7 Mares

Tina Santoyo, Owner

LOCATION
1403 Kalamazoo Ave SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49507

Tina brought a rule she's never bent: Feed people the way you would feed your own family.

Family-owned since 1999.

Tina brought more than recipes to Boston Square. She brought a rule she's never bent: feed people the way you would feed your own family, and let every plate leaving the kitchen be something on which you'd put your name.

Twenty-five years on the same grill

The Mexican and seafood dishes here are the real thing, cooked on a grill Tina has worked long enough to know by feel rather than by timer. Tortillas are made by hand. Salsas are made fresh. Nothing about that is efficient, and that's sort of the point, because the shortcuts all show up on the plate eventually and she isn't interested in serving that.

How you can tell it's working

Look at who's eating. Regulars who don't need the menu anymore. Work crews who found it once and never went anywhere else. People who drove clear across town because they wanted these tacos specifically, not tacos generally.

Then there's the phrase. Somewhere over the years "tell Tina I sent you" became a kind of local password in Boston Square, passed between neighbors and coworkers as a shorthand for you're going to like this place. No restaurant can buy that. It gets handed to you, one satisfied person at a time, over about two and a half decades.

What's on the plate

Handmade tortillas. Fresh salsas. Seafood. Tacos worth the drive. All of it made to order and served warm by somebody glad you came.

Dine in or take it out.
Boston Square. Either way, you're family here.

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