My family and I had the opportunity to visit Masa, a restaurant in Lindon located at 190 South State Street. When we pulled up to the restaurant on the northwest corner at State Street and 200 South, I was surprised to see how small it was.
But as soon as I walked in, it reminded me of some great big-city restaurants as well as some small-town restaurants that I loved so much in Oregon.
Service: One thing that matters to me when I eat out is whether the workers are friendly or not. I’m not saying that I don’t eat at restaurants if people aren’t nice but if I’m really going to devote my money to them and visit often, I don’t want to feel like they don’t care that I just walked in the door. When I walked into Masa, Gavin, one of our servers, was very kind, greeted us with a huge smile, and seated us. He even pulled out my chair for me and my 3-year old daughter’s chair! (… And he’s a sophomore in high school! What?! Husband, take notes.) I watched as Mosi, one of the owners of Masa walked around, talking to guests, and making sure they were doing alright. I watched as Katelynn, another beautiful young server made sure that all of the guests were getting the food and drinks that they wanted.
Soon Mosi was visiting our table explaining their current menu. If you want to meet a dedicated, hard-working, yet kind and attentive individual, you’re going to want to meet Mosi. I’ve met plenty of business owners who try to be kind but if they feel like their time is spent better elsewhere, they’ll walk away from me in the middle of a conversation. But not Mosi. I know he was busy at the dinner rush hour but if we had questions or concerns about anything, he was more than willing to listen to us and answer our questions.
I also met Brady, the owner of the property and a social marketing guru. As we had never been to a place like Masa before in Utah, we had plenty of questions and he was more than willing to talk to us as well, even though he was heading out to a family event.
Katelynn was so sweet. I watched as she approached everyone with a smile and treated my little 3-year old daughter so kindly. Kayla was another girl who I only met briefly but she connected to my daughter immediately as they found out that they both loved shoes. Gavin was constantly making sure we had plenty to drink and that we were enjoying our food. I don’t drink much while I eat but my husband does and almost every time we eat out, he runs out of water in his glass. But at Masa? My husband never once mentioned to me that he needed more to drink. The servers/wait staff (are they the same?) may be young but these kids know how to work hard and treat their customers well.
Food: I love any form of Mexican food. I’m not really picky unless it’s a fast food place, in which case I usually won’t eat it. I went to Masa thinking it was going to be a normal Mexican restaurant. But it wasn’t at all. The food was not only delicious, it also was presented like I was eating at a very fancy restaurant. And I thought it was going to be normal Mexican food because I knew they sold tacos but you really can’t compare these tacos to other tacos because they’re not the same. Sure, the food is served on a tortilla and you can eat it like a normal taco, but these little bites of heaven … they’re no ordinary taco. Well, just take a look for yourself:
Our little kiddos also were treated with a yummy kids meal of quesadillas with a bowl of beans and a cream mixture of some sort (like sour cream but I don’t think it was sour cream, and I forgot to ask).
We also had this amazing “palate cleanser.” It was green apple sticks but they had this amazing sweet flavor. I don’t even like green apples but I wouldn’t let Katelynn take the plate away until we were basically leaving because I couldn’t stop eating them.
Masa also serves a delicious plantain dessert. I have never liked plantains, my husband doesn’t like feta cheese, and apparently it’s made with coconut oil and usually the mention of “coconut” in any of our food makes us feel a little queasy. But we tried it anyway (I’m not sure why). However, I am so glad we tried it. If it had been appropriate to lick the bowl, I would have. My husband even ate the cheese! We ended up telling our kids that they might eat ice cream later so that we could finish the dessert.
The Menu: As they are still new and figuring out the last kinks of owning a restaurant such as theirs, they don’t have a concrete menu yet but look for it in the next few weeks. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner and breakfast will be new this week so I’ve yet to try it but if it’s anything like dinner, I have no doubts it will be delightfully tasty. They are thinking of doing a couple of different actual taco bar options which is exciting for people like me who love to try a variety of different foods. However, we’ll have to wait until they decide what they will do for sure.
Another fun thing they came up with is putting the menu in little Spanish books. Then for the children, their menus will be in children’s books, such as Disney books. And I know with assurety that my daughter would love such a thing! Plus it would help make the time go by so much faster while the kids are waiting for their food to arrive with a fun book to look at!
Recommendations: Honestly, it was all good. I really liked the vegetarian taco (pictured above with the feta, avocado, etc) and the plantain dessert.
To enjoy a lovely meal at Masa, find them at 190 South State Street, Lindon.
Family friendly? Yes
People friendly? Yes
Stomach friendly? Yes
All photos belong to Utah Valley Moms. They may not be reproduced or used without written permission. Utah Valley Moms was given a meal in exchange for this blog post, however, all opinions are our own.
