Costa Vida

I have eaten at Costa Vida a few times now. The atmosphere is always clean and fun., but I have never been absolutely amazed by the food there. However, it is a «fast food» type restaurant and I think they do a good job for what they are.

Costa Vida has become my new go-​to location in the couv. I get 2 tacos and request one chicken, one sweet pork, mixed. THE BEST. And I love love their rice, and honey habanero sauce.
After reviewing some other low reviews, I wanted to address that this is not intended to be «authentic» Mexican. It’s like a Tex-​mex. if you had a bad service experience, give it another try — as often as we go i rarely see the same employee twice. And for those who think the food just sits around all day — keep in mind it is «fast food» esque. With that being said I’ve never felt like my food was stale or cold.
Everyone I’ve told about Costa Vida all loves it! Most definitely recommend.

It’s hard to miss this place driving down mill plain road… The new building and big old sign sticks out like a franchise banner. As such, it’s certainly not your local, authentic Mexican (yum, yum, yum) nor would I call it the best chain option but if you want to indulge and keep it cheap, make the stop.
Food options come out of the warmer and get individually cooked up so tacos are reheated and shells toasted. Good number of meats and topping though the base flavor just isn’t going to win any awards.
Seems like they’re big on drink options as well though I can’t speak to any of those from lunch visits. 4 stars for being a good, fast, reasonably priced take on exactly what you’d expect from the sign.

Don’t be fooled. The food here is NOT Fresh. It sits around in heated pans all day, maybe the next day too? The food is dried out, over cooked, bland and seriously over priced for what you get. I ordered a burrito, the meat was dried out and old tasting. Not worth the money. I’d rather take my chance with e-​coli at Chipotle or diarrhea at Taco Bell than to eat at this dump again! There are a lot of good Mexican Restaurants in East Vancouver, this isn’t one of them.

Great food as always! But today I especially want to say great owners. Tonight I had the chance to meet Scott, one of the franchise partners. I had a great conversation with him, while the staff prepared my meal to go, and then I headed out the door. When I got to my car I realized I had forgot one of the meals I was supposed to order. I went back inside and got in line. Scott saw me and asked what I needed. He pulled me aside, told the cashier my order, washed up and PERSONALLY made my forgotten meal. Talk about great service, great leadership and a great experience. Truly impressive and extremely grateful. Thanks Scott and the amazing Costa Vida team. See you again soon.

I was not sure what to expect after reading the other Unilocalers reviews about this place. I went on a Tuesday night at 4:30pm and there was only one other couple there. Even though the menu is not extensive it took me a bit to figure out what I wanted and how I wanted it. I decided on the shredded beef enchiladas in a whole wheat tortilla with rice and beans. I only got one hoping it would be enough for me. I choose the red sauce and got black beans. The sauce was a bit spicy but other wise lacked any flavor to it. The rice was bland as well and it was crunchy like it had been sitting all day. The size of the meal was sufficient with adding the rice and beans with it. I might try them again and choose another meal option to see how that goes.

Price was kind of high for the meal. We spent $ 27 for two adults and two kids.
Atmosphere was fresh and clean, but employees weren’t that excited to serve.
Décor was nice.

Amazing food and great customer service. Try the sweet pork quesadilla it’s my favorite. The food is healthier than other Mexican fast food and still tastes better. Even my 12 yo son likes eating here.
The next time you’re in the mood for Mexican food you have to come here!

Went here for the first time tonight. I was expecting more Taco Bell level so I was pleasantly surprised by the quality for the price. I feel like it’s a bit better than Chipotle, even though I didn’t like the tortilla they used for the enchilada. The menu has calorie counts, but they’re wild ranges (seriously, one dish ranged from 600‑1300, and there wasn’t enough info to really determine which combinations would bring it to those extremes). Tonight I got a single enchilada with sweet pork and original red sauce (choices for sauces included mild, sweet/​spicy, and original) and refried beans, as well as a small order of chips with queso. The drive through orders are served in metal tins. The chips with queso were in two separate containers, one for the queso and the other for the chips; by the time I got home, these were still warm. However, the rice, beans and enchilada were cool and totally cold on the edges. I live about 5 minutes from this place so, really??? In any case, it was all pretty tasty. There were enough beans, rice, lettuce, pico and red sauce in the enchilada container to dip the chips in and the queso was really, really good.

Pulled into the drive through at 7:01. I was told they were closed due to a Christmas party. However all the lights were on customers are inside and their open sign was flashing right by the drive thru. Maybe they should have turned our lights off and turned off their open sign. Very disappointed in the way that they decided to deal with this. Huge chance I will never go back!

I really enjoy their fresh food. Salad greens are dark and leafy, not ice berg. Fresh meat and tortillas right off the grill.
They’re a little overpriced and a little stingy with the guacamole. Service can be hit or miss.
But overall I can’t get a Mexican salad like their’s anywhere else.

It actually pains me to give them 2 stars. I actually like there food. So lets get that out of the way first. So if we say the food is a 5 star (I know a lot of people would say its not, but to me its between 4 – 5 stars) I will explain why they are only getting 2 from me.
1 star is being removed because almost 50% of the time I have gone there has been something wrong with my order. Usually its a small something, but regardless how small to have a mistake that often is not acceptable.
1 star is being removed for the price. Overall it is too expensive for what you get.
1 star is being removed because they continue to change there hours without updating their website. Twice now (first was 10:30 — 10:00 pm closing, now they told me they close at 9:00pm) I have gone and been told they were closed even though there website still said they were open.
For those reasons they will get 2 stars from me. Luckily they might be able to earn me back as a customer, but its going to take some work. I almost took away 1 more star becuase i have given feedback on their survey multiple times and never got response about the mistaken orders.

