AMELIAS MEXICAN KITCHEN — Restaurant in Four Corners States

I'm usually not a fan of hyped up places. This is different. This is for the food not just one dish but just the food. The salsas the, the horchata, the quality, the service. I'm not even sure where to start.

It's Mexican food at its core. Exploding with flavors and quality. The lobster tails were grilled to perfection and tasted like you were sitting at the beach. The carne in the molcajete I'd say is a bit tough but the sauce and the flavor the meat gets from the sauce is beyond words. It somehow complements every protein in the dish without tasting all the same. It's amazing and a definite must try.

The tamales I don't believe come with the green sauce and I'm convinced they stand on their own, but just at the least ask for a side of the green sauce and try the tamale with it.

The horchata was hands down one of the better horchatas you're going to find this side of the border. I would come here just to get a cup of that.

The service was prideful. Like you could tell they were motivated and invested in making sure the experience was nothing short of phenomenal. I felt like I had gone home and my cousins were making sure I didn't need anything and somehow had more than enough of everything. Thank you to our friend and server Mario and honestly the entire staff who were patient with questions, accommodating with changes and above all knowledgeable of the menu.

The chef was there and while I'm not sure if that is common or that it can always be this way I greatly appreciate that he came out to check on tables. I will say that to me it says a lot for the chef to be dressed exactly the same as the staff. Absolutely nothing would have told you this man was the chef and owner of the place....

I was there with family from out of town. They sat us down and they never assigned a waiter. When we tried to find out who our waiter was they said they were too busy and they couldn't take our table. Hostess never came back or assigned a waiter. However, they went to the tables around us and served and checked on them several times even though they were sat after we were. Finally we asked one of the waiters from another table if we were going to get someone to serve us. He said he would take our order and brought drinks and chips but then no one came back to check on us or with the food. About, and hour later when a waiter from another area came and brought our food he said he thought he would check on us because we we so lonely there and no was one attending to us. We were about to walk out at that point and really wish we would have. The food was almost cold at best luke warm. The chimichangas we ordered were so soggy from sitting waiting for someone to pick them up and bring it to us. The waiter that ordered our food never gave us his name and we could see he was inside standing around even looked our way and ignored that we had been waiting for an hour for the food. He also never brought the cup of ice we asked for. When the other waiter started bringing our food, then the waiter that had initially taken our order finally came around trying to be pleasant when he had been nothing but rude for the last hour. We left a tip only because we have more class than the serving staff that treated us so bad. Definitely the waiter that took our oder sure didn't deserve a tip. I wish I would have talked to manager but didn't want to continue ruining the evening...

EDIT: Having now been there 4 or more times in 90 days I can say that Karla is an amazing server. Sometimes she's swamped (not HER fault) but she's always there, take the order, and it is delivered precisely as ordered. She's always friendly, professional, knowledgeable, and responsive. If I owned a restaurant she would qualify as a manager-level talent. Paying attention to your guests is #1 and Karla does that.

From the door (full glass) to the wood tongue/groove floor to the walls to the decor to the branded copper ice buckets, attention to detail is immaculate. We were immediately greeted and seated. There was a delay in a server asking about drinks or apps but otherwise service was great. Also the drink I ordered was placed in front of my SO... so somewhere seat numbers didn't work right.

The FOOD WAS AWESOME and the PORTIONS WERE HUGE and it was literally boiling and sizzling. Everything was fresh and delicious and I can go on about the fajitas mixta and the molcajete and the awesome guac and the fixins (rice and beans and sour cream and salad). We took about 1/2 home.

Oh, also the molcajete for one.. would have served three. That's how big it was. And boiling!!!

I'm a marg fan but for the first time in ages thought I'd try a frozen marg. It was tart, not sweet, tangy, and DELICIOUS. Best frozen marg I've ever had.

So - top notch atmosphere. There's some money there. Top-notch service except for the runner's "tableside auction" of my drink. FANTASTIC FOOD, PORTIONS, omg so good.

Will go back. Will recommend to others. Will recommend to friends and family who are pickier than...