Exciting New Place! Tacos & Beer

I was beginning to think that the restaurants in Las Vegas were tightening up and going away from liberal Happy Hours, but I'm excited to report that I've discovered a brand new place - just five months old - that pairs great food with great prices. Plus - it's seven days a week! Farewell are those Saturdays where there are few options for some cheap eats.

Tacos & Beer is located near Paradise / Flamingo (3900 Paradise Road), in the same lot as Marrakech. If you have ever been to Firefly - well, this restaurant occupies its old space. Get this - it is the same management as Firefly. Interesting...

Happy Hour is 3-6 PM and 11-2 AM every day. Featuring $2-3 tacos and $3 Mexican beers, their authentic tasting tacos will surely win you over. Here's a run down of the tacos:

$2 Tacos

Pork Al Pastor - marinated with achiote and chipotle, with avocado cream, pineapple, onion and cilantro. 

This is a refreshing taco that combines a sweetness with the pineapple and the hint of spice with the chipotle. This was my server's favorite and it's a flavor that I hadn't tasted before.

Puerco Verde - slow roasted pork in green sauce, with onion, cilantro and chicharones. 

This is my personal favorite as it combines my love for green sauce with the tender slow roasted pork. It's juicy and super tasty. You may have tasted slow roasted pork in other restaurants, but this one is at the front of the pack.

Beef Adobada - slow roasted with chili and beer, onion, cilantro.

The beef is shredded and very tender and juicy. This taco has a unique flavor with its chili and beer marinade combination.

Chicken Tinga - breast simmered with veggies, with salsa verde, avocado and pickled red onion.

I've had other chicken tacos before, but this taco combines a lot of flavors together. The chicken is simmered to super tender and then pulled. Coupled with veggies and the pickled red onion, it's a very light tasting taco.

Crunchy Taco - "guero" style seasoned ground beef and mashed potato, crunchy shell with lettuce, pico, sour cream, hot sauce and cheddar cheese.

What really struck me first with this only crunchy taco on the Happy Hour menu is that the shell was so crisp and fresh. You can tell it was just made and the crunch of it was awesome. The seasoned ground beef is super tasty, but coupled with the mashed potato gives the bite a great texture with great flavor. Most have had a ground beef taco before, but this place takes it up a notch, once again, with adding more ingredients to the mix that totally knock it out of the park. This taco is filled to the brim and quite filling.

$3 Tacos

Fish Taco - grilled mahi-mahi fillet with mango-habanero salsa, lettuce, chili-lime cream and guac. 

Baja Fish Taco - beer-battered mahi-mahi, slaw, chili-lime cream, guac and pico.

Shrimp Taco - sauteed with guajillo chili, with cilantro lime slaw, pico and guac.

I haven't tried any of the fish tacos myself, but my friend did have the Fish Taco and he said it was very tasty. That's all I can say for now, but judging on my experience with the other tacos, I don't doubt that any of the fish or shrimp tacos would be any less than great.

Also at Happy Hour, they give you one plate of chips and fresh salsa which tastes very fresh. When your tacos come, they can also provide two bottles of hot sauce. One is a green sauce and the other is a hotter hot sauce. I normally choose to eat the tacos as they come in their marinated flavors but sometimes I like to take it up a notch and put some of that bottled hot sauce on the taco as well.

Fridays are Always Happy at B-Dubs

OK, so if you know what B-Dubs is, then you're familiar with Buffalo Wild Wings. B-W-W - hence the shortened version of B-Dubs that we all prefer to say so we save ourselves a few syllables. While most restaurants would never think of having any Happy Hour on a Friday night, I'm glad to see that BWW thinks otherwise. They don't over think their "special" times, they just do it and it works.

Have you ever thought that a place had Happy Hour only to arrive and realize that you misinterpreted the Monday thru Thursday but not Friday night, however Sunday is good and so forth. You get what I'm talking about. BWW is straightforward: Monday-Friday: 2-7 PM and 10 PM - 6 AM. Period. Plus, on all of the weekdays, the 10 PM hour is traditionally an awkward one where most Happy Hours haven't started yet and you don't dare enter an establishment that's about to close because the kitchen staff will want to punch you for making them whip out their pots and pans again. (You know it's true!)

Besides the traditional Wing Tuesday special of 50 cent wings and Boneless Thursdays with 60 cent boneless wings, Happy Hour gives you enough food and drink items that they know you'll probably order something off of the main menu anyways.

The pricing is simple, everything I'm about to list is $3.

Drinks: 
Tall Domestic Drafts
Jack Daniels
Captain Morgan
Absolut Vodka Drinks

Food:

Mozzarella Sticks - I've had these once before. I always like to tell any place to make them well done so that the cheese is ensured to be melted and gooey. Who ever wants to eat fried cheese that's like a block?

Chili con Queso Dip - Once again, as the ultimate fan of being served food that is piping temperature hot (hey, it just tastes that much better!), I, once again, request any dips to be bubbly. This is a really good dip! It's mainly a cheese based dip that has chili in it. It's served with tortilla chips that if served right, should also be warm. 

Mini Corn Dogs - I've never had these here. Why? Corn dogs bring me back to childhood when I was puzzled at the school lunch line when all of my friends would be darting for these hot dogs wrapped in a cake like fried batter and to fit in, I started eating these things. So, in my lifetime, I've kind of had enough corn dogs. But not to say that these aren't good here by any means. I just can't give you a first hand account.

