Amaya's Fresh Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Monroe

PROS: Kitchen was fast - we had our food less than 10 minutes after we ordered. Large portions of main dishes. Warm tortilla chips were plentiful, able to be refilled.

CONS: Service was SLOW. We got there and there was one couple in front of us. It was just me and my husband. We counted no less than four 2-seat high top tables, and at least 3-4 2-seat regular tables. Host was absent for at least 5 minutes before the first couple got seated. He then took our name and said there would be a 5-10 minute wait. As we waited, the other couple got their chips/salsa, drinks, and FOOD before we were even seated. At least 4-5 parties of 2-4 people each left the restaurant. The host took his sweet time cleaning those tables before he seated us - we waited about 15 minutes after he took our name. Then he said our server, Ashley, would be "right with us." We waited another 10 minutes before HE came and gave us menus and got our drink order and drinks. He then brought us chips and salsa. We looked at the menus and decided what we wanted and ate through almost the entire basket of chips before our waitress finally arrived. We placed our orders. Like I said above, the kitchen was fast - we got our food pretty quickly after she finally took the orders, the portions were large.

I had ordered the fajita burrito, with "seasoned" chicken, and fajita vegetables. The filling was very bland - hardly any seasoning at all. I ended up pulling my filling out of the tortilla and adding salt to give it extra flavor. My husband ordered the Al Pastor Tostados. He was happy with his food. However, we both drank through our beverages (water and Sprite) before we were half-finished with our food. And we waited. And waited. And waited - for someone to offer us refills. I finally stopped the server from the next section over and asked her to get our server. About 5 minutes later, a DIFFERENT server came and said Ashley was doing HIM a favor, so he would get our drinks. He then proceeded to check in on his other tables, refilling THEIR drinks, and forgetting about us. Another 5 minutes later he finally came by again, grabbed our cups, and refilled them.

Again, ANOTHER server brought our check, after we had finished our meals. We did not see Ashley again until we were ready to pay. I had reviewed the check, and noted a couple of errors, charging us for guac and sour cream that we had not asked for, and not charging for the Sprite. She apologized and took the check. I observed her going behind the bar, serving some people there, then going to the other side of the restaurant to serve other people there. It took her at least 7 minutes for her to return with the replacement check. Then she took my credit card, and AGAIN wandered around to different areas of the restaurant before finally coming back with my card and the final receipt.

I don't know if the management is poor, to not have a server in one section only, or if they were short-staffed? Most of the other servers were observed to be efficient and serving their sections in one small area. For some reason Ashley was all over the place. And the host was SLOW in cleaning tables and seating parties. With as many tables for 2 that were open when we arrived, we should have been seated immediately!

Very disappointed, despite the great reviews. I will not go back, nor recommend this...

Tonight was our 3rd or 4th time going to Amaya's. The first couple of times we went here I was not impressed at all. We have a lot of friends that rave about this place, so whenever we end up there it's usually because we're meeting a group there.

Tonight was the first time that I actually enjoyed my food. The other times I've been the food was rather dry and without much flavor. But tonight (I got the chorizo and chicken chimichanga) it tasted fresh and had a lot of flavor. But it was just the chimichanga, no beans or rice on the side. I've never been to a Mexican restaurant that didn't give at least one of those on the side. Maybe they forgot them?

Regardless of all of this though, the food nor the staff are my complaint. The noise... omg the noise! It is painful to sit in there. You guys seriously need to spend an hour on YouTube to look up acoustical treatment. This is an open room, with no carpet and a tin ceiling. I have never been in a restaurant that echoes this horribly.

The Community Players were in there doing an improv thing I guess? You couldn't understand a word they were even saying. Some of them were blaringly loud, the others I don't think have ever spoken into a microphone before. But again doesn't matter because they may as well been in the building next door screaming through a wall. Would be able to understand it just as easily.

Then when they were done the place had gotten busier. Which was just tables of people having to scream at each other, because again, you can't understand anything in there because everything just echoes.

My wife and I both agreed, if we weren't meeting friends there for dinner we would have gotten up and left as soon the people got on the microphones. We hurried out of there as soon as we could and went down to Cactus for drinks, because at least there even with karaoke going on we could actually have a conversation.

To sum it all up; whatever you did differently with the food tonight, do that all the time. Put some beans and rice as a side on the plate. And for the love of god, please PLEASE look into acoustic panels, or curtains, or some carpeting. SOMETHING! Dinner is not enjoyable when all you can hear is the incoherent mumbling of all the patrons at once, plus whatever it was they were trying to do over the...

Ate here 9/22/17 about 6pm... Staff very friendly but very limited interaction... 4 separate tables became open as we waited in line. We knew possible causes, such as those tables may have been reserved, which in fact was the case. Not knowing this, a family of 6 left after words with the staff because this was never related to those of us waiting in line, and the tables had no placards on the tables stating this as was once common practice in some establishments. Anyway, having never been here before or speaking with anyone that had, I normally would order a sampler plate, but since they didn't have that on the menu I ordered a Hard Taco, a Tostada, a Tamale from the "Build Your Own" menu as well as an Enchilada with rice and refried beans. My guests had a Burrito and one of their Bowls... The corn chips were thin, cold, tasteless (admittedly, I prefer fresh warm/hot, deep fried greasy salty chips). The mild salsa was good, but shouldn't be called mild as there was no heat present... the hot was perhaps a little too hot, but still good. Food came on cold plates so even if the food was hot to begin with it was merely warm on serving and quickly cooled. The Taco was no better than from Taco Bell with much less cheese, as was the case with everything we ordered. Little cheese in the Burrito, the Tamale was small and bland. Definitely not from Evie's... The Bowl was reported as good but like everything else we ordered unremarkable. The guacamole was tasty. All in all it was a fast food experience for me, complete with a mistake in our order, which we took in stride. Even at my favorite restaurants, some days my usual meals aren't near as good as other times, perhaps because of a different cook/chef, and this might have been the case with our experience at Amaya's. I won't be back... Without heading to Mexican Town, my "Blue Collar" recommendations would be Angelina's in Wyandotte or Allen Park, or Manuel's Taco Hut...