Ma Cualli — Restaurant in Rapid City

I'm going to give a "3" largely on how I saw others enjoying their meals. My wife and I went there almost a week ago, on a Friday afternoon, it was at the height of the lunch hour and the expected wait time for the two of us was 40 minutes to an hour. As we stood there deciding, more and more people came in, and many of them waited, we did not. But I must surmise that the food is very good for it to be that crowded and yet many people stayed waiting for a table. My wife really did want to try the food, so later in the afternoon, around 3:30 or so, she called and ordered a burrito supreme to go. Apparently (by way of the online menu) this burrito comes with queso, which neither of us want, so she got the burrito without it. So without the queso it was literally a tortilla with seasoned ground beef. It did taste pretty good, but not really sure it rises to the level of "Supreme". It did come with some chips and salsa, and the salsa was VERY good. When I picked it up in that 3:30 or so time, the place still had a lot of customers, so really, they must be doing something right. It wasn't taking care of me though as I stood at the counter for more than 13 minutes waiting for help or even recognition. All this being said though I would still like to try eating there . . . Unfortunately I just don't think it will be possible! The place is loud, and I mean sitting on a runway while jets are taking off and jackhammers are tearing up the concrete loud! Even when I came back in the late afternoon when the crowd wasn't that big, it was "Acid Rock Heavy Metal Concert" loud. As both a senior and a combat veteran there is literally no way, I could stay in that building. It was so loud it hurt. Business owners have to realize two things, the US has been in war for more than two decades and almost all of us combat veterans have hearing/noise aversion issues and #2, as a country we are getting older not younger. Most seniors I know (and yes there were a (very) few seniors there waiting for lunch) but most seniors I know just cannot enjoy ourselves in that excessively loud environment. I realized the acoustics have a lot to do with the building itself, but I also know, from reading other comments here, that the owners are aware of this common complaint. So, as much as I'd love to enjoy a meal here, until they put some foam baffling or something up in the ceiling or some other way lower the volume I sadly won't be a customer. My recommendation for seniors and combat veterans, don't put yourselves in harms way by visiting here. It's...

Just came from lunch at Ma Cualli. Greeted upon entry, and everyone was very nice! We sat at the bar to grab some lunch. Liam was our server. Looked at the menu and toward the bottom were lunch specials. Lunch guacamole, $7. In the bottom corner of the menu, they offered four dollars off of enchiladas, burritos and combinations when ordered between 11 & 2. Ordered “lunch” guacamole and pointed to it on the menu. Also ordered suiza enchiladas, and pointed to them on the menu. Got the guacamole made tableside, which was very good. Our food came out rather quickly to my surprise! Everything was hot and good. Was not presented bill when finished-was read our order from a handheld machine. Daughter paid. I asked for a receipt. Looked over the receipt and saw we were charged $11 for the lunch guacamole, and was not given $4 off enchiladas for lunch. Brought to Liam’s attention. He questioned if I told the lady making the guacamole what size guacamole I wanted… didn’t know I was supposed to tell her what size when I placed my lunch size guacamole order through him(nor did she ask)… and the enchiladas, when the menu states $4 off enchiladas, burritos, combinations, I thought that’s what you got -$4 off if you ordered those items within that time frame. Didn’t see on the menu 1) one had to request the lunch portion for the $4 off, and 2)when one orders lunch guacamole (specifically)- it needs to be clarified with the person making the guacamole as well. So Liam did not honor the $7 guac that was ordered-making it my fault for not telling the guac lady what my order was nor was the $4 off enchiladas honored because I was pointing to the regular size plate (that was where the description of the plate was). First time visiting-not a good first impression.

UPDATE: reached out to Ma Cualli after their response was posted to my review. Had to do that via email because one can't respond to their response on google. Wondered why their responses don't include a "come back and we will make it right" they only respond "you should have let one of our 4 managers on the floor know what happened" still waiting for a response...

Went for lunch around 1pm on a Monday. Got right in. We both ordered the combination lunch of a taco, beef enchilada with your choice of sauce (both got queso-amazing!) and rice and beans. I splurged and got the lunch sized traditional margarita. Chips were warm and yummy and delivered with a carafe of salsa. The margarita arrived quickly and was a nice size for the lunch price of $7 - a larger one is way more than I can drink so this was perfect! Lunch came quickly and nice and hot with portions being quite large. The soft taco was scrumptious! Lots of delicious seasoned beef and cabbage in place of lettuce which was good! Only thing I would have liked would be some chopped tomatoes but the flavors were excellent! The beef enchilada with queso was excellent as well! Plenty of meat and sauce - not stingy at all on the queso. I tend to judge a good Mexican restaurant by the quality of their rice… if the rice is bad… well I may not come back. Rice was fantastic as were the beans. Our server was very sweet and efficient. She told us it was her third day and business had been extremely busy. I drive by here on my way home almost daily - of the 2 weeks they’ve been open it’s packed every night when I drive by. They do have a waitlist option online to get added on virtually and you are told the approximate wait time which we will definitely do since we live just 5 minutes away and can relax at home until a few minutes before our table is ready. Rated our experience 5 stars across the board! Food - outstanding! Service - outstanding! Atmosphere-outstanding! Clean, open and visually appealing, seating comfortable. Maybe lower the music a hair for easier conversation but a great new restaurant!! So...