Azadores Mexican Grill - Brighton - TravBuddy

Having the privilege of visiting this restaurant before it opened and hearing the mountains of delays, inspections, impediments placed in the way of opening on time, I looked forward to the opening. This restaurant opened quickly with little or no fanfare and has already developed a regular clientele. If you are looking for "standard" Americanized Mexican fare, don't go here. This is true Mexican grill from sauce to pepper. True afficionados will visit regularly because there is NO compettion in this cuisine for miles.

Azadores Mexican Grill is the newest Mexican restaurant in Brighton. They opened their doors on May 28, 2008, with not a lot of fanfare. After trying their food I can see why. They say in the short news article I read that they aspire to be the upscale Mexican Restaurant in Brighton, and that their food has a “different style” and a “different taste”

Let’s start with the “upscale” and “different style”. The décor looks like you could have wandered into any number of American food restaurants. There is nothing to tell you that you are in someplace special. It is all brand new, fresh, clean, and well executed. But, it isn’t anything “different”. As for “upscale”, I think they missed there, too. The wait staff were all in matching, professional, uniforms. But that is about where the upscale part stops. There was just not a lot that said you are being pampered.

But, the service was very good; especially considering the restaurant is less than a month old. We had our orders taken and our food delivered in 15 minutes. The presentation was nice and the food was hot. Our waitress was very helpful and I noticed the others nearby were as well. Everyone smiled, but greetings and good byes were lacking.

The food I would have to say is of a different taste. This is just my own opinion, and I tend to be a bit of traditionalist, but different is not always better. There is such a thing as change that is bad. Azadores started off well, with a complimentary basket of fresh, hot, tortilla chips and a creamer of salsa. I kid you not; they serve their salsa in a cream dispenser. They provide an individual bowl for each diner to pour their own portion of the salsa. The salsa itself, while necessarily thin, was tasty. It was not too hot, nor was it bitter.

That turned out to be top of the dining mountain. I order Chicken Mole (Mole Rojo) and a Chili Relleno. The mole was OK, but nothing special. The Relleno, on the other hand was definitely special. It was easily the biggest chili relleno I have every seen. I have had chili rellenos stuffed with cheddar cheese, Velveeta cheese, cream cheese, and jack cheese. This was the first one I have ever scene stuffed with mozzarella cheese! The sauce that accompanied it also had a decidedly Italian slant. It was a tomato sauce, spiced with a Mexican flair. For me, it didn’t work. I ate about half of it. It was palatable, but I was full and it wasn’t worth the effort.

Margo and a family friend, Britni, ate with me. We all agreed that the food was not good enough to bring us back. I personally rank this as the 10th best (of 12) Mexican restaurant in Brighton.