La Buena Vida replaced Totopos in Cary. The ambience is upscale and very cute. They had amazing music videos playing in the screen. On a weeknight, the music was not too loud and we were able to carry on our conversations. Our food was pretty good, especially the Birria Rolls and ACP. The Churros was alright but the presentation was cool tho. We were a table of 3 people and they automatically added an 18% gratuity to our bill. That was odd and new since that's usually done with a large table. I'd like to come back again on a weekend and see the vibe. It's awesome to have a lively place in good old Cary. read more

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Let's begin with the service... Roberto isn't just the face of La Buena Vida, he might be my new best friend! He was amazing and created a customer for life. The food? We were there for nearly 3 hours and while the company certainly part of the enjoyment, the staff and atmosphere were an addition! Highly recommend this place! Just make sure to ask for Roberto! read more

The atmosphere was fantastic! Our server, Lizther, was super attentive and helpful in describing the location and menu options. Super friendly and could always be found if we needed anything. The atmosphere for lunch (Saturday at around 130p) was laid back and service very quick! We are excited to return to try out their sushi options (yes I know, didn't expect them to have Sushi here!) It will also be nice to try the pork belly tacos, which were also unavailable while we were here. We had the empanadas, ACP, and enchilada trio and all the food was fantastic and full of flavor! read more

Reserved this Cary location for my birthday. I had experienced the Raleigh location for a previous birthday (great experience!) Party of 6 reservations for 8:00...hostess first told us we couldn't sit until all of our party was there...ok so my party was there by 8:05...then she said they were running behind on reservations & they will sit us as soon as some ppl started clearing out. 9:05...they took us to a table. 1 hour later! So unprofessional! No apology, they didn't even offer us a drink while we waited. 1 of my guests left while we waited the hour bc they were taking too long. I love celebrating my birthday but I hate a bad experience that I have no control of. I will have to stick to the Raleigh location whenever I want La Buena Vida again read more

To start, food was pretty good. Nothing to really complain about there other than the queso dip was a little spicier than needed. And having tk pay for chips and salsa. The big complaint? We were there at 5pm on a Saturday evening and the music was insanely loud. Like nightclub loud. Like the waitress had to lean into my ear and scream to be heard. I could feel the bass in my chest. At 5pm, it was wholly unnecessary. Turn the music up at 8. Before then, could I just have a conversation with my table mates? Also, we asked for milk for our kids to drink. Waitress said sure - they were $5 A PIECE when we got the bill. I wish she would have let us know. Two entrees, two kids meals, a queso and a margarita ended up being $115 with tip. Expensive is fine but it seemed excessive. I know they have a kids menu, but not a family friendly place in the least bit. Maybe that's what they're going for? In a former Chili's in suburban Cary, it seems like a weird choice. Stay away if you have kids. read more

Had an amazing experience here! I came to celebrate my sisters birthday with my family and we all had a great time. The drinks and carne asada are amazing! read more

The ambience and vibe were awesome - very well decorated place, great music, birthday celebrations are fun. Was a bit loud, so you'll have to talk loud if you're having a conversation. Super creative drink menu. The service was also good , although our food came out a bit staggered. The food was very mediocre - not really anything super special - a bit bland to be honest. I would go back if a group of friends wanted to have a good time, but I don't think we would really go back specifically for the food. Still excited to have a little posh place in Cary! read more

Bernice was the best waitress that I've ever had in life! Come here, it's a GREAT TIME!

Ambience, service, creative menu and cocktails with hilarious names and glasses to go with them! Definitely recommend the Biria rolls.