Garlic Roasted Mushrooms - It says "roasted" but it's a garlic flavored crusted mushroom that is fried. These are pretty good. I've had them at least once before. However, my dining partner isn't a big mushroom fan so I tend to not get to eat these too often. 

Chips & Salsa - This is what you would expect. I do like their tortilla chips here because they are light and crispy and no the super thick ones. 

Every B-Dubs has the same feel with a little bit of a different layout. The servers at my local B-Dubs are great but I can't attest to the other wait staff valley wide. So, you may have to show up and see but in any sense, you've got a wide range of hours including Friday for some economic eats!

On the Border Part II: Happy Hour

This is On the Border Part II (OTB) as promised in the last post. As a restaurant in the suburbs of Vegas, specials are a must and having an affordable Happy Hour is definitely a must employ strategy. While I do wish that OTB stayed open at least an hour later, perhaps their numbers don't warrant it.

Monday-Friday, OTB has Happy Hour in the bar and patio from 3-7 PM and late night Happy Hour from 9 PM-Close which is a short time frame since last call for food is around 9:30. The restaurant actually closes at 10 so drinks are still available until that time.

Happy Hour consists of both food and drinks specials. It's half off select appetizers and I have tasted most of them. Now, OTB isn't for the dieter or for those that want a moderately healthy meal....on Happy Hour that's next to impossible. So, for half the cost, for a snack, take OTB for what it's worth.

I have always liked their Chips and Salsa which are served free to everyone. I like their salsa because it comes out cold and has a loose consistency with a little kick to it. They give you salsa in the small little blue dishes but I typically request a bowl because I use a lot of it. The chips - when done right - come out nice and hot. If they come out kind of cold and stale, don't hesitate to ask for a new batch. It's your money, get what you want and you deserve it.

Some of the items on the Happy Hour menu:

Empanadas:
Fried dough pastry shell (like a mini-pie) stuffed with meat (chicken or beef). You get five of these and they come with cheese (queso) dip. I think these are quite tasty, however, you definitely want to share this plate with two other people. If you eat five of these by yourself, you are going to feel like a greaseball mess and your stomach is going ask you why you just did that. Eat one or two at the most and consume some other items.

Firecracker Stuffed Jalapenos:
Again, this is a dish to share with others. Don't eat the whole thing by yourself or you will feel like a greaseball mess. Just have one or two and share with others. This is a typical stuffed Jalapeno where it's filled with cheese and then fried. It's hard to mess this one up.

Texas Wings:
These are kind of bready, but not bad. One bartender suggested that we dip them in some queso dip and it was a nice complement to the wings.

Fajita Nachos:
Now, these are not like the nachos that you are accustomed to because it's not a pile of tortilla chips with meat and cheeses and toppings sprinkled all over. Each chip actually is topped on its own and then baked so the cheese is melted on it. I personally wasn't a fan of these and maybe it's because I was expecting one thing and got another. Plus, the chip gets soggy the way it's made. Fair warning to you if you want to get them.

Queso Dip:
This is your typical cheese dip and it's always best when you request it "piping hot" so it's bubbling when you get it. Otherwise, it's just not the same.

Chicken Flautas:
These are like your typical flautas except I like them better without the sauce they drizzle on top of it because it gets the flauta shell soggy. This is a sharing dish, once again, because you don't feel good if you eat the whole thing by yourself.

Drinks specials are about $3-4 and include Dos Equis and Margaritas.

In a nutshell, OTB is good for a mini group gathering where you can sample a few items on the Happy Hour menu. I don't often go for their Happy Hour actually. I typically go for Taco Tuesdays where tacos are on a special price at 99 cents. I also like their Chips and Salsa. So, I go for a lighter meal and not for the all out Appetizer spree. Either way, with the apps being half-price, at least go check it out.

LIMITED TIME: Freebies at On the Border

While I talk a lot about ongoing economic eats deals in Las Vegas, I also run across a lot of deals that are great but are only available for a limited, and sometimes very limited, amount of time. This post is about On the Border, a neighborhood joint that serves Mexican food. To the best of my knowledge, there is only one of them in Las Vegas and it's in Centennial - just off of US-95 and Ann Road. It sits between Panda Express and Cane's Chicken. I searched in Henderson as well and the On the Border site yielded no results.

Through tomorrow, On the Border is offering a free bowl of Original Queso and a smaller order of Sopapillas with the purchase of one or more entrees at full price. I've tried both of these items before and they are good! This is a limited time offer and is good through Thursday, October 4.

I really like On the Border for several reasons. I haven't had any dish there that I didn't like. Their free chips and salsa is awesome because they are all made in-house. The chips come out warm (when served right) and the salsa is a really nice fresh loose mix with a little kick to it.

When I go to this restaurant, I've always preferred to sit at the bar counter seat only because a large flat screen occupies the space above the bar and it's nice to watch a nice sports game while enjoying my meal. There are other smaller flat screens around the bar area as well.

I often order their enchiladas, the chicken or pork ones with a request for green sauce on both. The green sauce (chile verde) typically comes on the pork enchilada but I really like it on everything. Otherwise, the chicken enchilada comes with a red sauce which is also very good but I simply can't resist the green sauce sometimes. Their plates are served with rice and beans and I like ordering the black beans with my entree.

I'll do an On the Border post part two where I talk about their regular specials which change every day but are consistent from week to week. Does that make sense? I just wanted to give a quick shout out about the freebies that are offered through tomorrow - Oct. 4.