Los Molcajetes

Posted on | December 1, 2008 | No Comments

I think we’ve officially found our favorite Mexican restaurant here in Vegas! This place is extremely authentic, and the food is AMAZING… at least the dishes we ordered were. It’s located in NE Las Vegas, not exactly in the best part of town. It’s a tiny restaurant with a lot of charm. The interior is colorful and busy, but cozy . In one corner there’s a jukebox and tv, which was showing a Spanish soap opera (or was it soft porn?!) while we lunched. During the course of our lunch, two different ‘vendors’ wandered in selling their wares, in this case cds and dvds. Oddly enough, neither approached us… hmm.. maybe because we were the only non Hispanics in the restaurant? We were also treated to an accordian player and guitarist who perused in halfway through our meal, and the guys running a ‘car wash’ right outside the restaurant were taking their break at the table next to us. Quite a busy little place! But anyway, let me get to the important subject. The food, of course!

What’s pictured here is the beef molcajete. This dish is gorgeous! Supposedly it was invented by the chef/owner of the restaurant, who runs the place with his mom. There are several variations on the dish (chicken, beef, ribs, or shrimp) but all are served in the molcajetes (stone cauldron) sizzling hot.. and I mean HOT (as in don’t touch it!) The portion is huge! Mixed in with your meat of choice is a concoction of nopales (cactus), green onions, avocado, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, radishes, chili, lime, and a block of what I believe was cotija cheese. I’d heard the dish is normally quite spicy, (possibly cooked with habanero peppers) so I asked for mine mild with the salsa on the side. The flavor was simply incredible! And the red salsa isn’t spicy at all.. it had a great, smoky, chipotle flavor to it. With the dish you get tortillas, and you are meant to eat everything fajita style.

Adam ordered a combination dish of an enchilada and taco, as well as a pork burrito. A huge amount of food which he thoroughly enjoyed and polished off! I sampled the rice, which was excellent. As the menu is pretty extensive, with a variety of combination platters, as well as a nice selection of seafood (including several octopus dishes) I might be tempted to try something else the next time I visit. Then again, that molcajete was so damn good, I might not!

Oh, and of course you get fresh (and very crunchy) tortilla chips with mild-spicy salsa. And if you are an iced tea drinker like us, be warned that it’s sweet tea (sweetened with honey, and quite good!)

I can’t wait to go back…

Cost: $

1553 N Eastern Ave, Las Vegas
Phone: 702-633-7595

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Kristi

Vegas Musings

Food adventures in Las Vegas and Los Angeles

Los Molcajetes

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