Maracas Mexican Cantina & Grill — Restaurant in Palm Springs

There are a ton of Mexican restaurants in Palm Springs these days, literally next to or across the street from each other. We go to PS at least three times a year and like to try different places.

We were in the mood for Mexican, so we landed at Maracas after considering the spot right across the street.

Location is right in the middle of everything. Night life is happening right in this little nook of 4 or 5 restaurants. Maracas is in front with lots of outdoor seating.

Inside is much smaller but it was hot, so. Server sat us down, busboy dropped off chips/salsa and waters. Then, nobody even looked at us for over 12 minutes. That problem #1. He finally came back and was very nice, but no mention of any delays from his part.

We ordered, great. I asked for more chips and was told its $5 for a second basket. That's problem #2. Do they know the other places don't charge for extra chips? Honestly, first time I have ever seen this.

Food came. Nothing special. No authentic flare or signature dishes here. Burritos were very standard, not round but more flat. We asked for them dry, as in nothing on them, but they came smothered with cheese. Whatever, we'll eat them. Average taste, nothing mind blowing or special. Enchiladas and taco were also mid. Again, nothing authentic or specific to this place. You would get the same thing at Acapulcos, maybe better. Not a problem, just nothing worth mentioning.

We ordered a soda and they pour that in a huge glass, so I was thinking no refills. That would be Problem #3, but I was too scared to ask. I didn't see anyone get refills, so chances are they probably don't refill soda. Who does that?

Staff was nice, and the place is clean. I did notice some cool looking drinks, so maybe that's how they stay in business. Its not the food, trust me.

So, no extra chips, no soda refills, 12 minutes to take even a drink order and very average food.

3 stars....

We had dinner at Maracas and loved it. We are vegetarians and found the menu to be very accommodating. The chips are house made, not greasy, and taste and smell ultra fresh. The salsa is out of this world--we're talking Mars-like. The ingredients were fresh and the spice factor was very high. I love spice, but I had to take a break to give my mouth a chance to cool down. Luckily, they had a happy hour special when we were there, which included draft beers of domestics, Negra Modelo and Modelo Especial, as well as Margaritas. The 16 oz pint was $4.50 and the 20 oz size was $6.50--both great deals. The drink definitely helped cool the burn.

We sat outside on the patio under the heat lamps and people-watched while we ate. A guitarrón player came out and played a couple of classic Mexican songs for us, which we really enjoyed.

My wife ordered the vegetarian enchiladas, which came with white rice and vegetarian black beans. She really enjoyed her dish and highly recommended it. I ordered the veggie burrito, which was stuffed with rice, veggie black beans, squash, and mushrooms, and came with sides of guacamole, sour cream, and pico de gallo. It was delicious, but monstrous. I could not finish it.

We had a great time at Maracas and recommend you try it to satisfy your...

Stopped in after walking Thursday Night Market for Dinner. At first glance, pretty welcoming. We ordered our Margaritas which were delicious, chips and Salsa came out. We ordered our meals, I had the chicken fajitas, hubs had the Carnitas. We order another round of Margs at that point to enjoy with our meals. Those took awhile to come out. After ordering a last round of marks while finishing up, waitress came out with to go containers, I asked for more corn Tortillas to go as I still had so much of my fajitas left over and that was a problem. They only gave me 4 with the meal, she said I could order more....after 140.00 bill encured, you think they could send you off with a few more tortillas, she said she could only give me 1 more.....lets just say, it left a BAD taste in my mouth. At 9:30 we were packed up, paid bill and were finishing our margs, waitress comes back and says, my manager needs me to clock out, so i need to settle out your bill and we were rushed out to leave, while others were enjoying theyre meals...