We were in town helping our daughter move into off campus housing nearby and the woman at the coffee shop next door recommended Viva Cinco de Mayo. My expectations weren't too high because I didn't know if Albany had a thriving Mexican community. Viva Cinco de Mayo blew me away! We sat in a comfortable outdoor dining section. Our waitress was extremely helpful! The menu was extensive and felt authentic to me. My daughter ordered chips and queso, clearly house made chips were outstanding! Her chicken and cheese quesadilla was also delicious. My wife and I shared some of the best tamales we've ever had! So fresh and vibrant, chicken with green salsa. My wife enjoyed three tacos and the sangria. I absolutely loved their pozole with mole sauce! The hominy was perfectly cooked. Their fresh Tamarindo juice was also delicious! Truly an awesome lunch! read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - Chicken Quesadilla was delicious! - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

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Nice restaurant to get Mexican food. Not very busy on a weeknight, many to-go orders. Excellent food, big portion and perfectly seasoned. I like my huge plate of chilaquiles, big portion of steak and chips. They know how to cook rice and beans here. Rice is not too mushy and soft, just the right texture. I wish I had room to try their tres leche or flan for dessert. Next time Service could be more attentive. I think if you know some Spanish that would be ideal, because they got my order wrong. Parking, just street parking. you should able to find some parking on the street nearby read more

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A fun, casual place for a meal or drinks and chips with friends! We came here for margs and dinner and had a good time sitting at their outdoor patio. Wasn't packed at all and the service was pretty quick. Their chips are amazing, not the average grocery store tortilla chip, and seemed like they make it in house and go great with their salsa. Their food is also good and have great portions, you can go wrong with anything on the menu. The margaritas are definitely on the larger end for $10-$14 but don't really pack a punch. read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - Small strawberry margarita - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

Enjoyed our dinner here on a busy Saturday night. Service was fine given how busy the place was! They were out of milkshakes so we ordered Agua Fresca's. We had chips and salsa, a chicken and cheese quesadilla and the enchiladas, which were wonderful. I enjoyed my tamarindo aqua Fresca which was refreshing without being overly sweet. The restaurant is full of fun, festive decorations. Overall, a decent place to get Mexican food in the area. read more

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Looking for Mexican close to our hotel and stumbled upon this place. Small and authentic Mexican food. Huge portions with great service. The restaurant is on the smaller side, but it was clean and people were in and out. read more

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When we lived in Albany this was one of our favorite places to get take out. We were in town and decided to see if the food was still as good. We were not disappointed. Everything was excellent. We went on a Sunday around 1ish. Surprisingly they weren't busy. They did have a steady business of take out orders. Otherwise we had the place to ourselves. It was a beautiful day so we sat outside. The waitress was very attentive and our food came quickly. I'm so glad we stopped there. read more

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LOVE THIS PLACE! it's quaint, but packed with authenticity. I've come here several times and i have NEVER had a bad experience. My go to are the barria tacos although everything on the menu is delicious. Service is always on point and food comes out quickly. I am always recommending this place to friends and will always be a customer here! read more

Viva is such a cute place to dine in. They offer takeout as well. The staff are friendly and the food is always ready within a reasonable time, even when they're busy. I've always gotten the asada fries each time I order and they never miss with it. I definitely want to try their other items, but I CANT RESIST THE ASADA FRIES!!! The horchata is well made too! read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - Asada Fries - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

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This is my son's favorite Mexican restaurant and we went for his birthday dinner. All of our meals were excellent. The carne asada was tasty, the fajitas were cooked to perfection, and the bistec ranchero was superb. Plus, the elote is my son's favorite appetizer which he said was great too. read more

