Amigos Tortilla Bar — Restaurant in Key West

I first visited 1/2/22 to get take out. I was told I would have to wait to place my order. So I waited...and waited...and waited. I saw them clean tables, seat some patrons, clean more tables, call more patrons - I then left. Unsure why I was asked to wait so long before I can place a togo order?

I came back the next day, 1/3/21 at 2:40pm and ordered a Chicken rice bowl and tortilla chips. I waited out front and watched people getting seated, having items brought to the table. I waited more. Finally I saw the server with whom I placed my togo order, she was bringing drinks to a table. She looked at me and had a surprised look on her face and told me 'sorry, your order is ready, I did not see you' (ummm...I was standing out front, on the sidewalk, directly by the entrance). She went and got my food and I paid (BTW, please don't ever assume that I do not want change - that is not your decision). Although it was only the silver missing, it is still the point - Imagine if I went to place an order and told them I did not have enough money...let's see if they think that applies in reverse.

So far we have ascertained that the service is sub-par based on 2 visits. Now comes the food part of the review...

The chips were very good...kinda hard to mess that up, but I have had bad chips before, so kudos to them...really good chips - crispy.

The Chicken bowl was salty. I mean SALTY! So salty that I was unable to finish the meal and threw almost 1/4 in the trash. I know that salty dishes drives up alcohol sales, but I am hoping that this is just an error with the chef and not a policy.

Overall not happy with the service nor the food. Based on my two visits I would not recommend this place, nor would I visit again.

UPDATE:. so I changed my mind and decided to go back again. I had the 3 taco plate: chicken, beef, and chorizo. 2 hard, 1 soft. They pride themselves on their square tacos. I don't like the square tacos, they are too small and make eating them difficult. The beef taco had a very large chunk of gristle in the middle making it impossible to eat by hand.

Food was better this time around which is why I updated this review to four stars. The service was still lacking and not good, even though they...

Disappointing Experience: Pleasant Atmosphere, But Mediocre Food

We recently visited a restaurant that had garnered positive reviews on Google, and we were excited to try it out. While the atmosphere was pleasant, thanks to the live music from nearby pubs, I must say that the dining experience left a lot to be desired.

Let's start with the positives—the restaurant had a great ambiance with live music from nearby pub that added a lively touch to the overall atmosphere. It was enjoyable to have the sounds of the pubs right in front of us. However, when it came to the main reason we were there—the food—it was a major letdown.

The menu boasted a variety of options, and we decided to try the tacos. To our disappointment, we were charged separately for each type of fish we chose. This meant that the three tacos we ordered, which had two, fish and one shrimp, were charged as three individual items. This seemed very unreasonable, as we expected the pricing to be based on the number of tacos rather than the specific fillings.

To make matters worse, we discovered that rice and beans were not included with the tacos and had to be ordered separately. It felt like an unnecessary upsell. We expected these traditional accompaniments to be included as part of the taco dish, but unfortunately, that was not the case.

Speaking of prices, it's important to note that this restaurant is not cheap at all. Given the quality of the food we received, the overall experience felt overpriced. The taste and presentation of the tacos were lower than average, and we found ourselves questioning the quality of the ingredients used.

In conclusion, while the restaurant did provide a pleasant atmosphere with the live music from nearby pubs, the dining experience fell short. The mediocre food, along with the questionable pricing strategy, left us feeling unsatisfied and disappointed. I would hesitate to recommend...

The positives for this place are the location and atmosphere. The staff are friendly and attentive.

The negatives for me were the food. I specifically picked this place to try the street corn, but we also had a cheese quesadilla and the chips with salsa. I read through the menu and expected authentic Mexican food based on the descriptions, but I'm still perplexed by what we got. The chips and qusadilla were both extremely salty, but what really threw me off was the salsa. It was basically Marinara sauce. It was really thick, and I didn't see or taste onion in it. It tasted closer to marinara sauce than any salsa I've ever had.

The street corn was OK but not something I'd go out of my way for. Street corn is one of my all-time favorite foods, I've had a lot of it and never like this. I'm fairly certain my corn was sitting in eel sauce or something very similar to it. So on the top you get the mayonnaise and cheese you expect, on the bottom is...sticky sweet eel sauce? I didn't hate it, but I'm not sure why it was there.

It honestly was so odd that I ended up looking up their menu again thinking I missed some sort of description saying that was their spin on Tex Mex or they were adding other worldly flavors to the classics since I figured marinara then eel sauce, but the description says clear as day authentic Mexican street food so I have no idea.

I wasn't drinking. If you're drinking and looking for food, you will love it, you'll love anything that's why Taco Bell does well. It's not a terrible place by any means, just definitely not what I would expect and not something I would go to for authentic food. Go for drinks and...