MamaJuana Cafe in Waterbury is an absolute gem! From the moment we walked in, the atmosphere felt…read morewarm, lively, and inviting. It is the kind of place where you can settle in, enjoy a delicious meal, listen to great music, and truly have a memorable night out. The background music made the experience even better, with Chayanne's "Bailando Bachata," Romeo Santos, Nicky Jam, and other amazing Latin artists creating the perfect upbeat, feel-good vibe. The service was exceptional from start to finish. Our waitress, Angie, was wonderful--friendly, professional, and incredibly attentive. She made sure we had everything we needed and checked in throughout the meal without ever making us feel rushed. The entire staff was welcoming and attentive, which made the experience feel even more special. We began with the Empanadas de Queso, and they were easily a perfect 10! They were fried to a beautiful golden crisp without being overcooked, with a light, flaky exterior and a warm, perfectly blended cheese filling. The cheese was savory, creamy, and melted perfectly with every bite. The sauce served on the side was the extra touch that took them to another level--so flavorful and delicious that it left us wishing there was more. This appetizer is an absolute must-order. The Yuca Bites were another highlight. They were crispy on the outside while remaining soft, warm, and tender inside. The seasoning was just right--flavorful without overpowering the natural, comforting taste of the yuca. Every bite had a satisfying crunch followed by a smooth, buttery texture, making them incredibly easy to keep reaching for. They were simple, well prepared, and full of delicious flavor. The Rice and Green Pigeon Peas was also very good. It was not the traditional Puerto Rican-style rice and peas, but it had its own delicious flavor and character. The rice was fluffy, nicely seasoned, and complemented by the hearty, earthy taste of the green pigeon peas. It was a satisfying side that paired beautifully with the rest of the meal. The Salmon Fettuccini was outstanding. The salmon was cooked perfectly--tender, moist, and flaky, never dry or overdone. It blended beautifully with the fettuccini and flavorful sauce, creating a comforting dish with a wonderful balance of creamy pasta, savory seasoning, and fresh salmon. The flavors came together so well that every forkful was just as enjoyable as the first. For dessert, we had the Tres Leches and Bread Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream. The portions were on the smaller side, but they were still absolutely delicious and the perfect sweet ending to the meal. The Tres Leches was moist, soft, and wonderfully rich, with that classic sweet, milky flavor that melts in your mouth. The Bread Pudding was warm, comforting, and full of sweet, spiced flavor, while the scoop of vanilla ice cream added a smooth, creamy contrast as it slowly melted over the top. Both desserts were satisfying and definitely worth ordering. Overall, MamaJuana Cafe delivered an amazing dining experience. The food was delicious, the service was impeccable, and the music and atmosphere made the night feel fun and memorable. Angie and the staff made us feel genuinely welcomed and well cared for. We are already planning our return and cannot wait to go back on a night when the DJ is there for an even more energetic and festive experience. If you are looking for flavorful food, attentive service, great Latin music, and a welcoming atmosphere in Waterbury, MamaJuana Cafe is a place you absolutely need to experience!

I've been here three times and keep forgetting to leave a review but here it is!…read more I can't break it down by dish since I've been here a few times and have tried a few things from their menu but highly recommend you visit. Location is great, lots of parking and it feels safe. Inside the restaurant there is a lot of space and the way it's set up makes it feel very open. They always play Spanish music which is one of the reasons I love coming here. Make me feel like I'm on vacation LOL! As a girl there's a lot of cute places to take pictures. This spot is cute to come with your girlfriends. The birthday song the play is so fun and really gets everyone excited. The service is a bit inconsistent- there have been times I've gone and they're not really too friendly or personable and then there are times that they're very friendly. I went yesterday and our waiter was William and he was so fun, he was dancing while taking our order :) I love love their food. It's always an explosion of flavor. This time when I went it stood out to me more, I had just had dinner at Don Coqui in Edgewater the night before and WOW!! If you ever thought about Don Coqui please save yourself the drive, money and stress cuz Mamajuana is where it's at!!! Their food is 100x better than Don Coqui. Their drinks are always on point and service is generally fast. Highly recommend this place. Great for birthdays or just any occasion. You'll surely have a great time! I dare you to not dance in your seat while you eat LOL ***PS- they do not share this info when walking in BUT they will charge a fee for using credit card. I think it's bs and their only downfall. I'd understand it if they were a small little restaurant cuz those merchant fees suck but they're a pretty big location so they should be able to handle those and I don't think it's ethical that they do not disclose this info anywhere. So BEWARE. I believe it's like a $5 difference from paying cash.

