Adam & Eats: Maravillas

Editor’s note: Adam Brandt is a graduate from the Cobra Kai School of Culinary Callousness, where he received their highest award, the Red Apron of Merciless Eating. Aside from eating and talking about eating, he makes pots, paintings, prints, books, photographs, and generally, a big mess. He has been the studio assistant at Mudpuppy Pottery for almost nine years and is attending a local university in a desperate attempt to earn a biology degree.

I was going to save this review for later, but the more I think about it, the more excited I get. So, you get it now rather than later. Why am I so excited, you ask? Well, a new restaurant piqued my interest, so I decided to try it out and see what kind of potential this place has. It is this humble eater’s opinion that this place is oozing with potential and, with the right cliental and a little fine tuning, will be great. I’ll stop building it up, and tell you all about it now.

Located in what was once a terrible Chinese buffet, right next door to Golden Corral, is the new home of Maravillas Southwestern Grill & Cantina. I’ll just call it Maravillas for short. Maravillas, meaning wonders or marvels in Spanish, is just that: marvelous.

Finally, after five years of trying, they are open for business and you, my dear readers, are in for a treat. This is Southwestern food gone fine dining. You can tell that they consider themselves fine dining because they refer to the menu selections as “Southwestern” rather than “Tex-Mex.”

Anyway, they have done amazing things to the interior of this building. The first thing they did was scrap all of the booths that had been there forever and replaced them with tables and chairs. Next, they got rid of the steam tables, built a wall to separate the cantina from the dining area, changed the lighting up, and presto, you’ve got yourself a nice restaurant. Okay, so a little more than that went into the remodeling, but you get the picture.

Also, is it just me, or is everyone there ridiculously nice? The waitstaff are on point with five-star service and do not hesitate for a second to answer any questions that you may have. (This is the part of the review where I send my deepest gratitude to Alma, my incredibly patient server, and to Ramon, the co-owner, for answering my hundreds of questions and tolerating my terrible attempts at speaking Spanish. Thank you very much.)

Let’s talk about grub, shall we? I typically skip the appetizers, and dive straight into the entrée, but I’ve heard mixed reviews about the chile con queso. I, personally, don’t know because I bypassed it and headed straight for the Combo Plate, or as I like to call it, dinner choice numero uno for indecisive people. You get three of the entrees and two sides. It is enough to feed two people, easily.

Where entrees are concerned, you have your choice of chicken, steak, shrimp, or cheese as a filling for any of your choices, so go wild. The chicken and steak are both well seasoned, tender, and juicy. The tacos are, well, just tacos. They are good, but nothing to devote more than a sentence to.

The chile rellenos, on the hand, are spec-friggin-tacular. I recommend ordering them stuffed with steak. The combination of the flavors of the meat and the poblano is out of this world. The enchiladas and burritos are also wonderful. Plus, you get to top every entrée with your choice of their specialty sauces. I am a pretty straight forward guy, so I let the Chef dress my three choices as he saw fit. It worked in my favor, let me tell you.

If you haven’t eaten there, I suggest doing the same and taking notes on what you like and don’t like. Or get the sauces on the side. As far as side dishes go, I would eat the black bean soup every day of my life if I could get away with it. It is rich, savory, subtly spicy, and just plain old yummy. The refried beans rank right up there with the black bean soup in the scrumptious department. No meal with beans would be complete without the yin to the bean’s yang, Spanish rice. Well cooked, perfectly seasoned, and savory down to the last bite.

I could go on and on about this place, but I’ll just let you try it and decide for yourself. They are still working out a few kinks, but I believe that this place has got what it takes to make life worth living in Fort Smith. I will leave you with four words to entice you to try it. Homemade. Ice. Cream. Sandwiches.

Until next week, good eating.

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Adam also has this thing called Sandwich Control.