~ Curious Charlie ~

Los Amates Mexican Kitchen - Fitzroy @ Friday, January 08, 2016

Friday 27th November

A rare and long trip out east due to the weekly protest, led us to Los Amates. This week's dinner was at a new place, new to us. Los Amate is a small authentic mexican place in Fitzrory. How did we find out about this event? They sponsored an event I worked at.

Booked out on a Friday night, it featured a large range of drinks from horchatas to margaritas. Who spends $16 on a drink!? Jas that's who. We were lucky to get a table for 4 as not everyone was committed to coming, with one with a cold/the flu and two lovebirds, you know how some people are when they get into a r'ship, they disappear as the r'ship consumes every waking moment that isn't spent at work.

The inside while small was decorative, colour and fun! A great location for a good time.

3D Art/Paintings, decorative but also for sale, they featured like scene inside, and rhinestones or as someone who I know would call it "bling".

Horchata with Rice & Cinnamon $4

Horchata with Rice & Cinnamon, (no carnations!!) is a favourite of mine. Though it was room temp, needs to be in the fridge before you serve it. It was a long dinner with all 4/4 being late, and so I had two drinks.

Jas had a drink that looked like a iced tea while his beau the lawyer (family/civil, not criminal :P #HTGAWM) had a margarita in a glass. Aren't they normally in those massive glasses? With a huge top.

The lawyer prefers just to order a dish, one main, while when not dining alone (a rare thing for me) I like to force everyone to get dishes to share :P For my #diningonmyown reviews I need to either consume the signature dish or visit them 2-3 times to get a good review.

Sopes $8.50

3 hand-made corn flour cases filled with frijoles negros, lettuce,

Salsas Roja and Verde topped with queso blanco (feta) and cream.

Jas's pick, tart like things not made with pastry with mild fillings. Finger food that ran down my hand, whoops. Meanwhile the boys used their forks and knives :P Nice but nothing amazing.

Elotes Asados $8.50

3 Corn on the cob, grilled served with chipotle mayo, queso blanco, chilli tajín and lime.

We started with the classic grilled corn. 3 refers to the pieces, so it's actually 1 whole cob. Perfectly grilled and juicy, though nothing special. Perfect number of pieces as at this point there were 3/4 of us, one stuck in traffic due to the protest.

Ceviche $18

Fresh citrus cooked fish with pico de gallo, cucumber and

avocado (on the side). Served with totopos, savory corn chip.

Lola introduced us to ceviche. This version was served not premade by DIY, you put the topping on the corn chips. It was good but a bit too sour and citriuzy which made my gums hurt..

There are three section, with the middle room being the fun zone it seemed.

We're loving the bright and colourful deco!

Window to the Kitchen

The Courtyard

Albondigas al chipotle $24

Mexican soul food. Meatballs in tomato and chipotle sauce.

Served with rice, beans, salad and 4 corn tortillas.

Moving onto mains, the lawyer, a fan of Italian picked meatballs, which were salty and sour and pretty nice. He ate them with a knife and fork unlike me, who would attempt to wrap them up in the tortillas. :P

Tacos de Cabeza $6

Braised beef cheek tacos. Served with onion, coriander, salsa and lime.

I had tacos, the beef was good but didn't wow me. The taco shells weren't at all flourly and much better than Maya Mex, though the size small.

Tacos de Pescado $16.50

2 Fish tacos “Baja Style” served on flour tortillas with

black frijoles, pico de gallo and chipotle mayo on the side.

I also had fish tacos! These were very good and a bit hot, next time we'll ask for chipotle on the side, and add shredded granny smith apple sticks. Also had salsa to cool it down and warm black bean dipping which we filling the lawyer's warm tortillas with. I'm not sure if that was my dish or not, whoops.

Set of 3 Tacos for $16

Jas & Jon had tacos, personally for that size (canape size) I thought they were expensive. Jon says these are authentic normal actual taco size, while the meat was well cooked the taco shell needed a bit more so they wouldn't fall apart as easily.

There's three desserts on the menu, Lola would be disappointed to see a lack of chili chocolate :P We ordered all three to share.

Pastel de Elote $ 8.50

Warm sweet corn cake. Traditional from central and north of Mexico.

Served with cream and a berry coulis

Jon was iffy about ordering this as we haven't had it before, but it was good. Very different and not sweet. Sitting in the shadows of the 3 milks.

Flan de la Casa $ 9.00

Creamy oven-baked caramel custard tart. Our own irresistible family recipe!

I love flan, though this one was different. It was denser than expected with less gelatin and more cake like. Try it, though I prefer something softer and lighter.

Pastel de 3 Leches $ 9.50

Sponge cake soaked in a mixture of three kinds of milk.

The three milks cake was delicious! And our favourite 4/4. I'd get this again and attempt it at home. Best Mexican dessert we've had! And we're eaten our way through almost the whole menu at another mexican place. :P

My top recommendations would be if you're just going to get two things go for the horchata and 3 milks cake.

The vibe was the resturant on a Friday Night was pretty cool said Jon, booked out being a small space with two rooms (shop size) and a couple tables out back.

Service was good and jas tipped. He forgot to make the booking, though we were lucky to get a table thanks to no shows, probably trapped in the city or delayed by the protest.

Thanks Los Amates for a great night out! Oh and the bill came to $177 but the boys did order $16 drinks. It's over our budget of $20-25 per meal, but it was on my list and we were prompted to dine there due to a gift voucher.

Across the road we found some cool art/graffiti, which suited the theme!

What's the last Mexican place you dined at? And what's a dish you'd always order?