We went to celebrate a birthday and had a blast. We did a 5:30 reservation because we had our three kids. Food was really good. Cocktails and mocktails were great. We really enjoyed the festive atmosphere. If you have kids with you, I would recommend an early dinner to be out by 7 because it becomes more of an adult environment. read more

I had a party here for my friend's 50th birthday and they did not disappoint. Viviana was amazing and helped me with party planning details. Lister was attentive and catered to the needs of all the party guest. I can't say enough about Lister, he provided excellent, top notch service all night! The bartender was making great drinks. I would definitely go back again to have another party due to the fun atmosphere, music and service. read more

Literally my first time at this place and if anyone was excited to come, it was ME!!! The place was mad lit and the food was actually not bad, but when I tell you the service was GARBAGEEEEE. Pure nasty waste trash can garbage. It just seemed like the staff was more worried about "turning up" than actually making sure their guest was happy. I came with my friend and family. My FOUR YEAR OLD SON who got a pepperoni pizza, was the very LAST person to receive his meal. They kept trying to say because it was "busy" and "the food comes out made to order"???? So why was a kids pepperoni RED BARON pizza the LAST to come out??? Then when we complained, my guest who also got her food the same time as the pizza (basically an hour and a half later from everyone else getting food) the manager decides to comp my son's food and my aunt's food which she didn't like but her food wasn't even delayed. All around poor management in my opinion based on a former hospitality manager. Really wanted to have the La Buena Vida experience but the service was so bad, if food is too hard to push out. Just make it a bar read more

La Buena Vida - Cary - This is the pizza that took an hour and a half btw ‍‍‍ - Mexican Near Me - Cary, North Carolina

High energy, entertaining place for a Friday night dinner. When you're too old to hit the clubs, you can still come here and have dinner with a show. The waiters were attentive and professional. Our whole time they had a live saxophonist and drummer. The food was good & reasonably price. The drinks were great. Would recommend if you're looking for an event. Not a quiet sit down dinner, but something a lot more entertaining. read more

The food is delicious and the drinks are really cute and fun! The atmosphere is really nice and gives good vibes. Service was also good. I came early during the day and will plan to come back another time at night to get the full experience. read more

The food is amazing! This place is so fun if you love music and lively. Go get the skinny margarita or Bath Tub. Service is top notch. Great place to celebrate your birthday! read more

Great ambience, food and drinks!! Enchiladas, salsa trio, and mango drink alot of fun. Thanks great experience.

This is not your parents Mexican restaurant. it's more high end, cleaner, more waiters (wearing sanitary gloves) and no free chips or dips. we had a party of six adults on a Saturday night around 5:00 PM. we were seated immediately and ordered at a good pace. We did order chips and salsa as an appetizer. it came quickly although the quantity was less than we expected. We all ordered entrees. The entrees came out individually over a ten minute stretch. A little unusual and somewhat inconvenient. However, we contributed this to preparing each entree individually. The food was tasty and everyone in the party was happy with both quantity and taste. one aside, the dinner menu does not allow for ground beef, was told that was only available at lunch. S steak it was. This made things a little more expensive but not terrible. I would rank this about a 3.75. Atmosp was great and the mixed drinks looked coole and expensive. Sodas came in tall and skinny 8 ounce glasses. A little strange. read more

Bad experience. No menus. They finally brought us an old menu, however some pages were missing. Food was NOT good. Very expensive. We will not be going back to this new restaurant. read more

Hidden gem for lunch! The current $6.99 lunch special is delicious and a generous serving. Our server Maria was attentive and so professional! read more

The drinks were fantastic, but all of our food came out at completely different times. They let us know food would take a while when we ordered, but one us had their order come out 5 minutes later. 15 minutes later two of our orders came out. Then 30 minutes later my husband finally got his. The service was great, but someone comes by to talk to you every couple minutes which was a bit much and not one of those servers apologized for the food. When my husband asked about where his food was he was blown off. It was actually kind of funny because they said "Octopus takes a while to cook" but then after my husband got his food they cooked octopus at another group's table by lighting it on fire there soooo....idk maybe it was already cooked before lit it on fire lol. Atmosphere is awesome though! read more

This place was great!!! Service food and drinks was amazing. Definitely a great vibe. Party time. Great for birthday parties. Bridal parties or just living life. I highly recommend read more

This place was an EXPERIENCE. The food is amazing as well as the atmosphere. There are multiple shows like live music and all shots and some food come with a show. After around 8 it is very much club vibes with loud music but the music is good just be prepared for it to be loud at times! Our serve German was very helpful and fun. Overall such a good time unlike any other place in Cary! read more

Food was excellent! Service was even better , our server was lizther he received us very well . We will definitely be back soon !

