I got the arepas. It was fine but tasted like something I could have gotten from the frozen section of Walmart. Arepas are definitely not fresh. There's so many good Mexican/latin restaurants in Charlottesville, and this is towards the bottom for me. The staff was super nice though. Best staff experience I've had at the dairy market read more

The food tastes decent and DoorDash offered a good deal (BOGO burritos) so there's definitely some silver linings but overall I felt like Maizal is a sort of overpriced Tex Mex ripoff. Although the food actually tasted good the proportions are so atrocious I am giving them 2 stars bc this is just ridiculous. Their burritos are MASSIVE (think old school chipotle) and the sauce on it tastes great. Here are the problems: the amount of rice is criminal. Literally 3/4 of the burrito is JUST rice. Genuinely the food tastes good so they could really scale back a lot on the size and just do a smaller burrito for the same price and just make the proportions make no sense. I don't want to bite into straight rice in a tortilla. The "street corn" was plain corn kernels and the "fajita veggies" were just uncooked bell pepper strips. Not my fav. The platanos black beans rice and chicken all taste good. Another issue is they charge about $4 EXTRA dollars in the burrito for protein. Why not just make the base price inclusive of the meat? Also if I'm paying an extra $4 for meat i expect a decent portion of it since I'm paying for it separately. Again - 3/4 of the burrito was rice and the meat was nowhere to be found. Both burritos had this issue so it was not a one off issue, this is how they're making them. The arepa balls we ordered came with 3. Another ripoff. Food tastes fine but for what you pay for you get 3 billion pounds of rice stuffed into a tortilla with 2 pieces of chicken. The food tastes good but I'm sorry the rice issue is excessive. Would not order from here unless this gets fixed. read more

Maizal - Excessive amounts of rice in the burrito - Latin American Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

I have no pictures because my family devoured all of the food! This place was so good, I cannot wait to try more items in the menu. We came after the Dairy Market egg hunt for some snacks We ordered the yucca fries which were so delicious my 2yr old screamed for his own order after he was only left one. They come with a slightly spicy jalapeño lime dip but do not be shy to ask for their habanero dip for extra spice or the garlic aioli if you prefer no spice. We also ordered the Cheese Arepa Balls- hot, gooey and delicious. Again, do not be shy about the dips- I loved the habanero dip to cut through deep fried cheesy goodness. Protip- after ordering here use your leftover Jalapeño dipping sauce for the Momo's at Currylicious. *They provide a traditional but basic tomato dipping sauce read more

Had the chips, queso and guacamole from here and it was all delicious! The guacamole was fresh and loved that it had I believe a little taste of tomatillos to it. Queso was also great and chips were fresh as well. read more

Maizal - chips & queso and guacamole! All yummy! - Latin American Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

I had a burrito bowl, and it was ample and delicious. Loved the corn salsa or creamed corn or whatever it was it was delish. My eyes were bigger than my stomach and I had the guy pile on extra stuff. By the end of the night I ate very bite and was very very happy. read more

Newest Dairy Market spot finally opened! I've been very excited for Maizal and it was so tasty. It's not your typical assembly line style restaurant. Everything was so fresh and some of the most unique, amazing flavors. I went on their grand opening and looking forward to seeing their full menu unveiled read more

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Stopped in to the Dairy Market and found that this gem had opened! Maizal is currently in a soft opening with its grand opening on next week on May 26. Even in the soft opening, I was blown away. I ordered a custom bowl. It is set up similar to a chipotle, cava, etc. where you indicate what you want in the bowl or burrito. Their selection is unique. I ordered the bowl with chaufa rice, black beans, quinoa bites, grilled chicken, quinoa salad, cheese, plantains, pickled onions, radish and topped with chipotle and habanero sauce. I include the order to detail how wide a variety their menu is. This is even in the soft opening! If you check out their website, they have more options that will be featured once the grand opening takes place. Maizal is now easily my favorite chipotle type restaurant. I look forward to coming back when their whole menu is available! read more

