Palacio Maya Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Gladstone

I do not enjoy giving mediocre-to-poor reviews. I receive no enjoyment from it. I am also interested in giving my opinion, and those of two friends with whom I visited Palacio Maya recently. And perhaps, Palacio Maya ownership may see this criticism as constructive and perhaps make some changes to improve and hopefully give them greater chances of success.

Let's begin with the good. Service was excellent. The staff was very attentive and they seemed like genuinely good people. I wish them well. The atmosphere was good as well - on par with a locally-owned mom and pop type shop.

The food was entirely underwhelming, however. The beans were good. The chocolate-drizzled sopapillas were actually the best thing we ordered. But, the tacos were just not very good. The tamale was the most disappointing. It seemed to be a portion of ground ground beef prepared in a mole, with a surprisingly small of masa simply put on top of it, the bathed in more sauce/mole. Not my or any other definition of a tamal, or tamale. I have always contended that mole is in the eye of the beholder, and there are as many variations of mole as there are cooks/chefs. None of us in my party cared for it, and we are very experienced Tex Mex and authentic Mexican food eaters. Two of us have actually lived in Mexico/South America for multiple years.

I do however wish these good folks well, and if they make improvements to their menu, please let folks know and I would be up for...

Came with a party of 17 on Father’s Day at 2pm… was terrified it was going to be packed. To our surprise only 3-4 other tables seated in the entire restaurant. Service was terrible from the get go. Empty salsa, chip bowls, and drinks the entire time. Obviously with a party of 17 it takes a little longer, but this was excessive, and they kept switching up servers 🤷🏻‍♂️, we had 3 different servers throughout our meal. We were sat in the far back room all to ourselves and the air conditioner was either not working properly or the thermostat was turned down so I was sweating the entire time. Food is a little higher than most Mexican restaurants, but realized afterwards that the quantities are also much bigger than normal. Overall everything tasted great. I would like to go back and give the service a second chance because I know it’s a whole different experience when you come in with...

Food was okay. Al pastor Tacos were good but if you want corn tortillas be sure to ask for them, because they come in flour. The menu states they are stuffed with Al pastor and grilled pineapple but I had to ask for the grilled pineapple because there was none. There are a few items on the menu that are honestly not what I expected. Like the guacamole Mexicana. Just skip that all together lol. Service was really good, though. Margarita was weak. The fajita nachos are not what you’d expect. It’s just basically fajita meat on top of chips. My partner orders the fajita nachos from mi ranchito and was hoping for something kinda similar but this wasn’t that (or even close). All in all the food was okay, could have been hotter (temp wise)… I understand they are newer and have some things to maybe work out.. we will be back to give them...