Restaurante Amalias

The best Guatemaltense around! Ive never had anything like it before, great atmosphere and service will definetly come back again!

Been going to the original one that was located on Occidental ave and Beverly Blvd over 20 years ago. By far, this is the best one in terms of service and food. The most authentic Guatemalan restaurant in the city of Los Angeles. Nothing to complaint about. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try something new besides Mexican or Salvadorian.

I have been coming to this restaurant since I was 5 years old. Everyone here is extremely kind and great with all their customers. Not to mention that the food is delicious. This is certainly a place I would recommend everyone to come for a nice traditional Guatemalan cuisine. Everyone here is great!

Great little restaurant, just like homemade food, I am not Guatemalan but I love their fresh food, hand made tortillas and their Amalia’s breakfast with steak and home made chorizo; every friend that I have taken has been very pleasantly surprised of this little gem of authentic Guatemalan delicious food, service is great, parking a little tight, but good things sometimes come in small packages, try it, you will be back again and again, pictures next time.

Delicious food, excellent service, very authentic Guatemalan cuisine.
Many of the servers only speak Spanish but we didn’t find it difficult at all to order.

I ordered platanos w/​beans and crème with a chuchito and it was very good. I would definitely come back and eat here.

Alejandra (waitress) very nice, friendly, she makes you feel very welcome. Food is good also (decent)worth what you pay for. Will come back. The best of all is her customer service, hope the owner reads this and gives her a pay increase. Thank you alejandra.

We’ve tried a bunch of Guatemalan restaurants and this by far is the best place we’ve ate. The girls are very friendly and helpful ! The food here is amazing ! Everything tastes exactly like it should, great for bringing the family and sitting down and having a great meal !

I really loved the food here. I had a tamalito de Chipilin it’s was delicious. We also ordered tamales, they were yummy. We had eggs and chorizo, they were not greasy and were tasty. I am sure we will come back here many times. By the way, service was great, our servers were amiable and friendly, they made us feel comfortable!

I was excited to try this place. But as soon as I got there it was bad we seated ourselves, no utensils or chips. Extremely understaffed. We waited for 50 minutes until we saw them serve people who got there after us, that’s when we walked out! Terrible service kept me from trying something that probably would’ve been good. (I wish I can out 0 stars but Unilocal didn’t let me)

This is my first time eating Guatemalian food. Service is amazing it can be a bit slow during busy times since there is one server usually but all around its worth the wait.
Garnachas are my go to on the menu
They truly are perfection.
Ive had 4 main dishes by far and none have dissapointed.
Sandra the server is the most caring loving server I could have asked for. Her recommendations are spot on.

To be honest, we came here as a backup restaurant when Salsa and Beer was too crowded. But we were pleasantly surprised and glad we did. The gentleman who served us was very friendly and welcoming. And his food suggestions were excellent.
Some of the dishes here may be different than the norm — but that’s what made it so good. In a sea of mexican restaurants, Amalias stands out as a unique Latin American alternative. The food is well made, freshly cooked, and delicious. Would definitely come back here.
The one drawback is that the menu is entirely in Spanish, which was difficult to navigate being a gringo (but fun and more authentic). However, the server explained that they are working on an English menu.
If you want something more worthwhile than the greasy tacos and gut bomb burritos down the street, check out Amalias. Great restaurant run by nice people.

Tried several dishes, the ceviche de conchas, It was amazingly delicious… You don’t come across this too often!
Authentic Guatemalan food! Will definitely go again! Great customer service

Ricas garnachas!!! Y desayuno.
Mi Mami pidio tostadas de salsa, frijoles y aguacate…
Definitivamente sigo regresando!!!

Tengo que decir que este lugar tiene muy rica comida, comí un plato amalia y es lo mas rico que ecomido en bastante tiempo muy buen servicio todo muy rico se los recomiendo.

This place serves authentic Guatemalan food. I highly recommend this place if you are in the mood for some antojitos Chapines! This is the place to go Great service and great food

Went to this restaurant with high expectations, I am really disappointed with the service. They are slow it took 1 hour to get our appetizers, our entrees had very small portions and the hilachas plates were bland no flavor at all, this place is overpriced for what they offer.
Waitress knew nothing about the menu. The place was hot and their AC was weak. Amalias plate is too small for the price of 21 dollars. We still need a nice chic and modern Guatemalan Restaurant in LA. Oh the tortillas were great., on top of that NO beet. They don’t have the license.

It was time for breakfast and I was craving authentic Guatemalan food. My mom and I decided to shop around for some Central American products before having some of the best Guatemalan food I have ever tasted. The omelette was delicious with fresh green cilantro and juicy mushrooms. When I tried the fried bananas I had a mouthgasm. They were sweet and rich with flavor. I will definitely be going back to restaurante Amalias for another breakfast. They serve authentic Guatemalan cuisine.

Today I stopped by and tried the Sopa De Res (beef soup), and I have to say it was delicious! It was almost like the one my grandmother makes. It was filled with carrots, cabbage, potatoes, corn on the cob, a side of rice, aguacate (avocado) and a onion cilantro salad. Oh and a lemon. Lol. To drink I had their natural homemade pineapple juice and it was phenomenal I have to say. Super refreshing ! I posted a pic of the soup before I devoured it so check it out! Don’t forget to tip the waitresses! Hope you enjoyed my review, don’t be scared, try them out.