THIS IS MY 2ND FAV PLACE TO BE WHEN IT COMES TO EATERIES !! The food is out of this world delicious…read more The service is ideal and the ambiance is magical! I love plant life and Spanish foods , this place is perfect A+

Food was ok.. had fish tacos and The Plate Lickin Rice .. I…read moreExpected more based on reviews. Ambience and drinks (habenerno margaritas) were good .. What was bothersome was , when I asked for a side of salsa for the rice ,I was brought a small amount salsa and charged $1.50 for it . Not life changing charge but On a 90$ tab, that just landed as ridiculous. When a manager asked how everything was, I shared my thoughts on changing for a tiny amount of salsa on a tab of almost $100 and she was defensive about the charge .. why ask then?? not really customer service I care to revisit

This little place is somewhat of a "drive-by". My husband has been here many years ago, and we…read morewere in the area, so stopped in for lunch. WOW.. what it may lack in ambience, it makes up for in food presentation, taste, smells. I ordered a carnitas burrito. It was fresh, flavorsome, and fantastic portion. Best mexican/latin food statewide. It gets an "A" for Authenticity.

I give up on yelpers in this part of the state...no way this place is 4 stars. NOT even close…read more This place is a one man show the host, chef I would say cleaner but this place is anything but clean. I'm surprised the state has visited them. No staff so tables remain dirty. We were the only people in the restaurant. Now to the food....The which was ok not bad but not four stars at best two stars It's edible. Yelp should remove the four star reviews as they are extremely misleading.

Sebastian was amazing, attentive and kind. The food was amazing, and the service was great. Thank…read moreyou for always being kind and having amazing food! Sebastian told me about the drink special for the night and I tried it. Not only was it delicious but it was an imersive experience that was so fun and amazing. It came out in a closed box, when he opened it, it smelled fruity and floral. I got to take it out of the box myself. It was a cool experience and I enjoyed the drink so much I ordered two. Come and see Sebastian for a great experience!

OK. so this pains me to say but they changed everything and not for the better…read more so we love this place. Come here for birthdays, fun dinners, and anytime we want Mexican. walked in today for Father's Day and completely new menu. Seems like they are trying to go upscale and my best wishes for them just not feeling the vibe myself. The chips and salsa, which are always amazing is now replaced with a circle tortilla which looks fancy, but tastes rather bland. We ordered chips with queso just because we love their chips so much. Food was much smaller selection and was still pretty good definitely cut back on portions, which is fine. New drink menu is much smaller missing lots of the frozen drinks so I wish them all the luck just doesn't feel like this is a good old fun Mexican restaurant looks like they're trying to be something they're not

I will give them a zero stars for service if I could, but unfortunately I have to rate them 1…read morestar... we are regular customers who usually do take outs for lunch once in a while, I have noticed that my husband had been getting charged about $26 for a large meal with two meat choices but I never think anything about it until today that I went with him to pick something out for lunch, well the youngest lady gave us a good service when ordering the food, so we ask her for a large order with two choices of meat but we asked her to put the beans that came with our large order in a separate container as I don't like mine mixed with the rice so when we were ready to pay the amount of the order was $26.74 ?? I asked the older lady in the cashier why she was charging us extra when a large order with choice of rice, beans, salad and two meats was $18.72 + tax, so she gave me actitud right away and said that the extra charge was for the beans??? She was charging us more than $5 for beans???? So I explained that we didn't ordered an extra side of beans, that i just asked to put the beans that came with my order separately, so she started scalding the other young lady for giving us too "much" and grab the small beans container and went and dumped back in the big tray of food just leaving the very bottom, almost emptied the container and thrown it back to the bag of food saying there it's!! I look at her and I ask if she was joking??? It blew my mind what she just did... that was such an insult! To my surprise she said she wasn't joking and that's all we were getting with the order!! I took the almost empty container of beans and give back to her and I told her to keep it but I was very upset that she was so mean about a side of beans... well she never apologized, neither she changed her actitud she just proceeded to ring me out, to which my order now was only $18.72 + Tax = $20.10 then she make herself busy at the phone and didn't even look back when giving out my receipt... so awful, awful service... if you're Spanish then you know that beans & rice are NEVER an issue, if anything you have to tell them to put a little less, but in this place they have been charging us extra for beans that are part of a Large order, so be careful when ordering from this place. Food is decent, nothing out of the extraordinary but it's ok so I give them 3 stars.

Who puts peas in yellow rice? Food isn't the best, more so the rice. Service is good. Decent…read moreambiance, probably won't return but appreciate being served.

We stumbled upon this wonderful Dominican restaurant while we were in downtown Waterbury about a…read moreweek ago, and we're so glad we did! On our first visit last week, we tried the grilled chicken mofongo and baked chicken--both were absolutely delicious. We enjoyed it so much that we brought our family back today to try the steak, salmon, and shrimp mofongo. Everyone loved their meals and wasn't disappointed. The food was flavorful, fresh, and generously portioned. The waitress was friendly and attentive, and the atmosphere was warm and inviting. We will definitely be back to try more dishes from the menu. If you're looking for authentic Dominican food in Waterbury, this restaurant is well worth a visit!

