Amigos Restaurant & Cantina - dj

494 N Semoran Blvd
Winter Park, FL 32792
407.657.8111
www.amigostex-mex.com

I eat at the Altamonte Springs location on the first week Amigos was open in the Orlando area in 1988. The old Mr. Gatti’s Pizza on Westmonte Drive was the first location. That first week not much had changed except for the makeshift sign out front. It didn’t take long for the Texas license plates to start going up. Nell was there to greet you on every visit and make sure you felt at home. I still have her cook book from 1995 with illustrations by Jake Vest. The name was "If Ya Ain't a Little Fat, Ya Momma Didn't Love Ya!" it is a little corny but it has some good recipes. The competition was fierce for Mexican food on that corner in Altamonte Springs. There were 3 other big Mexican chain restaurants within a stones through (Casa Gallardo, El Torito, and Taco Bell) only Amigos is left.

Over the years my love for Amigos has come and gone. They expanded out to as many as seven restaurants I would guess. There are now 5 listed on their web site of which I think only 3 are currently open. Maybe this is a more manageable number as the food on this visit to the Winter Park outlet seemed to be better than on my last visit to the East Colonial store that is now closed. On that last visit to East Colonial the food was just bad. Today is was not bad.

I have fond memories of the Altamonte Springs store. This was the first restaurant my son went to when he was 2 weeks old. He is a senior in high school now. Where has all the time gone? Marisole “our waitress” use to treat us special when our little family came in. We always sat at the same table around the corner from the cash register. We finished our meal with Texas Pralines purchased at the cash register for a dollar (sadly no longer available). They can be ordered from www.lammes.com . I happen to have one at my desk back at work and this was the perfect finish to my meal.

Today I had the Texas Special from the lunch menu. It was an adequate serving not the giant plate they may have had in the past few years. It consisted of one cheese enchilada and one chicken taco, with rice and beans topped with a sprinkling of cheese. This was not a heavy lunch in fact it was just right. The food was very good today. I hope this signals a turnaround for Amigos. I will definitely give them another visit.



Rating: ***
Service: ***