Los Pueblos Authentic Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Yerevan

Since it is the patriotic month and in fact just a little more than a week before independencia, I, a Mexican who has just left Mexico less than a month ago, decided to try this place out. I've tried 2 other Mexican restaurants here so far. I have had Mexican food in all federal entities across hundreds of Mexican towns in all kinds of places (+ homemade ones of course).

The prices are obviously high, but it's in the main tourist area and it's international food in a proper restaurant, so of course it won't be cheap, nothing much to say here.

Looking at the menú, I felt it's more Tex-Mex than mexicano, but it does have several very Mexican dishes that normal international Mexican places may not have, such as the tamale, but no chilaquiles or milanesa or mole or barbacoa or arranchera and the likes. The tricolour tacos also suggest that it's more an international version of it, but once again, it can be said that it's more authentic than most, even if it's not what you would exactly find within the national territory.

There's no chile en nogada for independencia but I didn't really expect them to serve it.

The decorations, though felt touristy, are quite authentic. The wall paintings and the "papeles" hanging around definitely are nice touches. That's a positive.

The hochata was not the best I have ever had, but it was indeed something that one would be able to get in México - authentic for sure here. In fact, the mere existence of aguas frescas was already a surprise.

On to the tacos -

The flour tortillas were good. Made in an authentic way (in the north anyway), although would've liked 2 pieces for each taco instead of just one.

The sauces, when existed, were placed right into the tacos. The tomato thing the same. Flavours here authentic, but presentation perhaps not so much.

The most authentic one was the fish taco (although a lot of Mexicans would find having fish in tacos here, the Mexicas had them and today's fish tacos are found in many parts of the northwest region). Basically indistinguishable from what I had in Mexico. The same way of preparation and all.

Carnitas would come in the second place. The way to prepare them and the presentation both made the grade I'd say.

Carne de asada was where it began to feel inauthentic. It was not the typical oily, fatty meat, but I suppose since the idea of carne de asada technically could be quite unspecific, it's not really a problem.

Al pastor was the rather disappointing one. Looking at the photo, I already felt it wasn't going to be authentic, and it really wasn't. The way to prepare it, the cuts, the presentation, the flavour, the colour were all completely different from authentic al pastor. In fact, I couldn't really tell the difference between this and the aforementioned carne de asada. I actually liked it, but it simply wasn't al pastor. It's mindboggling actually, since al pastor shares the origin of kebab donor meat, which is of course very common in this country, they could've used the same machine to prepare it, but they obviously didn't. I think if they did, it would've felt a lot more authentic even if they couldn't marinate it the same way.

The frijoles were authentic. Would love to have salsas there though. I won't pretend I know how to make salsas myself, but most places in Mexico use in-house salsas so I'd imagine that it wouldn't be that expensive or difficult to imitate that, even if they are not planning to have the different colours as there are in MX.

All in all, I think I will try it again, possibly the birria, although I'm not sure about what seems to be birria with queso on the menú (I'm more used to having birria as a soup). México and Armenia really don't have much cultural, historical, or even economic connections, and there aren't that many Mexican immigrants here, so I really don't expect them to be totally authentic. I'd say they're more authentic than the other places here and I hope they can take this review positively and maybe see if they could prepare the al pastor in a...

Overall, I had a positive experience here though there’s some room for improvement. I have a bit of a taco obsession and try to sample them everywhere I travel in the world. The ones they serve here aren’t like the street tacos you’ll find in Mexico (think more Tex-Mex), but they’ve done a great job for the most part with the flavors and quality. I had the tacos carnitas and will certainly come back to try their other taco offerings.

Positives: -The service was great, really nice waiters/waitresses who delivered an excellent customer service experience from beginning to end. -The quality of the meat was solid and prepared correctly. -They use proper corn tortillas! -Fantastic ambience sitting outside in their outdoor garden area. They’ve put a lot of thought into the decoration (loved the small touches like Frida on the napkin holders).

Couple areas for improvement: -The “habanero” salsa they serve on the side isn’t spicy at all. Would be great if they could offer a truly spicy salsa as an option. -Their “Bloody Maria” cocktail unfortunately was quite weak and greatly lacked flavor and spice. Seemed like it was just a small amount of tequila mixed with tomato juice without any other ingredients that would make it more interesting. Especially at the price point, I think the quality could be improved considerably.

Otherwise, really positive experience here and I’ll...

When it comes to Mexican food, this is as authentic as you will find in Armenia. Lots of attention to detail. Somehow they figured out how to make the corn tortillas in-house. Where on earth they get the masa from I have no idea!

You will pay for the authenticity, atmosphere, and service, all very good. As much as I would like to frequent this place, the price point puts it in the 'let's go treat ourselves' category.

While the habanero salsa was good, the pico was rather lackluster. The guacamole was on par and made with ripe avocados. The horchata was not sweet enough and had a strange frothiness to it. Weird. Fajitas... good. And I have to say, for the price of it, the burrito was small. If they can find a resource for the bigger tortillas and stuff some more rice/beans/meat in there, that would be a huge...