While it’s pretty quiet here at Offbeat Eats due to us being in month 8 of the general pandemic shutdown, I’ve still had the occasional travel. In this case, I had to take a trip to visit my parents in Arizona and help take care of some issues around the house. A long tradition of mine when I’m visiting my parents is to indulge in something that’s pretty rare around VT and NH: a really good breakfast burrito. Well, the Phoenix metro area has, seriously, probably a thousand places where one can get a good breakfast burrito, and during these Covid pandemic times, getting some takeout burritos is still a viable strategy. Most trips, I would head over to Amado’s Mexican Food about a half mile away and get a righteous machaca and chorizo breakfast burrito. I just ran into a small glitch this time: Amado‘s Mexican Food isn’t there any more. It’s now, after a sale to a new owner (one of Amado’s co-owners took full ownership), in a triumph of sign updating minimalism, now known as Amada‘s Mexican Food.
Honestly, the minimal changes to the signage carry over to the rest of the experience. Aside from a newly refreshed menu (with only slightly elevated pricing from my last visit in 2019), and a much nicer setup for the drive-thru window (at some point in the last few years they finally picked up a nice drive-up menu and ordering intercom), the basic experience is the same, this is your basic Mexican burrito shops with a bit of limited interior seating (long ago when I was growing up here, this was the local Dunkin Donuts). The menu retains all the classic burritos, tacos, menudo, and other moderately sized Mexican fare ever since, but the hours are a bit more limited (for years, Amado’s was open 24/7, Amada’s actually opens a bit late at 8am, closing at 11).
But the menu still holds the breakfast burritos I sought. Until last year, my visits usually involved debating heavily between a breakfast machaca burrito or a chorizo burrito, usually being unable to resist machaca: beef that’s been slow-cooked and simmered into delicious threads. But then I realized last trip, I could do both! Ordering a machaca and chorizo breakfast burrito does seem to raise a few eyebrows, but it’s a good combination, getting the beefiness of the machaca and the spiciness of the chorizo. Adding in some fresh green salsa, and I was quickly given my takeout burrito for the reasonable price of $6.50, retiring to a park down in downtown Chandler to enjoy my burrito.
Burritos never really photograph well, but this was a solid burrito. The eggs were perfectly scrambled, and the machaca was nice, juicy, tender, and flavorful shreds of meat. The chorizo was a pleasant spicy note without being overly greasy. And the cheese was lightly applied but not lacking. Dolloping on the resh green salsa from their salsa bar, this was quite a good breakfast for starting the day.
Overall, I’m pleased. Amada’s is serving up burritos at least as good as their predecessor, and if the line at the drive thru was any indication, doing a land office business during these pandemic times.
Thank you for these great reviews. I have enjoyed reading your reviews and love the pics – they make me so ready to get out of pandemic isolation and travel again. Your excellent reviews give me some patience to weather out the pestilence 😉
Yeah. Unfortunately, one of the side efforts I’ve had to do is periodically checking if places I’ve reviewed have closed. 🙁
So far, not too many (knock on wood), but I track them here: https://offbeateats.org/category/reviews/covid19/