Ama Cocina — Restaurant in City of Albany

TL;DR - This place is dope, delicious, and affordable

I went to Ama last Monday and had one of the best experiences at a NY upscale Mexican restaurant to date. I have a life and two jobs, so this is the first I've had time to review OKAY?!?!

Alright, jokes aside, here's the review. Before we get into it, it's important to talk about the rubric; the three categories on which I'm basing this review are: Service, Food, and Pricing.

SERVICE As a Texan, my standards are pretty high. The service was excellent. My friend and I were greeted by the sweetest hostest with the mostest at the door. We walked up to the bar and Mark (I think that was his name...?) made eye contact, asked us how we were, and gave us waters. Everyone there was super aware of the experience that the guests wanted to have, which is important to experience in a restaurant, especially when you're in your 20s. This is not the kind of place to discriminate because you may be young and look like you're not going to 'tip well'. We were treated with so much respect!

Alright let's get to the goods.

FOOD (and DRAAANK) I had the Apricot Cranberry Mule and lemme tell y'all: IT WAS OFF THE CHAIN! The drink chemistry, balance and sweetness were perfect. Def recommend that drink.

As far as food goes, my friend and I had some dope oyster shooters to start that had a marg mix that gave me chills (in a good way, of course). My palate was dissecting the flavor for a bit after we had them, but NOTHING I ate was so invasive on the taste buds that I couldn't enjoy the other foods.

That brings me to the chips and salsa. As a Texan, it's a SIN to make peeps pay for the chips and salsa; HOWEVER, when I was presented with basically homemade corn tortilla plates and the most refreshing homemade salsa I've had in NY to date, I was like, "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!" The hardest part about making people pay for chips and salsa is the ratio: LEMME TELL YOU THAT AMA HAS THIS DOWN. ON. LOCK.

The chips didn't break in the salsa, even when I ate the leftovers (YES THE PORTIONS WERE THAT APPROPRIATE).

I had two tacos from the very aesthetically pleasing and eclectic taco menu: Carnitas and BLT

I don't know if it was legal or if they got it on camera but there was a PARTY HAPPENING, YALL:

A PARTY IN MY MOUTH.

The flavors were all working together as a team, and the food came out at just the right temperature to eat.

PRICING As I finished stuffing my face like a lady, trying not to seem like a weirdo for loving the food so much, it was time to pay.

Mind you, I was so excited to eat this food I forgot that I'm broke. Like we all are! It's 2018 and NYS taxes make each paycheck the definition of 'mixed feelings'.

I was baffled at my check. Because of how AFFORDABLE it was. I've never been to an upstate restaurant at a downtown location in which the food and drinks were incredibly fairly priced....and you can trust me when I say that because I live in Ithaca: where the bill at a restaurant on the commons is almost as surprising as that NYSEG bill during the winter (womp womp).

Long story boring? I will...

Glad to see a business shut down during the pandemic to reopen. We had no major expectations but had heard good things. The server was attentive enough and accommodated with grace my rejection of the drink I ordered. It was a spicy ginger marg and all I tasted was hot pepper. I hate to send things back and didn’t expect a refund but she replaced it with another drink and refund me for the first drink I ordered. The meal, was ok. We ordered the roasted beet wedge salad and the half of romaine topped with various vegetables and dressing was sandy and I crunched my way through the first few bites. Equally annoying, the plates are edgeless ( similar to the ones you would typically be served sushi rolls on) so while hacking on my sandy romaine half the toppings were spilling off the plate onto the table and it was a mess. The grilled asparagus were forgettable- needed seasoning and the sauce it was served on (all of 5 spears) was spilling into the table (same plate issue). The birria tacos were delicious. My only complaint is that when the server came back to take my plate and noticed we hadn’t eaten the salad and I told her why, she walked away and then another server, could’ve been a manager, but I wasn’t sure, told me it wasn’t sand that the romaine was charred- which if it was I didn’t notice and I know the taste/ feeling of sand as opposed to char on lettuce. Pretty sure most people wouldn’t order anything charred if it tasted like grit in...

We started with Drinks and were impressed with the knowledgable waitstaff on helping with our selections. Most notable was my Mezcal Mojitos, with a smokey selected mezcal with the Mint aroma, very enjoyable.

We started with the Chicharrones as an app. The pork pieces were well seasoned and served in a skillet(not fried). verry moist and yummy.

We shared 3 main courses. Very impressed with the taco party especially the duck and oyster variety. (who does that?). The duck was very moist and well seasoned and the oysters which were well prepared and not over fried. The Ceviche was an amazin assortment of fish marinated in a lite citrus. Excellent taste for a warm summer night. And Lastly, the Mojo steak Carnita. we had medium rare and the carmalized onion and pepper blended well with the seasonings. the Fixing were an assortment of lite cheese, peppers, radish and a coleslaw. The Carnita was flavorful, well prepared and lite. (it was very refreshing to go to a Mexican type establishment without the fatty refried beans, cheap nachos and overdone rice found in your typical establishment.)

Most impressive was meeting the manager, Jessicca. She was all over the restaurant, greeting customers, overseeing drink and food prep. making sure every one had a great experience. She will go far in...