Las Americas Restaurant - Ft. Smith — Restaurant in Fort Smith

Try some south of the border food! If you are thinking Mexico, you are not thinking far enough south of the border. How about trying meals based on recipes from El Salvador and Nicaragua. And, they do have Mexican food! The menu is intimidating! If you are there for the first time, really look the menu over and go for something new. Don’t just go for the familiar: tacos, enchiladas etc. It is a small restaurant that appears to be previously a Wendy’s or some fast food joint of that type. They do have quite a fair size dining area but, peak hours are very busy! They serve complementary chips and salsa. The appetizer selection large as is their beverage menu. They have many different imported non-alcoholic beverages along with some traditional south of the border drinks, some of which they blend up in house. We tried the Nicaraguan portion of the menu: Lomo Saltado and Gallo Pinto. The Lomo Saltado is sliced carne asada, cooked in a delicious red sauce with red onions, green peppers and French fries. It is fantastic and I would describe it as comfort food. When you start eating you won’t stop until your plate is clean. The sauce is what makes this dish. A perfectly seasoned tomato based sauce that will have you using the rice to soak up any that is left over. You won’t want to leave any on your plate. The Gallo Pinto is also very good. It is a generous portion of carne asada with beans and rice and fried plantains. Tender steak cooked perfectly, and caramelized plantains. This ain’t Taco Bell, so be patient. Some of these dishes take a little while to prepare. If you are looking for other Mexican restaurants in the area, check out my reviews in my collection "Jalapeno Highway" on Yelp. I've...

Very disappointed. . This had better reviews than La Huerta, right around the corner. Having ate their several times and reading Las Americas reviews I was excited to try it. Waitress had a very rude attitude from the beginning, then the orders come out and the portions were very small. I ordered chicken and shrimp fajitas and it looked like a kids meal. The shrimp tasted bad and the sides, guacamole, beans, rice etc were about like tablespoon sized portions. Btw it was not lunch or anything off a lunch menu, these were full priced dinners with half sized portions. . Moving on it was tolerable but definitely not great. I also noticed that when our drinks ran out it took forever to get service. We ran out of drinks, chips and salsa and miss congeniality was clearing tables right next to us and never acknowledged us. To make it all worse there were only 3 tables with customers, they were really slow. I tried to find excuses for them and couldn't.. When we finally got refills my sweet tea turned into plain tea and my wife's sprite came back as water. Unreal. . The real kicker is when we left we drove right by LA Huerta and they were packed! I should've known better. . The place was small and cruddy, I don't know how they get better reviews than LA Huerta. . If it means anything this is my first official review anywhere. I normally don't care that much but this was REALLY disappointing. ....

Get the Salvadoran tamales in the banana leaves. They have this thick layer of soft masa that melts in your mouth. I love the batons of potato perfectly cooked with chicken and carrots. Chef Mercedes is the head cook here and brings her tradition of El Salvador to America in a delicious fashion.

I have had the Papusas and they are amazing as well. Being from south Texas I adore Latino street food. I today I tried the Pechugas Empanizadas $10.99 which was delicious. You can tell she marinated the chicken ahead of time then perfectly fried it with a nice thin batter of breading. I could tell the veggies were out of a bag, but for $10.99 how can you complain.

We also got a hand full of other treats and something that really stuck out was the beans. This soft rich and creamy refried bean was so so good and velvety. You can tell she must use lard and truly refry them.

This establishment is full of tradition and I highly recommend it. Modest pricing and bold flavors is what you will find at Las Americas in Fort...