We visited Las Vegas restaurant: Hussong’s Cantina & Taqueria in The Shoppes at Mandalay Place (at Mandalay Bay) recently and here’s our thoughts on the food and our overall experience.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored #ReviewCrew post on behalf of Restaurant.com. All opinions are 100% my own.
Vegas has so many restaurants, we are never at a shortage of places to try. We could probably eat at a different restaurant every single date night and never have to repeat where we eat. Well, we do of course, because we find our favorites, but trying new places is a goal of mine.
To make trying out new restaurants easier on the pocket book, I have been happily using Restaurant.com for a few years now. Basically, you search their site for restaurants in your area and then purchase certificates at an excellent discount. For example, you might be able to get a $25.00 certificate for $10 or even less. Because I’ve been so happy with Restaurant.com, I have started to work with them, reviewing restaurants in Las Vegas and the areas I travel to.
One of the first restaurants I’ve tried as being part of the Restaurant.com Review Crew is Hussong’s Cantina & Taqueria, which I’m happy to share with you today.
Hussong’s is located inside The Shoppes at Mandalay Place at The Mandalay Bay. It’s a convenient location for anyone who is enjoying some shopping at The Shoppes, but also not far away if you are playing some slots in the casino or seeing one of the many concerts nearby.
The atmosphere at Hussong’s quite lively. The music plays loudly, which we liked, but it wasn’t so loud that we couldn’t talk to each other. Within moment of being inside of Hussong’s, I instantly thought how this would be a great place to go when friends come to town. We could hang out, drink some margaritas and not worry about bothering neighboring tables if we laugh too loudly.
Since Hussong’s isn’t an overly large restaurant, the bar is a major focal point. I liked the hodge podge decor and no matter where you sit in the restaurant, there seemed to be something interesting near you.
It is said that the margarita was invented in October 1941 by one of Hussong’s bartenders. Because we had the Restaurant.com certificate, we decided to splurge a bit and a margarita was a must on our list. We ordered one of the largest ones we could get so we could share it like the romantic lovebirds we are. I was very pleased with it and David said it was excellent — we both agreed that it tasted (and felt) like there was the right amount of alcohol and not watered down. David thought the free souvenir glass was pretty cool too.
One of our favorite things about any Mexican restaurant is the salsa and chips. We were both extremely happy with the salsa and really liked that two varieties were served. The chips were average, not bad at all, but also not ones that I would rave about either.
Considering that we were splurging, we decided to order something that I’ve heard of many times, but never actually eaten: Queso Fundido. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a cheese sauce — oh no, it’s a thick and stringy baked cheese. It’s served with corn tortillas and we had it topped with chorizo. It was heavenly. I’m not sure I would order it every time, but if you love cheese like I do, this is a must when you want a treat.
For dinner, I decided to go with the Chicken Fajitas, which is a fairly typical choice for me at Mexican or Southwestern restaurants. I was quite pleased with it – the chicken was nicely seasoned and moist and there was plenty of pepper and onions. My favorite part of it was the corn and potatoes that are mixed in with the peppers and onions. While the chicken was nice, I found myself thinking how I could have went vegetarian with this because of how much I liked the veggie mixture.
David decided to go with the Carne Asada which he said was quite good. Like me, he also like the addition of the potatoes and said that they were one of his favorite parts. The one things he wasn’t as crazy about was that it came with large 12″ flour tortillas. He would have rather had smaller ones. We noticed after the fact that they had Carne Asada Fajitas, so perhaps those would have been a better option for him since those are served with the smaller tortillas.
The service was decent considering how busy the restaurant was, but it wasn’t top notch. My only real gripe was that we received our meals separate, about 2-3 minutes apart. Being served together is one of my pet peeves in restaurants and while I do understand it if our entire family of 6 dining, but in this case, it was just the two of us. Perhaps this was just a fluke and doesn’t typically happen…at least I hope so.
Overall, it was a good visit and I recommend it to those who are staying at the Mandalay Bay or even at Luxor nearby. No, this isn’t a place with out of this world Mexican food, but as you can see in our final photo, we had no problem finishing what we were served and we’d be happy to go back.
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Melissa says
It looks like such a fun place! Everything looked delicious, especially the Queso Fundido!
brandie says
Thanks Melissa! The queso fundido was probably my favorite part of the meal!
Mama to 5 Blessings says
everything looks so delicious! I can see why everyone belonged to the “clean plate club”! LOL
brandie says
Thanks! It was a good dinner!
Onica {MommyFactor} says
Love the deco of Hussong’s Cantina & Taqueria. And the food pictures, especially that Carne Asada. Now I’m hungry. LOL
brandie says
Thanks Onica! I really loved their deco too…it’s one of those places with lots of mismatched this and that everywhere. Never a dull place to look in there, that’s for sure!