Amigos, Acland Street, Lygon Street and Chapel Street, Melbourne

Jacklyn Swiecicki visits the Amigos restaurants in Melbourne and gives her opinion on Americanized Mexican food.

Amigos, a chain restaurant that is part of a franchise with three restaurants in Melbourne’s prime locations: Acland Street, Lygon Street and Chapel Street, prides itself on being ‘Mexican-inspired’. Despite the only authentic thing at Amigos being a Latino waitress, the menu is basic, Americanized Mexican food.

There are no surprises here; all the dishes on the menu are recognisable, without many innovative additions. With traditional nachos starting at $12.90 (AUS), this is comprised of a few scattered corn chips with some store-bought tomato salsa. All extra additions are at an extra cost.

All the usual suspects are on the menu: burritos and fajitas and so on. While the beef if my traditional burrito $19.90 (AUS) was nice and tender, my accompanying side dishes were less than praiseworthy. The rice was flavourless and bland. My puree of red kidney beans looked like it had been suspiciously microwaved solid onto the plate.

To swallow down such a disappointing meal, a jug of Sangria was mandatory $23 (AUS). Quite a pricey tipple, our jug of Sangria was fruitless and had a stale-like aftertaste. It looks like this was a no-win situation.

Taking into consideration that Amigos is a franchise, I expected a few generic mishaps, however, without overlooking the basic evidence, the food simply seems to lack the passion one envisages Latino’s to encompass. The end result is mediocre dishes that whilst they may be acceptable, are over-priced and over-estimated.

Cost Range: $30-$40 (AUS), per person, main dish and drinks only.

171 Lygon Street
Carlton
Victoria
03 93473293

92B Acland Street
St.Kilda
Victoria
03 95343322

7/478 Chapel Street
South Yarra
Victoria
03 98261653

Review by Jacklyn Swiecicki