Carlos O'Kelly's

Not only is this a chain restaurant with average food at best, this is the worse location in the chain (Ames) .... If you want above-average Tex-Mex with lower prices in Ames, go to El Azteca.

Always great food, sure it is a American-run Mexican restaurant, but unlike true Mexican restaurants, you don‘t get the wildly variable food quality, great one trip, horrible the next. My family comes to Carlos O‘Kelly‘s 2-3 times a month and haven‘t had a bad experience in any of the past 5 years. Plus the restaurant is actually clean, unlike many Ames restaurants where you stick to the floor. Overall, a great place to eat!

This restaurant is not even Mexican! This is more American than anything. This is "the place" for an expensive version of taco bell.

excellent food and service, dont listen to these throwbacks telling you it sucks

I love Carlos O‘Kelley‘s. I eat there with the whole family at least once a month and we all love it. The neverending chips & salsa rock... I get some to go home every time. My favorite dish is the taco salad

Great service and excellent staff. I recommend this restaurant when you are in Ames.

Very poor. Tortilla taste like out of a bag. Salsa was very poor. Understanding that Carlos O‘Kelly‘s is an American restaurant with Mexican tastes to it, it was very very poor. The atmosphere was cheesy and almost insulting to the Mexican culture. I got a safe choice of a chicken sandwich. It was horrible. They melt shredded cheese and chicken together on a hogie bun. Then they expect you to pull it apart to put the lettuce, tomato, and onion on it. This makes the sandwich fall apart! The fries that came with it were soggy and undercooked. My waitress was unfriendly and seemed rushed.

Over all, the best part of my meal was the friendly host that sat me.

When I moved to Iowa everyone told me that this was "the place" for Mexican. It‘s the place for getting torn up on cheap margaritas and that is it. Iowans for some reason love this place and give it too much credit. Save yourself the money and get a big Hungry-Man Burrito with some Tostitos cheese sauce on it. Service was good, but I can‘t justify paying $10 for something that I can get in the freezer section for $2.

The salsa was nothing better or fresher than I might get in a jar at the grocery. The queso dip (no beef) was like velveeta with salsa. The guacamole was the best dip of the three and actually tasted like fresh avocados. The chips were nothing special...tasted like tostidos, not like fresh tortilla chips like at El Azteca or even Fuente. The fried ice cream was just coated in corn flakes, but you‘re hard pressed to find real fried ice cream in Ames unless you‘re at my house.

I absolutely love Carlos O‘Kelley‘s!! The chili-con-queso is amazing (espeically with ground beef) and the food is consistently good. Overall, we‘ve had good experiences with the wait staff, and management has taken care of us when we have had an issue. Anytime I‘m craving Mexican, Carlos is my choice!!

Not too bad but I‘ve had better.

There food is bad compared to the other mexican places in town, there drinks are decent and there wait staff is nice and good!

Although they are average in most respects, they do have this cheese sauce you can get with your tortilla chips that is magnifique!!

La Fuente is way better.

I have eaten here many times over the years........
The food is not very good, the service is just average, and the place is just to damn loud for a restaurant.
Lets face it, what used to be one of Ames best mexi food places is no longer.

Burro Enfuego! Asta La Vista normal mexican food!

If you come here for Mexican food, you‘re in the wrong place. If you want Americanized sorta-kinda-Mex-like, and actually enjoy sloppy atmosphere, hey, you‘re home!

Carlos O Kellys is the greastest place ever. It mixes good mexican with lots of cheeses and salsas. SO GOOD!