Editor’s note: “Dirt Poor Dining” is the first in a weekly series of restaurant reviews geared toward struggling college students looking for a good, hot (and cheap) meal. Armed with only a pen, paper, 10 bucks and an appetite, Arts and Entertainment Editor Aaron Ladage and Photo Editor Eric Rowley search the city each week for the latest and greatest in inexpensive dining.

“Welcome to El Azteca!” Or, for those of you who don’t habla espa¤ol, “Welcome to The Azteca!” Ames’ latest Mexican restaurant, located quite a distance from the normal campus restaurant circuit, will require a drive to reach — but trust us, it’s well worth it.

Price:

AL: Coming in at just under $5, El Azteca’s Fajita Lunch is a hell of a deal for a guy with one check left in his checkbook (especially since the check probably won’t clear in the first place).

ER: I’m cheap … very cheap. Anything at Hy-Vee more than a dollar I don’t buy, but I was pretty happy with the $4 lunch special, El Azteca’s Speedy Gonzales.

Atmosphere:

AL: When I first entered El Azteca, I half-expected to still see the Emberger Royal on the menu, left over from the building’s earlier days as an Embers. Luckily, the new management seems to have cleaned the place up fairly well.

ER: Aaron and I entered the Denny’s-like building for an early lunch. Mexican music played overhead in the near-empty restaurant. The host seated us in a small booth in the back corner of the restaurant. A booth that’s too small or reviewers that are too big? You pick, but any problems with the music and the tight booth all went away when the chips arrived.

Service:

AL: I barely had time to finish my chips, sip my water or set down my fork before our very friendly waiter whisked away our refuse. I never felt rushed or inconvenienced, yet we were in and out of the restaurant in less than half an hour.

ER: Six minutes. That’s all it took to make two plates of food. I couldn’t believe it. Faster than any other Mexican restaurant I’ve been to. When you’re hungry, stuffing chips in your face as fast as you can, all you want is to get your food fast. That alone will get me to go back to El Azteca again.

Quantity/Value:

AL: If anything, lunch at El Azteca is an experiment in excess. Plentiful meat and veggies and even one more tortilla than the advertised “two,” all for less than a five-spot. If this is the lunch special, I’d be afraid to try the full portions without fasting for a few days first.

ER: I don’t know anyone who could pass up a $4 meal that includes chips and salsa. For lunch, a taco, an enchilada and beans is more than you can ask for. The tight booth became a bit tighter after licking the plate clean. When the last full meal you had was noodles that you found in the back of your pantry, leaving a restaurant full and happy is more than I wanted.

Quality/Taste:

AL: Fajitas are a pretty tough item to screw up. Cook some cow, throw in a few veggies, hand out tortillas, and you’re set. But El Azteca actually managed to impress me with a few nice additions to such a simple concept. The beef had a zesty seasoning that complemented the peppers, onions and mushrooms very nicely; the guacamole was quite tangy, and tortillas were plentiful. They even included an extra plate on which to eat the finished product, a small but important detail many other Mexican restaurants often forget. My only complaint was the slightly chewy, overcooked beef, but the extra seasoning and eye-pleasing plate presentation made up for it.

ER: The chips and salsa were so good, the waiter had to come back to take our order because we were too distracted by consuming the chips as fast as we could. The waiter returned, and I quickly ordered the Speedy Gonzales, hoping he would bring more chips. Once Speedy arrived in front of me, I was skeptical. How good could a typical Mexican meal be? I was set straight, however. The beans had a sweet garlic taste to them, and the enchilada’s meat was favored with a spice that made me want to order another. The taco is, for the most part, always a taco. Nothing blew me away there, but who cares — I couldn’t stop eating the beans.

Final Say:

AL: Come back next week.

ER: Come back next week.