Any recent insight on Amelia's

I've never been to Amelia's but Mellon-hubby and I are going their on Saturday evening for a birthday get-together. Unfortunately after searching the board, Amelia's got pretty ripped on this thread. However I noticed that the posts are about a year old.

So: Anyone been to Amelia's lately? Should we plan on eating there, or should we get some grub elsewhere before the party?


Amelia's Mexican Grill
1235 W. Grand Ave
312-421-2000

My one experience there a little over a year ago was pretty much all around uninspiring. Gloppy tex-mexified treatments, uninspired blandness that seemed to be unloaded straight from the SYSCO truck, and don't think the service was all that great either.

You're so close to CoalFire--why not head there either before or after and just have a margarita at Amelia's? Or, heck, just go to CoalFire and ignore Amelia's altogether.

So I wasn't sure if anyone cared, just for the record I figured I'd post regarding our dinner at Amelia's.

I had the Chili Relleno (for some reason this is usually my litmus test for Mexican restaurants I'm not familiar with). It was nice. The poblano was large and lightly battered/deep fried, covered with a very light sauce.

Mellon-hubby had the mole enchelada with steak - which I warned him against as we're used to the mole at La Oaxaquena (Milwaukee Ave location as it's a block from our house). It was good - not great - but ok enough to eat as leftovers the next day. However it didn't tast much like mole.

Other folks at the table had Talapia (nice taste but kinda mushy), and chicken fajitas (sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...). Service was solid and attentive but not intrusive.

I guess all-in-all it was not necessarily a bad experience, but definately underwhelming. Not somewhere we're going to seek out in the future given we have a great place just around the corner from our house.

Just drove by...they are closing on Spet 15th, 2007. An Italian place, under new management, is opening on Oct 1st, 2007