Mike’s Portion
By: Mike DeWitt
With the Metro Cruise filling 28th Street this weekend, we figured it would only be right to pick a restaurant right in the heart of Roger’s Plaza. One restaurant, Maya, jumped out to both Joanne and I as neither of us had been and we were both craving Mexican.
Maya is an authentic Mexican restaurant located in Roger’s Plaza where the old Big Boy used to be, but you wouldn’t know it upon entering. When you walk through the restaurant doors you are transported to another world outside of Roger’s Plaza, the City of Wyoming, and the United States. The restaurant is decorated to feel like Playa del Carmen with authentic chairs and themed paintings filling the walls.
Talk about setting the mood.
Once seated, we were greeted by our wonderful waiter named Reuben and given a basket full of chips and salsa. Reuben was fluent in spanish and quizzed Joanne and I on our own ability to speak to the language… my Spanish teachers from Michigan would’ve been very disappointed in what I’ve retained.
The lunch menu was quite large and very reasonably priced. I ended up choosing lunch item number four – excuse me, numero quatro – which included an enchilada, mini burrito, rice, and refried beans. It was wonderful and quickly filled the hunger building deep inside me. As I finished my last couple of spoonfuls of refried beans, I felt as though my stomach might burst.
Then Joanne thought it would be a good idea to order desert. I was suddenly hungry again.
Okay, so it didn’t quite go like that. Joanne just didn’t decide desert was necessary, it just kind of happened organically. One second we’re talking about churros with Reuben and the next second he’s bringing us both our own massive servings of Chimi Cheese Cake with vanilla ice cream. Reuben claimed he gave us each a half order. I’m telling you right now, if what we were given was a ‘half order’, I actually fear for the person who orders the Chimi Cheese Cake on their own. May you rest in peace.
The Chimi Cheese Cake was top-notch. It was rich cheesecake folded into a deep-fried tortilla and covered in cinnamon, sugar, and drizzled with chocolate and carmel syrup, and I think some saliva just spilled onto my keyboard as I typed this sentence.
Maya had tasty food and a wonderful atmosphere. I will be going back. However, next time it won’t be for work… I hear their margaritas are top-notch.
Joanne’s Portion
By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
The transformed space at Maya Mexican Grill literally made me feel like I had walked right into a restaurant in Old San Diego. Orange walls with wicker-style seating and bold black booths made this a place that I wanted to hang…for a while. And Mike and I kind of did, spending about an hour and half enjoying the atmosphere, the food and the company of our waiter, Reuben.
Even though Reuben did mistake Mike as my son, I have to give him a lot of props for making our visit entertaining. He is the kind of waiter you want at any restaurant, funny, informative, attentive and even tried to teach me a little Spanish.
Ever the bargain hunter, I once again zeroed in on the daily lunch specials, which are $6.99 (regular lunch specials start at $7.99). Wednesday’s special is either flautas or two min-burritos. Now I love Mexican food but in all my food adventures, I have not tried a flauta, so I decided to be bold and take the risk. That and Mike had a mini burrito coming with his meal. The flautas are rolled-up tortillas with filling — I had chicken — and then fried. It came with refried beans and rice.
The flautas were perfect, fried to be just crispy enough with the chicken — I tried just the filling — being melt in your mouth delicious. If a Mexican restaurant is going to fail it is with the refried beans, which if canned or processed can taste waxy. Maya’s refried beans easily passed the taste test and went perfectly with the tortilla chips.
So happy with the meal that I asked about churros, which Reuben sadly told us Maya does not offer. It does however have a Chimi Cheese Cake, which Mike and I split. The cinnamon-encrusted chimi — which was deep-fried and accompanied by a scoop of ice cream with sprinkles and drizzled with syrup — was the perfect substitute and took care of my sweet craving.
So Maya has made it to my repeat list mostly because Reuben told us about the restaurant’s “best in town” margaritas. I am all too happy to judge that claim for myself. In fact, Mike and I are planning our return visit to be after the DreamWheels! show Saturday, Aug. 27 from 6 – 7:30 p.m. If you can’t find us, just ask for Reuben’s section as we will be sitting there.
Victoria’s condiments
Just a quick note here to say that my dear co-workers were kind enough to bring me some takeout from Maya, and YUM! I really scored big! I normally hang back from participating in these in-person taste tests because, let’s face it, somebody has to work here, right?
I chose the Maya Rolls and I was really glad I did. The blackened chicken breast was cooked and seasoned to perfection, the spinach, sprouts, tomatoes and other veggies rounded out the presentation, and there were even bits of avocado that surprised my taste buds (in a very good way). Dipped into the cajun sauce… sinfully delicious.
And as a tasty bonus, these very same awesome co-workers (who now have a very special place in my heart) had saved me a piece of Chimi Cheese Cake, and I can honestly say that I got high off of that. The high lasted the rest of the afternoon. Well, almost.