This is my go-to place to eat when we visit the Dairy Market or order take out. Everything I have ordered has been absolutely delicious, whether the order is to go or for dine inI usually get the potato and cheese durados; they are so, so good. The cheese arepa balls are also delicious, as are the yucca fries. Most recently, my son got churros for dessert and they were delightful! I truly cannot fathom the bad reviews--every single experience I have ever had with Maizal has been both pleasant and delicious! read more

The food was absolutely incredible, I shed several tears after eating I was so happy. I will marry whoever made my chefs burrito, that first bite slaps harder then will smith. The burrito was massive at least 3x the size then a normal chipotle burrito but looked so much nicer. Overall a life altering experience can't wait to eat everything else on the menu. read more

Outstanding street tacos. The best I've had in C'ville (displaced Torchy's). We had tacos and the Chef's burrito. Really good flavor read more

Maizal - Carne Asada taco, Crispy Pollo taco, tempura fish taco - Latin American Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

DO NOT EAT HERE!! We were served raw chicken!! Extremely disappointed since people seem to like this place. Do not go here. they clearly do not know how to cook their food. read more

Maizal - Latin American Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

Yes, I looked at the reviews before I ordered from Maizal. I walked into the situation with my eyes wide open. Beautiful evening, enjoying a beer outside. I didn't want to lose our seat so I ordered online. My wife and I ordered online just after 6pm. It gave us a pickup time of 6:30. I went in around 6:25 to check and I didn't see it there. No worries. I stood by the register to let them know I was there in case they were holding it in the back, I hadn't been here before. I was told they were working on it. 6:45 comes and I still have nothing, so I wait in line again to ask about it. This time I gave my name to make sure they knew what name to look under. I've seen many people place their order and receive their food before the second time I spoke. Finally, 7:00 and I ask again. They confirmed my name and then proceeded to print the ticket to be filled. They work for a bit and around 7:10 as they are working on them, I find out their are out of the protein my wife wanted (grilled chicken). I made a change and I had the food by 7:15. It was frustrating that the whole experience took over an hour before I even ate. I felt like they had me over a barrel because I already paid. Note to self, don't order on the web for Maizal, unless you have PLENTY of time. Side note: The food was actually pretty good, hence the 3 starts. My 2.5 would round up here. Good food, bad service. read more

Ordered the steak quesadilla with sides of guacamole and sweet potato fries. It was the worst quesadilla I've ever had. Cold on the inside, stale tortilla, painfully salty steak, and way too much onion. The sweet potato fries? 2.50 for 5 soggy flavorless pieces. The guacamole was m'eh, also too salty and too much onion. To make it even worse, it took 20 minutes on a pretty quiet night. Avoid this place! Edit: after eating here I woke up in the middle of the night with severe stomach cramps and diarrhea. I should have known something was seriously wrong when the food was so bad I felt compelled to write a review. I wish I could give this negative stars. read more

I felt like this was just the place the Dairy Market needed to give more variety and Latin kick to the food options already available. I have eaten here a good handful of times and have yet to be disappointed. I've tried various empanadas, arepas, and nachos, but my favorite is the chef's bowl. The portions are always huge and filled with so many delicious toppings. I feel like everything is always made very fresh, so the wait time can sometimes be a little longer, especially if they are busy. I like that you can either order via the computer screen or order with a server, similar to chipotle. read more

Been meaning to check out this place for awhile and finally stopped by on a weekend afternoon. I had ordered some of their tacos (pollo loco, tempura fish, and carne asada) which were okay (favorite was probably the carne asada) and the chefs bowl which was great (it was an explosion of different flavors in your mouth. The best part for me though was the fresh warm chips with street corn which really hit the spot! Would definitely be coming back here! read more

Second time delivery was wrong. From there it got worse. Chips, plantains, and yucca were fried in dirty, burnt oil. They left an entire burrito out, and then didn't answer the phone when we called to get it rectified. Queso was horrendously bland. I asked for a full refund from Uber Eats and I have never done that before because I've never had a delivery quite this bad. It is abundantly clear they either have incompetent, lazy, or downright stupid people working for them from my experience - and the other reviews. God only knows what else they don't pay attention to, like food safety. read more

Food is okay. Spicy chicken quesadilla wasn't particularly spicy and lacked any cheese to bind it together, so it was soggy and loose. Beware of the queso. I was charged almost $5 for a massive bag of chips and only a half-filled tiny sauce cup. Ridiculously overpriced for the quantity of queso. read more

