El Paraiso

My husband lived in Mexico for two years and really grew to love the food. He seeks out authentic Mexican restaurants and often asks Hispanic people where to find them. Last week we were advised to try El Paraiso.

When we saw the building and noticed that it wasn't a hole in the wall, my husband grew nervous. We walked through the doors and he was thrilled to find that we were the only people speaking English. He says that's a sure sign the food is authentic.

Sure enough, the food looked and tasted quite authentic too! Look at those fajitas! When they came out there were still sizzling with goodness. Our friend was really impressed with all the meat that it came with, since most places only give you a small amount of meat.

Our vegetarian friend loved his meal!

My husband decided to go with something a little more special. This amazing meal came with Carne Asada, shrimp, cactus, cheese… and other items that I’m not aware of. None the less, he loved it! He ordered it with their handmade corn tortillas and ate them taco style!

You know, I’m not exactly sure what this is, other than a fish. Our friend from Haiti braved this dish and seemed to enjoy it. He especially enjoyed the rice and beans!

My husband ordered Chicken Mole for me to try. I was excited to try it since I know it’s a genuine Mexican dish but I was sadly disappointed. It was a bitter, spicy, runny sauce. The chicken was extremely tender and enjoyable eaten with my tortilla and some guacamole. I’ll just stay away from Mole in the future.



The service at El Paraiso was average. They spoke Spanish so I didn’t understand what they said. The menu is also in Spanish, so I’d suggest taking along a friend who speaks the language if you decide to come try this delicious, authentic, spicy Mexican food! The prices are on the higher side for the cuisine but it’s a whole lot cheaper than traveling to Mexico to try real authentic food!

Las Delicias

Last night we found ourselves craving Mexican food. We ended up at Las Delicias. We were surprised to find that it was pretty busy for a Wednesday night but luckily found a parking spot right as someone pull out! We went in and sat right down. Our waitress took our drink order and quickly brought us a single glass of water. The three of us were confused. After assuming she'd bring us the other two, we waited a few minutes expecting her return. When she came to take our order we had to point out only one glass was given.

As we waited for our food we joked about how she may bring our food out in phases as well! Once she arrived, it was no longer just a joke.  She brought my husband fajitas without tortillas. She brought me half of my order. She did however, bring our friend his entire meal!

I ordered a beef and bean burrito and a chicken and cheese quesadilla. I was starving and was sure I could eat all that I ordered. My husband ordered steak fajitas and our friend ordered a combo plate.

I'm not one to complain so I'm hesitant to write details about my food. However, this is a restaurant critiquing blog... so I'll proceed. While my quesadilla was tasty, and the chicken was fine, there was hardly any cheese! What's a quesadilla with little to no queso? It wasn't bad tasting though!


My burrito was good! It was honestly quite surprising how much it tasted like one of those frozen burritos. I don't mean that in a bad way, it was good! Just not the texture or quality I expected. The green chili on top was sweet with a hint of spicy with that strong pepper taste. Together all the flavors were quite tasty.


The fajitas were great when it comes to the flavors of the toppings. The meat was flavorless though. The dish was served with lettuce, guacamole, tomatoes, pico de gallo and a side of beans. Overall the food was decent. Really nothing to go out of your way to try. Sadly, the service was probably the worst I've had at any Denver restaurant. I was extremely displeased when the bussers parked the garbage can cart next to my table to scrape dirty dishes from the table across from us. Less than appetizing really.

I don't mean to be rude, this restaurant was just far from impressive in my opinion but I may have hit them on a bad night. The parking lot was packed, which seems to tell me that others must enjoy this place for one reason or another. As for me, I'll stick with a "no thank you" when being asked to return to this "Mexican" restaurant.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Well... I've actually been to two Chipotles now and thought it was about time I write a review on the place!

The first time I went to Chipotle was on Halloween of 2009. My husband and I dressed up like burritos and went for our free burrito! We were sure there would be some catch, like you get a kid sized one, or you don't get meat. We were shocked when we saw that there were no catches! You could pick any meat, any rice, any beans, any toppings! Since it was free, I got the steak burrito and even had guacamole added!

Oh my Heavens! It was the best burrito I've ever had EVER! Hands down great food! My husband and his friends loved it as well but Chipotle wasn't new to them.

Tummies were calling and we needed food so once again, my husband and I went to Chipotle since we loved our first experience. This time I was paying for the food. Not wanting to pay $9 for lunch, I just got a quesadilla. My husband's not shy so he went all out and got a steak burrito and added guac. We were shocked at the prices! It cost us $2 for guacamole!!!! That's two dollar menu items at McDonalds! I would be ok with the $2 if it were a good about of guacamole but my husband said it was such a small amount that he couldn't taste it.

Overall, Chipotle is a great place to eat. The people are nice, the food is yummy but in my opinion, the price is way overboard.

