maria's taco xpress

road trip for tacos. awesome setting and food. we were here over the weekend and decided to hit up some triple d places in the process.
lots of color and signs and pictures everywhere, my adhd was going crazy and i found it hard to focus because of all the stimuli. we read aboutmaria'shistory on her picture. nice bathroom decor also.
we went with the al pastor plate and pollo guisado taco, avocado taco and the queso. we were not sure about the meat and pineapple of the al pastor but it was a delicious combo. good rice and beans. the queso was outstanding and some of the best we have ever had. tacos were also terrific.
we went twice. once was packed and the other time was slow so we got 2 separate experiences. this place can get packed with some wild and weird folks.
no diet dr pepper though.

jg score of 8 (+3 for food, +2 for atmosphere, +1 for price, 0 for no diet dr pepper, 0 for service and +2 for we would go back)

the best of austin.maria'spersonifies why austin is so cool. great tacos. excellent, funky, casual setting, inside or out (yes, i miss the old place but the new place has great improvements including more pleasant music venue). love it for breakfast tacos or dinner. have never had a bad experience here. friendly service.

what a cool place. we were planning a trip to austin and san antonio. looking at restaurants to visit, we picked out maria's. after reading reviews, we found it had been on diners, drive-ins, and dives. we watched the video and thought this was our type of place. we went on a weekday afternoon so it wasn't crowded at all. the girl who took our order was nice and helpful. i had the locamaria'sburrito which was very good. it came with rice and beans which were good but nothing special. my wife had a chicken enchilada, which was outstanding. while mine was really good and i'd order it again, i think she "out ordered" me. the salsas were also very good. i doubt we'll be back in the austin area anytime soon, but if we did, we'd go here again.

by far, the best breakfast taco ever. i tend to exaggerate.. a lot. but, there is no room for exaggeration when it comes tomaria'staco xpress.maria'soffers, by far the best breakfast tacos in austin if not all of texas. light and fluffy eggs, crispy bacon and tons of cheese. if you only get one meal in austin, make it breakfast at taco xpress.

righteous. tacomaria'sis totally epic. try one of their pollo guisado tacos and you'll be hooked. i love the veggie tacos too.

the only thing keeping this place from the stratosphere of awesomenivity is if the fact that they use store bought flour tortillas instead of freshly made. then again, almost no place in austin makes their own flour tortillas.

not so much. two stars out of a possible 5 stars. as i write this, i fear that there will be a contract put out on my life by the so austin mafia... so, i added a star for protection purposes. i will also add another star, because i probably have my head up my bum expecting something different to whatmaria'sis. it is an institution, and has a very loyal gathering. it's a hang out, and sitting outside i got a sudden flash back of the armadillo beer garden. there is a cornucopia of stuff to look at in a keep austin weird vein. it is whimsical perhaps magical place for some. this is lost on me. hence the head/bum reference. perhaps so many folks are in love with what is all around them, and not what is on their plate. i wouldn't set out to go there, but have gone a couple of times for teacher happy hour. the taco's are well, average. pile on the fresh condiments, and they are better... so why can't they start out great, and compliment them with condiments? salsa and chips good. queso, melted cheese in styrofoam cup. margaritas, decent, powdered mix in the frozens, mango nice change of pace. however, plastic cups, my big pet peeve. patio, nice, but don't wear shoes you care for since it is a mixture of clay and stones, making it muddy when it rains, and extremely dusty when it's dry. music... since i have been there only on fridays, i didn't care for the band, it was loud, and the venue is small, so no conversation allowed. however, last night, the food channel was there filming a show on dives and diners.. i wonder what they call maria's?