AMANO Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Santa Clarita

My Mother N Law placed a catering order of 30 Chicken Enchiladas with Rice & Beans. This order was to be served during a family gathering for lunch. The order was requested and confirmed to be ready for pickup at 11:30am. I arrived at 11:28am. The order was not ready. While waiting for order to be completed, I observed and witnessed the restaurants food prep operation in the kitchen (open and in plain view due to position in restaurant). There were two female employees working during the entire wait duration I was there. One working the register and one working the food station and grill. The female working the food prep and grill was wearing gloves. I clearly witnessed her go into several uncooked meat containers and grab uncooked chicken- place it on the grill for cooking and then with the same hand, grab uncooked steak and pork, also placing it on the grill for cooking. Gloves were not taken off and a new pair put on during this process. While still wearing the same gloves, the employee would go to the food prep station and go into containers that hold content for burritos and tacos including cheese, lettuce,etc. She grabbed cooking utensils with the same hand, while wearing the same glove scooping beans and rice. This employee was observed hand making burritos, rolling the tortillas with the same hand/glove that previously had clear physical contact with uncooked poultry, steak and pork. During the entire wait time I had, I never witnessed or observed this employee changing gloves and washing her hands. I also observed the cashier employee place one glove on one of her hands and went to the fryer station and grabbed tortilla chips placing them into bags for customers including my own actually. I did not observe her wash her hands after being in contact with cash, credit cards and whatever else may have been in her contact prior to my visit. I believe that most people would agree that an employee should wash their hands after working a cash register before putting on gloves since hand contact happens while grabbing the gloves themselves. At this point, I spoke up to the cashier and made a clear and firm statement saying, "You know your partner there is cross contaminating everything in her reach since she is handling uncooked poultry and other meats without changing gloves and washing her hands!!" The employee replied with a blank stare at me and seemed confused. I informed her that it was wrong way of food handling and she needs to take off those gloves of hers and wash her hands. The employee said, " I know". I said she had contaminated most of the area there and to be honest, everything should be thrown away. The employee walked over to the suspect employee and I saw her take off her gloves and go in the back of the restaurant out of view. She came back 2-3 minutes later and continued to cook. I am unsure what she did in the back- not sure if she washed her hands or not. So to sum this up, this specific Las Delicias needs to be educated on food prep and handling. I am unsure if any previous customers have gotten sick or not. However, that does not determine if their operation needs to change or not. They are required to follow strict LA County Health operation and it seems like they are not. I do see that they have scored an "A" but maybe they just got lucky the day they were...

I REALLY wanted to give this place a higher rating. I’ve been wanting a go-to Mexican restaurant in Saugus.

The first time I went here, it was a pretty good experience. There wasn’t anyone there during rush hour. The cashier was super helpful in picking my meals. He even gave me a free drink while I waited. I had an event coming up and asked about catering breakfast. He gave me their card and told me to come try the breakfast on the weekend. The tacos were pretty decent.

Second visit - I called shortly after opening to place a small order (1 breakfast burrito). The woman on the phone seemed to misunderstand me quite a bit, but it seemed as though she understood my order. She told me come in 20 minutes. I got there 30 minutes later and she told me it would be another 10 minutes, but even that seemed inaccurate because nothing was cooking. She was not apologetic. I ended up just leaving because I had somewhere to be.

I might have been able to give them the benefit of the doubt, but communication is important. There’s too many food options in SCV to not value that on their end as a small business. Off to...

Do not eat here!

My brother in law picked up food here for a family event. He witnessed unsafe handling of food by the employees. They touched raw meat and then prepared food with the same, unwashed hands! So disgusting and unsanitary! Also a HUGE violation of health code.

When my brother in law arrived to the family event with the food, we had to heat up all of the food in our own oven to ensure that no bacteria from the raw meat would infect us.

My brother in law contacted the co-owner about the issue. The co-owner reviewed the video tapes of the restaurant and concluded that there was no wrongdoing- basically telling my brother in law that the unsanitary conditions he witnessed with his own eyes was wrong! He also accused my brother in law of trying to get a free ride-what!?! This is not how a business owner should treat a paying customer. Never going...