All you can eat* amazing Mexican for $6.99! Me Gusta El Amate!!!

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I went on a great adventure...DINNER WITH MY FAMILY!  While it may sound more like a nice night out than a Lewis and Clark-esque foray into the world of high adventure, you have to understand that with 8 very opinionated persons arguing over where to dine (think of your favorite Always Sunny in Philadelphia argument and magnify it by a few additional people), coming to a concensus on the hosting restaurant was beyond difficult.  After the common suggestions - Applebee's, OG (that's Olive Garden, not Original Gangster), etc. - we settled on Paula's cazuela, an old family favorite that really shouldn't be.  It's bad.  Gringo Mex at it's worst.  That's right, I won't even give it the title of Tex-mex.

I could go on, but i won't.  Sadly, I remember somebody mentioning on that outing, and everyone shooting down the idea, of going to what I now consider the newly crowned "Best Mexican Food in Southen Utah."  EL AMATE,  Located at 974 w. Sunset, next to Papa Murphy's Pizza.  If only we had listened...

Since I'm working this summer for the 7th largest law firm in Utah that has revenues in the multi-multi millions of dollars per year for somewhere in the range of ZERO DOLLARS PER HOUR, I jumped at my Mom's text yesterday offering to take me to lunch.  We headed over to El Amate, her having been there once over a year ago, and I never having visited.  Best decision either of us have made in at least the last eleven days.

The restaurant is small, with only about 10 or 12 tables.  After being seated, my eyes were immediately drawn to the white board listing the day's specials, each at $6.99 and served with frijoles y arroz.  Chile Rojo, Chile Verde, or crispy Fish Tacos...option #1 for me, and fish tacos for mi madre.

Let's start with the fish tacos.  Crispy and flaky is a wonderful combination that I don't know that I've tried before yesterday.  Rather than the typical corn tortilla, El Amate served up their fish tacos in Freshly Fried crisp taco shells, and then topped them with cabbage and crema.  That's right, Mexican crema, not American sour cream.  Yes, there is a difference.  While I'm not usually a fan of Tilapia, it worked here.  Well done.  On to the Chile Rojo.

I'd never had Chile Rojo before, most likely due to the fact that nobody else in St. George makes it!  It was amazing.  Think Chile Verde, but with a richer red sauce and beef lending it's flavor to the already amazing sauce.  It was perfect in every way, and just what I was hoping for.  The spice level was spot on as well, which means, as you'll know if you've ever eaten with me, that my forehead and face were just starting to glisten with sweat. (unlike runners and perpetual gym rats, "It's a good sweat" for me means that the spice was perfect, not that my spin class almost killed me.)  To top it off, THEY MAKE ALL THE TORTILLAS IN HOUSE!!! My dish was served with 4 piping hot corn tortillas that were somewher in the range of twice as thick as anything you can buy anywere else.  So good were the tortillas, that my Mom bought a dozen to take home for $3.50.

The beans and rice with both dishes were above average, which I think is about as much as you can expect from beans and rice.  Is it really every going to be the most memorable thing on your plate?  I've always believed that you can identify a good Mexican restaurant by its frijoles, and that holds true here: above average beans definitely equaled an above average restaurant as a whole.

If you don't want to take my word for it, here are the yelp and urbanspoon reviews for El Amate (yes, one of them on each is mine.  It was just so dang good I couldn't resist.)

<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/312/1449239/restaurant/Utah/El-Amate-St-George"><img alt="El Amate on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1449239/biglink.gif" style="border:none;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>
El Amate Yelp

Yesterday, July 27, 2011, Paula's permanently lost a customer.  And I won't miss you (except maybe the fried ice cream).

*Disclaimer:  It's not really all you can eat, but I really think that my plate ended up being just about all that anyone could eat.  You shouldn't eat at buffets anyways, or you'll end up like me.