Oh Maya!
Written: Sep 17 '00 (Updated May 16 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Service; tequila selection; innovative food
Cons: Too Loud
The Bottom Line: Fine, fine Mexican inspired food in lush surroundings and the best service you are likely to find anywhere
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| Mr.Eyore's Full Review: Maya |
Hanski and her brother, Kev-E-Kev, Amickay, Mayflower John, Pookie and I went to Maya last Friday, because I was in the mood for Mexican again and couldn't choke down a taqueria burrito for the fifth day in a row.
It was my third time at Maya, which is one of the only good high-end restaurants in the city specializing in Latin American – or at least Mexican influenced -- cuisine.
La Grub
The first time I went, with my sister and my room-mate, porno-Paul, my sister had the filet mignon, which was served butterflied and pounded. Personally, I like my filet fat, rare, and served with potatoes, so it didn't appeal to me, but my sister, being a college student in Los Angeles and all, was happy with the well done-ness and the vegetable side dishes. On this visit, Kev-E-Kev, who can eat little else but red meat and who claims to be a connoisseur, had the same dish, and he was also pretty pleased.
Mayflower John ate the pork loin ($18.95), which swam in a bowl filled with some sort of pumpkin seed mole. Both he and Pookie said it was delicious. Kev-E-Kev can't eat nuts, so he was appalled by the concoction.
I had the lobster and prawn dish for the second time, as did Pookie and Hanski. They call it Langosta & Camarones and they charge $24.50 for it. The dish is comprised of a lobster claw and one succulent slice of tail meat standing atop a mound of creamed corn, around which is arranged 4 or 5 perfectly cooked large shrimp. The entire composition is dribbled with two infused oils, a chive oil and some type of pepper oil. Hanski and Pookie thought that the meal was too sweet by the end, and couldn't finish their corn. I thought it was merely rich and that the sweetness was cut nicely by the heat of the pepper oil.
Nobody really understood why Amickay ordered the vegitarian dish, including Amickay, since she's definitely a meat eater. But she said the marinated mushroom-and-other-stuff burrito ($17.00) was one of the best vegi dishes she had ever eaten. And she was too full to finish it.
Finally, first things last: The appetizers are a mixed bag. Each time I've eaten at Maya, someone has ordered the tuna tacos ($10.50), a delicious plate flour tortilla triangles atop which sit three mounds of ahi tuna sashimi in a sauce that is not unlike the sauce you would find in a spicy tuna roll at any sushi restaurant. Each taco is topped off with a few sprigs of watercress.
This time, I tried the oysters with bacon and goat cheese (Oysters Sandoval $9.50), which was not at all what I expected. The cheese managed to be both flavorless and (along with the bacon) to drown out any flavor of the oysters. The five shellfish had been cooked in their shells with their accompaniments, and ended up tasting of nothing but a soft blob of smoky.
Everyone talks about the guacamole, which is very good, with just the right notes of cilantro, lime and spicy, and it's served in a hand hammered silver (pewter?) bowl. At more than $8.00, I wouldn't order it anywhere else, but since you'll drop $50-60.00 per person anyway, it's worth a try if you've got a large party.
The Room/Service:
This is some of the best service in town. The wait staff is knowledgeable, friendly and attentive. Your water glasses will never go unfilled. The bussers have a near telepathic ability to know just when to pick up you plates. Your napkin will be folded on the table when you get back from your bathroom or smoke break.
And speaking of bathrooms, the ones at Maya are spectacular. The second time I came to Maya, with Rock Star Tony and his friend Nicole, Tony asked if it would be wrong of him to have his coffee in the loo (except he didn't say loo, because Tony doesn't talk like that). It's walled with beautiful hand crafted blue tiles and is filled with flowers, potpourri and little rolled towels.
None of that should be surprising though. I love the look of this entire place. Two large rooms with sponged orange/rust walls are filled with sturdy carved wood tables and hammered pewter fixtures. The main room looks out on the fountain in the plaza of the office complex in which the restaurant is situated.
The only down side on this trip was the bar staff. In the past, the bartenders had a solid understanding of the merits of their vast tequila selection. They definitely knew their anejos from their reposados. This time, the bartender had trouble figuring out what I was ordering and where it was on his shelves, in a much emptier bar than I had seen in the past. This may be an unfair criticism, however. The bar staff in the past has been so overwhelmingly perceptive – knowing by mine and my Porno-Paul's first selections which other brands we would enjoy – that almost anything less would suffer by comparison.
Parking:
Each time I've been to Maya, parking has not been a problem. During the week you can almost always find parking on the street within a block of the restaurant because there are no other restaurants or bars on the block, and no other businesses that are open late. It may be more difficult on the weekends and game days, given Maya's relative proximity to the Sony Metreon and Pac Bell park.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Mr.Eyore
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 - Top 500 |
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Reviews written: 129
Trusted by: 299 members
About Me:
I come for the pervasive sense of elitist self-importance and semi-witty expressions of faux camaraderie
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