I've never liked Mexican food before we discovered this little restaurant in Albany. This is the hidden gem of the capital region in my humble opinion. The prices are great and the portions are generous. The service is always fantastic every time we've been. My husband and I went every other weekend when we first found this place to try different items on their menu. We narrowed our visits down to Nachos Viva Cinco De Mayo with chicken and extra pickled jalapeños Beef Birria Tacos (occasionally my husband will get the chicken but I love the beef one) Siete Mares Soup The Nachos are hard not inhale one delectable bite after the other. They pile on the plate with all the best nacho fixing and you won't be able to help yourself, you'll end up finishing the entire plate. When we've gone back with friends or family we usually order more than one for the table since my husband and I can usually eat the plate between just the two of us and still have a little room for the main entrees. That being said, we do almost always have leftovers to take home from how filling the nachos are. Their beef tacos are so tender and flavorful and taste delicious dipped into their salsa verde. The star of every meal is definitely the soup. The seafood soup is like none I've had anywhere else, and if you've seen past reviews from me, you know how much I love my soups. The broth is spicy and flavorful and the rice gives your pallet a nice little break from the heat in between bites. It's loaded with several (seven based off the name) types of seafood but my favorite is the imitation crab. Put that with some like juice and a bite of rice and mmm mmm you won't be able to resist! Give this hidden gem in the capital region a try if you're ever in the area and looking for a flavorful, filling and affordable meal! read more

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Absolutely outstanding experience! This is a brand new place for us. We were craving burritos and decided to try this establishment- based upon their reviews. We ordered very conventional burritos- some chicken and some vegetable. Amazingly terrific! All special prep requests were met perfectly. These burritos are very large and were extremely tasty! Very fresh ingredients. The order was delivered a bit early- which made us happy. The delivery driver did a perfect job. Apologies for not providing photos but we were so hungry we just dug in before remembering photos. Next time we will provide- and there will most certainly be a next time! read more

Looking for really tasty tacos! Look over this way because words cannot describe how delicious everything was. I walked in with a group of 5 and they sat us down immediately. The seating is limited ;however, if you come during lunch time you should not have a problem with waiting. I came for dinner once and the restaurant was packed but I only had to wait about 3-5 minutes. The ambiance was great with many plants on the wall and the menu is on the wall written in chalk! Let me talk about the service. The service is really fast. The way they handle a full restaurant is amazing. You may have to wait a bit for food, water or the check however is that not all restaurants. The overall time from sitting down to leaving is approximately 30minutes which is impressive. I would only have one hour to eat and I was never late to my meeting/class. The chips come out hot with sauces! The portion of the food was amazing and the price matches what you get. My weakness is tres leches cake and I would highly recommend that you try it after eating some epic tacos. Overall, I would come again to this restaurant if I am ever craving tacos. read more

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My new favorite Mexican restaurant in the Albany area. The food was absolutely delicious and one of the only places I've found out here where the food really tastes authentic and flavorful. I really enjoyed the enchiladas, and loved how I got one of each kind (green, red, mole). The chips and salsa come complimentary with the table and the salsa for the chips and the sauces that come to the table were just so delicious, it really adds to the experience. Service is fast and staff are friendly. The restaurant is on the smaller side but perfect for two or four people for a nice meal. I am so glad I found this place and can't wait to go back. read more

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Best Mexican around. Usually busy and that tells you a lot. Very authentic. Best guacamole in town.

Solid Mexican food in Albany! Chips and salsa were very good and all the food was piping hot and flavorful. The mangonada with chamoy was huge and so delicious. The mole chicken had a kick! The churros were sooo yummy, stuffed with a caramel/dulche de leche something and topped with a chocolate drizzle. Definitely want to try more of the menu. read more

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My favorite restaurant in Albany! It's a very cute restaurant and parking on the street is easy to find. Great portion sizes and prices. Highly recommend the fajitas and chipotle chicken tacos. read more

Probably Albany's best Mexican food. I was impressed. Maybe the best tacos I have ever tasted... Complementary chips with delicious sauce was a nice way to get started. Also had the house made lemonade and that was good, too. Rice was a tad plain but cooked properly and the beans were great! Service was friendly and attentive, both servers checked on me to see if I needed anything and how I liked the food. I will be back and would recommend. Delicious ¡Bravo! read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - House Chips - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

