Buena Vida - Arlington

The happy hour at the bar was great. The carne asada tacos were delicious! Staff were really friendly and accommodating especially when they gave me a spicy margarita at happy hour prices when it’s usually not covered. We will be back!

We recently had our wedding ceremony at Buena Vida Rooftop, we celebrated with family and friends with a brunch for 50 guests and we couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out! From the moment we started planning, the team was incredibly accommodating, friendly, and attentive to all ideas. A special thank you to Benjamin and his team who helped me with the process totally stress-free. The food was delicious! and the ambiance of the rooftop was gorgeous, providing the perfect backdrop for our celebration. Everybody loved it and had a great time. They truly made our wedding day unforgettable! :)

I arrived right at the tail end of brunch and the service was impeccable. I was still able to get everything I set out to eat! The food was delicious and I simply wanted to just keep eating. My server was attentive throughout and even helped me pick some AWESOME menu items. Her name is slipping my mind but shout out to her! I plan to bring my family back soon.

The atmosphere is very beautiful, food is phenomenal, and the employees are very welcoming. I would like to shoutout Cristina for not only being very helpful and respectful, but for also making sure everything was to our liking. Thanks for making me and my sister have a great night!

Thoroughly enjoyed dinner! Restaurant was also nicely designed with modern decor and had a great vibe. Service was quick and on point. The food was really good, with some dishes standing out far ahead of the others. Our table agreed that the seafood was a notch ahead in terms of taste, quality, and freshness compared to other proteins. Only suggestions would be to include some dessert options in the unlimited menu and offer pitchers of drinks (E.g., sangria, mojitos, margaritas, etc.) Will definitely be back to try brunch.

Trinity was a great server and the food for brunch came out so fast. Food was delicious. So paste yourself 😅. First time being here and I would definitely come back. It had a great environment and music.

My new favorite Mexican restaurant! It’s a vibe and great for a date or a group of friends. I went during restaurant week and got to sample a lot of different menu items, all of which were delicious. The service was amazing.

Had a great friend brunch here! Blair was very attentive and worked well with our groups diverse dietary needs. Would suggest the poached egg with salmon, Nutella waffle, and chicken and waffles. And of course the blood orange and hibiscus pineapple mimosas were a hit! Honestly all the food was great! Atmosphere was cozy and classy with a great view of the area. Food came out quickly.

One of the best Mexican restaurants in the DMV area, offering delicious and creative tapas on the menu. The ambiance is lively and the service is excellent.

Christina was absolutely amazing! She treated us with such care and kindness, and truly went above and beyond to make our experience special. She’s by far the best, and I can’t recommend her enough. Buena Vida Gastrolounge is such a great spot, and if you come here, definitely ask for Christina

Laura took great care of us. We had three birthday people at our table, and she didn’t hesitate to bring tres leches for each of them and sing “Happy Birthday.” She was extremely kind and attentive the entire time. I’d go back just because of Laura. She made the night special!

Amazing, creative food options on menu. All natural ingredients. The employees were attentive. Food arrived quickly and cooked perfectly. Drinks were delicious and fresh. I will definitely return.

I had an event here on the rooftop level. The atmosphere is beautiful, light, spacious, and of course botanical. The food and drinks were excellent. Crowd favorites included the shrimp tacos, margaritas, and hot churros. Everything ran smoothly. Management was very responsive and flexible in helping me to plan my event, even as guest count continued to change. They even let me use one of the booth tables for a display I created. The servers were super helpful and always present. While my event was for an Arlington military funeral reception, this would be a great space for engagement parties, large birthdays, family reunions, or even a small wedding reception that is gorgeous and delicious without breaking the budget. I would happily plan future events there.

My boyfriend and I came for brunch on a Saturday and we had Cristina as our server — I just want to say this was the most intentional service we have ever received! She was on top of our drinks, making sure we needed nothing! she tended to us well beyond expectation and she always had a smile on her face ready to work! her positive attitude set the tone for our experience! from the moment we walked in we knew it would be great. food was 100/10, restaurant was clean & set nicely!

My server Christina was amazing! From her attentiveness to her welcoming smile, she made dinner even more enjoyable. The food runners were also great, very hygienic with gloves and served food with a smile. Josh was also amazing, very welcoming and friendly. The environment was also very appealing, the colors and comfy seating were very nice. Thank you for a great night out!

