Santa Maria — Restaurant in Cumming

We had some errands to do in the area on a lovely fall Saturday, and wanted to check out what had changed in City Center since we had last visited. Upon entering the development, we noticed Santa Maria. Huge new build with a large patio and one whole side opened to patio (bar). We looked for the menu online (not super easy to find), and decided to give it a try for lunch. We were the first ones in the restaurant on this day, and the staff was welcoming and ready to serve. The space is cool. A mix of cool surfaces, comfortable seating, interesting fixtures and finishes and they have a massive bar that runs the length of the space. One of two managers on duty sat us and we were immediately greeted by the lovely Maria, our server. The menu is vast with lots of options for tapas, main courses, oysters, and sides. We opted to stick with tapas for this visit and we were not disappointed. Everything comes out of the kitchen promptly and with great attention to appearance detail. We also love oysters and tried the Pink Ladies, which were salty, very fresh and fantastic! The dishes all looked as enticing as they tasted. Every bite we had was absolutely delicious. Timing was easy and suited our style of sharing a meal like that. Of the six tapas we shared, the Shrimp Empanada, Shrimp Brochette and the ribs were probably favorites. But, everything was well executed, thoughtfully prepared and delicious! Definitely save room for dessert. Maria was kind enough to bring us a WHOLE, enormous piece of the peanut Tres Leches. Amazing. She was a delight and so personable and welcoming. She also knows the menu very well - which is helpful when you are eating from regions you may not be as familiar with...Ask for some of their house hot sauce. They should bottle it!! I would have given the restaurant five stars, however, I think they need some PR help. A restaurant of this caliber that lacks a restaurant is suspicious to me. One of the managers said that he had been hired to help fix this problem. Hopefully, he will be successful. Also, the Shrimp Brochette is listed as a Bruschetta on the menu. It is not an Italian Bruschetta that is served on bread. It's a traditioinal Mexican shrimp stuffed and wrapped in bacon. That said, it was phenomenal. Go. Try. Enjoy. We will certainly go back!! Great to have something like this in our community!! Thank you Santa Maria for a delightful...

First time visiting this newly opened addition at CCC and it did not disappoint. Of course you have to try their paella valenciana, it is shareable for 2 but since we ordered other tapas therefore we still had left to go. It was delicious, filling with good sized shrimps , mussels and chicken. The chicken was really soft. We ordered pork belly and it melts in your mouth. The Calamari was also soft with nice vinaigrette on the side. The paella cost $34 but it was so worth it and t was shared by 2 adults and 1 child with Togo left. Great plating. We initially ordered sweet tea but got unsweetened but they immediately replaced it. The manager and our server constantly checks on every table. It was not busy on a Saturday at 1pm. The price of most tapas are between $10-14 , it appears to be on high side but the serving is double than what you get from other tapas restaurants in Milton and halcyon plus it was really cooked to perfection. The paella still tasted great after reheating at home. Their food was not salty and they seemed willing to correct if something doesn't fit your taste. My only negative is the price of fountain drink was quite expensive for a $4 fountain drink and didn't offer refill. The interior was well done with high ceiling that made it appear big. The chairs and tables were very well appointed.Overall, I'll still give it a 5. I hope they will remain consistent and it should garner more patrons. Lastly, just a tip to the owner, that if they offer happy hour or reasonable/affordable priced margaritas and mojitos especially during weekdays it will surely attract...

We had been really excited about this tapas restaurant opening up close to us. We made a reservation for 8pm for an outdoor table (since that’s all they had when we called). We got there a little early and checked in. We noticed that it seemed a little chaotic since it’s a new restaurant and everyone wanted to try it. About 30 minutes later, we noticed that others that arrived after us were being seated. I asked the hostess if they could check our wait time and realized that they had forgotten that we were waiting. They then gave us an indoor table and we were happy. At this point 40 minutes had already gone by, so we had time to look at the menu and knew what we wanted. It was still very chaotic and staff seemed very confused. After 20 minutes of being seated, no one came to us, not even to acknowledge us or to ask for our drinks. After another 20 minutes of waiting for someone to come to us, we decided to leave. After we got up, 3 other tables got up and left for the same reason. I’m sure the food is great but they still have a lot of training to do. The manager seemed lost and confused walking around while the owner was the only one working hard in the kitchen. This is the first time that I have had to leave from a restaurant due to bad service (or in this case, lack of service). First impressions are important and in this particular case, it was a...