Buena Vida

I've been here a few times and finally getting around to write a review. I've only been for the unlimited brunch, because, why not? The food has consistently been good. The benedict, pork belly tacos, jalapeño corn bread, Nutella waffle and steak and cheese torta are some of my faves. The portions are small enough to where you can try many items on the menu. The interior is definitely Instagram worthy with the bohemian aesthetic.

It's a little confusing, but Buena Vida is on the 3rd floor of the building so keep heading up! I was also meeting friends for happy hour, but we were told that the happy hour deals were only available at the bar but by then we were already seated at a table.All that aside, the steak and cheese tacos were delicious, and they certainly didn't skimp on the meat! The rice and beans side dish was meh but the tacos were good so I was happy. One of my friends ordered the enchiladas which we found to be pretty flavorless so I'd stick with the tacos or something else on the menu.

This place is a scam. Read the editEdit: after receiving the check, we were surprised that the brunch special didn't include drinks. Apparently this fee was to give us the RIGHT to buy mimosas at a discount (44 to18), rather than giving us unlimited drinks as advertised. This was on top of the $40 charge for the brunch. Moreover, we were charged full price for pitchers of sangria. Discount sangria was available by the glass for $2, but apparently the PITCHER was not on discount. We were charged $44 for the pitcher. In what world does a pitcher hold TWENTY TWO glasses??This place is squeezing it's patrons, and I think it's because they're on their last legs. There's no way anyone would come back. If they closed within a year I would not at all be surprisedI came with a group of 9 for unlimited tapas and brunch drinks for $39.99 which sounds like a decent deal. We've came here since 2020 for brunch and dinner but maybe there's been a change in manager and the kitchen crew cause the quality has definitely been going down. Loved the high energy vibe and Instagram-worthy interior. Our service was great, very attentive, and food came out very fast. The food was quite bad. On paper and in pictures, they look quite yummy but everything was either too sweet or too bland. Pork Belly Taco- one piece of pork fat with maple syrup...why? We had such high hopes for this but it was such a disappointment. Caesar salad- soggy lettuceSalmon toast- very little salmon, very salty, dry, and tough but the toast was soggyBacon, Egg, & cheese-small bacon bits, barely any cheese, mainly just eggTaco de chorizo verde -again just eggChorizo Hash- the only decent dish with a good amount of chorizo and over easy eggBlueberry/Banana Nutella Waffle/- tasted very wet & soggy with cheap artificial store-bought icing Quesadilla Gringa-bland chicken

This was my second time coming for bottomless brunch with the girls. The food was good but many dishes tasted very similar and my taste palette got sick of it pretty quickly. The drinks were hit or miss; espresso martini was very strong and not the traditional drink usually like. My friend's Bloody Mary was also a let down as it tasted bland and watered down. Overall it was good vibes and decent food for a bottomless brunch...

I actually really enjoyed this spot! Located in Clarendon right next to Ambar. The inside is super cuteeee! There's a parking garage and street parking available (at a cost). They don't validate parking. I had booked a reservation for a fairly large group of 8 of us. We were seated upstairs. This is a great spot for large groups. The staff took foreverrrrr to take our orders which was my only complaint. The food didn't take super long to come and the staff were at least very kind and accommodating. The food was feugo!! They have a really good mix of dishes. We ordered the: Steak & Cheese tacos 8/10 Al Pastor tacos 8/10Crab Queso dip 9/10All tacos come with a side of beans & rice which was yummyyyy !!! Overall, I would definitely come back here. Such a great vibe and good food. Doesn't get better than that:

This is definitely one of those places that puts a lot of effort into the aesthetic of the restaurant and serves bland food, so you're really just paying for the ambiance.I saw an instagram video about the bottomless brunch here and decided to take a friend. When we first walked in to the place, we were greeted by a nice host and we were taken to our table upstairs right away since we had a reservation. Immediately we noticed how cold it was in the restaurant and there was a table of people near us who made the same comment. Because of this, all of the food that was brought to us was cold. But because we ordered the bottomless brunch, we wanted to try as much as we could. Our waiter that was helping serve us seemed to be either really busy or incredibly rude. He was very dismissive & difficult to communicate with. He did try to do his best when accommodating my dairy allergy sometimes. Other times, he would quickly wave off any hesitation I had when I was skeptical about a food having dairy in it.We kept ordering new menu items in hopes that it would get better, but all of the food tasted beige. No flavor, cold, no creativity, just lazy and plain. After an hour & a half of making the best of the situation and ordering a round of drinks, they finally turned the heat on AND opened the windows near us. Counterproductive, but it made a huge difference. So huge that about 10 minutes later we were all SWEATING. They need a better system of regulating the temperature in the restaurant.After we finished eating and paying for the bill, we took a quick survey on their POS system. Of course we gave them a thumbs down which apparently notified the restaurant manager, because she quickly came over to our table to discuss whatever issues we had. I was pleasantly surprised by this, and she did hear us all the way out as we described our experience. She invited us back for dinner on the house, but honestly would never go back there because the food is awful.Chips & Guac -- 2/10 mehChicken & Waffles -- 3/10 meh Jalapeño cornbread -- 4/10 mehChicken sliders -- 5/10Sweet potato hash (ordered w no crema) -- 6/10Breakfast tacos -- 6/10Banana nutella waffles -- 7/10Sweet plantains (comes with black beans) -- 6/10Mango margarita -- 1/10Sangria -- 8/10Mimosa -- 4/10 how do you ruin a mimosa :|