The entrance was a bit confusing — you actually have to walk into the Green Pig Bistro to find the steps. It would be helpful if they added some signs or banners to make it easier for customers to locate the entrance. The place has a nice view and a good vibe. The food was okay — not bad, but nothing particularly special. We ordered the shrimp tacos (very crunchy but barely tasted any shrimp) and burritos (just average). The regular mojito was fine, and the watermelon lemonade was good. Staff were okay, and overall, it’s worth visiting mainly for the atmosphere and the view through the window.

Service: Being a Saturday night, there was a bit of confusion with the reservation, I believe the host accidentally gave our table to another party and so we were squeezed into the middle of the restaurant. However, when we were clearly a bit agitated we were given a few free appetizers to share amongst the table which was a nice compensation. I gave three stars to our server who started our evening very demanding, "I'm going to do drinks. appetizers. then entrees." We told him that we were ready to order our entrees and he refused and said he would come back in a couple of minutes. I understand the pressures of a busy Saturday night but it was an awkward exchange. He was then very confused about splitting the checks, though I did not think my group was very confusing. Once the place began clearing out he was more helpful and conversational. The manager was very nice and checked on us a few times. Food: The food was very flavorful and the portions were large. Atmosphere: Everything was very aesthetically pleasing, though I do agree with the previous reviews that the entrance is hard to find.

We randomly ended-up here last Sunday night. They were very welcoming and we hit the tail-end of their happy hour. Decent view from the rooftop. Reasonably priced entrees, with nice presentation. Totally recommend! (Do not recommend their spritz cocktail; nasty tasting; and with no garnish)

This place has a pretty cool vibe. It's a multi-level environment, and they'll likely take you up the stairs if you're able. There is an elevator if you need it. Go on Tuesdays, and you'll hit their Taco Tuesdays special. You have to order two tacos at a time, but they're only 3 bucks per taco (4 for beef). That's the best deal on the menu. Service is solid, just not really quick. Support staff is great and very helpful. Drinks are good, and it's a full service bar. It's a neat place for a casual night out. We'll be back. We were a party of 4 with a reservation on a Tuesday night. We were seated as soon as we arrived. Our final bill with an appetizer, adult beverages, four entrées, and a dessert was $205 before tip.

Enjoyed a nice happy hour, but it was only available at a tiny bar, and was lucky to find a spot. Drinks were good but tacos tasted great! Also the sangria was pretty good too!

Mexican-style brunch restaurant with an all you can eat and drink menu. I didn’t love that their only option was the unlimited on at brunch-time, but the food was good with small tapas style plates. It’s strange to charge for every drink on an unlimited menu.

Really cute spot to come to with friends, family, or a date. There’s multiple levels, including a very nice rooftop with bar, table, & both seating. They recommend reservations because it gets very busy but the rooftop is first come first serve. They also have a happy hour that includes adecent variety of options of light bites & drinks. Floral atmosphere and natural lighting to amplify the space. The mushroom tacos were pretty good but I was still hungry due to their beans not being vegan. There weren’t too many vegan options but I was here with friends so made it work.

Went to brunch here on Sunday with a large group with a joint birthday and had a blast! Each person pays a set price and orders of mimosas are 25 cent each and margaritas are 99 cent each! Definitely a steal I wasn’t able to catch pictures if everything once we started eating but there are endless options. Anything not provided initially, you’re allowed to order as well. Some of my favorites were the chips and salsa, pork belly tacos (the glaze elevated it!!), quesadilla gringa, and chicken milanesa sliders. Our server Maria was so sweet and patient! I’d definitely like to go back and try a lot of dishes again. Because a lot of people with us didn’t eat pork, it kind of stunted the flow of things. At one point, we’d send something back and then the kitchen would send a fresh order out. Awkward and felt wasteful. The hibiscus-pineapple mimosa and mango margaritas were the best!

Great place for brunch and small plates! I loved the ambiance! The service was fast and the quality of food was on point. Not to mention their cheap deals on drinks! The restaurant was very accommodating with my dietary restrictions.

