Maya Brunch, Shanghai

Miss F was craving something mexican, as I was, so we ventured to Maya for Sunday brunch. She had heard that Maya was arguably the best Mexican restaurant in town. With that, it sounded like a challenge – as if someone was talking smack about your mother. It was an honor I had to dispute or reinforce.

Maya is located in, of all places, an apartment complex. I wasn’t sure I was heading in the right direction when the taxi dropped us off inside the complex. They occupy, strangely enough, the 2nd floor of a community center. Then as we walked inside and up the stairs, with the directed sign, I still didn’t feel all that sure. Heck the door was closed, which had me thinking that Maya was closed or something. But luckily, someone opened up the door. The main dining room was empty, appearing as if Maya’s business wasn’t all that good. It would soon start to change once we got into the sunnier dining room with other brunch-ers.

After a once over with the menu, I knew 2 things – 1. I wanted the Breakfast burrito and 2. the bottomless margarita was mine to take advantage of. But darn it, Miss F choose the burrito before I could get a word in. Didn’t matter, I was going to make her share with me anyways. I was perplexed for a bit, since I wasn’t all that certain of my secondary backup choice. If there was perhaps one thing to improve on, it was improve the menu wording of the menu to make it more appealing. Anyways. . . I picked the Pan de Maiz Huevos Benedictos – sort of the Eggs Benedict – Mexican style, since the corn muffin sounded interesting. Also, I had quickly calculated that 3 or more margaritas would allow us to break-even, since each of them were 50 RMB. It was also kinda funny that Miss F quickly cancelled her order of Milk – yes Milk, and got a bottomless margarita, too.

The gaucamole and chips were a nice starter. The fresh gauc is always a good thing. But it may have had a bit too much garlic. Perhaps this version of gauc is more suited for cooking and tacos, rather than for chips. But we didn’t argue much about it, since we, mostly I, polished off chips.

Our margaritas came, slower than I liked, to begin our Sunday afternoon buzz session. We started off with the Mango, then Strawberry, and lastly Passion Fruit. I was on foursquare, a friend Miss B, mentioned that the Passionfruit margarita was her favorite, so I was looking forward to it. If I had to rank the 3 margaritas, in order of preference, I would start with the Passion Fruit, then Mango, and last (but not least) the Strawberry. I notice in Asia, the liberal use of different fruits is more apparent than in the US. I don’t think I would had seen a passionfruit or mango margarita.

Then the burrito and eggs benedicto arrived. And we were hungry! I had generously given one of the benedictos to Miss F, to get her to give me half of her burrito – so it worked! The slightly spicy red sauce was a great addition to the flavor soy the benedictos. The perfectly poached egg, with the runny yolk, Red Pepper Hollandaise, and red sauce produced a great combination of flavors. This mixture seeped into the fluffy and moist cornbread muffin – which was awesome! I think I choose wisely! The burrito, on the other hand, was also very good. Though I was used to the LA fast-food breakfast burritos, this one was pretty good. We also slathered some of that great guacamole onto the burrito, which kicked up another notch of creaminess.

After looking over the standard dinner menu, I noticed that Maya doesn’t do the standard carne asada taco or cheese enchilada, but they looked to create dishes with rabbit and turkey, and goat. Maya is an upscale Mexican restaurant, while Cantina and El Mexicano will cater to the more popular Mexican dishes.

What to Order: Pan de Maiz Huevos Benedictos
What not to Order:

Rating
3 Pigs
Price Range 2 $/¥/NT

Links
Smart Shanghai, Shanghaiist, Tripadvisor, CNNGo, City Weekend, Black Book Mag, Facebook Listing, From Dumplings to Donuts, Sugared & Spiced, Best Food in China, Dining Secretary, Dianping

玛雅 Maya
巨鹿路568号四方新城俱乐部2楼, 近陕西南路
2/F, Shanghai Grand Plaza Club, 568 Julu Lu, near Shaanxi Nan Lu
+86 21 6289 6889
Maya Site

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