I've known about this place for a very long time but never tried it. I've heard mixed things from many people over the past couple decades, so I decided to see what it's like for myself. There isn't much in the way of ambience; exterior and interior both looked run down. Staff wasn't unkind but I felt an "i'm just doing my job" kinda vibe. I got two black bean burritos; they were served enchilada style and I got a side of guac with each. I omitted cheese and the sides of sour cream. All the ingredients imparted an average flavor. Refried beans were a little bland but okay, rice was decent, red sauce and green sauce had a decent flavor and the red sauce had a good spice kick. The rice, black beans and veggies inside the burritos were alright. Tortilla was decent. Guac was okay but could've been more flavorful. This place isn't going to wow you, but what I like about them is the value you get. They give you a lot of food for the money and I think that's why they've stayed in business for so long. Decent place, especially because of the price/portion ratio. read more

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Margarita was nothing special, Birria tacos were delicious, heavy on the onions- if that's not a dealbreaker I'd definitely recommend. Patio is nice to sit outside, service can be very slow. read more

Aunt Chilada's - Regular margarita with tajin rim - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

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Good food, good margs, SLOW SERVICE (so slow I wanted to dine and dash) I've been waiting for an hour read more

Aunt Chilada's - Chips that they make you pay for if you ask for seconds - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

I have been here before. Came with the family for some lunch before taking the kids back to college after their spring. Break a nice little comfortable place. The décor is amazing and fits the atmosphere. The server was very attentive and made suggestions on menu items. The ticket times were good. The food came out and the portions were bigger than I expected and everything was delicious. The chips and salsa They present when you sit down where very, very good, definitely enjoyed those, and we'll come back again another time read more

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Stopped in for a beer and Margarita with the my wife haven't been in the area for awhile the food was excellent as I remembered had the Birria tacos and carne asada fries delicious ! Joe the bartender was great and the raspberry margarita was perfect ! Love going to this place and we be back again soon ! read more

The Food was delicious. The waiter was very accommodating and made changes to food choices as asked. The food came out in a timely fashion. It was a great experience. read more

margaritas are excellent. I recommend Chilada margarita The egg rolls are amazing! But the showstopper is the El Pastor tacos are so damn good !!!!! It's 5 star read more

Aunt Chiladas is quite the landmark in Hamden! Whether you're hitting some balls, playing 9 holes or just did a hike of Sleeping Giant, there's always a good reason to stop into Aunt Chiladas! When the kids were little, we always brought them there bc the menu catered to even the pickiest of eaters, and the menu still holds true! Luckily, as I checked in, I got a coupon off my bill! Yay me! We ordered a margarita-like helloooo! We ordered chips, salsa and queso for an appetizer. I love the chips here, they're always fresh and crispy! The salsa and queso were both chunky enough but yet still creamy-if that makes sense?! My daughter ordered the 3 street tacos and I got 2 beef tacos on hard shells. Can I just say that I'm pleased that the crispy taco shell was just that. It didn't fall apart or get soggy before it even made it to the table like some places I've gone to. The beef was seasoned just right and the toppings-lettuce, tomato and shredded cheese were just the right amount! I'm looking forward to going back again before summer is over just bc their outdoor patio is comfy and there is plenty of activity around to fill in the gaps of silent conversations! read more

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The service and food were great. We love the tacos, steak and fajitas dishes. The margaritas were my favorite! We had a great time celebrating my daughter's celebration. read more

Aunt Chilada's - Graduation picture - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

It had been a while since we've been to this restaurant and we were trying to remember why and then it hit us....They suck! It's like a bad joke... "When you say 10 more minutes for the food, how many minutes is that normally?" read more

Great place for lunch. Beautiful scenery, good food. And great Server, Ed dedicated to his work always with a smile

Fantastic Mexican restaurant! Delicious! Fast, speedy service by a very sweet staff! Located in Mt. Carmel; Hamden on Whitney Avenue. read more

Aunt Chilada's - Santa Fe Shrimp and Cheese enchiladas with refried beans. - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

Had a great lunch at Aunt Chilada's yesterday. Google is wrong they are open on Mondays. I had the Baja burrito and we had some queso for an appetizer. Hubby had the Laredo. Huge portions and they are not stingy at all with the chips and salsa. Talked with I believe a woman who was the owner maybe? She was great; very nice. Service was awesome and food was good. We'd come back. read more