Came here to celebrate a birthday and have brunch. They have a brunch menu which is $39.99 all you can eat, not including brunch cocktails, but they are cheap ($0.99 per mimosa and Bloody Mary; $1.99 for margaritas; $1.50 for sangrias. We ordered multiple tapas style small plates: jalapeño corn bread (yum); chicken and veggie soup (came out cols); Cesar salad (just ok); ahogada tortas (cold, not special); chicken milanesa (yummy); salmon toast (yummy); pork belly tacos (too sweet but well cooked porked belly); shrimp gobarnodor (table favorite); chilaquilles (took FOREVER to come out and not exciting); huitlacoche enchiladas (good, not memorable); quesadillas gringa (pass); ham and cheese waffle (yummy); eggs Benedict (average); chorizo skillet (another table favorite); butternut squash skillet (refreshing and good); banana-Nutella waffle (table favorite). As you can see, we ate good (4 of us). For drinks, we enjoyed the mimosas (recommend blood orange over the hibiscus lemonade); mango and strawberry margarita; and red sangria. All drinks were a bit watered down but as a table we voted blood orange mimosa and mango margarita as our favorites. Service was good but it did take some time for some meals to come out. Overall though good vibes; would recommend a.

When we walked upstairs, there wasn’t really a host area to greet in order to inform us of our reservation. We stood around the bar for maybe 5 mins before we got a chance to be greeted and seated, so the time wasn’t bad it was just where to wait and stand that was confusing. Great reviews for food taste, ambience, service check-ins with us. Group of four went in for AYCE brunch- ordered: the shrimp tacos, steak and cheese tapas, chicken milanesas, chicken and waffles, berry and waffles, 1 salmon tapa, 1 huevo ranchero, and some other egg based options. They were out of the Pork belly tacos by 12:30pm which was sadly surprising. Good reviews for service - we had maybe 3-4 different people taking our order so it would get confusing what tapa orders were placed beforehand. We started with one menu item individually and the food are small tapas, some are bite sized, and the food took a while to get to the table. The 4 of us decided after the first round of single different tapas, to order 4 of each food item that we all agreed on. When we ordered 1 order of salmon tapas it was bite sized for one person, so we requested 4 instead because the time it took to do one was pretty slow. Drinks were great we definitely got second and third rounds. Latin Music was energetic (I wanted to dance at some points), it was hard to hear some servers due to the volume at one point. Overall it was delicious and staff was very friendly, very beautiful restaurant. I would come back again now that I know what to expect with the first round of food.

This place was okay. Server was pushy for bottomless tacos. Misunderstanding on happy hour downstairs when they sent us upstairs. Empty but nice place. Draft beer was warm. Minimal air conditioning. Had a machine to add more but was still warm.

I went here with my husband and cousin. We had a decent time. Everyone was nice. The food was was decent. The raspberry margarita pitcher was phenomenal. I think they could add a DJ to spice it up on a Saturday.

We visited the rooftop for happy hour and it was ok. The rooftop itself was very cute and had a great vibe! The food was just alright- the pork belly tacos felt kind of like a salad there was so much watercress on them and I think they forgot to put the pico de gallo on them. The nachos were nothing special and just ok. The waiter also disappeared and there was about an hour where no one checked in on us. We ended up having to walk up to the bar to order more food

The food itself was ok. But the service wasn’t great. We asked for WiFi access. Instead of saying that it wasn’t available, the waiters kept going back and forth and even provided a wrong WiFi password to stall us. Also, while I understand it’s a Mexican restaurant I think it’s quite rude for waiters to speak Mexican language over guests who are obviously not Mexican.

The space is awesome! Pretty and elegant. The food and margaritas were good! The service was slow. The girl server was helpful but trying to do it all herself. The guy server was very lazy and unhelpful. Bartender didn’t make the drinks quite right. Could use improvement for sure. Really just the efficiency and care that lacked. The people that brought out food and bussed were rude. Always seemed irritated. Easy fixes and this place would be a solid 10/10

My first time here. Good vibe and great location. Not a bad price for bottomless drinks and tapas. Some of the food were really good but some came out ehhhh…. Not bad or nasty just ehhh. They may have been sitting for a few min before it was delivered to our table. Which can be expected during brunch rush hour. But overall my experience was good. Our server was attentive and polite.

Service was Great! Orlando was very polite & professional. The decoration & environment were nice too. However, the food was not good at all compare to the price. especially, I would say to avoid Chef's Special. We chose Brunch special on Sunday.

food wasn't bad cocktails also but we have been seated in the MOST stupid place you can imagine even though half of the second floor was when we got there (we had reservations) and there was no waiter assigned for that table. every once in a while someone new was reaching out asking if we need something. it felt like we were completely abandoned in a corner under the stairs and 2 guys were folding napkins and cleaning silverware all the time right next to us. NOT a good experience AT ALL

I really wanted to like this place. I brought my boyfriend here for his birthday and left disappointed. Not sure if we came on a bad day but the food was very underwhelming. Nothing stood out to us or tasted above average. Service was slow, but that’s expected probably on a Sunday. The chips and guacamole saved the day. Lastly, I don’t know how else to explain this but the glasses smelled like eggs. After two mimosas in the same cup I was ready to go home.

