Maria's Frybread & Mexican Food — Restaurant in Phoenix

First of all, I really like their salsa and red chile, let's get that clear.

I give the owner's desire to provide great customer service and create a pleasant experience for guests 5 stars, but this is a restaurant, and food should be top consideration.

We came here today with my boyfriend and I, revisiting after 2 years. Back then I thought the place was ok, and was fond of the open face fry bread with red chile. This time, he got that, and I got what is known as the Burrito Grande. Inside, what is supposed to be carne asada with beans and cheese is actually boiled, poor quality meat with beans and cheese and what seems to be ground beef (not a lot, but just enough to add grittiness). Was there an excess of ground beef, and rather than wasting it, the kitchen decided to incorporate it into a dish it has no place being in? Seems like it. When I asked the cashier what is in the burrito, ground beef was not mentioned. After eating only half of my burrito, I spat out 5 large connective tissues. So then there's gritty ground beef and what is supposed to be carne asada, but is in fact poorly butchered, poorly processed, and poorly cooked, low quality meat, the cheapest cheese known to man, and some pretty decent tasting beans wrapped in a giant tortilla. But does it stop there? No. The giant burrito came topped with more cheap cheese, and enough chopped tomatoes and lettuce on top to feed a horse to death (if horses ate lettuce and tomatoes). These unfitting toppings were also never mentioned by the cashier, but that's just an overlook on his part. My first thought when starting my meal was "If someone missed the way Taco Bell used to taste 20 years ago, they just need to go to this place and pay triple for what they would have there", but after getting through less than half of the food, I understood that the problem is that this place started off with something really simple and something they made well: the green/red chile and fry-bread, but then, without having neither the technical skill nor the desire or ability to inject enough money into quality products, they decided to expand their menu, and serve incompetently cooked, low quality food. They need to at the very least change certain cooking and food prep techniques, and pay closer attention to what the important things in food are (freshness, appropriate textures, balanced tastes and portions, bold flavours). I hope the owner reads this, takes my critique into consideration, and makes changes and do better in the near future, because it is not my intention to slam someone unfairly, and especially not to drag a small business...

I decided to finally try this place out after living close by for over 2 yrs. I looked at the menu online and knew what I wanted to get when I got to the drive-thru. I should have just gone home when I was greeted at the window by a girl who was in the middle of eating and after placing my order, she licked her fingers.

I ordered the cheese enchilada combo plate, 2 chicken tacos, a cheese crisp, and a 24oz side of rice and 24oz side of beans. I was charged a little over $35 and that charge also included the $0.50 charge fee. While waiting for the food, the employee came back telling me that she didn't charge me correctly for the rice and beans and asked for my card back. I asked her how much she originally charged me, and she said $0.15 for each when it should have been $15 EACH!!! I was shocked at that price bc I didn't remember seeing that amount online. I told her that seemed a little too much to pay $30 for rice and beans and then just said I would take an individual serving of each. Of course I get charged the $0.50 charge fee again, and never credited back the incorrect $0.30 they charged me for the first order. While I was still waiting for my food, I looked online and told her that the 240z rice and beans are $9 each. Not $15. She said that menu is outdated (it's the one on their website). And everything else I ordered was the correct cost as was on the website menu. I finally get the food and when I brought it home (less than a 3 min drive away), the chicken tacos were soggy. No crisp to the shells and the chicken was cold. The cheese crisp was not an open faced cheese crisp, but rather a folded cheese quesadilla (which is NOT what I wanted).

I wanted to like this place because the reviews made it seem like it was going to be amazing, but it was incredibly disappointing. I won't be giving them a...

This is a cute place, but don't let the good reviews fool you: TERRIBLE. Clearly all of the good reviews are most likely from gringos or bots. Being a Mexicana, I know what good mexican food is, and this was very disappointing. We got a Carne asada burrito, and the meat was the driest Carne I've ever had; almost tasting dehydrated. The beans were bland, and not fully mashed, which I know is bound to happen in some Mexican restaurants and is liked by some people, but bland? Never liked. The rice was extremely under-seasoned. And don't get me started on the "fry bread". That WAS NOT fry bread. It was bunuelos. It has a totally different texture than a fry bread, if you don't know what a bunuelo is; basically a fried tortilla. It was so hard that I could pick it up without it even bending, just like a plate. Our order was ready within 2 minutes of ordering, giving me the assumption that they aren't made to order; fresh fry bread takes 5-7 minutes to fry. Never again. Trust a true Mexicana, do not trust this restaurant. Disgusting.

EDIT: After posting my review, I decided to go over some of the other negative reviews. The company is very unprofessional and they do not take criticism well. They decide to downplay it instead of trying to keep customers happy. They clearly don't understand that customers come first. Their reputation will go down 1000% if they keep complaining or blaming the customer in their responses to the bad reviewers. Keep that in mind, "Maria's". Oh, and also, learn the difference between their, there, and they're if you're going to respond to a review. Lo siento, pero...