Casa Maya, Gillette – Review

by Alice Magdziak • September 14, 2012 • Food, NJ Olé • Comments (0) • 2774

Our friend recommended her favorite Mexican restaurant to us several months ago and we finally made it there last week. Great suggestion, Cathy! Casa Maya is a tiny looking restaurant from the street but once you get inside you see plenty of seating and room between tables to get past other diners when you’re being seated. It makes a cozy atmosphere.

We almost didn’t have dinner that evening because Ed forgot his wallet and didn’t realize it until we walked into Casa Maya. I had a debit card with me but wasn’t sure if I had enough money on it to pay for dinner. After checking my balance, we decided that we could stay and we’re glad we did. Besides if we overspent Ed is great at washing dishes.

Chips and salsa arrived nearly as soon as we sat down.

Salsa was really good and fairly spicy for the standard free salsa. The chips were warm but could have been warmer for a real treat but who can complain about free chips? Nice touch using an actual salsa serving bowl.

A tipster on FourSquare said that we should try the chorizo quesadilla as an appetizer so we obliged.

Fresh veggies, really delicious chorizo that was served in a small enough dice that you didn’t get a mouthful of only sausage. Lots of great cheese. Much better than the average quesadilla. Casa Maya is looking good so far.

For our entrees, we picked chicken enchiladas verdes and chicken fajitas. We probably should have chosen something with shrimp because we’d read lots of good things about various shrimp dishes but due to our limited funds we needed to go slightly cheaper. Based on how good the chicken was, though, we can only imagine that the shrimp dishes from their extensive menu must be amazing. We will be back for the shrimp!

The salsa verde was spicier than the usual verde sauce you get which was a welcome change. The chicken tasted freshly cooked and was moist and tender enough that no knife was needed. Even the tortillas were nicely warmed and not just an afterthought to hold in some filling.

The big surprise, though, was the refried beans. They have such a unique taste that we eschewed most of the rice on our dishes to finish all the beans. They almost taste like they have some mole sauce in there. Smoky and slightly tangy, these beans were something that I wanted to order more of to take home and enjoy later. Normally, Ed doesn’t eat much of his refried beans but on this night he finished them all. Darn, I was hoping for more!

The chicken fajitas had lots crispy veggies and tender chicken. They served plenty of tortillas with the fajitas, too. Usually you only get three tortillas which isn’t nearly enough for all the fillings you get. Casa Maya gave us six tortillas which was just about right for sharing. They were served with a really great guacamole which Cathy already told us was something to make sure we tried.

The restaurant is aglow with lots of lights strung around the ceiling. There are tchotchkes all over which adds a touch of fun.

There is limited parking so you might need to drive around a little bit to find a legal place to leave your car but it’s worth it. It’s also not easily accessible from many highways but that kind of adds to the charm of the place. You drive around on seemingly country-like roads and then all of a sudden you’re in a small business area with cute little Casa Maya as the focal point.

Like our friend, Cathy, we recommend that you take the drive to Gillette and try out Casa Maya.