Azteca D' Oro Mexican Restaurant UCF — Restaurant in Florida

Decided to try Azteca D'Oro after reading many reviews. I was a bit suspicious because this location is just blocks from the massive UCF campus. I expected hundreds of college age kids drinking heavily and being loud. Thankfully my fears were dashed once inside the restaurant. Right off the bat, the décor is quite nice and inviting. The speed at which you are greeted at the door and chips / salsa placed on the table were only the beginning of their 5 star service. The waitress was very nice and extremely attentive. We wanted for nothing the entire time we were there. I thought to myself, how kind the wait staff is considering that they, most assuredly, have to endure hours of abuse from drunk college kids. For this location, I think the key is to go for lunch and avoid anything after say 7pm. Although I must say that I don't know for sure, however, other experiences in this area prove to be the case.

Now for the food. Flavor is the goal they are trying to achieve here and they did not disappoint. Our waitress brought our Rita's and water with astonishing speed. I was honestly taken back with how efficient and speedy the staff attended to all the patrons. In this regard, these people get it.

The salsa has a very unique flavor and very yummy. The chips are a bit thicker than what you would expect from a Habeneros for example. The result is that the chip doesn't break in half when trying to scoop up some salsa. Another nice touch was separate salsa cups for my wife and I. Makes for a more pleasant start when your not fighting for a shot at the salsa.

We started off with an appetizer of queso and chorizo as we get this almost everywhere when eating Mexican. I thought it would be a good compare with other restaurants. I immediately notice that the cheese sauce is not dripping in grease from the chorizo. A complaint that I have with Garibaldi, for example. We also asked for warm tortillas as another way to dip the cheese sauce and glad we did. The flavor of the chorizo was authentic and the cheese sauce remained loose the entire time while eating. I am often put off when cheese sauce hardens as it cools and makes it difficult to get a small amount onto a tortilla chip. This marked the start to a wonderful lunch.

I am fairly partial to burritos, therefore i was compelled to order the Macho Burrito. Reviews are great and it seems to be a very popular dish. The size was not quite as big as all the other reviews mentioned, but was a good size for sure. Right away, it is clear that the line cooks take great care in presentation. It was quite possibly the most yummy looking burrito I have been served. My only issue was with the seasoning on the ground beef. Which didn't really come through. I think next time I will ask for steak or chicken to see if that has a nicer flavor profile. I was able to eat just about all of the burrito, I was quite hungry. It doesn't come with beans and rice and I didn't expect nor want. Rice is included on the inside which I love.

My wife had the Pollo Fundido. I was immediately taken back by the cheese topping on each of the medallions that were plated. Is that American process cheese slices? Wha? Did they run out of queso blanco? I checked the menu and it's for real. A slice of American cheese is the intention. Not only does it look weird, the flavor profile doesn't fit. The presentation is also an odd comparison with my Macho Burrito, for example. Queso blanco topped with a light sprinkle of cilantro would make for a much better plate or possibly a slice or two of jalapeno. It's such an odd choice that you have to ask, who's idea was this? Is it the influence of the college age diners. That said, my wife said the filling was very creamy and tasty. I thought the way the sides were plated were an excellent idea. The fry up corn tortillas into little bowls and serve the rice and beans separate. Something I thought was a clever idea considering I dislike a plate where the beans are so loose they run all...

Sometimes the bad reviews are true. Someone else said the food are flavorless and they were right.

Chicken fajitas quesadilla: bland chicken and vegetables. Clearly meant to be eaten with the guacamole (which was delicious and salty) but if you don’t like guac or if your run out, then you’re left with flavorless wraps of meat.

Chicken flautas: the appetizer is HUGE which would have been great if they tasted good. Chicken is a mushy consistency (like tuna from a can) and there’s too much filling. It’s possible ours was not good because it came to us cold (more on this below).

Soup Azteca: this is 5 stars delicious! I only got a cup but wish I had gotten a bowl. Definitely try

Soup de Pollo: another bland mess. Soup was basically water with no flavor. It did have a lot for fresh veggies and also came with a side of chopped jalapeños, onion, and cilantro. Chicken was dryer than my husband’s humor.

Sides: rice was excellent! Probably some of the best Mexican rice I’ve had at a restaurant. Guacamole was also very good as were the maduros. Their salsa is spicy and delicious.

Service was terrible. Our server couldn’t care less if she was working that night and had all our food brought out one at a time. My cup of soup came out and I waited thinking the flautas would arrive shortly after. Nope. I ate the soup before it got cold and flautas still never came. We waited 10 more minutes and they finally arrived cold. Someone clearly forgot to bring them out. Had to ask for our entrees to come out together so they wouldn’t make the same mistake. Server was too busy ordering us around telling us to move things and give her cups in the most curt way. When she saw all our full plates with barely any food eaten, she could care less that we didn’t enjoy the meal and took the plates away when we asked for the check. Did I still give her a good tip? Yes…cuz it’s hard to be a server and maybe she was having a bad day. But we’ll never go back. It was an expensive mistake to go...

I have not been here for several years so was pleased to come back for a little get-together with friends. There were 7 of us. We all paid sort of separately (some were put on the same bill--I think there ended up being 4 checks). I mention this because my bill was less than some of the others as I did not have alcohol (and it was still kind of pricey!). We were there on a Monday around 6:00 pm.

The food was good, though. Most of us ordered appetizers and pretty much shared around the table. I tried the chicken quesadillas--wonderful; also tried empanadas--awesome. The nachos were also very tasty.

The reason I gave this 4 stars over 5 was for 2 reasons. First, my shoes were sticking to the floor. It looked clean; it just didn't feel that way when I walked. I will say that the bathroom was very clean and I really liked there were two ways to dry your hands (towels or a blower). The other reasons was the forced upon us gratuity for a large group (though is 7 really large?). I understand that servers may have been ripped off in the past, but that's not a reason for lack of transparancy. Because I was not given a heads-up that it would be added to my bill, I did not add to it--I gave them exactly what they took (looked like about 20%) and nothing else. Truly, the server would have got a bigger tip from me had it not been there or, really, had I of at least been told it would be there.

Regardless, the food was good and the atmosphere was neat. It had been remodeled since I was there last and it looked really nice. I will go back if the...