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Birria Tacos + Churros = heaven. Ordered delivery on a Friday night, and even though it took a while to come the food was hot and fresh. The birria tacos were ridiculously good. We got one order of beef and one chicken and both were equally delicious. Can't wait to eat in the restaurant try more things from their menu. 5 stars. Let's go! read more

Consistently delicious food, friendly service, in a welcoming space. Vegetarian options are a plenty, love their aqua frescos (especially the tamarind), their mole might be my fave in the Capital Region, and their complimentary avocado salsa makes me like avocados just a bit more than I actually do. For the quality and amount of food you get at VCDM, the prices are super reasonable (especially in this economy). Can't recommend this place enough. read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - Mole veggie enchiladas - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

Viva Great Food! We ventured out seeking some Tex-Mex for lunch in downtown Albany and decided to try Viva Cinco De Mayo (VCDM). I figured a 4.4 review on Google meant something and it does. VCDM offers a great variety of dishes including options for vegetarians, a few breakfast selections, and a dedicated lunch menu. We chose the enchilada and chimichanga platters. The enchiladas platter comes with three (the lunch menu offers two) and can be topped with any combination of their green, red, or bean sauce; we weren't quite sure if you could mix the meats. Both platters came with sides of rice and black beans. My husband chose chicken as the protein and tried each of the different sauces. Served atop the sauces is a layer of finely chopped lettuce, a sprinkling of cheese, and a drizzle of sour cream. His favorite sauce was the bean sauce but said the other two were good. It was just something about the bean sauce which was a bit better tasting. The chimichanga came out golden brown with a side of guacamole and a sliced radish on top of the rice which made for a pleasant-looking dish. It came stuffed full of green peppers, onion, red peppers, cheese, and meat. I opted to leave out the green peppers. The only downfall to the dish was they may have doubled up on the red peppers since I asked to forego the green ones; the red peppers were a bit overwhelming. Aside from that, it was delicious as the cheese was melted and stringy and the pork cooked well and perfectly seasoned. We both thoroughly enjoyed the black beans as it seems they add a touch of cacao. They offer Mexican Coca-Cola by the bottle and free chips and salsa. They do quite a bit of take-out business which may have slowed the kitchen as it seemed like the food took a bit of time to arrive. The delay was not an issue, however, as we were sitting outside enjoying the nice weather and the food itself was worth the wait. Our server was quite pleasant and helpful, and the restaurant looks to be well-kept. All-in-all, we'll soon be going back for more. read more

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AMAZING!! We got to sit outside on a beautiful day with some lemonade and hibiscus tea. The drinks were sweet and really refreshing. The loaded nachos they offer are a must get. Hands down the best nachos I've ever had. My husband and I have been wanting to trying Birria tacos for almost 2 years now, this place lived up to the hype! I liked the chicken a lot more than the beef, but my husband liked the beef more. Both were super tender and juice. You have to asked with the verde salsa on the side. It really ties the whole meal together! This place gets busy fast, so make sure you call ahead! If you're ever in the area, this place is worth stopping by at! read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - 3 Birria Tacos w/ consom - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

Authentic, fast, and affordable Mexican food We love this place to fill our Mexican food cravings! The food comes out fast and the prices are very affordable. Tacos - Their 5 tacos for $10 is a steal. They provide lots of quality juicy meat with each soft shelled taco. The radishes also provide a refreshing crunch to each bite! They also have delicious burritos and plates. There is so much on the menu that it keeps us coming back to try more! read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - 5 tacos for $10 - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

