eat. Having said that, I did like my lime soda. It added a counter-​flavor to the food without taking away from the meal.
The Trio Dip appetizer was really quite tasty. A smoky queso bowl, a sweet-​spicy pineapple bowl, and a guacamole bowl. Each one was a hit, in our opinion. All were in the same, fairly generously-​sized bowls and with the normal tortilla chips. We were also served the complimentary chips and house-​made salsa when we were first seated. That salsa is pretty good, but thick enough that it could have stood to have been mashed or sauced a bit to make it stick more to the chips.
My beef brisket was the one disappointment. It wasn’t terrible, just kind of okay. For $ 17 at a Mexican/​Latin restaurant, I don’t think I should still want more food when I finish the plate. The brisket was decent — lightly smoky, savory, and tender. But I would have liked more than three strips. I guess that’s standard fare, but still seemed light. The white rice with black beans were standard. And the corn also was just standard — it was in some type of light sauce, but really seemed like it was canned corn that had been warmed in black bean juice.
My wife’s Chicken Quesadilla was much better. The quesadilla itself was top notch, with tender & moist chicken, veggies, and baby spinach. Pretty tasty. Her rice was maya rice with black beans. The rice was cheesy, and a much better side than my plain white rice with beans.
Dessert of Tres Leches was excellent. I don’t know that I ever get a bad one at a restaurant, and this one also was very good.
So i wasn’t blown away, like I kind of expected after some of the reviews. With the long closure, you really have to think of it as a new opening. They seem to still be getting the food back up to speed. Most was good, but don’t let an entrée disappoint. I hope they quickly expand their menu, and enlarge/​flavor up the sides for their brisket.

Arrived on a Tuesday as the doors were being unlocked making us the first customers of the day. The hostess/​who knows what they were, was the most unwelcoming person I have encountered in some time. We sat at the bar and menu was placed in front of us, no mention of specials though we could see them flashing up on a POS screen behind the bar. Very pricey food for Mexican cuisine. Complimentary chips were slightly burned. Bartender made a great margarita. Food was good but not great, enchiladas and soup.
Loved the décor. We received the cursory thank you when we left. It’s hard to want to return to a place when you don’t feel welcomed there.

I just wanted to get the word out to Unilocalers that this location is NOT closed! It has re-​opened for business after a long remodel and still has the best margarita in St. Louis.
I have never had a disappointing meal here. Try the brisket, it’s unbelievable.

One of the best, if not the BEST Margaritas in the Saint Louis area. No mixes are used here, it is all fresh hand squeezed juice. Which makes the Margaritas go down oh, so smoothly.
Norma H. and I had the same day off, so we meet up for lunch at Maya Café. I had a
Coupon for a buy one get one free. I really never save with these coupons, I always end up buying more drinks and appetizers. However, it does give me more to Unilocal about.
I’ve already told you about the awesome Margaritas and they were the perfect accompaniment to the chips and pico de gallo. Their chips were thick cut and tossed in a coarse salt. No soupy, overly pureed salsa here. They serve a spicy pico de gallo. The diced tomato, onion and cilantro was a perfect topping for the chips.
We also enjoyed an order of Calamares (Calamari). It was served with two dipping sauces; a Criollo Gaze and Chimichurri Dip. Both were good, I favored the Glaze and Ms. Norma preferred the Dip. Our waiter, said he loved to double dip, he’d dip in both for extra flavor
Norma had the lunch portion of Pollo En Pepian Dulce. It looked fabulous, she loved it and I was jealous of her side of asparagus, my favorite vegetable. I forget what mine was called, but it was our waiters favorite. It was a chicken breast fried, served as a sandwich with refried beans, lettuce and tomatoes. It was one tasty sandwich that you’ll never see at Subway.
Service was great and personable. I’ve gotta go back, we forgot to try the Flan.

I met girlfriends for dinner Friday. I was waaaaay early and was seated in the bar at a table for four.
My box from Pie Oh My was welcomed, which was a good thing, since I thought I needed to leave it in the car, which would not have been good.
Meg was our glorious server, and she did a perfect job with check-​ins and beverage refills.
Chips and salsa were fabulous, and each diner gets their own saucer for spooning salsa from the jar.
One dining partner got the Pollo en Pepian Dulce ($ 16.95), a Guatamalan dish: grilled chicken breast with a sauce of ground pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and sesame seeds, red bell peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic stewed in a bitter orange and cinnamon-​infused chicken broth, served with white rice, grilled asparagus and garnished with roasted almond slices and Pisco bloomed raisins.
The other dining partner and I got Aji de Gallina/​Aji de Camarones ($ 17.95), a Peruvian dish: grilled chicken breast or eight large shrimp covered in spicy ancho, habanero and citrus cream sauce; served with saffron rice and garnished with slices of hard-​boiled egg, kalamata olive and slivered almond.
She split hers as half chicken, half shrimp. I got all shrimp.
This had a little kick to it, but it was a beautifully composed dish. I cut all my shrimp into little pieces, along with the hard-​boiled egg to be sure to get some of everything in each bite.
A fabulous dish with juicy and flavorful shrimp, a complex creamy sauce that blended so well with the rice, egg, brininess from the olives and lovely crunch from the almonds.
I really don’t know how all these ingredients went so well together.
My hefty to-​go vessel lasted four more meals.