Los Tres Amigos Express near the Frandor Shopping Center.
J rarely gets a holiday off, but this year, she actually got to celebrate Memorial Day. We spent the morning running errands and ended up in East Lansing. When it came time for lunch, I asked what she was in the mood for. She said she didn’t care, but Mexican sounded good. Last week, when we were in Frandor getting her ring sized, I noticed a Los Tres Amigos tucked into a tiny strip mall outside of the Frandor shopping center. Since we had to head back that way, it’s what I chose for lunch.
Los Tres Amigos Express is on Clippert Street between Saginaw and Grand River. It’s easy to miss if you’re not looking for it and it took a few times around the block to get in the right parking lot. Once we did get parked, we questioned whether this was a sit down restaurant or a take out. You can’t see anything from the door, but once we got inside, we found tables along with an order counter, so you can sit an eat.
While there is an order counter, we were told to take a seat and the waiter would be right over. Los Tres Amigos Express isn’t really decorated like a Mexican restaurant. It’s pretty bland and could pass for just about any take out place. It looks like you used to order your food directly from the kitchen and kind of did the assembly line thing, but that’s not the case anymore. We grabbed a table and looked over the paper menus on the table while our waiter got the Cokes and we snacked on the complimentary chips and salsa. I really like Los Tres’ salsa. It’s a smooth salsa that’s got a little bit of a kick. It’s kind of a happy medium between what I like and what J likes.
Los Tres Amigos Express on Clippert Street near US 127
The menu is pretty similar to the menus at the other Los Tres restaurants. I was expecting something that was a little heavier on food you can eat on the run, but they had a lot of the same entrees you can get from the other stores. That being said, we both went with simple meals. I just wanted tacos, so I ordered three beef tacos off the a la carte menu. The tacos were delicious and just enough to fill me up. The tacos came with ground beef, a white cheese, and lettuce. They were just what I was craving and ordering a la carte, I didn’t have the extra rice and beans I usually don’t eat.
J ordered a cheese quesadilla. There was a little bit of a misunderstanding between J and the waiter. He was trying to ask if she wanted the entree portion or the a la carte, but I think there was a language barrier. I couldn’t understand what he was saying either and he ended up just pointing at the menu and that’s how we figured it out. Her quesadilla came with some quacamole on the side which she used with the chips that were already on the table. She’s been spoiled by the guacamole at Andy’s Deli in Holt. She said it was good, but nowhere near as fresh.
After we finished, the waiter took our plates and we made our way up to the register to pay. He didn’t bring the check to us, but kept it by the cash register. Our total was just over $13 and we weren’t even there a half hour. Los Tres Amigos Express is a good, quick option for Mexican food. We didn’t feel like lunch was a big production. We were looking for quick and cheap and that’s what we found.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
This place used to be a Chinese style restaurant prior to becoming Los Tres Amigos. I think the physical location of this store, while not bad, always seems to be cursed with low foot traffic as it’s not really visable from the road. I’d eaten here recently and ordered from the dinner menu [to go]. Chimichanga plate [shredded beef] which was pretty decent. Portion size was huge and included Rice (edible!), Beans, Pico, Guacamole, lettuce, sour creme. Also provided chips/salsa separately. All for about $10. This easily could have been divided up for 2 people at home.
Just a quick word about the rice. Most mexican places can’t seem to cook rice. Generally overcooked to the point of being inedible. To their credit, while the side of rice didn’t really add much flavor at least it was cooked properly.