Maria's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Aiken County

My partner and I have visited this restaurant many times over the past two years and have always had decent experiences, though the quality of service does vary each time. Yesterday, we decided to go to the restaurant again and the employee named Shanique stared at us at the counter without greeting or speaking a word until we said the number of guests we had (2). She brought us to our table and returned approx. ten minutes later and said "hello" and we of course reciprocated the acknowledgement; however, she then stared at us saying nothing before whispering the question of what we wanted to drink. Upon return with our drinks she did not look at us, speak, or respond to our "thank you," she simply ran off without returning for nearly ten minutes without refilling our empty chip basket. We then ordered our food and specifically requested that one order of nachos have no melted cheese and to just keep the normal un-melted cheese on top (as it always comes). Our orders were brought out correct, and she once again did not look, speak, or respond to our "thank you" when she brought us our food. Later, we asked for the receipt which included an additional $1.75 dollar charge for "added queso" to one of orders of nachos (mentioned earlier in review). We mentioned this to her and she seemingly had no idea what was going on and nothing was getting through to her about the charge being incorrect for what we ordered (we didn't order extra cheese or request it at any time). While explaining this, she looked over and stared at my partner whispering incoherent words while I (other side of table) continued speaking for her. She then kept repeating the phrase "but the shredded cheese." I asked for the manager to come over since Shanique was somehow unable to understand the situation. We wait an additional ten minutes and the manager never comes, though Shanique is delivering receipts to various other tables near us while side eyeing us each time she walked past. The manager never comes to the table (I assume Shanique didn't ask them to) but Shanique brings the receipt back with a deduction of $1.50; I did realize at the time but a deduction of $1.75 would have been the correct deduction. I pay with card and Shanique is staring at me the entire time. We say "thank you" after getting the receipt and Shanique again does not respond or speak at all. Upon getting up to leave, she side eyes me again and brushes again my partner and is pushed into the wall surrounding the booths. We will unfortunately never be returning to this restaurant. We have enjoyed it previously, but Shanique is among the worst waitresses I have ever encountered and brings a negative atmosphere to the...

Wow! Eating here was just a mistake all the way around. Its close to our house so we just decided to stop for a quick bite. As a starter we sat for 10+ minutes waiting for a server. Finally we were able to place our order and the wait for our food to start arriving wasn't terrible. But then it came in slow waves - first my chimi, then husband's fajitas and then nothing else .... no utensils, no plate or tortillas for husband"s fajitas. We waited for another 10+ minutes while his food cooled until we finally flagged down another employee to get them. We didn't see our server again until she brought the check. No drink refills either.

So ok that would have been bad enough but while husbands' fajitas were fine (other than being cold by the time he was able to eat them) my chimi was terrible. What is supposed to be a crunchy fried burrito with "steak tips" and beans was 2 open, rolled and slightly grilled tortillas only containing small chunks of some really salty meat and drowned (and soggy) in a watery white cheese sauce.

I've complained in a previous review about another restaurant"s poorly made mole sauce but what Mex restaurant doesn't know how to make a decent chimichanga??? And it's not like Maria's doesnt have competition; in Aiken there's Mexican food on practically every street corner and some of it is quite good. Needless to say we won't be going back and will warn our out-of-town guests to make a different choice if they want...

I have gone to this restaurant for many years and the service has always been hit-or-miss but lately it has gone downhill significantly. There are increasingly longer waits for service, which would be understandable if it were busy, but I can wait an hour or more for the check on a slow night. The food is always good. They never seem to run the air conditioner.

Edit: 9/07/2025 I have tried going back a few times recently since my last review 4 months ago and things have gotten worse. I went back on 9/5/2025 and had terrible service and it was sweltering inside and only seemed to get worse over time. The food was good but after our initial order nobody checked on us for a long time, again. When my party was ready for the check we waited over 30 minutes to get someone's attention to bring us the bill. After we asked the lady who buses the tables to speak to Maria (since apparently nobody else was going to bother serving us), her son Andrew brought us the checks but did not cash us out. We flagged Maria down and she asked if there was a problem, and I tried to explain to her that the air conditioning was bad and also that it has been an issue for a long time that our servers always disappear from us and she walked off while I was talking to her. It took another 20 or 30 minutes before she bothered cashing us out, while she was cashing other people out while knowing we had been waiting a long time. I will...