Las Marias — Restaurant in Grand Junction

tl;dr: 1. Takeout order was estimated to take 20 minutes, took 70 minutes without update or acknowledgement of wait. They do not comply with tables being 6ft apart, nor do they enforce masks. Very full restaurant considering the pandemic. Food is just okay. Many other Mexican food establishments in-town that have better-tasting food and know how to manage a restaurant.

Reasons #1: Our takeout came out an hour and 10 minutes after it was ordered. We were given a 20 minute wait time for our two entree order and were happy with that estimate. Owner came to accept payment after the 20 minutes and left. She never came back for an update to tell us our food was behind. We assumed she was coming right back with the order because she took the payment. After another while, (about 20-25 minutes), I eventually got the attention of a waiter and asked what was going on. He went to investigate and said they were working really hard on getting it bagged up. I thought to myself..okay. Well 45 min wait is not awesome, but okay, at least we knew the food was coming. It still took another 20 minutes for it to come out. The owner pretended like she didn't know that the order was for us, like we hadn't been waiting for an extra 45 mins on top of the original 20 minute estimate hovering about the host stand. She did not acknowledge the wait or the inconvenience for us.

Reason #2: The restaurant was completely full. There is no way that they are complying with COVID protocol having tables be 6 feet apart, nor are they working at a reduced capacity (only the bar stools were placed 6 ft apart). The only other change they had made was to block off a booth near the front window and one bench across the way. Otherwise, it was full of tons of people and they did not enforce them to wear masks.

Reason #3: Food was not bad, but not great either. There are tons of great Mexican restaurants around Grand Junction that know how to run a business and treat all customer types with decency. We had already tipped more that 20% when she took the payment, so we are not sure why take-out orders would not be at the same priority as the in-house orders. We will continue to try all the Mexican restaurants in town, but for now, we can always count on Azteca's and Fiesta Guadalajara. We won't waste our...

Was really looking forward to this place based on the reviews. However when me and my guests arrived we did not get service for over 15 minutes, the manager took our drink orders we still did not get a sign of server for an additional 20 minutes she apparently said she didn't know it was her table which is understandable things happen however, after the fact we were still treated like we didn't exist we had two tables get their food before us and leave. I'd understand if it was extremely busy but we were the only table that was getting treated like this, Our chips came out first but we didn't get salsa for another 5 to 10 minutes. We ordered margaritas the first ones she just reblended them after they weren't made in the right way. My friend ordered another one this one came out perfectly, so just let us know that we really weren't cared about. We tipped the lady who was cleaning our tables and bringing us chips over $25 because at least someone did pay attention to us however the manager hackled my guest for leaving a bad tip for our server. And insinuated that the woman we did tip has to , has to pay it off on her taxes first of all we tipped cash so no she didn't and she wasn't even our server so why is this a necessary response back as management it's unprofessional. Someone also called my guest a "Georgia peach" 🙃 I didn't know management was allowed to treat customers like this after such a bad experience instead of just saying sorry. I will never go here again and I will never recommend this place , I've never been treated poorly for bad service isn't that ironic. Also we are in covid times the straws that were dropped at our table were torn up, we did not make a fuss about that we made sure our table was relatively clean before we go because we do understand that things can get rough however this type of treatment was unexcusable for a business and hackling guests is wrong when it is...

We had a great experience at Las Marias during our short stay in Grand Junction.

The restaurant was very busy at 7:00 PM on a Saturday, and as such was quite noisy (as one would expect). However, even as swamped as she was, Brie, our waitress, really made us feel at home and never made us feel like she didn't have enough time for us. She is very good at her job.

This is somewhere you want to go if you have a gluten allergy or celiac disease, as many of their options are naturally gluten free, and many dishes can be made gluten free.

The meal I had was the shrimp and crab enchiladas. The interior of the enchiladas was very meaty and creamy (they mix the filling with cream cheese), and I elected to have the "creamy sauce" on top (the other choices are red or green chile, both gluten free). The shrimp was a teensy bit overcooked (something difficult to avoid), and the crab was just a little fishy, but the overall filling was still very good. The "creamy sauce" was a delightfully spicy blend of what I can only describe as green chile mixed with queso blanco. It was spicy, creamy, just a little cheesy, and wonderfully green chile-y (if that's a word). The accompanying rice and beans were exactly what you would expect, very typical of a Mexican restaurant, but they were slightly under-seasoned for my taste.

The other member of my party ordered the super burrito and, while I couldn't actually taste it, it looked pretty impressive. It took up the entire plate and was filled to the brim with meat.

Overall, I would return to this restaurant, as the food and service were both exceptional, despite the...