This is great authentic Mexican food with an emphasis on Oaxacan cuisine where the staff will make you feel right at home. In a town with few good Mexican options, Viva Cinco de Mayo stands at the top of the pack. This is more comfort food than elevated cuisine, but it's also not a greasy spoon joint like many of the other good places around. Portions are generous, flavors are rich, and the staff are wonderful. The prices are pretty reasonable for what you're getting, but high enough that we can't come as often as we'd like. It's a nice mixed crowd here, it can be packed quite often, and they have a steady stream of online orders. On nice days, sitting outside is lovely. One downside of the popularity is that sometimes service and the order can be slow. I think they sometimes prioritize online orders over in-house customers which can lead to significant wait times for your food. When we're worried about time, we don't come at peak hours. Get yourself a good mole and wash it down with some horchata (which they sell by the pitcher). Tacos are good here too, but try the sopes and other dishes. I haven't had anything bad here, and the desserts are nice too. read more

The food looks great but a little expensive for this hole in the wall restaurant. A nice atmosphere and decorations. It's a little cold inside as it's a small restaurant and the door opens and closes frequently. read more

This place will blow your mind!! Authentic authentic authentic!!! Tacos, Shrimp Diablo (really spicy), and the Tamales are top notch. Fresh real chips and the excellent salsa to go with. read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - Mole tamale. Excellent!! - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

We ordered the nachos Cinco de Maya with beef which was super tasty and tender. The nachos were made with homemade chips, creamy cheese, beans, sautéed onions and guacamole. They were delicious. Be sure to request salsas as their mild and hot go very well on the nachos. Both were homemade. The other two entrees we ordered were the birria tacos which I got with shredded beef and tostadas. The tacos were stuffed with meat and melted cheese and topped with cilantro. The birria tacos were served with a mild sauce to dip them in. The tostadas were great too. read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - Birria tacos with shredded beef and melted cheese. - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

Ordered chicken and birria tacos platters with rice, beans, chips, salsa and guac. All were super good and our guests really enjoyed everything! read more

REALLY good Mexican food. Off the beaten path kinda. Weird parking (we parked on the street down the road). Food- excellent. They have a full bar. Lunch specials too! Small but great menu. All the staples and more. House-made chips and salsa. The chips were BOMB. We got plantains (YUM!). Street corn (it was alright- not my fav- they should grill it for the char-broil taste!!). I got 3 tacos with rice (lunch special)- you can mix and match. I loved the El Pastor. Yummmmm and authentic. All fresh ingredients. The rice was good too. BF got tacos as well. For all of that food it was $30. Our waitress was new but very accommodating and sweet. I would definitely come back if I was in the area. read more

I enjoyed this place. My mom practically expired over their guacamole she ordered 2! The waiter was super friendly and I enjoyed my potato flautas! The o my sad part was that they didn't serve margaritas!! I'm from Ohio so I wasn't aware of the NY law about alcohol and churches! Very authentic and a super cozy spot. read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - Potato flautas - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

This place serves super delicious food! My husband and I ate here for lunch recently. I had Al pastor tacos and chicken tamales with mole. Hubby had the enchiladas with red, green, and mole (I think). Everything was so good and so was the flor de Jamaica and limonata. read more

Ugh. Would not come back. I came here months ago and the unsavory memory still sticks. The restaurant looks welcoming enough and very colorful, but we waited a verrry long time for our food, and were really hungry. There was only one other table seated, but it was a pretty big family. We watched as their food came out, and... just kept coming. I feel like they were even serving them their orders that they took after taking down ours! We ordered a bunch of tacos, because they were having some kind of deal on them that day, and despite looking appealing, they were just not good. I have had my fair share of mediocre taco places, but I was especially disappointed because of the good reviews this place had, and the long wait we had endured. Nothing was enjoyable. There was just something off about everything. The fillings, the actual tacos... the best thing about this place might have been the chips we scarfed down while we were waiting for an eternity. We didn't even finish our food even though we were still pretty hungry. On the bright side, at least we didn't get food poisoning! Correction: I actually came here over a year ago according to the date on my pictures. That's how bad of a memory this place was haha read more