Alamos Verdes in Arvada

As you might have noticed, we LOVE Mexican food (I should add, good and authentic Mexican food). We saw this place and had to stop in and grab dinner. We were pretty hungry and the thought of some good Mexican made my mouth water. 

It's called Alamos Verdes and is located at:

5304 Vance St
Arvada, CO 80002-3720
(303) 422-5528

We ordered one of their Tamale Rico which is large enough to be a one person meal on it's own. We also got a plate that came with a burrito a taco and beans and rice.  The beans were pretty tasty! I enjoyed nibbling on them quite a bit. The beef burrito was covered with so much lettuce that  you couldn't see the burrito!!! If I had ordered a burrito salad I would have been thrilled! Since I ordered a burrito, I was much less than excited with the high pile of cold leaves on top. It was decent tasting and large. The taco that came with it was served in a crispy fried tortilla. Very un-authentic. Very fried tasting. The filling was good though. 

The tamale was pretty average as well. I enjoyed it the more than the burrito. I'm going to have to say that the beans were the best tasting of all the dinner. That's pathetic really but they were quite tasty!

We discussed our review, concluding that it was decently priced but very very Americanized. The pricing was average. We came out spending about $20 total. As we finished our discussion our waitress brought out our bill and the refreshment. My husband and I looked at each other and said "No we're talking"! Gary even said "This just bumped it from  average to cool". 

They brought tiny scoops of orange sherbet. It was a great and refreshing end to our meal.

 

 

Greatest Mexican Food in Denver So Far!!!

And the award goes to.... Tacos Y Mariscos!!! (I don't know if that's its name...) We went to this place around 10:00 on a Friday night in search for authentic Mexican food. I'm not sure if I could say I've had better tacos before.

We ordered a few pork, beef and one shrimp taco. It was $16 for about 12 little tacos and two drinks. My husband purposely spent the same amount as he did at Wahoo's Fish Tacos just to compare what you get for your money. I'd say this place won that contest hands down!

Aside from what you get for your money, this place is excellent in that it has a salsa bar. Everyone who works here is Hispanic which only makes the whole experience better since you KNOW its real Mexican food!

Like I said, BEST TACOS EVER! We'll be back again for sure!

La Sandia

 If your looking for a good, high class fancy place to eat some Tex Mex, I'd recommend La Sandia in a heart beat. It's located in Stapleton which is a brand new, uptown location at the old Stapleton Airport site. The building is beautiful inside and out. The waiters are nice and very professional.

We ordered Guacamole for an appetizer. I was almost impressed with they presentation. The waitress brought out a whole avocado and made the guacamole right at our table. The idea is awesome! The way the waitress fumbled and acted was less than impressive. The taste was lacking as well. As most of us know, Guacamole is a bit more than a mushed avocado with onions and tomato and a flake of cilantro; but it was good enough.

I ordered their Chicken Burrito. I wasn't very excited at the flavor or the portion size especially for the price. My favorite part of the meal was the black beans. How sad is that?! You'd expect to be more into the burrito, right? Sadly that wasn't the case for me.

My mother in law ordered Skirt Steak Fajitas. Now that was impressive! I don't know how they tasted but the presentation was amazing. She said they were pretty good and there was a lot of food on her plate!

My husband, who has lived in Mexico and is big into authentic Mexican liked the food but told me that "it's a great place of upper-class American's to go relax and enjoy Tex Mex rather than real Mexican". The atmosphere was fun, pretty and top notch. The food however, was not what I expected from a "Mexican" restaurant.

One last note... they have more of offer on their lunch menu than their dinner menu.

I wouldn't say anyone should go out of their way to try La Sandia but if your hungry and in the area, it's not a bad place to check out.

La Sandia's Web Site

Wahoo's Fish Taco's

The atmosphere was pretty cool! All decked out with snow boarding gear and stickers!

Good presentation! Looks Amazing!

This week we decided to go try Wahoo's Fish Taco's. I'm not sure if this is a chain or what but one of our friends had recommended it. Gary LOVES fish taco's so we were excited!

We ordered a plate of fish tacos, one in each flavor and a plate with a shrimp burrito and a Carne Aasada enchilada. The photos above are the two plates we ordered.

The fish taco's were good. Tasty but only a bite of fish per taco AND! this place didn't have salsa! What taco restaurant doesn't have salsa?!

The shrimp burrito was by far my favorite item! It was amazing!!!!

All together the food was decent. My biggest complaint is that you really don't get what you pay for. It was $16.50 for our two plates and water to drink. I wasn't hungry when we went and I was far from full when we left. Sixteen dollars would be a fair price if we would have been satisfied but more than half the plates were filled with flavorless rice and beans. We love fish tacos but we will not be going back to Wahoo's... ever again.

I'm sorry that our first restaurant review was a negative one. It's actually rare we find a place we're not in love with! I'm sure next week will be a more positive experience!!