Oh man! This place is good.
Came here last night with a group of friends. I had been here before, about 4 years ago, when I was a much less avid yelper, and all I remember from that experience was that I liked it. So I came in last night with fresh eyes, as if I had never been before, and again I was impressed.
We started with drinks and some chips/guacamole at the bar. It was happy hour and Dos XX was on sale for $3 a glass. Im not a beer drinker so I passed. But guacamole was $6 so we got that. Holy cow there was a ton of guac! We almost had a hard time finishing it-almost. haha. The chips were great, loaded with salt and they had the perfect amount of crunch.
We were brought back to our table once half of the party arrived. Our servers were quick to get our drink and app order. We were the only ones back there at the time so we all chatted and had a good time. Our food came out and we were ready to roll!
The tamales, which I think Luna Maya is known for? Were wonderful! We got the meat one. Wow. Now, I'm no tamale connoisseur but I do know that I'm usually not a fan of them, but hey, Ill try anything twice, and these changed my mind! The corn base was slightly sweet and paired with that saltiness of the shredded beef= perfection. The Taquitoes were ok. Nothing that really hit home for me. I would definitely skip over these. But the Mushroom Poblano quesadilla! WOW! That was great! It was so fat, filled to the brim with mushrooms and cheese. I could have ordered two! I had a feeling their quesadillas would be great ;)
I'm honestly going to get right into the main course because this is what I was most excited about. So, I was under the impression that Luna Maya was a Mexican restaurant, but from hearing the bartender talk its actually Bolivian? So as Im reading the menu I see the PIQUE A LO MACHO (yes caps because you need to pay attention) and it states that it is a Bolivian specialty. So I knew that this was calling my name. I can get quesadillas and tacos anywhere, but THIS was something different. A few other people know that I like to try the most unique thing on the menu, so they followed me and ordered the same thing.
I must start a new paragraph because me explaining how delicious this dish was must be standing alone. It. Was. AMAZING!! I honestly wanted to whole place to be quiet so I could sit and close my eyes and just enjoy the amount of flavors hitting me all at once. Each item on my plate had a different flavor profile too. From the cabbage slaw, to the steak, to the habanero onions. Even writing this at 4 in the morning, remembering its taste, is causing my mouth to water again. I was surprised to taste that the steak had a lot of its own seasonings on it. It was actually good enough to sit by itself. Cooked perfectly, seasoned perfectly, the "sides" were a plus and not something that was needed. You know when you go to some places and you need the sides to give life to the steak? Yeah, this was NOT that time.
The dish itself was a little spicy. This is coming from someone who loves spicy food. And it clearly states on the menu that there is a mild version available. So, I ordered it as is. I mean, how can you look at HABANERO onions and not know this dish is going to carry some kick? Anyway, the people who followed in my footsteps and ordered the same thing as me were thrown off, and slightly disappointed in how spicy it was. But, you can't help people that don't read the menu! Sorry.
This place was great! I was over the moon happy with my food and the service was great too. Fun atmosphere! I can't wait to come back here! read more