Maiz Agua Sal - MAS — Restaurant in Charlotte

Please take this review with a grain of salt, as my visit was during their opening month on Cinco de Mayo. Despite the restaurant appearing manageable, the manager noted they were busy due to the holiday when I commented on the lackluster service.

I arrived around 12:30 p.m. and chose a spot at the bar. With four bartenders busy crafting margaritas, it took over five minutes to be acknowledged and another few minutes to order a Mexican Coke. After a short wait, I finally received a menu, but it took another five minutes before I could place my order for albondigas (Mexican meatballs) and one taco de trompo (pork taco). The wait for these two items stretched to about 30 minutes, even after I asked an employee to check on my order. In my opinion, a taco and a few meatballs shouldn't take that long, even on a busy day. Throughout my meal, no server or manager checked in on me.

On a brighter note, the food was quite enjoyable. The meal started with complimentary fresh tortilla chips served with three different salsas: a spicy peanut one, salsa verde, and salsa rojo—all delightful. The corn tortillas are made in-house, adding a nice touch. The albondigas, a special promoted on their Instagram, were three generously sized meatballs in a pleasantly spicy red sauce. The flavors and textures were spot on. The taco de trompo was tasty, topped with pineapple, chopped white onion, and slivers of watermelon radish. Some might find the meat a bit salty, but a squeeze of lime could balance it out. However, the $5 price tag for a single taco was a bit steep, even for Charlotte.

Overall, I won't judge MAS Tortilla solely based on the service issues during my visit, but it might be a few months before I consider returning, hopefully once...

I visited yesterday with a party of 9 for a reservation at 6pm. Admittedly, there were only 4 of us present when we checked in for our table but by 6:20 the party was present.

A hostess came over and said we have a large party coming at 8. No real directive or course of action but felt odd. Keep in mind the restaurant is pretty empty with only 2-3 other tables present. At 7:57 our server tells us we can’t have the drinks we just ordered because they need our table for the next party. Excuse me? I think there were so many missteps that a good restaurant can provide to turn the table as they need to but also provide good service. They could have said “We are going to move your drinks to the (empty) patio so you can enjoy yourself and we can have the table” Anything like that would have sufficed. When I requested the manager, she was defensive and gaslit me. When I brought up the fact that our drinks were held hostage, she acted like she knew nothing about that and said she would talk to her team. I highly doubt those very kind servers came up with that on their own. The manager just deflected the blame which is also terrible.

If there is a strict 2 hour only policy, it should be written on the website, open table and shared before seating. It’s written nowhere because it doesn’t actually exist!

Unfortunately, because of the last 10 mins of our visit, we will never be back and neither will...

My friends and I drove over two hours to do some shopping in Charlotte and eat at a certain restaurant. We were so disappointed to find the restaurant closed. I walked around and found Maiz Agua Sal nearby. A couple was walking out the restaurant smiling and highly recommended we eat here, calling the food "authentic Mexican food". We are SO glad we listened! I wish I could thank them! The restaurant is very clean and beautifully decorated. We had the pleasure of having Adrienne (I apologize if I misspelled your name) as our waitress. She is friendly, welcoming, attentive, and knows the menu well. She started us off with the best homemade tortilla chips I've ever had and three types of amazing and flavorful salsa. She took the time to describe each salsa to us. At her recommendation we ordered the flautas tinga with rice & beans. I also ordered two shrimp tacos and a side of guacamole. Everything was so fresh and absolutely delicious! The flautas were fried to crispy perfection, the rice was fluffy and seasoned, and the beans were SO smooth and flavorful. The guacamole was chunky and so fresh. The shrimp tacos were tender and seasoned so well! We left feeling full and very happy that we walked by this wonderful restaurant! Thank you for a perfect ending to our...