Bonjour, friendly folks. When was the last time you were really in the mood for something?

You know what I’m talking about — when your entire existence is consumed with planning how you’ll get it. Some of these desires are easier than others to satisfy.

In my case, with over 10 Mexican restaurants in Ames, it was easy for me to quench my craving for salsa and nachos.

That being established, a friend and I went to O’Malley & McGee’s. A Mexican tradition for many Ames residents since it opened in 1980, O’Malley & McGee’s is located at 716 S. Duff, next to Save U More.

Even though the bar opens at 4 p.m., the dining room doesn’t open until 5 p.m. I passed the time by ordering a $2.50 strawberry daiquiri (which is also available in a non-alcoholic version). Was it good? Let’s just say I put the “happy” in happy hour that afternoon.

You know how most Mexican restaurant’s obligatory basket of nachos are cold, really crumbly chips and boring salsa? Well, O’Malley & McGee’s definitely has the advantage in that department.

I can’t say if the food is more authentic than others or not, but I do know that the chips were better. The salsa was the right blend to serve to the public — not too hot, but with a little kick to it.

At 5 p.m. my friend and I were promptly seated at a large, candle-lit table in the dining room. It was kinda hard to see where we were going because it’s so dark at O’Malley & McGee’s.

The white Christmas lights and candles leave just enough light to see what you’re eating (and to make shadow puppets on the wall).

The music selection is traditional — Americano, that is. O’Malley & McGee’s is a good conversation place even though the nonstop mix of the best of the ’80s and ’90s was a bit overbearing at times.

My friend has been going to O’Malley & McGee’s since he was young, so I trusted his advice and ordered something kinda daring — the Enchilada del Cocinero dinner.

The reason I was afraid to order these shredded beef enchiladas, topped with cheese and chimago red chili sauce, was because they were made of soft blue corn tortillas.

I may be daring, but I’m not stupid. I ordered a smaller version of the dinner for $5.95 and asked for a huge side of sour cream (just in case I had to mask the taste). Though highly recommended, I also passed the fried egg on top for 95 cents extra.

In under 10 short minutes my huge plate of beautiful blue enchiladas was served. Yeah — about that, the tortillas were more black than blue, and the whole thing looked like a bunch of beans smothered in sour cream.

I soon learned that looks can be deceiving.

Even though it didn’t seem like I was eating an enchilada, my dinner was very, very flavorful and delicious. In fact, I plan on ordering the same thing next time I go to O’Malley & McGee’s — it was that good.

I must say that the service was muy fantastic.

O’Malley & McGee’s is one of the few places I’ve been to that has one person taking care of your drinks and another to serve your food. (Hmm … wonder how they split the tip?)

Well, like I said, the service was great. Our drinks were refilled before we even had time to notice they were getting empty.

The only problem is location. I thought finding the place was hard enough (you need a magnifying glass to find the sign), but it turns out leaving O’Malley & McGee’s was even trickier.

You have to drive all way through a car dealership parking lot to get out of there. It’s well worth the hassle though.

4 stars out of five

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Kim Zangger is a senior in advertising from Mt. Vernon.