One thing pretty much every person who has ever met me knows is that I am a fiend for Mexican food. I’m not sure when it started, but as a kid I loved whenever we went out to dinner at the local (and, in retrospect, fairly average) Mexican restaurant. Getting Mexican was always one of the highlights of the family trips we took to California to visit our relatives. I even lived in New Mexico for awhile, where I grew to love New Mexican food even more than the food from Mexico. So, needless to say, when it comes to Mexican, I take things very seriously, and I’m also very picky. Cantina Los Mayas is known for having an exclusively Mexican wine list, and isn’t that a good enough reason to go and check it out?
The restaurant itself isn’t that big, and it’s decorated very nicely. We were quickly shown to our seats where we perused the menu. Ceviche is always something that we want to order, so we got the shrimp and scallop version on the menu. I always love a good dip when getting Mexican, but instead of the standard guacamole, we opted to get the Sikil Pak, a Mayan dip made from pepitas. The last small plate we ordered was the salbuts, a puffed corn tortilla with fillings. They allow you to get two different fillings, so we got the cochinita pibil and a renello negro turkey fillings. All three choices were excellent and full of flavor, with the turkey salbut being a surprise hit for both of us. The Sikil Pak was also very nice, but felt slightly underseasoned, and having it with the tortilla chips definitely helped bring out some of the flavor. But the big winner? The salsas! They provide three different ones with three different heat levels, and we just couldn’t stop eating all of them. (And thankfully, they refilled them as well).
For our main course we split the Molcajete Mixto, which is a giant bowl full of grilled meats, seafood and cactus. The other half had an amazing version in Mexico, which I hear about pretty much every time this dish is on a menu, so it’s always a top choice for us at restaurants as he wants to find another that is equally as good. And while he felt this one wasn’t there, we were both really happy with the cooking on all of the food, even the octopus! I should also mention that all of the Mexican wine we chose with dinner was absolutely delicious. And of course I wanted dessert, so we shared something similar to a French toast with ice cream and had even more delicious wine.
I really loved the vibe at Cantina Los Mayas, and the food was incredibly tasty. The salsas are heavenly, and they really did provide what felt to be an authentic Mexican meal to our table. Pair that with some interesting Mexican wines, and you really do get a special experience. It will definitely stay on my list of places to go when I’m really craving some non-Taqueria Mexican, even if it is a bit of a trek from my place.
Score: 4/5
Cantina Los Mayas
431 Balboa St
San Francisco, CA 94118