Aunt Chilada's - Baja Burrito with tomatillo sauce - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

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Well, at least the appetizer was good. I went with your Elote and it was packed full of cheesed up goodness with a nice hint of savory kick from the creamy cotija spiked sauce. Whatever it was "spiked" with, left me satisfied and looking forward to more! However, I had 4 various tacos awaiting my palate and let's just say, I should had stopped at your Elote and walked away but the first regular taco, had ground beef that never seen anyones ground. It frolicked in the mush fields of mess and ibs. Foul and disorderly for whatever given reason. The type of ground beef that started out as spoiled canned baby food and never stood a chance at growing up to be anything more than just mush for the mouth for those who sought after the lack of flavor and consistency in their food. The lettuce wilted and depressed for good reason and the diced tomatoes wanted an answer as to why they were ever part of this taco. Hell, I wanted answers to why I ever received such a tainted display of hard times in the form of food? Moving along to your "Street Taco" options and for $15 for 3, I said to myself, "Why Not?" Little did I know that I was about to find out. Now your Birria Wet Option with the cilantro, onions and cheese was actually ok. It had some decent flavor that made up for your regular taco. The meat was both juicy and didn't put up a fight with toughness for it was tender enough to chew with some delight and yes, it was cheesy with a decent crispiness on the shell itself. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the chips and salsa; which was quite tasty! The chips had plenty of bite and the salsa popped with flavor. Bold and exciting with a nice lil' kick....so kudos there but let's get back to these raggedy Tacos. The Crispy Chicken Taco had an unnecessary lime slaw that didn't mix well with the Chipotle Ranch Sauce at all. Bitter and off-putting...Now the chicken put up a good fight but then was defeated by the chipotle ranch that wasn't zesty but had the taste of old French dressing from the late 80s that was found in the no frill section of the store. Finally, your Carne Asada was DRY, DRY and DUSTY!!! The steak was over cooked, yet had more chew than a pack of Big League Chew; all to be mixed with dry toppings such as onions that should had been grilled at best but weren't and cilantro. All wrapped into a soft shell to help it all truly get stuck in your throat, to have you begging for more than just your own spit to wash it all down. Aunt Chilada's needs to work on their Taco's in my humble opinion. With a plethora of options on their menu, perhaps people go there for everything else BUT their Tacos but as for me, I am all set for now. read more

I hate to dogpile but after years and years of above board experiences here, tonight was completely blah. Granted, quite some time has passed since my last visit to what used to be an area hotspot, popular among Quinnipiac students and sportsmen using the adjacent golf park. It certainly shows its age in that regard and as others have noted, covid kicked the crap out of the industry. But even so-- our first red flag was the large B grade posted at the door by the health department. We laughed it off but did note the inspection date as September of 2020. Kind of disconcerting to receive anything less than an A at a time when sanitation and health procedures should have been laser focused. But I digress. We didn't realize they closed at 8 nor really had we considered what time it was as this far out from Covid and with CT returning to full capacity next week, an 8pm close time is ludicrous. Fortunately, unlike other reviewers, nobody brought this up to us and we were at no point hurried along and certainly weren't turned away. Perhaps they'd learned from that mistake. We were given a pretty rough table in the dead center of the bar. They had only one other table of middle aged women but a combination of the fact that we were sat directly on top of them and there was an eerie lack of overhead music, we were forced into their innocuous smalltalk. Straight away, we had to joke our way through mild discomfort. Our waitress arrived and was utterly clueless, even regarding basic questions. Moments later when she was joined by a senior staff member (a woman I thought likely to be the owner, actually) we quickly understood why-- she was in training and probably fairly early on so our attitude toward her softened considerably. Under the circumstances, she was friendly and doing her level best to get in there and do *something* to our table's benefit. In the end, I think it's more a mistake on the restaurant's part to train with such a long leash. The trainee should shadow *you*, not vice versa, until they exhibit basic competence. That said, the overall experience was fine, I'm just offering some perspective. Numerous other reviews knock the food quality and that surprised me at first. I wouldn't say I was a frequent diner here back in the day but when I did I remember it being better than your average commercial American-Mexican chainlet. My faith in the old days began to waiver when we received our quesadilla nearly immediately after ordering-- it was cold, over stuffed, under toasted and accompanied by a blob of past its prime guac. We took it on the chin as we had ordered a significant amount of additional food and didn't feel like making a fuss over what was ultimately not a big deal. Which I think ended up the right move as the subsequent course was adequate, certainly better than the first and in places actually pretty good. The Al Pastor, my favorite type of traditional taco, was pretty serviceable! I also went for a "spicy" shrimp taco, which wasn't, but was perfectly edible nonethless. The big show was the Birria tacos they were running as a special. Had they been better seasoned and pan fried just a hair more, they would have been worth it but we found both the tacos themselves and their accompanying consumé bland, watery and oddly proportioned. Everything was so close to good that it's almost more frustrating than had it been outright bad. No Mexican restaurant of this type is winning the Authenticity Award but with this display of technical inability, even at the standard set by those aforementioned chainlets these dishes rang as simply inauthentic. The timing is off, the seasoning is off, the quality of ingredients is off and the cook is perhaps most off of all-- Every item from start to finish arrived at the table stone cold. The woman I presumed to be the owner said it best, out loud to no one in particular as she passed our table, "We're just having a Monday!" The undertone of effort is there but it's obscured by a thick veneer of ineptitude and quite honestly I would avoid this place until such a time as their food quality matches their aspirations. read more

