What Vegas Needs Is…

ELV note: Click here to read today’s feature in the Las Vegas Weekly on a dozen or so things some of us think would vastly improve the quality of life in our humble burg. For your information (and ease of  digestion) of this discerning, delectable, diverse degustation of a discussion, here is our dutiful diatribe:

Way more good Mexican restaurants

Without naming names, it’s pretty easy to call Las Vegas the Southwest’s leader in dumbed-down, south-of-the-border food. Most Americans don’t know that the flavors of the Yucatan are vastly different from the Michoacan region, or that Oaxacan and Jalisco boast their own sublime specialties. And they’d be none the wiser after eating their way through most of Vegas’ multitude of Mexican mediocrity.

Drive around any part of town, and you’ll find at least one, free-standing chain restaurant doing a land office business, and every Mexican fast-food franchise in America holding its own against any threat of originality or authenticity. What all of these places have in common are menus planned around the permutations of a handful of ingredients (tortillas, cheese, meat and beans), and their relentless pandering to lovers of anything but the real thing.

When you think about it, it really is a travesty of taste. Hispanics comprise almost 15 percent of our population, yet outside of a few notable joints on the east and northeast part of town (Los Molcajetes, La Flor de Michoacan, Los Antojos), good, Mexican restaurants, proudly serving the regional cuisines of their homeland, are practically nonexistent. This paucity of purity would be forgivable in Sioux Falls, but this close to our southern neighbor, our situation is shameful. —John Curtas

8 thoughts on “What Vegas Needs Is…

  1. Anyone remember Vega’s Cafe on Charleston east of Decatur? Man they had some good comida back in the day.

  2. I didnt know you can gringo up nachos until my brother in law ordered some at TGI Fridays during March Madness…WTF??!!
    Ive had better at Rebel games..

  3. I’ve only eaten there once (and it was lunch), but I thought Sabor on N. Stephanie in Henderson showed promise. Have you tried it?

  4. Hey Troy Polee, nachos are gringo food, invented for American tourists buy someone just south I think of the Texas border.
    For good Mexican home style cooking try El Cordobes‎, 5020 East Tropicana Avenue corner with S. Nellis

  5. I’m a huge fan of authentic Mexican cuisine from just about any corner of the southern Estados Unidos. I’d love for there to be more options, especially out west in my very, very blanco neck of woods. However, I don’t think I’d put it at the top of my “what Las Vegas needs” lists. Certainly, it lags way behind “decent community support for education”, but let’s just consider food options for the moment.

    There are good taco shacks in town. Los Antojos, Tacos El Gordo, and Los Tacos all range between “not bad at all” and “superlative”. At the higher end, I was reasonably pleased at Sabor, and I liked what I had the one time I went to Mundo. I’d easily eat at either again, and I like Sabor enough to recommend it. I haven’t had enough experience at Mundo to feel I know it well enough to comment much on it.

    Even some of the more gringo-friendly places slip a more authentic dish in among the combo plates on their menus, and some of these are worth seeking out. At Frank and Fina’s Cocina sure I was surprised to get lettuce and cheese (not yellow, though) on my tacos carnitas, but underneath the Americanization of the menu is some pretty good food. Yeah, I’d love to have the Mexican cuisine options of L.A., Phoenix, San Diego, or Tucson, but we are further from the border than all of them, and we are a smaller community than all but one.

    In my opinion what we do need, though, are some southeast asian options that aren’t the “big three”: southern Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese. Penang has closed, Satay has gone pretty much Thai, Angkor Wat is closed, Taste of Indonesia is closed. Is there anything left? To me, this is a much larger void in our culinary universe.

  6. MUNDO?? TACOS, ENCHILADAS AND EGGS FOR “BRUNCH”. THE WORST SERVICE, A GENERAL MANAGER WHO IS THIN SKINNED, BITCHY AND WHO DELIBERATELY ENJOYS EMBARASSING CUSTOMERS. OUR GROUP OF 8 BUSINESS WOMEN WENT FOR LUNCH ON A SATURDAY, HAD GLASSES OF WATER DUMPED DOWN THEIR DRESSES AND ICE INTO THEIR PURSES, BEVERAGES WERE NEVER SERVED AFTER 40 MINUTES, FORGET ABOUT ANY FOOD ORDER AND WHEN WE COMPLAINED, AFORESAID BITCHY GENERAL MANAGER TOLD US TO LEAVE. WHICH WE DID. I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS RESTAURANT UNLESS YOU ENJOY $20 TACO PLATES. THIS HAS NEVER BEEN A CULINARY GRINGO FRIENDLY ESTABLISHMENT.

  7. Sabor in Henderson is my favorite Mexican restaurant serving regional Mexican cuisine from the Oaxacan region of Mexico. Just take a look at the menu (http://thesabor.com/dinner.html), I think you’ll agree it’s way far removed from the standard fare of tortillas, cheese, meat and beans which, as Mr. Curtas says, is typical of most Mexican restaurants in the Valley. While I’ve tried and enjoyed eerything on the menu at Sabor; my favorites remain the Frijoles Charritos, Vegetales Marinados and Guajillo Scallops. Give it a try, I think you’ll like it.

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