Mama Roja Méxican Kitchen — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

In a town where Tex-mex/Mexican eateries are in overabundance places need to be on their game. Mama Rojas is not on it's game.

The WAIT: We waited for 45 minutes to get a table at 5ish on a Sunday. It's a busy time, I get that. Several large groups arrived at the same time. I even get that. The manager came over to tell our party they were trying to get a table but the prior occupants weren't really wanting to leave. They paid. The servers have bussed the table etc. As much as I appreciate the status update It falls far short when I look over the shoulders of those at the host station and I see a completely empty dining room. They were packing everyone into the dining room that overlooks the water by the bar and it was loud. There had to be another 2 or 3 large tables waiting when we finally got our table for 7.

The FOOD: Full Disclosure: I've never cared for the food but a family member loves the margaritas there so, on her birthday, we go. There is just nothing here that you can't get elsewhere at a higher and more consistent quality. I'll give them this, There isn't pages upon pages of dishes to choose from. The menu is short and sweet with their take on typical Tex-mex "cuisine"

Everything came out together and was hot as one would expect. It was all there and we dig in. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food as I heard no complaints. I had the "Hand-made Pork Tamales" and the ratio of masa to pork filling was abhorrent. There are Mexican abuelas (mine included) who are rolling over in their graves as a result of the abominations that were put before me. The black beans were sub par. Look, I get that this isn't sold as "authentic" or really anything close to it but a Tamale from a "Mexican Kitchen" should have filling and the lack of oversight on something so basic is simply poor quality and I didn't finish them. 14.00 bucks for a couple rolls of light pork flavored masa with 2 sides. It's a shame they are doing this to the customer.

THE SERVICE: Spot on. Our server was where we needed him to be. Attentive but didn't hover. This was the highlight of the experience. Food came out together and hot, Drinks were filled without going dry, Things were fetched as needed. Again, SPOT ON. Well done and thank you Mr. Diego.

In CLOSING: We passed by countless Mexican/Tex-mex joints on our way into town to eat and many of those are decidedly better at what they do than Mama Rojas. Towards the end of our meal, the birthday girl stated we won't be coming back. I was shocked. The Mama Roja Perfect Margarita was the one to beat in OKC, so what changed? The Margarita fell flat and she never said what was wrong with it specifically. Mama Rojas was running a special on a new concoction, A new Margarita to rule them all I suppose.

This is expected to be our last trip out there as a family. We'll spend our money closer to home at places that many would not give a second look. We'll sit a cracked booth, a wobbly table with a set of mismatched chairs, or maybe outside any number of taco trucks in the city and get a better product for the money while barely hearing some Latin music instead of the top 40 at volumes that compels people to talk over it, further exacerbating the issue of volume in an already crowded area. Having a conversation in this place was futile from the time we got in to the time we left. I just don't think Michael Jackson says "Latin ambiance" as much as Mama Roja's seems to think. I did get a...

We were so excited to try this restaurant! We walked in & at 4:30 pm, the unfriendly hostess explained it would be a wait on patio (even tho only 2 tables were currently eating on patio) & there was a big top before us & she could not tell us how long a wait would be. My daughter said “she doesn’t seem to care if we eat here or not.” She made no other offers to take our name or seat us somewhere else. My husband then spoke with manager to ask why if no one was on patio we couldn’t be seated. He said they were just busy & hadn’t had time to clean, but give them 10 min & he’d seat us. When we got seated, the super friendly upbeat server named Jacob brought us drinks & took our order promptly. Once our food came out, it came in slow steps. Two of our party got fajitas & they ended up waiting for quite a while for their sides, tortillas & clean plates (the first set were dirty). Each of those three came at different times. My order (with an allergy to tomatoes) came out w/ tomatoes all over everything. The manager brought out one of my items but this time it had no cheese, which I opened the taco to show him (after he said it did have cheese). He unkindly said “do you want me to take it & put cheese on it or can I just bring you the cheese?” Kind of shocked at his unapologetic stance, I said just bring the cheese. My food had to be redone and the others who got fajitas actually didn’t get the rest of their sides until after my food was brought out. Eventually we all had what we needed but it took quite a while. We felt sorry for our server bc he was trying to do his very best, but did not have much reliable support from his team. When we were finished, the check was brought to our table. Not only was there never an attempt to compensate for the disaster at hand, we were double charged fir my meal, and double charged for another item. Again, no attempt to acknowledge the overall mess of the experience. The positives were the server was so kind, prompt, & otherwise would have done a great job had he had good back up. The food was very good. Apart from the dirty dishes and trickle down theory of bringing out each item, we were happy with what we ate. The manager was the main problem for us. He wasn’t friendly & never made any attempt to right any wrongs & showed no care. We understand mix ups & even disasters can happen when a restaurant is busy, but he seemed more bothered by us than anything a& the mistakes made by the kitchen didn’t seem to have good leadership or backing from him either. We are big time Hal Smith customers. We frequent Charlestons all the time & were shocked at this service. The food is good tho & eating by the water helped make it easier to...

Updated March 2025: We had a table of 3 adults, 2 kids and 2 toddlers. It was a Saturday night and the wait was around an hour. We waited 30 mins. It’s weird to me that the patio is always closed. It was the perfect weather to eat outside by the lake and watch the sunset, however even seeing other people eating out there they told us it was closed. We were told our table was ready to come inside so we did and had to wait another 5 mins. We were seated at the same table as last time by the lake view which was nice. Our waiter was super awesome. I just wish the food was as great. It was such a disappointment this time. We waited almost an hour and a half for food which sucked but they could’ve been short staffed. The food seemed rushed and the quality seemed to be different. Everyone’s food didn’t taste fresh and lacked flavor. The fresh corn tortillas tasted molded and were dry. The ceviche was great and the churro’s were the only thing worth spending $9 for 3 on. We bought 2. Seemed a little steep if you ask me. I got the cilantro lime rice bowl with fajita steak and apple mango. It was dry. The rice was dry, there was no sauce to help compliment it and my steak was raw and chewy that I couldn’t even finish it. I’ve never ordered fajita steak that wasn’t cooked all the way and I was not given the option of how I wanted my steak cooked nor did I know I needed to make that clear. I didn’t send it back because I did not want to wait another hour for my food with 2 impatient toddlers. It was NOT even close to being worth the $150 we spent. I will say it does not matter if you’re busy or not, the food should come out as good as it suppose to. Because now we will not recommend Mama Rojas or be back. We were let down as every restaurant in the last couple of years has cut corners and went down hill and it shows in your dishes customers pay for. I hope they get better!

Sept 2024 I’m glad we didn’t listen to the bad reviews because Mama Rojos is amazing! The atmosphere is gorgeous. The restaurant and bathrooms were clean. The staff was so friendly and helpful. The food was chefs kiss. The quesabirria tacos with consomé was incredible! The refried beans were the best side of beans I’ve ever had at a Mexican restaurant. The only thing I was not a fan of was the salsa and verde. They both tasted sour. I’d like to say thanks for not putting gelatin in your queso like MOST Mexican restaurants here in Oklahoma have which is odd to me. I wish it wasn’t so hot so we could’ve sat on the patio but the views even with the doors down was still nice. We will be coming here more often! Thank you...