RIVIERA MAYA MEXICAN RESTAURANT & BAR — Restaurant in Little Rock

I should start by saying I've only ever ordered take out from here, so my score for atmosphere is based only on what I've observed as a take out customer. Similarly, my score for service is based on my experience with the staff that deal with take out customers. I won't mention them beyond here other than to say the service has always been pleasant and accommodating, and what I've seen of the atmosphere appears to be one larg dining room with a very open floor plan. I didn't see any booth seating, but again I may have just overlooked it. Please correct me if I'm mistaken. Stated simply, this is the best Mexican food I've ever eaten. My experience spans more than forty years and 5 states for what it's worth. I'll talk about two of the soups I've had there to illustrate why I believe the food is so exceptional. Firstly, the tortilla soup (I know strictly speaking that this is not a True Mexican dish). The star of this dish is the broth/ stock used as it's base. The broth is clearly homemade, and made well. It's rich and flavorful without being too salty - hallmarks of a quality broth. Which means it simmered for some number of hours before it was used to make the soup. That investment of time and attention to detail speaks volumes about an establishment's commitment to serving quality dishes. The remainder of the tortilla soup was excellent, with an enormous amount of chicken meat, chopped tomatoes, and large pieces of avocado. Truly excellent, if pricy. Next, the posole rojo is top notch - again, with homemade stock as a base and featuring large, tender pieces of pork and lots of hominy in a deep red broth flavored with ground chiles and spices. There is a smoky flavor to the soup which is wonderful. And the same clear commitment to their craft is apparent in all their dishes. The chili rellano is excellent, as are their burritos, tacos and enchiladas. I've never had one dish that wasn't great. Highly recommended, at least...

Well almost went 4 stars , but they stepped up to the plate and smoothed things over. I got questioned initially upon entering as I got witnessed taking a picture of the outside of the building. LOL! I said I travel a lot and I put them on Google maps. See my pictures have 22.5 million views.

Anyway the first salsa they brought me was bland runny tomato flavoured water with a few spices added. Waitress apologized and brought me a much spicier green sauce and an ultra hot chile pepper sauce. So that was great!

I ordered the chimichanga platter off the lunch menu as it us a favorite of mine. It was very good overall and the star of the show was the refried beans. Not the light pink or grey running mess you find at some places but thick, rich dark reddish brown with a whole lot of natural flavour.

I got my coke no ice and also I requested some lime wedges and she brought me a whole lime cut into halves which was nice.

Got to sit in a booth and this place has a lot of seating which was nice to see and it was just a quick walk over the interstate overpass from the Love's truckstop. So I got some well needed exercise in the process. Place seems to be well put together and tables and seating were dry and clean so they obviously do care.

This is in a great location near truck parking on a route I drive on a regular basis so will be saving this one on...

It seemed like the taco salad I had the ingredients was taken from a can the flavor was bordering bland and it was probably the wettest taco salad I've ever ate you could have filled an 8 oz glass with the liquid i had to drain out into three separate salsa did they provide for the chips the taco shell itself was completely saturated.

The service itself was okay at best they were all super friendly but there was definitely a heavy language barrier because our server barely spoke English and had to be asked several times for random items and unfortunately she cannot understand what we was requesting spent most of the time using a English to Spanish translation app just to get her to understand us and vice versa.

The other two meals that was served to the guests that was with me was perfect and hade great flavor and the presentation of those plates was nice. Seems like whoever made my taco salad put too much sauce or whatever it is they put in them which also made it super greasy.

The price is fair there was three adults and one child under the age of four in our group we all had alcoholic drinks which made each of our bills around $40 which is...