AMELIAS MEXICAN KITCHEN — Restaurant in Tucson

I was very excited to come here after reading about james beard award etc. And to be honest, I no longer put any merit on james beard chefs nominees because of this experience. The seating was unnecessary, and we stood outside for at least 10 minutes before the hostess even came out to say hi to me. Then she said she would get me a table, and then we waited another ten minutes. I could literally see six tables open on the inside. Despite being horrible I will say, she was very friendly. And when I called to see if they were open, I did receive a call back after it went to voicemail the first time. And so I was very surprised to show up and have to wait twenty minutes when there is at least ten open tables inside. Well, the hostess was friendly but our waiter seemed like he hated life. I ordered enchiladas con huevos with red sauce, and a margarita. My partner ordered the nopales con huevos, and our little guy ordered the mickey mouse plate. The table next to us order biria nachos. I know because it was impossible not to hear every single word that was spoken at the table next to us. They received their order of Beria nachos within 10 minutes. And it was piping hot and looked great. So my expectations were high. Then our waiter came by and literally slammed my margarita down on the table and walked away like he had just gotten bad news or something. I thought to myself, Hey, sometimes restaurants with good food, have really bad service. There's no way that this place can be resting on its laurels, and fail at both. Then our food was brought out. We were brought salsa, but no chips, which I found strange. Because my meal is not one that requires salsa. As it is an enchilada. The red salsa was good as I tasted it on my fork, the green salsa, it had no flavor whatsoever. My enchiladas were brought out cold with the red sauce having a skin on it. And the inside of my enchiladas, being cold cheese that had been sitting. The sausages that came with the Mickey Mouse plate were also served cold, and my bite was actually cold on the inside as if they had not been brought up to temp.At all. Now, back to that enchilada sauce, which like the rest of my plate, was cold.Even though the plate itself was warm, not hot, i am not lying when I say the enchilada sauce was the worst enchilada sauce I have ever had. It tasted like chef boyardee tomato sauce.It was sweet. Sweet! Not even a hint of chili pepper flavor. My partner liked her nopales con huevos, but joked to me that this must be a healthy place for white people because there was no salt and no spice, just eggs and nopales. And therefore her plate was bland it tasted just like eggs and nopales. Also, my plate was brought out with refried beans. I ordered black beans. My partner got her black beans and then joked that we could switch because the black beans tasted, like they had just come straight out of a can, and at least my beans were the only warm part on my plate.So I politely refused to switch with her. I really am just flabbergasted at how bad the execution of the food and the enchiladas were, I mean, seriously, the presentation was okay, but yeah, when something comes out. And it's obviously been sitting for about 20 minutes and you've been waiting for your food for 40 minutes. You have a problem. The Birria nachos that the couple got looked great. I cannot recommend this place and I was very disappointed in every aspect of the experience. Like I said, whoever is on the committee for james beard finalists, I guess, is somebody who's never actually been to mexico or lived in the southwest. Horrible food, the male waiter was horrible service and attitude. And bye, I felt like the entire staff didn't want to be working. We'll not recommend this place and we'll never go back. Thanks for a horrible labor day breakfast, i would have warned the huge line waiting to get in when I left to not waste their time. But I decided to let them figure it...

My husband and I had been to a different restaurant in this same space and it was kind of a dive. I have to say, Amelia’s has done an incredible job in transforming it! There used to be a step up area with a rail in the back with setting. It was very odd to say the least. This was our second visit, the first being dinner at the bar. Definitely make reservations for dinner or you could have a lengthy wait time for an inside table. Both bartenders were very friendly and attentive. We both had the carne asada fajitas with were good, but not quite traditional. There seemed to be a teriyaki sauce on them, which seemed a little odd. But over all they were good. For breakfast we were seated right away, we shoes up around 10am on a Sunday. I had the beef tamales with eggs and my husband had the cheese enchiladas with eggs. We shared and our meals became we each wanted to try them both. Both came with beans, which are absolutely amazing! The tamales had more masa than I would have preferred, but I don’t feel like it was more than the norm for a restaurant. Overall we would order either one of those dishes again. The pates were huge, and we definitely could have shared one or take half home for another meal. Our server was very friendly with just the right amount of attentiveness.

On a side note, I learned about Amelia’s when my boss brought me and my coworkers here for dinner. I had the street taco plate with carne asada, birria, and al pastor tacos. All the three were delicious and came with rice and beans.

One of my coworkers ordered the ceviche and HOLY COW. I’m not a huge fan of shrimp, but this was HANDS DOWN the best ceviche I have ever had in my life. They don’t serve it with lime, but they don’t need to. It is already perfectly seasoned with it! The portion was huge, (more than enough to share or have it as a whole meal for one), and came with chips. I would have ordered it on one of the visits with my husband, but he is sadly allergic to shrimp. The cocktails are top notch as well. The Cadillac Margarita is no joke. Stronger than most I’ve had elsewhere. The prickly pear margarita is also delicious, and surprisingly not too sweet, like at most other restaurants. I didn’t think to take any photos, so you’ll have to trust me. Visit and see for yourself what everyone is...

Not sure how I stumbled on this place to try, other than we are obsessed with Mexican food and always trying to find new place to try. This restaurant is small on the inside with 6 tables I believe, and seating at the bar, or at least that is how they were set up for the groups dining when we popped in for breakfast. They have a nice seating area outside as well with some high tops.

We arrived at about 10:30AM when a table had just been vacated. I will tell you by the time we left the tables outside were all full, this place is definitely a fan favorite in the neighborhood based on the traffic we saw.

I ordered the Chilaquiles, my husband the Huevos Rancheros. We are two creatures of breakfast habit... and have fun rating various restaurant versions of our individual favorites. There was one young lady acting as hostess/server and she had her hands full with all tables being full and people calling/coming in and out. Service was not that great, but it was friendly. I can't really fault her given she was by herself. I had told her twice that my eggs should be scrambled... yet they came out on my plate over easy (which really grosses me out). My husband scored as he now got 4 eggs with his Huevos Rancheros. She was quick to bring out the correct eggs, so redemption there. Okay so my husband shared that the flavor of the Huevos Rancheros was very good. He is very particular, so that is a gold star for Amelie's. My food was luke warm, which was really disappointing, particularly the beans which were difficult to eat with a fork given their consistency. They had excellent flavor though AND being as I am obsessed with finding the worlds best Chilaquiles - I would rate theirs a 7 our of 10 as I loved the sauce.

Not sure we will come back, as the barely warm food was a turn off for me along with the less than solid ability to provide decent service but flavor wise - 4 stars for sure and I can see why this place is a...