Maria's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Jefferson Township

A post of my email to Maria’s earlier today. You be the judge.

Hello, I’ve been to Maria’s in Schiller park 1-2 times a week since 2017 because I work right next door. I’ve always loved it, the service and food are great. I’ve literally spent thousands of dollars in your restaurant. I’ve dealt with the loss of your lunch service, which was devastating, your recent price increases, and even your inability to process separate checks (even though the most basic of establishments is able to accommodate this)!! Tonight though, I was told that our party could only process 2 credit cards. We had a party of six and I painstakingly spent ten minutes calculating what each person owed. We narrowed it down to 3 credit cards. Only by being a KAREN!! which I am normally completely opposed to being, were we able to get our 3 cards accepted. I don’t understand why, if your server is told immediately upon seating, you can not do separate checks. You are located in an area where a lot of people are coming from work, the airport, hotel etc. where it is necessary for people to be able to pay for their own orders. I have been a server and it’s not rocket science to ring things by seat at a given table. The fact that you don’t offer to do so as a more ‘upscale’ restaurant (over Red Robin, TGI Fridays and the like who can all accomplish separate checks) is frankly, stupid. Again, I love your restaurant and hate to be so harsh, but why are you trying to make it harder on your customers to come here? I am one more “we can’t do separate checks” or “take more than 2 credit cards” away from never coming here again. I will miss it so much and so will the other individuals I work with next door who have agreed will never come again if you don’t start making it easier. Guess we’ll pop over to the entertainment district instead.

All this being said, if you’re still reading and have no qualms over payment issues the Chicken Tortilla Soup is AMAZING but not listed on the menu (you’re welcome!) and the Camerones Gratinados and ceviche (weekends only!) are also phenomenal! Really, you can’t go wrong with the food, only their antiquated (lazy a$$) policies.

Read the bullsh*t below. This restaurant thinks because we can easily share money that we can/should also do math. Hope we can help them realize that this is a false assumption and that their servers are actually making less because all of us collective mathematicians fail to account for tax, change, etc. Who wants to whip out their calculator on...

Unfortunately, this place gets a ONE STAR I drove in from Wisconsin and was looking forward to some authentic Mexican food and this place was NOT it... The food is NOT authentic, but bland and overpriced.... Basically, whitewashed Mexican food. I came in to place a takeout order and waited OVER 45minutes for my food with no excuse for the wait. We stood around waiting and witnessed 3 tables get birthday serenades by waitstaff, watch people who came in after us to place orders and wait along with us and watch them leave with their food before us, along with parties looking to be seated…. It was nonstop movement. When we asked to speak to the manager at the 35minute mark, the hostess returned stating that she is too busy in the back and offered us a free dessert - I stated that this behavior was completely unacceptable and had we been at a table this would not have happened without a proper excuse (so I thought). A manager did come out and after voicing our concerns she had the STANKIEST ATTITUDE that even a waitress had to get in between as if she was going to fight us. She also tried to kick us out AND CALL THE POLICE on us even though we PRE-PAID!!!! We told her go ahead – we paid for our food and were not leaving unless we get it or you do a complete refund….. This manager then proceeded to state that they were very low staffed, but then if so…. Why were we not told at the 20minute mark? Why were they still letting people in (which by the way a family approached us who had been sitting there and let us know that they also left because of the wait and no excuse/apology to back it up) along with two patrons at the bar that clearly stated to the bartender "those ladies have been here for a longa** time...." Apparently the manager stated that the owner who still never came out to diffuse the situation wanted to gift us a $50 gift card to which we responded, just give us back a $50 refund because we will NEVER RETURN and when the manager came back FINALLY with our food holding a $20bill and that was the owners final apology..... The only positive thing I could say about this place was the décor…. But beware because once we entered the bathroom there was a used tampon container waiting for us in the stall….

Dear Owner/Management - Do not bother in responding – Your staff sucked, your food needs improvement and if you continue to treat patrons like this – you wont...

I always end up leaving disappointed from this establishment. Then I don’t return for a long time but when I do I remember why I haven’t been back in so long. So, before I forget and keep this to myself yet again, here I am writing this review as soon as I got home from dining there.

The food is good and I love all the murals and the culture that is portrayed throughout the restaurant’s decor. That being said, I cannot continue to ignore the fact that certain guests are given different treatment.

They clearly are thriving on the authenticity and the Mexican cuisine and culture. Why then are the servers not treating guests equally. We were a table a four, one adult one teen and two children. Not only did our server take more than 30 mins to take our order but also NEVER not once ask us how the food was, if we needed anything, and never bothered to clear anything off the table. I asked for ketchup for my sons fries well into the meal bc server would not even acknowledge our table. Three surrounding tables that arrived AFTER us got their food much sooner than we did

I had to get their attention every time I needed something. Server gave priority to other tables and apparently we were invisible. This is not the first time we experience this here. I do not understand if this is the training staff receives and if so, my apologies to the server for not knowing better.

Either way this doesn’t give this establishment the credibility and integrity they perhaps are looking to attain aka Authentic reputable Mexican restaurant in Chicago suburbs.

To summarize lackluster service, subpar food and undertrained staff in basic human interaction and...