Review Bar Ama - Los Angeles

Awesome experience overall having dinner and cocktails here. The Amá margarita and the Negroni Mexico are especially good. And I’m not a huge dessert person but the rice pudding was unique and superb.

Came here on a recommendation from a friend, and it definitely didn't disappoint. The staff was super friendly. I asked them about portion sizes and any dishes they'd recommend. My favorite was the puffy shell shrimp taco.

This is the best DTLA happy hour deal I've found . Every component of these generous nachos ($10) is a step above, from the queso to the pickled jalapenos to the chips themselves. The margarita ($11) was strong but the Michelada ($8 x2 🤙) really stands out. Not busy yet but the bartender clearly knows what she's doing. Music is weirdly insistent on classic rock staples but the industrial chic/colors of oaxaca vibe is fun. This is a great post-museum drink and appetizer: this HH goes to 7 on Saturdays, and it's an easy downhill walk from the Broad/LACMA/museums.

Sensational. The best tex-mex cuisine I have ever tasted. We were seriously full. I had the vegetarian enchiladas, rice and beans, selection of starters, oh and I discovered tequila! Greeted with a smile, thanks Eddy.

The food was great! I had the Mexican crispy half chicken. It was pleasantly satisfying, and it was as healthy as a dish like that could be! The portion size was large enough for two people. The pitcher of margaritas had LOTS of ice. I wish it had less ice as it watered down the drink. The people were great, and the atmosphere was good. It was a little pricey but still pretty good!

Amazing food! What a pleasant surprise. I had just gotten into town and stumbled upon this place in search of Mezcal in the area. While my drink was amazing, the food was the star! The only reason this isn’t a 5 star review is because our table was not ready, but we were offered to sit on the outside patio/alley for drinks until our table was available. We never got notification of our table as we wished to move inside as there was some sort of singles event going on outside. Possibly a missed communication. Would still highly recommend!

Food was great, service was great. Only down side was the 18% service charge. I understand what it's for, but it does kinda put a damper on the evening. Plus it's taxed and if you use that to help you calculate the tip, your tip includes the service charge. I would definitely go back sooner and more regularly if the service charge wasn't there.

A few months ago the Food 52 cookbook club on Facebook (around 35,000 members) cooked from the Bar Amá cookbook and everyone fell in love with Tex-Mex, Josef Centeno's family stories, the absolutely excellent recipes, and the alcohol section too. When I finally decided to fly after months and months of being at home during the pandemic, I came to see my daughter in Los Angeles and had literally only one food wish - to go to Bar Amá. I wasn't disappointed. They have the alley open for outdoor dining, our server was fantastic and she seemed to enjoy all my cookbook stories 😂, I mean, if she didn't, she hid it well lol! Everything we had was excellent, see the photos. If you haven't yet been you should go and don't forget the B side of the menu the blistered okra was stellar and so was the za'atar labneh & puffy bread. P.S. BUY THE COOKBOOK! I've made 40-50 of the recipes, they all are totally worth it!

We love Bar Amá— one of our favorite neighborhood spots. It’s cute inside, the food is so comforting/delicious and the service is always prompt and friendly. The Mom’s Green Enchiladas is our favorite dish— cheesy, warm, citrusy and delightful. Can’t go wrong with the house marg, queso or guac, either. Highly recommend the summer corn, as well— delightful. A laid back spot with excellent food and kind people— not much more you can ask for!

I came to Bar Amá for one thing: puffy tacos. Bar Amá's Mexican-American chef (and recent Michelin Star winner), Josef Centeno, is from San Antonio, the city that invented the puffy taco. The puffy taco, a Tex-Mex staple, has made a slow migration to Southern California, now with (at least) two restaurants that serve them in L.A. County: Bar Amá and Arturo's Puffy Tacos in Whittier. At Bar Amá, they're available to order off of a "secret menu," and different varieties are rotated daily. I ordered both available on the evening I was here, the "Puffy Shrimp Taco" and the "Puffy Cochinita Pibil Taco." Neither of the puffy tacos served to me here were particularly "challenging" and both mostly avoided fussy "chef treatments," instead coming across as straightforward rather than reinvented. That said, these are "designer" puffy tacos compared to what I ate and reviewed from Arturo's Puffy Tacos earlier this summer. Whereas Arturo's tacos evoked a Taco Bell Chalupa, Bar Amá's was lighter in weight and color, reminding me more of Indian fry bread. Yet, in both cases, it is masa and not wheat used to make these taco shells, a self-reminder that tastebuds aren't always reliable when coated in salt and oil. The process behind the puffy taco shell is that a corn tortilla is deep-fried for a very brief time so that it puffs up from air attempting to escape the masa, thus creating large air pockets, making the tortilla "puffy." Once the tortilla is "puffed," it is removed from the fryer, glistening with oil and similar in appearance to a fried dough shell, then stuffed like a normal taco and served. The "Shrimp Puffy Taco" consists of grilled butterflied shrimp that has been soaked in a sticky, spicy marinade. The edges of the shrimp are charred with a smoky crust of developed flavor, and these shrimp would be excellent on their own. Here they are covered with shredded red & white cabbage, with an airy avocado and chile mousse that channels Cielito Lindo's famous sauce (and indeed it is the sauce that Bar Amá uses on its own taquitos, according to my waiter), crispy fried parsley, a stewed tomato salsa, and a sprinkling of queso panela. This taco has so many things going on that could easily be overwhelming except that, in Centeno's skilled hands, you only get just enough of each flavor to derive what you need from it, and no component seems superfluous. I love how spicy and sassy this taco is, but that's not what is front and center: it is the tremendous grilled shrimp that you'll remember long after you've left here. I enjoy cochinita pibil when it's done correctly, when the grassy achiote and sour orange is discernible, when it is thick enough to be scooped into a tortilla. By those measures, Bar Amá's "Cochinita Pibil Puffy Taco" mostly does its job, even if my hands were slick with grease mixed with recaudo rojo after eating this. Visually this taco resembles the "Shrimp Puffy Taco" due to its small mound of cabbage and specks of queso, but it is a much different animal flavor-wise. For sweetening and texture, the cochinita pibil here is infused with pineapple. It's a tasty taco that I think would also have been excellent if served traditionally in a regular corn tortilla with marinated onions. To summarize, these tacos were excellent, service here was pretty good, and the place has an interesting menu. Will I be back? My current lifestyle doesn't really support the dietary demands of Tex-Mex, even as I have begun to acknowledge it as a legitimate regional Mexican cuisine. If you're the kind of person who can consume all things oily, salty, spicy, and cheesy, I can think of few better menus for you than Bar Amá's.

