Agua Linda

Meredith Roberts, Grady JOUR5590 Food Critic Extraordinaire 

While at many restaurants the ever-absent waiter is a bad thing, sometimes you just need to eat, chat, and get your drink refilled without having to carry on a conversation about the weather with a member of the wait staff.  For diners at Agua Linda in Athens, the ever-interrupting waiter is not a problem – not because it is in the restaurant’s customer service philosophy, but because they speak very little English.

This lack of communication is fine for the diner who doesn’t want to play 20 questions before deciding what to order, though it can be troublesome when your dinner partner decides to ask what exactly is in the chimichanga. Luckily, I knew enough to answer her question and alleviate the waiter’s pained face as he tried to remember how to say onions in English.

Agua Linda has two locations in Athens, one on Prince Avenue geared more towards the college crowd: cramped booths, minimal (and outdated) décor, and my favorite: the Atlanta Highway location. The Atlanta Highway location is warm and inviting, with Mexican themed colorful paintings, half-moon shaped booths, and a bathroom with a mosaic tiled sink and fabulously modern faucet. There is a general seating area and a bar area with high top tables and TVs. The ambiance and crowd at the Atlanta Highway location is more sophisticated and family friendly – probably because students are at the Prince location or busting down the doors of Athens’ Mexicali, notorious for its cheap margaritas. There is minimal outdoor seating which is popular on sunny, warm days.

Agua Linda’s drink selection includes a number of flavored margaritas, priced depending on the quality of tequila you choose. Their beer selection also goes beyond the classic Corona, offering Sol, Dos Equis and several American beers. For the budget conscious, I suggest water. You can't beat free.

Agua Linda’s main attraction: the cheese dip. Authenticity is key here – and you can get it with or without jalapeños. For a milder pepper flavor, you can order the Poblano cheese dip for only a quarter more. Unlike cheaper Mexican cheese dips, the queso here doesn’t get a film on the top as it cools or suddenly turn into a jiggly block that breaks tortilla chips at the moment of contact. The menu is vegetarian friendly and open for substitutions. My favorites: the vegetarian fajitas (though these may not be first-date friendly, as they come with three huge plates and suddenly your dinner is taking over the entire table and the awkward rearrangement of drinks and silverware ensues). The fajita filling is in a red tomato sauce base with zucchini, onions, peppers, mushrooms throughout. For the brave at heart: sautéed fresh jalapeños add a kick of heat. The filling can be wrapped in flour or corn tortillas, which come hot, though they don’t seem to be freshly made as at some other Mexican restaurants.

The rice is the typical Mexican orange color and beans come in only one form: refried. They are a strange consistency and kind of lacking in flavor, but my sodium addiction may be to blame here. My dinner guest had a particularly interesting modus operandi for rice eating: dip a chip in some queso, then cover the queso in rice, and ta-da, a culinary masterpiece. I can’t blame her though, it was an interesting texture combination once she convinced me to try it: crunchy tortilla chip, creamy queso and al dente rice.

Other hit entrees include the fajita quesadilla – a tortilla filled with fajita vegetables and chicken, steak or ground beef for the carnivores. Vegetarians can opt to substitute rice for the meat in the quesadilla. If you are splurging (or consider yourself to have queso running through your veins instead of blood), ask for cheese dip to be poured on top. Heaven.

Prices are moderate, with dinner for two usually meeting the mid-thirty dollar range. Of course it depends what you order. The aforementioned wait staff is extremely friendly and accommodating – and never angry if they have to split checks, unlike some local eateries. For larger parties, they do sometimes add gratuity for parties of 6 or more without notification – so keep your eyes open.

Overall, Agua Linda is a casual restaurant (attire ranges from sweat pants to jeans and high heels) where you can go to catch up with friends and eat well. Service is friendly and fast, especially if you are accepting of the language barrier. One word of wisdom: drive carefully when you leave the restaurant. Shortly after signing my check, I saw my waiter running across Atlanta Highway…presumably on his way home, just like me.