I want to like this place so bad. I enjoyed my enchiladas and bf loved his bistec however this place has a B rating!!!
That being said, we both got food poisoning the next day!
Def won’t be back to this location.
Amalia’s in east Hollywood is way better and cleaner

Too tired and hungry from my hours spent wandering the cavernous hallways of the Home Depot across the street, I entered Amalias not really knowing what to expect other than the words of my fellow Unilocalers.
Like those old Westerns where the outsider walks into the saloon and everyone turns around to gawk, my dad and I shared a similar experience. From the crowd’s initial reaction, I took it to mean they didn’t get a lot of outsiders. Excellent. A sure sign the food will be authentic since they don’t cater to gringos. I further understood their apprehension when hey handed us the menus and asked if it was ok that all the menus were in Spanish. Thank goodness I stayed at a Holiday Inn. My dad and I ordered the Caldo de Res and Carne Guisada. Both dishes were excellent. The Carne Guisada was fork tender and the Caldo de Res was well prepared. My favorite part was when they brought over a basket of warm handmade tortillas. The prices are a little higher than you might expect, but for the quality and quantity of the food it’s reasonable.
For an authentic Guatemalan culinary experience, Amalia is a real find. While the staff was initially aloof, once they found out we were just two hungry souls in search of some heart warming food, they were quite accommodating. Oh, and I liked that they were streaming the Brazil — Japan friendly match on their two TVs.

4 estrellas por tener mala decoración y poco espacio para acomodar a los comensales. El parqueo es aún una azaña más grande. ***
La comida en general es muy buena «todo lo que yo probé» tenia un excelente sazón, muy tradicional y auténtico de la comida guatemalteca, algo que en lo particular me ha resultado difícil encontrar en el área de Los Ángeles (donde vivimos más de medio millón de guatemaltecos).
La mojarra frita, las longanizas, los plátanos fritos, los chuchitos, los tamalitos de chipilin, los rellenitos, el arroz y muy particularmente los frijoles saben auténticamente guatemaltecos; las tortillas muy frescas hechadas a mano. La horchata, el tamarindo y el fresco de melón … Ummm excelente. Definitivo regreso pronto y a seguir probando el menú.

I’ve never indulged in Guatemalan cuisine, so please pardon my ignorance.
Okay, so what exactly is Guatemalan cuisine? I pondered and pondered yet could only conclude that it was vaguely reminiscent of Yucatecan.
I think the most successful way to enjoy any Central American cuisine is to separate yourself from comparing any of them to Mexican. Prime example? The philosophy behind Guatemalan tostadas which happen to be vastly different than its Mexican counterpart. When conjuring up the idea of the Mexican tostada, we usually visualize a healthy pile of toppings atop a fried corn tortilla, whereas the Guatemalan tostada will have a thinly smeared/​coated topping with some drizzled garnish.
A word about Amalias before we enter the review…
This restaurant has about a dozen and a half tables comprised of booths and chairs.
Their staff is extremely friendly and speak very limited English but in spite of the spoken language barrier, they understand English rather well.
While the restaurant was not too busy, they have a steady stream of regular patrons.
I enjoyed the delightful sound of hands patting together, forming deliciously thick handmade corn tortillas.
Tostadas ($ 2.95): ³⁄₅
Three Tostadas: Guacamole, Frijol, and Salsa de Tomate.
*Guacamole was not chunky and because it was smeared onto the shell, contained a mild avocado flavor that was both light and fresh without abuse of lime/​lemon flavor. Garnished with cilantro, cotija (I believe that was the type of cheese used for each tostada), and red onion.
*Frijol was not salty and the balanced flavor of the shell and bean was perfect. Garnished with cotija.
*Salsa de Tomate was mildly spicy but refreshing as it was garnished with a healthy amount of cilantro, cotija, and red onion.
Garnachas ($ 6.45): ⁴⁄₅
These adorable silver dollar, bite sized hard tacos were topped with appropriately seasoned ground beef and served with pickled cabbage salad (Curtido de Repollo), jalapeño, avocado, and a warm salsa (that was not spicy hot at all). Six per order.
Lengua en Salsa ($ 11.45): 4.5÷5
Definitely thee best version of lengua I’ve ever had! This dish should easily be 5 stars, however I felt their rice tasted a little earthy/​dirty. I’ll have to assume that this is authentic Guatemalan rice since I have nothing to compare it to. Even though each slice of tongue had different texture (some super soft and tender, some a little firmer yet still tender), what made this dish incredible was the fact that it was braised in Amalia’s salsa. Served with Frijol Colado (strained black beans), and fried plantains.
As much as I’d love to try other items on their menu, I would seriously come back just for Amalia’s Lengua en Salsa. Me settling on that dish was not because of my intuition. I asked my waitress what she would recommend and her thinking I wasn’t too adventurous, she pointed at a few things people liked… yet she didn’t convince me. It took asking her three times what she would personally order, then finally she broke down and recommended the lengua… and I’m glad she did!