Bar Ama was a blast! I had a wonderful and delicious lunch here! I was walking around downtown and came upon this place, and I decided to stop by since I had heard good things about it previously! I was promptly seated and engaged with very responsive and friendly waiters. The interior is very contemporary and aesthetic in its design, and the sign for the outdoor entrance is beautiful! Guacamole and other sauces for chips are extra, but I was able to get a complimentary basket of chips as well as a jug of water. I ordered the Mom's Green Enchiladas, and one of the rum sangria's. The enchiladas were some of the favorite enchiladas that I have ever had. It came in a very aesthetic skillet with a small oven mitt attached to it, and had cream and cheese all over the top, as well as the chicken I had ordered as a topping for it! Cutting into it with the fork, was a pleasure, watching it all melt together. It tasted absolutely incredible! Rich, thick, creamy deliciousness! I was very pleased. I also loved my rum sangria! It was a very unique but intriguing and exciting flavor! I had a wonderful lunchtime experience at Bar Ama. The staff were prompt, friendly and responsive, and the food tasted absolutely sublime. It was some of the best Tex-Mex that I've had. The prices were quite reasonable for DTLA as well. I'd love to come back!

The Puffy Tacos were the Bomb!! After watching Taco Chronicles on Netflix I was like ok I will head over to Amácita's give these Tex-Mex tacos a try. Last time in Texas, Mexican tacos and food tasted bland. Swore to never eat Tex-Mex again! After eating these Puffy Taco with cochinita pibil mmmmmm delicious!! This taco just melts in your mouth. Tex-Mex finally has a taco worth driving an hour to eat. The service was spectacular! Food got there as fast as possible and the drinks kept coming. I washed this taco down with a unique tasting Michelada. I am still trying to figure what spices they used it was that tasty, it definitely wasn't Tajin. You just have to get there and taste for yourself!

Awesome happy hour food selections. Good service, cheap drinks and delicious small plates. What more can you ask for?

Incredible Mexican cuisine! The only thing we ordered that wasn't EXCEPTIONAL was the guacamole. The queso, hamachi ceviche (pictured), and entrees were absolutely delicious. They also carry Chef Josef's unique sodas which were delicious as well!

Great food and cocktails, definitely worth a visit!

Always the best and freshwater and tasty food that we keep coming back to when ever we have a chance to. Love the food and staff.

Great food 🥘 but everything is ala carte, EVERYTHING SERIOUSLY 😒. $3.00 for corn tortillas. They didn’t say that. When I ordered. Made it sound like it was included. Not going back! God luck to you.

Everything from the appetizers to the meal & all the delicious drinks were perfection. Totally loved this place. �����

Wow!! Just stopped in on a whim, our server Edyn was amazing! And he made us some wonderful suggestions and blew my mind!! I had the ceviche and the arroz quemada. loooove it!! Definitely planning on coming again!

Great vegan faire on the menu, alongside non-vegan dishes. Everyone can come here and leave happy!

Sorry but food was ordinary except for the Brussels spouts. Great location but wouldn’t go back.

best mole enchiladas I've ever had. and have tried and made many..

wonderful food....service was great and fun place to eat in DTLA

Food is outta this world! Cocktails and whiskey/tequila selections are great as well. Recommend the snake's blood cocktail or pineapple ginger soda if you don't drink. Also, get the guac and queso w/ chorizo. Follow that up with mama's green enchiladas and thank me later.

Great food. Great atmosphere. Great location. Great place to meet friends.

I loved it. House Margarita con Mezcal. The only bad thing is that you dont have blended drinks �

Best taquitos I've ever had... Ever. I went last night and can't stop thinking about them. 😂

Margaritas were amazing. Food good too but Margaritas excellent.

It's all about the Texas Mexico Queso dip. Couldn't stop eating it!

Delicious "super nacho hour" great drinks & a friendly staff. Grab a seat at the bar and enjoy!

Delish! Very, very tasty and fresh! Enjoyed everything we ordered.

No matter what you hear...it's better. I will drive from Santa Cruz to have the puffy tacos. Insanely great.

Great food and brilliant drinks. Another go to spot in DTLA.

Great food and atmosphere great service

Dined 1/12/15 for my birthday. Delicious, impeccable service and ambiance. Can't wait to go back soon. Thank you!

This was a excellent! Loved the food and drinks.

This place gets one of the very few 5 Star ratings that I have ever given!

❤️