Las Marias, newly located on 7th and Main Street, is a Mexican restaurant that offers delicious food at the expense of great service. Except for the name, the food on the menu and a few paintings on the walls, excluding one that clearly did not match the Mexican theme, one would be unable to tell that Las Marias is a Mexican restaurant.

The restaurant as a whole is spacious, including the bar, which contains top-shelf liquor. Aside from having plenty of room, however, there is no real mood set due to the lack of music and décor, especially in the way of making the restaurant feel Hispanic.

The staff is efficient at seating their guests, though it took at least five to 10 minutes for anyone to get our drink orders and we were asked, “Did someone get your drinks?” when clearly none were on the table. Despite our display of the universal sign for “We’re ready to order”—closed menus—our waitress took several trips to finally get our food order down. Our shrimp and crab enchiladas and vegetarian burrito took a while to be served, but when they did, both entrees were excellent. Las Marias serves enough food to guarantee a stuffed stomach and leftovers.

Las Marias is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. They are vegetarian-friendly and even offer a vegetarian green chili salsa upon request. Prices are typical of any other sit-down restaurant in town with breakfast and lunch entrees ranging from $7 to $10 and dinner priced between $9 and $17 for seafood items. Keep in mind that the food may be worth it, but exceptional service is not included in the price.

★★★☆☆

arildefonso@mavs.coloradomesa.edu