Very beautiful place. But as a fellow Mexican this so called “Mexican Cuisine” was very disappointing. Very small portions aside from that no flavor no seasoning. Service was terrible.. food came out every 25-30 minutes after placing an order for “bottomless food”. Nice place for drinks maybe? Definitely not for dining

Food was delicious but service was terrible. We did not have one server all night and waited almost 2 hours for our food. When we ordered our drinks we would have to wait 30 minutes for it as well on the third floor.

The service was great!! However …. We did find a cockroach leg in our food… it was handled very well by staff. This happened at the beginning of our meal. They compensated the one meal this happened to and in the moment we were all in shock and unfortunately none of us ate after that. Saying this, we had to go somewhere else to eat after paying over $300 for the group we were with. After our initial shock I personally called the restaurant the next day and asked for all of the brunch food price to be taken off because nobody ate more than 2 dishes within the first 15 minutes of being there. We obviously offered to pay the tip and for the drinks since our waitress was great. We called multiple times to give information on receiving a refund due to this. Multiple members of the group called. We were told we would be called back and that never happened. We never received our money back after not eating when we found the cockroach leg in our food. Though everyone at the restaurant was very kind, I am incredibly disappointed in the lack of communication after this incident. I am also incredibly disappointed in this as each member spent over $70-$80 to enjoy a nice brunch which unfortunately was disturbed by this cockroach leg.

I am beyond disappointed with my dining experience here. I came here for a Valentine’s Day dinner and the service was below sub par. The waitress we originally had did not come by after getting our appetizer order. And we had to prompt the waiter for all the things. We waited for 30 mins after the appetizer to get our main course and then had to ask them if they forgot our order. I understand that Valentine’s Day is an extremely busy day to work however the quality of service was extremely disappointing. I do not recommend this restaurant after our experience here.

At 36, this is the biggest ripoff I've witnessed to date. "Disappointed" doesn't begin to describe it. I made a reservation for four on a Sunday to try Buena Vida with the expectation that the food, atmosphere and service were going to be fantastic. The atmosphere was very inviting with plants everywhere and plenty of attention to detail with furnishings and presentation. That is the only good thing I can say about this place. Directions were a bit confusing, as the entrance is to another restaurant on the ground floor. To access, you must take an elevator or the stairs- all of which were unknown to us until the hostess at the entrance told us so after we waited a couple minutes. Not a big deal, but if there's a sign somewhere, none of us saw it. The rest, as you'll read, were laughable. As soon as we arrive on the top floor and exit the elevator, the hostess "greets" us with an attitude, making it clear she did not want to be there. I get everyone has bad days, but not even a smile or any type of forced politeness was offered. This would be the first discussion the four of us had after being seated. We open our menus and see a handful of items with no pricing anywhere in sight. Slightly suspect. It was myself and significant other with another couple so we would be splitting the check. On our side of the table we ordered one omelette, one apple juice, one order of waffles and a side of eggs. I am not exaggerating, this is literally what we get: - A TINY omelette barely big enough to serve as a sample for tasting which the restaurant considers a "meal". - Enough ice in the apple juice to suggest maybe only a third of the glass was actually used for juice. - The "side of eggs" for myself was literally one egg cracked open flat on a plate, no garnishes whatsoever. Again, tiny. - Waffles: 1/2 of a very small, and I mean very very small waffle, if you even wanna call it that. I literally thought this was half of an appetizer. Nothing included, literally just two wedges of waffle big enough to fit in each hand. That's it. Ready for the best part? All this extraordinary lavishness for… Wait for it… $74 before tip. There is enough food collectively on the table to appetize a small child and this would wind up being north of $90 out the door. I patronize many restaurants in the tri-state area, anything starting from three stars and working my way up from there. I have been ripped off, massively disappointed in quality and angered by waiting staff that have attitude problems. That being said, this place dwarfs literally every experience I've ever had in the "ripoff" category. Buenavida is literally a joke. They are giving you maybe a total of five dollars worth of food and asking nearly $100 out the door. Not a joke, not an exaggeration. I'm baffled and flabbergasted at this place has anyone who would give them a credible review. This really makes me wonder if we were simply being price gouged. I'll never know, but hopefully this review helps you to make an informed decision when choosing to give this place your money.