On Sunday evening, I went out for an early dinner at a
little Mexican restaurant called Riviera Maya Mexican Cuisine. It is located in
Bogota, NJ at 252 East Fort Lee Road. Since it's opening in 2011, it has
received a number of rave reviews on Yelp, and currently has a rating of 4 out
of 5 stars on the app. Despite their many positive reviews, there have recently
been some less than shining ones. These critics claim that the restaurant is
not as great as other Yelpers (people who post reviews on Yelp) have made it
out to be. Some common complaints included in the negative reviews were that
the food was overpriced and under-seasoned. This mixture of positive and
negative reviews sparked my curiosity and made me want to go and see for myself
what this place is all about.
 |
| Exterior of Riviera Maya |
First of all, the restaurant was converted from a flower
shop a few years back and they have done a great job of making the most of the
small space. It definitely has a more authentic feel as opposed to the metallic,
fast-food feel of the many chain mexican places in the area like Chipotle and
Moe's. However, this difference is also reflected in the pricing of the food,
which I will go into more later in this post.
 |
| Interior: Bar-like seating facing small, open kitchen |
Other things to note if you are planning on dining here are
that it is BYOB, they have live music on Thursday and Friday nights, and they
accept all major credit cards. They have take-out and delivery options within
Bogota and to a number of neighboring towns including Teaneck, Hackensack and
Fort Lee. Also, they are closed Mondays.
 |
| Interior 2: Main Dining Area |
 |
| Interior 3: Additional seating |
For an appetizer we chose the table side guacamole due to
the overwhelming number of people who recommended it on Yelp. They make it
right in front of you and to your preference of spiciness and taste. It was
yummy, but it didn't totally blow me away. Also, for the nine dollar price tag,
I would have appreciated a little bit of a larger portion, as they did only use
one avocado to make it.
 |
| Fresh Guacamole, $8.95 |
For my main dish, I went with one of their specials called
Camarones al Tequila. Basically, this is a shrimp dish served with rice and
sweet plantains in a sweet and tangy mango sauce. It wasn't something that I
would normally order for myself but it was also recommended to me so I decided
to try it. I finished the whole thing and probably would have licked the plate
clean if I was in the privacy of my own home. The mango sauce paired with the
jumbo shrimp and the plantains created a delicious combination of flavors. I
would definitely go back just for this.
 |
| Camarones al Tequila, $21.95 |
Because I have a sweet tooth I couldn't resist ordering
dessert. My dining partner chose the crepes de cajeta and I got the tres leches. The tres leches was served in a small puddle of milk which made the cake
a little bit soggy at the base, but other than that the cake was light and
flavorful. Admittedly, I did prefer the crepas de cajeta, which are caramel
fried crepes served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was still
a little frozen and hard but we ate it anyway because of how delicious it
tasted with the caramel-drizzled crepes.
 |
| Crepas de Cajeta, $6 |
 |
| Tres Leches, $6.50 |
Ratings:
General Rating Scale: 1 = poor, 2 = nothing special, 3 = decent, 4 = very good, 5 = excellent
Food: 4/5 spoons
The food honestly exceeded my expectations, especially since
I went in expecting it to be bland from some of the reviews I had read on Yelp.
My only complaint would be that the portion of the guacamole did not match the
price you pay.
Service: 5/5 spoons
Although admittedly I may be biased since I kind of know the
family and the server who was helping us, we received excellent service which I
believe would have been the case regardless of whether we knew them or not.
People on Yelp agree that the service is very good, and that the waiters are
always super helpful and attentive.
Affordability: 3.5/5 spoons
This is really the only place where they lost points in my
book. It seemed like most of the dishes - even the appetizer and dessert
options, were pretty pricey. Compared to other Mexican franchises in the area,
Riviera Maya is much more expensive. However, you are paying more for the
authenticity and the local feel of the place, along with the variety of
different dish options.
Overall Experience: 4/5 spoons
The experience was great from beginning to end, and the only
thing that might deter me from returning soon would be the pricing. However,
since it is BYOB, that does kind of make up for it, especially if you are going
here for a date or with a group for dinner. The food, in my opinion, definitely
is worth trying though and I did not find it lacking in seasoning, as some Yelp
reviewers had. So, I say go ahead and try it if you have some extra cash in
your wallet and want some real, yummy Mexican cuisine that isn't a burrito
bowl.