Viva Cinco De Mayo - Does not taste like it looks - Mexican Near Me - Albany, New York

Small but awesome outdoor seating in a fun neighborhood. Great tacos. Nice people run the place. Highly recommend for authentic Mexican food. read more

Some of the BEST food I've ever had since I've moved up here from NYC. SO FLAVORFUL AND JAM PACKED WITH SEASONING! PLEASE DONT EVER CHANGE! Seriously. Not just the best Mexican food up here but one of the better tasting experiences I've had, in general! A lot of the food I've had up here is quite lackluster and mid quality. And the girl working there is SOOO NICE! Very sweet and accommodating! The Jamaica Tea is SERIOUSLY something to write home about! It was soooo tasty and refreshing! It has a deep floral taste with light citrusy notes. They nachos are A1! The chili was SO DELICIOUS! Just top of the line and you get sooo much for the price. Which is SOOO APPRECIATED! So many places are becoming stingy with the amount of food they give which is causing us customers to not buy from them anymore...but not the place! Tacos were AMAZING! My mother RAVED about their steak tacos (5 for $10) and my mother is usually a HARD SELL on most food places when it comes to taste and quality. So for her to like it, says A LOT to me lol. read more

Reserved a table for 15 people and they didn't have it ready or didn't have the reservation. Food was pretty good and reasonably priced. Very colorful restaurant! read more

The service was amazing and such a fun atmosphere - It was my first time having sopas and Im glad I did- food is such an adventure-

My 5-person party and I found this restaurant through Yelp. From the 2 orders of guacamole- one hot, one not- to the nachos to the entrees, birria, shrimp, pork, and beef, everything was great. One person at the party did not like their Caldo de Pollo, but otherwise, the service, food, and attention to detail guaranteed that anytime we are back in Albany, we'll be making a stop at Cinco de Mayo. read more

This is a solid little place with tasty food for very cheap: my husband ordered one of the most expensive items on the menu (there was a whole crab leg in there!), and we both got drinks, but the full meal was still only about forty bucks. We sat outside, which was great (dogs are apparently also welcome). My impression of the interior when I went in to use the bathroom was that it was serviceable enough, but I'd definitely stick to the sidewalk tables as long as the weather's good. Service was very sweet despite our waitress having to deal with a ton of tables on her own. Major extra points for having (delicious) tongue on the menu. I need to come back here again and try more of the menu to form a stronger opinion, but I definitely will come back. read more

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My family and I were pleasantly surprised to find this location spot. The place itself is small (6 tables and small bar seating), but the flavors were big. There's nothing quite like a homemade tortilla with well prepared food. I had the mole and my husband had the fajitas. Everything was seasoned well and very flavorful. My children had the kids quesadillas, and I was surprised to find that their tortillas were not homemade. Bummer... From the time we entered until we left, there was a constant flow of people coming in for pick up orders and wanting to know how long the wait would be. Don't hesitate to stop by and try it for yourself. Due to the small size, might want to get there before typical dinner rush hours. read more

This was my first time ordering from them and I had the 5 corn tacos and they were absolutely delicious! I added cheese and sour cream to them. I also ordered the churros and they were equally delicious! Being here on business makes it hard to find good food sometimes but this restaurant was wonderful and I will order from them again before going home! read more

Amazing authentic and delicious Mexican food. I loved everything we ate. Staff was super friendly and courteous. One of our meals got lost among the tickets and it was delayed coming out, but they were very apologetic got us drinks and got it out quickly thereafter. We ordered guacamole, shared carnitas sopes (AMAZING), I got the steak tacos, and husband got steak in a chili verde sauce. It was all so good. Meat was super tender, the tacos were cooked and topped perfectly. The sopes were absolutely amazing. Their homemade tortillas are excellent and have a great texture. With all the great Mexican in the area, we thought this landed high amongst the best! We'll definitely be going back! read more