San Diego Restaurant: The Amigo Spot

We visited San Diego restaurant: The Amigo Spot recently and here’s our thoughts on the food and our overall experience.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored #ReviewCrew post on behalf of Restaurant.com. All opinions are 100% my own.

Comic-Con (one of the world’s largest comic book and pop culture conventions) is an incredibly fun, but exhausting experience. It runs Thursday through Sunday and by Saturday night, we were starting to feel that exhaustion. We stay about 6-8 miles away from the San Diego Convention Center which has plenty of restaurants around. You have lots of choices: fast food, diners, fast casual, and even more upscale restaurants.

We didn’t want fast food or pizza, but the problem was that we knew it was a Saturday night and we DID NOT want to get dressed up nice, we did not want wait 45 minutes for a table, and we didn’t want to sit like sardines in an over-packed restaurant after leaving the extremely crowded Comic-Con exhibit hall.

We wanted to relax. We wanted to take a breather. We wanted to chat and talk about our fun day.

That’s where The Amigo Spot came in. To save money, I checked Restaurant.com to see what restaurants might be close to our hotel. I saw the listing for The Amigo Spot, read some of of the reviews (which were good), and printed up a certificate — I paid $10 and received a $25 certificate, which saved us $15.

The Amigo Spot was pretty much what I expected based on the photos on Restaurant.com. This place isn’t fancy. It’s in an older hotel, Kings Inn, and in a word, I would describe The Amigo Spot as quirky. Maybe even slightly odd. The building and restaurant decor is  dated — don’t be expecting anything hip and modern here.

But, The Amigo Spot had things that made our experience a good one.

First, any business that welcomes Comic-Con fans on their marquee is a place I will consider. I live in Vegas and it always bugs me when I hear anyone complain about tourists. Tourists bring a nice amount of money to the places they visit, so it’s nice to be welcomed. It makes me feel like they want your business.

One big plus to me at The Amigo Spot is that they did NOT having a massive menu. Have you ever been to a restaurant that offers you a menu with lots of pages in it? I can’t ever decide what I want and I feel like I have to read it for an hour to make sure I’m making the best choice. The Amigo Spot menu is a 2-sided menu, nicely organized, and easy to see what they have (or don’t have).

Do you think all Mexican restaurants play mariachi music? The Amigo Spot is proof that they all don’t (well, they do sometimes, just not on the weekends, I think). We were quite surprised after being seated that there would be a jazz quartet playing that night.

We really have no interest in jazz music, but as it got later, the bar filled up with lots of older locals who were clearly there to have great time. We found ourselves enjoying the music, the atmosphere, and the people watching. Overall, we were entertained.

My husband, my daughter, and I ordered a margarita, which were good. But what I really like was that I could get a small one. It’s not that I don’t like a huge margarita here and there, but I was already tired and didn’t want to drink much, so I liked that I was able to get a small one.

Our two youngest kids will eat Mexican food, but it’s not their favorite. They were very happy to see other options on the menu. Our 15 year old ordered a steak (which was larger than she expected). She did ask for medium-rare and it was more medium, but that wasn’t a big deal to us.

Our 12 year old is a total hamburger and fries type kid. He was VERY happy to see that he could get a cheeseburger, which was served with plenty of french fries.

The adults all ordered various combination plates with two main items and sides of rice and beans. Pretty typical options. I had a chili relleno, but I found it to be just okay and would have liked to to have more cheese. The chimichanga was pretty good and the rice and beans were your average sides that you get in most Mexican restaurants. Nothing spectacular, but still good. For the most part, the food was not out-of-this world Mexican food, but it was good.

We don’t usually order dessert when we eat out, but this was our vacation, so we decided to splurge. About half of the family ordered dessert-style chimichangas, which were flour tortillas filled with pie filling and deep fried. Everyone that ordered this loved it.

The other half of the family ordered Fried Ice Cream…including myself.  I don’t think I’ve ever had Fried Ice Cream and since it’s a Mexican restaurant favorite, I decided it was a must. I really liked it and it was a perfect finish to our meal.

Even though The Amigo Spot isn’t perfect, it actually fit what we wanted perfectly — if that makes sense. We found a super casual place to relax after our exhausting Comic-Con day. We didn’t have to wait to be seated. We ate and filled our bellies. We talked about our day and planned for our next day. We we’re entertained — even if in a way we wouldn’t have sought out.

More information:

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