I got chicken soup and it was with crazy amount of vermicelli and the taste was so so…read more We got buffalo chicken wings and we manage to eat one, the taste was soo bad. It had flavor of old bread crumbs. Sorry but I don't recommend

This is not a Mexican chain restaurant, this has to be an authentic restaurant. Hopefully family…read moreowned. Welcoming, casual atmosphere, great food, and service. Try it!! I loved the chips served with three different salsa/dipping options. One is hot! I won't tell you which one, why ruin the fun? I ordered the shrimp and mushroom quesadilla in corn tortillas. My husband had a pork burrito. I skipped the refried beans only because I didn't know if they were vegetarian safe. The margaritas were refreshing and had more of a natural orange flavor rather than that heavy, syrupy fake-lime taste--which I really appreciated! It's a little bit of a drive for us to get there, but the food was delicious enough that we'll definitely be back. The bathroom was also clean, which is always a plus! I love the Mexican music that was playing in the background too.

Fantástico servicios Cómidas splendor…read more Muy limpios baños Refrescos frescas Easy parking

Off the charts. The specials. The homecooked food. The only way I want to dine - hit this every…read moretime I visit Torrington. It's the best! I like that they make helpful suggestions and tell you about what they do best. I like everything here.

Always great food and friendly service - tremendous value too. Had the roast pork with beans and…read morerice - fantastic.

I've been by this place thousands of times in the 17 years I have lived in Waterbury, but not once…read morehave I ever walked in here. Until today that is. You can certainly see they serve a lot of food, and you can see the combo deals from the outside looking in as well. That being said, anyone who's never been in here before might get a little confused on what to order, and I still had some confusion on how to order food even after I had made a decision. Also, being that it is on the corner that separates West Main from Willow, trying to get any kind of parking spot poses an inherent risk. Therefore, the only people I would really recommend try to come here would be people who either already live in Waterbury or are used to inner-city environments from similar cities. They do have another location on East Main if you are uncomfortable coming to this location, but at least here you can't really miss it. What I will say in this restaurant's favor is that the portions sizes are huge, the food comes out hot, and the combo deals comes with a 2-liter bottle of soda. Example of this includes what I got today, which was their BBQ rib Combo, where I did white rice and chose the Fanta Orange for my soda. My combo comes with a container of baked beans, the aforementioned rice and soda, and also a salad that comes with a dressing. So for my thoughts, let's start with the positive: the rice. Rice was cooked to a good temperature. Wasn't crunchy or mushy. The container was also enough that I will have enough for at least a few days. Maybe even the better part of the next week. The ribs were alright. They weren't outstanding ribs, but they'll get the job done if you need some cheaper, smaller ribs. You can definitely get better ribs if you go to an authentic BBQ spot, and I would still eat Hindsight's ribs, or maybe even the ones from Texas Roadhouse, over this any day of the week, but in a pinch I could eat these ribs again. I was not a fan of the beans. Now, I never was big into eating baked beans to begin with, so I know I am not the most qualified to talk about this. That being said, my time in Yelp has introduced me to new dishes I otherwise would never choose, and there have been other restaurants who have introduced me to a new dish and have won me over to that dish. In the 2020's alone, I have taken likings to Crab Rangoons, Lomo Saltados, dim sum, and even bubble teas. Unfortunately for this location, the beans tasted like they were even more heavily processed than Bush's baked beans. If I were trying find good baked beans, then I would need to keep looking. I do like the convenience of this place and the portion sizes. That said, if I do order from here again, I would need to change how I place my orders a slight bit to see what else I can try.

Cazuela is hands down one of the best Hispanic restaurants in Waterbury. No matter what you order…read more-- chicken, pernil, fish, or even a big picadera platter -- everything is seasoned perfectly and cooked with authentic, homemade flavor. Their pernil is juicy and tender, the chicken is always well-seasoned, the fish is fresh and perfectly fried, and the picadera is the ultimate crowd-pleaser for any get-together. Whether you're stopping by for lunch or hosting a party for family and friends, Cazuela truly delivers. And the best part? They're just as reliable through Uber Eats as they are in person. The food always arrives hot, fresh, and packed with flavor. Cazuela always has your back delicious food, generous portions, and service you can count on. A must-try for anyone who loves real Hispanic cuisine!

Just stopped there got dinner . I had the garlic pulpo , plantains and a ham and cheese empanada…read moreand companion had pernil and rice with plantains and a chicken empanada. Everything was excellent . Staff was friendly and was always there to see if we needed anything. We will definitely go back .

MUST TRY the pernil sandwich. You will not want to try anything else on the menu, absolutely…read moredelicious sandwich. Very friendly service, they remembered my husband when he returned for another sandwich a week after. He was warned he would be back for more!