I will definitely be checking out Maya Mexican Grill. Can’t wait!
With the salad gone, I was ready for my stir-fry and I was not disappointed when the hot skillet was set down in front of me. It was still sizzling, packed with food, and ready to be devoured. Quick word of advice, when something is sizzling, its contents are still very hot. My brain decided not to pass along this information onto my watering mouth. Thank goodness for the glass of water that was seemingly always filled to the brim.
Going on the waitress’s recommendation, I selected one of the Hibachi Lunch Specials, Beef Hibachi, $7.95. It came with a salad, white rice and stirred fried beef and vegetables with a homemade sauce. I selected the onion salad dressing and I could taste why someone would want to purchase a bottle for home. The dressing was sweet and favorable with no overbearing onion flavor.
The deluxe pizza came with mozzarella cheese, ham, sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, and mushrooms, and they did not skimp at all on the toppings. The pizza was packed with toppings all the way to the crust line. I measure a pizzas quality on how well the cheese stays on the crust. There is nothing more frustrating that picking up a slice and having all of the cheese and toppings fall off and land in the box. Daniele’s passed with flying colors as the cheese stayed on the pizza. It’s the little things.
No pizza is complete without the cheesy bread to accompany it. First off, the cheesy bread is a generous size with 16 pieces of thick, fluffy bread. It is well seasoned and adds the perfect side complement to the pizza for an added five dollars.
We were seated at a booth and Mike immediately spotted the $6.99 lunch special that included a soda, any sandwich and soup or salad. Our server informed us the salad was a traditional side salad but for a dollar more you could select any of the other salads such as tabouli, fattoush, or Greek. I was sold and went for the fattoush salad paired with the falafel, hommous, tabouli wrap cause a girl has got to have her falafel! For those who do not know, a falafel is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, fava beans, or both. I prefer my falafel with a little hommous, so this wrap was screaming my name.
When we walked into Le Kabob, I was caught off guard by the size of the restaurant. The last two places we had been to were small and we were the only people there for lunch. Le Kabob was not only much bigger, but it was packed with people there for lunch. Apparently we weren’t the only ones Going Local. We had a slight wait before we were seated and the $6.99 lunch special immediately caught my eye. The picture of the shawarma looked small, so I decided I needed to order two, a chicken and a lamb, on top of my lamb chili. I did not need to order a second one. I repeat, I did NOT need to order a second one.
Both shawarmas were exceptional. The meat was tender and the pita was baked with the right amount of crisp. The lamb shawarma comes rolled with onions, tomatoes, pickles, parsley and tahini sauce. It went down smoothly as the chicken starred me right in the face. The chicken shawarma is rolled with pickles, lettuce, and garlic sauce – I think I hit my yearly garlic intake during the meal. The second shawarma was just as good, but my stomach said no more! Fortunately, I was able to take half the sandwich home in a box and have it for another Going Local lunch the next day.
What Dallas Deli lacks in space it certainly makes up for in food — at least my chili packed a wallop of flavor being voted best meal selection by our little group and leaving Victoria and I planning chili runs in the winter. I had the World Class Chili which was topped with the restaurant’s signature brisket, cheese and onion. With the right mixture of heat and sweet, it was perfect even for our blistery hot summer day visit. (By the way, the air conditioning was not on while we were there but the place stayed pretty cool with the door open and a breeze moving through the building.)
Thanks to the size of the meal, I had some leftover for lunch the next day (that doesn’t happen very often) and it kept its taste upon a second serving. The corn bread tasted even better the next day, if that’s even possible.
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HOT NIGHTS IN THE SPANISH RIVIERA
INTRO TO HOME COCKTAILING
Once seated, we were able to dive into the menu. One thing that immediately jumped out was how affordable the lunch prices were. All of the dishes were under $7.50 and included a choice of soup (egg drop or hot & sour), choice of crab cheese or an egg roll, and a choice of fried or white rice (not included with a noodle meal). Top it off with hot tea and a fortune cookie and no one leaves with an empty stomach.
About that main course, it was a larger portion that I was expecting for the price and it wasn’t overly salted. In fact, the taste was quite soothing. Some might describe it as “bland”, but I loved it. The taste wasn’t overpowering and it was effortless moving from a bite of the lo mein to the egg roll. The tastes complimented one another.
Inside, the restaurant was cleaned and inviting with the owner showing us to a table. I lingered a little as China City has a bakery case that included little heart-shaped strawberry and lemon cakes along with rather large almond cookies for 35 cents. “Life is short, eat dessert first” ran through my head as I pulled myself away from the bakery case. Besides, I have to pass it on the way out anyways.
The lunch meal came out fairly quickly. It was a nice portion size with at least a cup and half of the entry and fried rice. I don’t normally order fried rice, but a friend had recommended trying China City’s, so I opted for it and was not disappointed.