(Update: Sometime in 2019 “Amado’s” changed owners and is now… “Amada’s”. But basically the same great food. Updated review here)
One of the biggest things I miss living in rural New England is that Mexican breakfasts are almost non-existent. Good Mexican places are few and far between, those that serve breakfast doubly so.
But my parents live in Mesa, AZ, which always has had a reasonably good selection of Mexican restaurants, with even more showing up in recent years. And, luckily for me, most of them serve breakfast.
So when we had a free morning while visiting my parents, Carol and I were craving breakfast burritos, so I decided to check out Amado’s Mexican Food. Nestled in a shopping center about half a mile from my parents, I remember that Amado’s was originally a Dunkin’ Donuts, but Amado’s settled in quite a few years ago, and has been churning out your basic menu of burritos, tacos, menudo, and other moderately sized Mexican fare ever since. For an extra bonus, they are open 24 hours a day, almost every day (I think they close for Christmas and New Year’s).
Looking over the menu, I was pleased to see that Amado’s had a reasonably good selection of breakfast burritos, including chorizo, machaca, and huevos con papas. Seeing that both Carol and I enjoy a good chorizo burrito, and I always have a weakness for machaca, so we ordered one of each, as well as a pair of horchatas.
Considering that your basic breakfast burrito at Amado’s costs only $5, it was a substantially-sized burrito (sadly, for all their deliciousness, intact burritos are always difficult to photograph…). For the contents of my burrito, the eggs were perfectly scrambled, and the machaca was nice, juicy, tender, and flavorful shreds of meat. With a little hot sauce and some fresh green salsa from their salsa bar, this was quite a good breakfast for starting the day.
Carol did rather nicely as well with her chorizo burrito. The chorizo was nicely spiced and not overly greasy, also making for a nicely assembled burrito.
The only sad part? As I mentioned above, Amado’s has been here for years now, and until this visit I never considered coming down to check them out. I wish I had come by sooner.
