Sneak Peek: Maria Maria in Danville

The new Carlos Santana-backed restaurant brings it's authentic upscale Mexican food to Danville.

It seems everyone is jumping on the Taco Tuesday bandwagon these days. It is quickly becoming the perfect excuse for early week drinking—as if Cinco de Mayo happened 52 times a year. The new Maria Maria in Danville is the latest to tap into this trendy tradition, and since I’m always up for a good taco (slash libation), I decided to grab a friend and check it out.

Like it’s sister restaurant in Walnut Creek, the Danville Maria Maria offers $1 tacos and buckets of five Coronitas for $9. The tacos are fresh and flavorful, made with Tinga style chicken or beef (meat sautéed in a stew version of tomatoes, onion and cilantro), accompanied with shredded red cabbage and romaine and topped off with crema and cotija cheese. These were clearly a welcomed departure from the grease laden, Americanized tacos that live up to their dollar status and characterize most other Taco Tuesdays.

Maria Maria doesn't stop at Tuesday when it comes to promotional specials: the restaurant also offers Mojito Mondays; all day happy hour on Wednesdays with $5 margaritas and $2 Corona’s; and “Margarita Madness” on Thursdays. You can also see the influence of music legend—and Maria Maria partner—Carlos Santana through the live local music performed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Rounding out the week is half-price Sangria Sunday served alongside Maria’s brunch menu.

So yes, Maria Maria is a chain (there are now five locations as far away as Austin) and yes, it's a little promotion-heavy, but that's not to say it should be categorized with the likes of Chevys. Anyone who's been to the Walnut Creek location knows that the food reflects a focus on authentic, regional Mexican food with dishes such as duck tacos, baked cheese, mole casseroles, and enchiladas "suizas."

Also like Walnut Creek, the Danville restaurant was buzzing with activity on our visit while still managing to maintain a cozy ambiance. The rectangular-shaped restaurant is sectioned off by long draping mobile curtains that serve to separate the bar and lounge area from the restaurant. The walls are painted in warm colors and are adorned by vibrant artwork reflective of the creativity, passion and culture of Santana’s native Mexico. The bar itself is large and inviting, essential since it's the first thing you see upon walking in the door and is open an hour later than the kitchen. And the adobe-style patio is sure to be a winter hit with its immense fire pit.

The service, it should be said, still needs to work out some opening month kinks. We were seated in the bar/lounge (the only area of the restaurant that honors the Taco Tuesday special) and had to wait quite a while both to be seated as well as to receive our order, which turned out to be incorrect. Fortunately our server graciously corrected the miss-order so while there were some definite kinks to work out, it was nothing so egregious as to stop a visit to this fun new location!

Maria Maria La Cantina, 710 Camino Ramon Rd., Danville, (925) 820-2366, mariamariarestaurants.com, Sun–Thurs: 11:30am–10pm, Fri & Sat: 11:30am–11pm.

 

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