Aurelia’s – Eden Prairie, MN

I stumbled across the website for this authentic Mexican restaurant in Eden Prairie, which is kind of a miracle because only the front page of the site actually works. FireRetarded and I had made arrangements for lunch and I suggested we check it out. Yes, it is a Mexican food place in Eden Prairie, BUT it is in a strip mall, so we had high hopes.

As we found out, Mama Aurelia took over the shop of the former Pepito’s restaurant. But the guy behind the counter assured us the food was greatly improved and it was impossible to get anything bad at his restaurant. The menu is pretty simple, but covers a lot of things. 10-12 entrees and some kids plates. I like this and it made ordering much easier. One of the cooks came out and was trying to narrow down our choices for us, but succeeded in basically reading the menu to us – seriously, everything is good here.

FireRetarded and I are basically the same person sometimes (I’m sure that bothers HIM more than it bothers ME), so we both decided on the Mama Aurelia’s Plate – your choice of a bunch of different meats and tortillas (I got caritas and corn shells and he got barbacoa and flour shells) with beans, rice, chips, guac, cheese, pico, and some tortillas. And of course, I got a Pineapple Jarritos!

We sat down and got caught up on all of my roller derby adventures, and in less than 5 minutes our food came out. These people are fast.

They asked if we wanted mild or spicy sauce with our lunches and we both went with spicy. Once we got it, we were not surprised at how non-spicy it was, but the flavor was quite good and made up for it. It was delicious – both the food and the sauce. We wrapped our own tacos and basically destroyed these plates. We were both really full afterwards and kept talking about the food. The worker came over to check on it and we assured him we’d be back to this place. It was really good.

I asked if they had to-go menus to bring to the office and they did not. However, they are adding breakfast to the menu, so they’re waiting for that offering to be finalized so thy can print up accurate menus. I might actually get out of bed early for that (depending on how early the serve food). Thank you Aurelia – we’ll both be back.

Top 5 things about Aurelia’s
1. Mama’s plate with carnitas
2. Mama’s plate with barbacoa
3. Spicy sauce flavor
4. They have pineapple Jarritos (AND Dew)
5. Super awesome staff

Bottom 5 things
1. Spicy sauce wasn’t spicy at all (well, maybe for Minnesota it is)
2. A lot of 2-person tables, with a couple of 4-tops
3. Small menu (but they cover everything, so I really shouldn’t put that on here)
4. I was in the mood for chips and salsa for lunch, but didn’t get any – I didn’t even look for it on the menu
5. The website doesn’t work at all, so I couldn’t look at the menu before or after eating

www.mamaaurelias.com