Food was so bland. "Street corn" was more cheese than corn. Ordered and was charged for 2 Mexican cokes and got cans instead. Small slice of avocado was so brown it wasn't edible. read more

I wanted give this restaurant a chance & was severely disappointed. I ordered the buenos aires arepa, plantains and horchata and the horchata was the best tasting thing I received. The arepa lacked flavor and the plantains were just okay, definitely wont be eating here again read more

I was excited to try this place but my husband and I were both disappointed. We split some nachos and empanadas. The empanadas were desperately in need of some salt. The nachos had barely any queso on them. When we asked for more they wanted to charge us an additional $2.50. My husband has been in the restaurant business for a long time, so he understands that food cost definitely should be considered, but happy customers are very important too. The business wouldn't have lost that much money to give us some extra queso, which really should have been on the "nachos" anyway. I really wanted to like this place because I love Latin food but we probably won't be back. read more

Even though there were only three customers, one being my friend, it took about 20 minutes to get our food. We ate at the Market, and I started eating immediately. First bite - yuck it was luke warm, just short of room temp. Went back to see if they could microwave, nope. Could I just get a refund? - nope. We sort of had a staring contest when they did offer to make me new ones, concerned about another 20 minute wait, they said it would only take five minutes, was more like 10. Will try a different restaurant next visit. I'm pretty understanding because of current hiring and staffing issues, but it was empty and about 1:30 pm. read more

I wanted to like it but it was bland. It also didn't help that I had to wait a bit longer than the rest of my family for my order.

The food is truly so delicious (think: Chipotle but authentic and with 50x more flavor), but they desperately need to work on their service. Two times I have been here where people are waiting up to 45 minutes for their food, and nothing is consistent (the first time we came ordering at the counter was ~10 minutes faster than ordering on the touch screens, then the second time we were told that the touch screens were best to order on but later were told they were broken). If you can wait through the chaos you get a great result but I hope the service will improve as they work out the kinks-although unfortunately I think I won't be coming back due to the service. read more

I wanted to give major props to this restaurant as the arepas I've had there have been amazing. Chips and street corn were perfect. The empanadas were fresh. Everything I ordered was on point. Thanks for the great service! read more

The food is pretty solid but the employees don't seem to understand priority management. Anything you don't get on the front line takes 20-30 minutes per order because they prioritize online orders. Came on a Thursday afternoon, not busy at all, and my sisters nacho order took 30 minutes. My food was cold by the time they got theirs. She found a chicken bone in the nachos as well. Could be a really great place if management steps in. read more

Ordered the supremes nachos today 2-8-2023. What a disappointment and expensive. Just didn't taste that good. The meat was cold cheese was meh. Yuck! I haven't been eating out so this took me back to eat at home. read more

The service at this restaurant is TERRIBLE. None of the employees actually want to serve anything on the menu - for example, empanadas or arepas. And, their attitudes are outrageously bad - eye-rolling and just plain ignoring us is what we got plenty of today. It was so unpleasant that we didn't even get to order - not that they had what we wanted to order on he menu anyway, which was arepas. Isn't that supposed to be one of their specialties? read more

When they first opened I ordered nachos and was not impressed. It's been a few months and they have upped their game. The nachos are now loaded and amazing! I been hooked on this place since. read more

My husband got the El Sabroso Burrito and I ordered the El Sabroso Bowl. Fresh and delicious, with a good combination of flavors. Especially liked the sweetness of the pineapple and plantain with the pork. Dressing was creamy and spicy, but not overly hot. Plenty of vegetables (carrot & cauliflower salad, pico de gallo, corn salad, romaine) to lighten density of rice, beans and pork. I will say that the pork was about 1/4 fat, but there was so much meat in the dish, I can't really complain. We were there at 3:30pm and were the first of two in line, so got served quickly. Can't say what service would be like at noontime. We'll definitely be back. read more

Food was lackluster and nothing one couldn't make at home. The enchiladas lacked any flavor. Also purchased chips and queso. Was given a HUGE bag of chips and the smallest container of queso. read more