Maria's Mexican Bistro Inc

05/20/08

Quite decent, don't believe the bad reviews

by zaranoff at Citysearch

I've eaten there several times over the past several years and my overall experience has been good to very good, depending on which dishes I had (and the company I've been with..). The service has always been decent/good (although many reviewers will disagree with me..), the food tasty and reasonably priced, portions are generous, and the atmosphere casual and down to earth (one might call it "homey"). Their "El Molcajete Norte?o" (a steak & shrimp dish served on hot lava rock) is one of their signature dishes and is actually (very) good. I remember their Chiles Poblanos dish being very good too. The Tortilla soup is pretty spicy and good, although it has too much tortilla for my taste (they should cut it to smaller strips). As others have written, the guacamole is prepared fresh, in front of your eyes (but I haven't tried it so I can't vouch for it).

Is this the best Mexican place in the city? I'm not sure there IS one, but this is a really decent choice, especially in the "very reasonable" price category, and certainly one of the best in Park Slope and probably in Brooklyn in general.

• Pros: Tasty (esp the steak and seafood dishes), generous, good ambience
• Cons: Tardy service

04/19/08

worst service ever

by xena59 at Citysearch

this was probably the worst service i have ever had. i work in a restaurant and i couldnt even tolerate the blatant rudeness and ignoring of our party. we waited 45 minutes after ordering guacamole to be told that they just ran out. they filled us up with chips and delivered our food 1.5 hrs after we ordered it. we werent even hungry anymore. dont waste your time on a saturday.

04/12/08

Horrible Service, Unethical Practices

by soupround at Citysearch

This place has good food and really good guacamole. But the buck stops there. Service was super slow. We were in the restaurant for approx. 45 minutes more than necessary waiting for the waiter to take our orders and bring us the check. In case you think you may have better luck with another waiter, you won't! There's only 1 waiter on a Friday night. First they charged us more for more drinks than we actually had. Then we had to wait even longer to get the amended bill. Our tip reflected the poor service, but it didn't matter to the restaurant. They decided to change our tip amount from 15% to 20% on their own on our credit card. I'll bet they get away with this all the time since most people don't double-check their credit card bills.

• Pros: food
• Cons: unethical billing, service