This week I was invited to lunch and some poker afterward with a colleague. My friend wanted to take me to Javier’s Mexican Restaurant located inside Aria Hotel & Casino. Knowing how much of a foodie I am he wanted me to try this place.
He was first introduced to the restaurant in Newport Beach, California. My friend loved it so much he has become a regular at Javier’s here in Las Vegas. Being we both like to play poker and with Aria having one of the best poker rooms in the city, we find ourselves there a good bit. Now I have two reasons to visit Aria, as the food at Javier’s was spectacular.
Lunch is a good time to go as it’s usually less crowded; if you are going for dinner I would suggest making reservations. On this particular day it was busier than normal for lunch as CES was in town so every place on the Strip had more traffic than normal. I went with a dish called Cabo Azul. It came with a Maine lobster enchilada in a creamy pasilla sauce, stuffed with a generous portion of mouth-watering lobster. This was the best enchilada I have had.
The next item was the grilled Chile relleno pepper stuffed with Jack cheese, shrimp and Dungeness crab meat. There was loads of crab and shrimp in this pepper and it was so good. I will tell you that the pepper had some bite to it. I’m generally not one who likes spicy stuff but I did eat half of the pepper plus all of the shrimp and crab stuffed inside it. This was an absolutely amazing dish and of the three items my favorite.
The final item that came with this dish was a shrimp taco. I’m just going to say it was the best I’ve had anywhere in Las Vegas. It was a perfect companion with the other two items on the Cabo Azul.
My buddy had the same dish but started with his favorite appetizer, Ceviche De Pulpo, octopus. It’s one of Javier’s most popular appetizers.
The décor is very eclectic. The wall in the back of the restaurant is something to see. It is a wood wall with carvings of a very unique artwork. You will have the feeling a lot of people are staring at you.
Another very interesting item is the Tequila tree. If only Tequila did grow on trees there would be a lot of happy people. But this work of art is actually a tree that has a big collection of top shelf Tequila’s. It’s something Tequila connoisseurs will really appreciate.
The wait staff was excellent and the food was even better. I give Javier’s a rating of 4 Forks out of 4.