Great place to have. Good evening. Drinks and atmosphere. Love it and recommend it. Excellent food and people

I really wanted to enjoy this restaurant and the cool vibe that it seemed to have.. First, it was so loud and unbelievably noisy that we were unable to hear one another in our small 4 person group. Secondly, the lighting was incredibly dark...so much that it made it impossible for a 50 something person to see the menu via the QR code on my relatively small IPhone screen. I contacted them today to advise them that an I8 percent gratuity was automatically added to the bill without notice from the waiter. I added another 20 percent because the food service was decent (a 38% total tip). I was scolded over the phone that they print the added gratuity rules on the menu and also show "additional tip" on the receipt itself. Although technically correct.... these things are virtually unnoticeable in the tiny font on the top right of the menu ...let alone unreadable in the dark conditions of the restaurant. I have only seen automatic gratuity on very large bills or parties of 6 or even 8 or more. The manger was rude, unapologetic and she could frankly care less about the misunderstanding. I will never be a patron here again and it's a ridiculous place with a ridiculous staff. Pick a different restaurant... plenty of other places to go that value people of all types... not just young ones with young eyes. read more

I was deceived by the experience I had the first time. The first time I went there with my parents, we had a great time as the service was great (even though it was a busy day and they were understaffed), food and drinks were great, and the ambience was really nice. However, I then went back a second time with my friends and the experience was nothing like the first time. We had to wait an hour or so for our food and even when the food did arrive one of my friends was given the wrong food (he had asked for burrito with chicken and shrimp instead of chicken and chorizo but they served him chorizo and shrimp burrito). They then brought out the right food (burrito with chicken and shrimp) for him but the meat was undercooked. Upon getting the check, we noticed were charged for both food items and we pointed it out to them. They were nice enough to remove one of burritos but kept the other one on there still, so we tried to talk to them about whether they could take that one out as well as the chicken was undercooked. So then the manager came over, who was not cooperative with us at all. When we tried to explain him our situation with the burritos, instead of being responsive to his customers' complaints, he started to point out how many bites he saw my friend take from his food and then proceeded to say this is how burritos cooked. So when I then responded with saying "so burritos are cooked with undercooked meat?" and he said "this is how burritos here are cooked and there is nothing wrong with our burritos ever". We then noticed that we were charged 18% gratuity on our check and when we pointed that out to them saying that your menu says that the 18% gratuity is only when the bill is over $100, we were told that "oh parties of 5 or more are also charged with 18% gratuity". However, that is not mentioned anywhere in the menu and most restaurants do automatic gratuity of parties of 6 or more and will always have that mentioned in their menu. Additionally, we were not informed that there would be additional charges for chips and salsa after the first round that's on the-house. When we tried to point out to them that all other restaurants always give chips and salsa on the house (unlimited), so if they are going to charge for additional rounds of chips and salsa then they should have it on their menu or inform their customers about it as their menu only says charge for "salsa combo and chips". Truly disappointed by the disregard shown towards customers at this restaurant, they should try being more receptive towards customer feedback rather being blatantly dismissive and rude. They better pray to god that none of us get food poisoning. read more