Solid spot to grab brunch with lots of people. But felt a little underwhelmed with the food. The best item was the chicken chilaquiles. Good crunch and solid amount. The tacos were meh, but the Nutella waffle and steak and cheese torta were tasty. We got different pitchers of mimosas and they tasted refreshing. Ambiance was okay, lots of house music. And you gotta pay for parking (garage or side street) which sucks. Service was solid though, and if I came back, it would probably be for a single entree or something.

Updating my review to account for both my original dinner experience and my recent weekday lunch here, which was abysmal. Same person was with me both times.We had a dinner here around a year ago where we were not super impressed with many of the items we received but the cocktails were solid and we were so floored by the quality of the enchiladas that we felt they made up for the lackluster components of our meal. My advice would simply have been to come back and just get cocktails and enchiladas, and skip the other stuff, and you'll be good.But a few days ago we came by for lunch and...yikes. My fiance got the chicken enchiladas. They were $22, which is pricey for enchiladas with just rice and beans on the side. But we remembered how good the enchiladas were last time. And my fiance said the flavor was again good this time but the portion was offensive. Like two small taquitos drowning in sauce. Meanwhile the rice and beans were completely flavorless so they contributed little to the meal.I ordered Buffalo shrimp tacos. The menu said the tacos were $5 and served in pairs. I asked if I could mix and match and was told no. My waitress also told me that it came two tacos to a plate with rice and beans. When my plate arrived there were no rice or beans and I asked about it and she said it did *not* come with rice and beans. And I said but you said it did. And she said no I said it doesn't come with them. After she left my fiance turned to me and said I hears the exact same thing you did.Whatever they would have been bland anyway.In fact, anticipating that two tacos here wouldn't be enough I also ordered guacamole, forgetting that last time the guacamole portion was hilarious. I paid $12 and they brought like...a spoonful of guacamole that wasn't even fresh or good. I guess they justify it by serving it alongside salsas and chips but at every other Mexican restaurant salsa and chips are free, these salsas were bland and had no spice, and the chips were flavorless and stale. So I paid for bad chips when most places give you tasty fresh ones on the house.At the end of our meal, we were both starving. It turned out that it was actually $5 for both tacos, which was a surprisingly good value, and I wish my waitress had explained that to me to begin with because then I might have ordered another pair before asking for the check. However, I am struggling, then, to understand why my two shrimp tacos were $5 in total when my fiance's bite-sized chicken enchiladas were $22.Overall, this was really disappointing and there is plenty of other Mexican around. I do think our dinner here was way better than this lunch so maybe lunch is just in particular an afterthought, but don't charge us $22 for an appetizer portion of food and bland rice, and $12 for a spoon of mediocre guacamole and stale chips.

Came here for the first time over the weekend to enjoy some time with out of town sorority sisters and settled on Buena Vida for brunch. It's $39.99 for unlimited small plates - I had the steak and cheese tortas and the Berry Jocoque with a mango margarita. I really enjoyed the steak and cheese torta and give it a 4/5. I give the Berry Jocoque a 3/5 because I felt the sauce really overpowered the little bit of yogurt there was on the plate but the large strawberries given helped salvage it. I'm not sure if it was because they were only $3.99 and apart of the brunch option but the mango margarita was extremely weak to the point where I couldn't taste any alcohol at all. It did taste refreshing but I thought it could've been just ever so slightly stronger, a 3/5. Very metro accessible and I was told there was rooftop but we did not know, maybe next time! The service was super friendly and patient as we were a table of 6 and I enjoyed there green, tropical decor that I felt as we walked in.

Food is vibrant and looks delicious but isn't as good as it looks. Tiny bit bland sometimes (avocado toast) and salty (the rest). The egg roll things were pretty tasty. The service was good here along with a brunch like ambiance around DC like almost any other AYCE place.