Aunt Chilada's - Al Pastor Tacos, Birria Taco and Consumé, Spicy Shrimp Taco, Elote, Rice, Refried Beans - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

We had a great lunch here. Love the new menu! Warm salty chips with fresh salsa. Huge portions. Great svc read more

Aunt Chilada's - Beef fajita burrito and CA burrito - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

Wonderful restaurant! It's everything a Mexican restaurant should be. I had the vegetable chimichanga on spinach tortilla and it was fabulous! My wife and daughter had fajitas and 3 different tacos and they loved them. Will definitely be back! The wait staff are very young, but they were professional and attentive. The restaurant is simply and has a small bar. A very comfortable place. read more

Great food! Great service! Really enjoyed the deck and music. Strawberry margaritas really hit the spot. Thanks Joe!

Sat outside and the food was great for your local Mexican restaurant. I had the Rosarita burrito and a coconut margarita so yum! Definitely will come back read more

Terrible food terrible seating very bad never again ! The portions are horrible as well sorry but this a no more go ! Adios

Service is not the best, waited 10 minutes to be seated, food is adequate, rice is way too salty

The House Margaritas are super tart. Slightly sweet, Tequila hits the tongue just enough to know it's there. I prefer salt and ice! Consistent for fifteen years! So good! The scenery in the summer/golfers and green. In the winter/sleeping giant! Veggie stir fried Burrito with added blackened salmon is my favorite! Nachos are good, Tijuana Poppers are House Made fresh-super fresh, just the right heat. Lots of flavorful offerings on the new menu, looking forward to the summer dining on the deck. Thank you. read more

Had a great lunch this past weekend with friends. The margarita was terrific. The food was fabulous. The staff was so nice. Very reasonably priced. Will definitely be back. read more

I don't understand why this has 2 stars as this, my second visit, was the best Mexican I've had in a long time and the service was stellar! Our server Isobel was attentive, friendly, helpful with excellent knowledge of the menu, helping us decide between the many choices in the very impressive and extensive menu! Today's choices began with the Tijuana Poppers; humongous and stuffed with cheese with a delicious mildly spicy red sauce on the side. Entrees were a combination plate of chicken chimichanga, steak taco and the spinach, roasted garlic and chicken quesadilla which I added avocado to at Isobel's recommendation which was an amazing flavor combination! The salsa was fresh and chunky, just needed a touch more cilantro in my opinion, but I love cilantro! The steak and chicken in every dish were juicy and tender, every vegetable tasted fresh and just sliced. For $60 including a peach margarita and pina colada a very good deal! And 2 minutes from Quinnipiac University and Sleeping Giant State Park it's a great location! read more

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Server "Ed" was terrific; great personality. Made good suggestions for our dinner which was so tasty. A night out away from the kiddoes was a winner. read more