I used to eat at my local Costa Vidas in Idaho weekly if not more while in grad school so am sooooo stoked Vancouver got one. I love the veg burrito and salad and my husband frequently gets the steak burrito and chicken nachos. The cilantro lime vinaigrette and mango salsa are excellent additions too. Our first time here they nailed it so we will definitely be heading back.

Don’t waste your money!
Went through their drive thru today. Ordered a chicken quesadilla with refried beans and rice with a side of sour cream and guacamole. Total was $ 10.28!
Quesadilla was not that big but there was a generous amount of chicken. Sides of sour cream and guacamole were tiny and for the price I would have expected some chips in the bag, or at least a fork and some napkins, but alas, no.
The beans were terrible… runny and not a good flavor. Rice was ok but nothing to write home about.
Overpriced and underwhelmed.

I’m really debating to give 2 or 3 stars. I’ve been here 3x now and some common issues are still a problem.
First time I came here with my husband. We both felt the food was pretty good. I had chicken nachos he had a beef burrito. The problem, my husband got food poisoning! We both had cereal that day, so we know for sure he got it from here. The place was too busy, staff seemed overly stressed out, and the wait time was 25 minutes!
I have been back twice and gotten the salad with chicken. Tastes great, but wait time in the drive-​thru was 20 minutes the first time I went through the drive-​thru, and the second time there were only 3 of us in line and it took 20 minutes again. These issues should be getting better since their opening date, if not, I’ll go back to Baja Fresh.

This place is okay, but as a southern California native, I would definitely say there is room for improvement in the Mexican food category.
I ordered a single chicken enchilada with red sauce, rice, and refried beans. The enchilada was surprising delicious. The chicken was nice and chunky, while I’m used to having the chicken shredded, the flavors were still great. BUT as you can see in my picture, the «beans» were as smooth as they looked. Not a single whole bean was in the soupy, baby food-​like substance. It slipped right through my fork and I had to mix with my rice to eat.
Now, I don’t blame anyone up here for never having Mexican rice, but if you’re going to open up a Mexican restaurant, I would have expected you to go and find some. This rice tasted like something out of a Zatarain’s box. The flavors were definitely more New Orleans, and not Mexican. Which did taste a little odd with the blender beans.
Three stars for the enchiladas. The beans and rice get none.

Excellent food, much better than Chipotle and way better than Baha Fresh. Love the fresh tortilla machine and they bake your burrito so it’s nice and hot (Chipotle is cold and never warm). I had the chicken burrito and was excellent.
Kids meal is perfect size and more than enough for your average kid. So glad these guys are here. Will come back. Plenty of room to sit and have a meal. Enjoy the wide open doors. An outdoor patio would be nice.

I lived in Utah and ate at Costa Vida all the time. Decent food when you are in a hurry. Since moving to Portland I’ve had much better quasi and real Mexican food… go to a food truck and pay 80% less than here.
That’s not the reason for the bad review though. The bad review is because I specifically asked for a sweet pork burrito, black and pinto beans, NO rice.
I got: rice, black and pinto beans and that’s it. It’s awesome when you get back to the office and realize they screwed up your very simple order. Lol
Not going back. Rather support local authentic places that aren’t from Utah.

This is a mix of Baja Fresh, Chipotle and Queso — and very good.
We stopped here for a quick bite before a movie — and it was a good decision. You pick your entrée’ — salad, nachos, enchiladas, burrito or tacos, then customize as you move along the line.
The options are plentiful — including a couple beef choices, a couple chicken choices and several pork options. Lots of fresh veg, three bean choices and a few rice decisions to make.
The servers were super friendly and enthusiastic — helping with the process. They start your entrée’ with rice, beans and protein of your choice — send it through the oven then add the veg.
The dining room is bright and airy with colorful seating.
I think this is very new. There were A LOT of staff so service was super fast and efficient. Not sure it will always be that way.
The food was very good, fresh and exciting flavors. Price was reasonable — fair for the quality of food.
Check it out, worth a shot. I’ll go back.

Good addition to Mill Plain.
This place was busy for 12 on a weekday but it was pretty quick and yummy.
I got the daily (Wednesday) special, chicken enchiladas. They were great. I ate them all. They grill their tortillas versus steam them which were good. Large portions too.
Its similar to Chiplote where you order what you want then add whatever you want on it. Since I got the chicken enchiladas, I added hot sauce and a little bit of cheese to the inside before they melted more cheese on top and put them through the oven.
You normally get rice and beans as sides but I asked if I could rice and a little salad and they were more than accommodating. I appreciate that and there was no extra charge which was also appreciated. I had the enchiladas with the green chile sauce and it was sweet and very flavorful.
I also like that the especial came with a drink and at their fountain drink station, they had the XXX Vitamin water, MY FAV!
Scott (must have been the GM, and I think that was his name) came by our table and gave us silverware and napkins and asked us how we were doing. For this type of place, there is no waiter/​waitress service. Its all self serve so that was nice. He also asked how everything was when we finished. This being a brand new restaurant, if he can keep up this kind of service, this place won’t do too bad.
* Only thing I wish was the location, mill plain is nice but nice and busy! It would have been a better location had it been more near 192^nd or 164^th.