I wish I would have known this before WASTING more than $200 on a mediocre dinner from a condescending and rude waiter. Our horrible visit began with them sitting our party of 5 at a table directly under their AC vent, which made it far too cold for any normal human to tolerate, so we politely asked to be moved, and were vibed by the staff for the inconvenience. Our experience began with the waiter telling us, "We have three rules here - 1) there are no substitutions on any menu items, 2) the food will come out when it is ready and may take 20-30 minutes, and 3) all of our charges were going to be put on one bill. I thought he was joking, so responded back that I have one rule - the food better be good. Unfortunately, our humorless waiter was being serious, so we were like "whatever" and put in our order. The drinks were OK, but the food is so overpriced that it is ridiculous - for example, we ordered the "Esquites", which turned out to be nothing more than about a 1/4 cup of canned corn and a few white cheese crumbles served in a parfait cup - for $9 !? We also ordered the Birria Rolls, which turned out to be poor imitations of an eggroll that only had meat on one 1/2 of the roll, and although it was tasty, it was ridiculously overpriced at $12.99. The brussel sprouts were admittedly good, however, the rest of the food was pathetically underseasoned, and they brought it out as promised, with our first family member getting his food in a normal time, with the rest of the 4 diners getting their food brought out one at a time over the next 20 minutes. When we'd finally had enough and asked to speak to the manager, he gave us platitudes and although he offered to discount the bill, he didn't, and to top off the insult, they charged us 18% gratuity on the bill, even though their policy is to only automatically charge this on parties over 6, which we weren't. Having hit the wall with this place, I decided to pull the plug and reward their horrible service by NEVER COMING BACK AGAIN. After waiting over two weeks to write this review, I'm still pretty upset, so decided to write this review for y'all, because if I had read of someone else having this experience, I would have went to Carrajillo's, which is 100% better in terms of food and service. Adding an 18% tip to a bill AUTOMATICALLY when the party is less than the required 6 people is THIEVERY - They seem to do this to other people as well, so REVIEW YOUR BILL. I wish I would have reviewed my bill closer as I would not have agreed to this. WE ARE NEVER GOING BACK TO LA BUENA VIDA - HORRIBLE PLACE. read more

The Cary location is not for people of color. I regret going there for my birthday. Roberto F was the worst waiter ever! I had a party of 5 and several food items were not received upon requesting. Each time he replied, "ok I'll check!" La Buena Vida of Cary gives an awful experience in comparison to the Raleigh location. I've been to the Raleigh location several times and I had the experience of a life time. I'll never go to Cary location again! Rats have gotten better service and treatment than what we received here! I ordered flight shots when I ordered appetizers and did not receive them until the very end. I asked Roberto F where are the shots and he stated, "Oh you cancelled them!" Everyone at the table looked in surprise and thought when! When the shots arrived they were all orange. Meanwhile the other flights were mixed colors! No one there received flight shots all the same color and show was literally 2 secs while others were a little longer. As a person of color, I definitely felt racial discrimination here. This was my first and last experience ever at the Cary location! read more

My experience at the Cary location was a nightmare. This was a celebration for my sister's birthday (the worst birthday she's ever experienced). We had been to the Raleigh location previously and had a wonderful time. No reservations were available so we thought we would give this location a try (since Raleigh was the ultimate experience). We had a party of 5. When we sat down at the table, we asked almost instantly if the table could be cleaned because it was dirty. The young lady said "Okay, I'll go grab a wet cloth to clean it". She brought back a dry paper towel. Our server came, Roberto F. Before we ordered anything, we asked him if he could clean the table. He said, "Okay". Guess what? Our table was never cleaned. My sister ordered a flight of shots for the table and we all placed one cocktail order each. Cocktails arrived, food arrived, but my food never came out. After asking several times, I told him to just keep the food because everybody had already eaten. I had only ordered some wings and French fries. One of our friends asked for ranch on 4 different occasions. He refused to bring it out and tried to charge her for it. People that received their food were highly disappointed. Nearing the end, we asked once again where was our flight of drinks? Roberto stated "You cancelled them". We all looked at him in shock because no one ever said that. When he finally brought out the shots, they were all orange in color (they should have been multicolored). They say the shots down at our table and literally left. Meanwhile others tables that ordered shots got a long show of entertainment. The service was horrible, and everything we requested Roberto did the complete opposite. He made us feel like the bottom of his shoe and smirked every time we something was wrong. For this location to be new, it was terrible. We will NEVER eat here again. Raleigh will be the location of choice from now on! read more