My sister-in-law and I just had lunch there and it was better than it EVER has been. Food was (and has always been) GREAT....BUT....our server "Ed" was THE best server we have EVER had there. He was the ONLY one serving at the time AND it was busy. He was pleasant, non intrusive, but friendly. The food was incredible (as it always has been)...but the service was THE BEST SERVICE EVER! Give Ed a raise (because you don't want to lose him)!!!!! read more

One thing I'm sick and tired of is hearing the covid excuses for serving piss poor food that's way over priced. $35 for a pitcher of margaritas that wasn't worth the 50 cents worth of ice. Worst ever! I ordered the carnitas burrito and I could tell when they sit it in front front of me that it was going a be bland. No seasoning at all. The red sauce wasn't anything more than a can of diced tomatoes poured on top. Zero flavor! Call this a lesson learned. read more

The one dish I used to get here changed. They went to a new kind of rice and completely changed the dish. No reason to go back here. Lackluster service and atmosphere. read more

Second visit in 2 months. Great outdoor dining, great food and friendly service. Huge portions w many VEGAN options. Wait staff happy to amend menu to our needs. read more

Aunt Chilada's - Plenty of outdoor dining on two level deck. - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

HOT DANG does this place serve up a-spicy a-meatball. I order some tacos and a marg shortly followed up by another plate of tacos and a pitcher cause when you're at a good restaurant might as well enjoy. My wife and I got in quite the argument here and she decided to go back to the hotel without me. I spent 3-4 hours here throwing them back and when it was all said and done, I was so full from tacos and beer that I total forgot about the verbal thrashing I would be inevitably receiving. Solid place. Didn't hurt that the owner is a total hunk, love this place will definitely be back next time I'm in Connecticut read more

Middling food served in a "we don't card QU students" atmosphere. So many better places than this. I assume they stay open selling drinks to nearby college students. read more

The meat needs to be inspected. Is it grade D? Because it sure tasted like it. The tortilla hard shell was hard on the bottom but softer than a limp node on the top. Que es esto?! Porque comida Mexicana no es! read more

This place could have been good but we waited over 45 min for our food with no explanation. Other people came and went and our waitress never bothered to stop by. We finally went up to the hostess to complain. Very bad service, mediocre food. read more

WORST TACOS EVER!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean school lunch TACOS are better. We went for Taco Tuesday's, 2 dollar tacos should be neat right, wrong! First, we waited 20 minutes to be seated. Way too long, but I'm craving TACOS so we forge on. Next we order the 2 dollar tacos and we get a look lime were being cheap cuz we didn't want anything else. The tacos came right out, and I don't mean in a timely manner I mean as soon as the order was sent it was up, that worries me because there was no cooking time involved. And finally the tasting, I got pulled pork, beef, and shredded beef. All three were super watery like really really watery. The taste was horrible, ground beef was like sloppy Joe mix, shredded beef was all water no flavor, and the pulled pork had flavor all right, flavor of caramel or something equally as overly sweet. We took a bite of each and left. I'm done and in never going back, ever!!! read more

Aunt Chilada's - Every nights a special night apparently - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

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Self proclaimed foodie. This is low quality food. 2 stars because the margarita was decent.

Dined here for the first time today. Arrived at dinner time. We had wonderful margaritas, street tacos, taco salad and the street corn. Food was delicious , attentive server and great atmosphere. Look forward to coming back. read more

A really fun place. Not at all fancy but great food very nice service and just a good time. The bill was extremely low. We were laughing at the amount of fun compared to what we paid. Highly recommended to try. read more

Aunt Chilada's - The upstairs room and the band. - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut

I was dragged here with my coworkers for lunch together. At least it was "Taco Tuesday" so the tacos only cost $2.00 each. I swear that the food must be all pre made and then nuked prior to presentation. read more

I ordered the chipotle shrimp taco's and my husband ordered carne esada street taco's. The chipotle seemed to really overpower my dish. My husband's meal, the meat was very bland. On a positive note, the appetizer's: elote (mexican street corn) and chilada sampler were very good. read more

Hi Sent Picture of platter. I have IBS and the platter was specially designed by myself. I appreciate the accomadating factor of the chef and manager. I love the Deck on a gorgeous day...was awesome. Special Thanks To my waitress Danielle.:) read more

Aunt Chilada's - Platter of chopped tomatoes,quacomole,cream,black beans,grilled chicken ..perfect....I have IBS PERFECT! - Mexican Near Me - Hamden, Connecticut