Maria's Cocina Mexicana

Maria's Cocina Mexicana is the independent dining room University Place points to when it wants to prove it is a community rather than a retail corridor. The restaurant sits on Bridgeport Way West, the city's main north–south street, and its operators describe it plainly: locally owned and family operated, serving made-from-scratch Mexican cooking to University Place for over 25 years. The room is hacienda-styled and hung with paintings, there is a full bar, and the kitchen runs late enough on Friday and Saturday to catch people coming back from Chambers Bay or a summer concert at the orchard. Reservations and catering are offered directly through the restaurant. In an area where most of the eating options are national brands attached to parking lots, a quarter century of continuous family ownership on the same arterial is the distinguishing fact.

Verified details

Only facts we have checked against a named source inside their freshness window appear here. Anything that lapses disappears rather than going stale.

What to know

• Hours here are the operator's own published times and run later on Friday and Saturday than the rest of the week.
• Parking and accessibility are not covered because the restaurant does not publish them.

Editor's tips

• Book ahead on Friday and Saturday evenings — the operator recommends reserving, and this is the closest sit-down room to Chambers Bay.
• It is on Bridgeport Way, the same corridor Pierce Transit Route 53 uses between Tacoma Community College and University Place, so it works without a car.