Muy Salsas — Restaurant in Los Alamos

In the past few months I have eaten dinner twice at Muy Salsas. I have not yet tried breakfast or lunch there. Both times the food has been wonderful, but there have been other problems that keep me from giving five stars. Muy Salsas is a rarity for a Los Alamos restaurant. It is a “true” Mexican restaurant, specializing in the cuisine of central and southern Mexico, and not the cuisines of the American southwest or northern Mexico. It has a much larger variety of sauces and ingredients than the typical Mexican restaurants of New Mexico. I have really enjoyed the presentation and taste of the food I have had there. I have no problems with the kitchen here. How ever I do have problems with the front of the house. First the setting could be better. The building has its origins in a barbecue restaurant that opened in the early 1990s, and much of the furnishings seem to have been retained over the following three decades and show their age. Second the menu could use some minor adjustments. In particular, on my last visit I had the prime rib mole. The prime rib was large, cooked how I wanted it, and the mole salsa was wonderful, but I expect main courses in the US to have a significant number of vegetables. I should have read the menu item more closely as it listed only two baby corns and two dried apple slices in addition to the meat and mole, and that was what I got. They went very well with the meat and sauce, but weren’t very filling. Third the serving staff shows the same problems as many other restaurants in the post Covid pandemic period. They seem to lack the experience or pro activity to match the kitchen. The first time I ate here they were short of regular staff, and I believe a relative of the owner/manager was filling in. My daughter and I ordered different types of tacos, but, while both were excellent and hers was delivered on time, they lost my order and it arrived only after we noticed that five minutes after she received her food mine hadn’t arrived. For my last visit: My original server was too young to deal with alcohol and my cider was delivered only after I was halfway through my main course and not before it; I would have appreciated it if one of my servers had suggested that an appetizer would have been a good accompaniment to the main course given its lack of vegetables; and The check was delivered without asking me first whether I would have liked...

I was super excited to have found this place by accident. As we were walked to our table and seeing the meals on other peoples tables, I liked what I saw. Things got even better when I read the menu, with lots of dishes that I am familiar with, being from Chihuahua. One that particularly called my attention was el Montado, with ASADERO cheese on it and asada. I went with it, and my friend went with the green enchiladas. Not sure if the salsa and chips are complementary, but we never got them or got offered them. them while waiting on our food, but I saw that other tables did. Our waiter was hard to get, but I have to say that there were only two servers and the place started to get busy, in their defense. I was so disappointed; by the time our food came in, the asadero cheese was replaced with the Mexican cheese mix, white and yellow. The owner, being from Chihuahua, should know better. The asada beef seems to have been made on the griddle instead of grilled, making the whole montado super greasy; I ended up just eating 1/3 of the dish. A little side of requeson came with it, a super nice touch and the best part of my dish. The salsa on the enchiladas was super good, but again, they came with the Mexican cheese mix. Even the beans had it. Our waiter could have done a better job at staying on top of our table; his appearance could use some improvement. I'm all about wearing shorts whenever I can, but his black shirt had sweat stains all over his belly and back. The atmosphere of the place is super nice; loved the outside patio, the decorations, the neon signs and the photo opp areas.

Again, I was super excited to finally have found a place with authentic Mexican food, even better, from Chihuahua. It may be that in order to make it in the USA, the recipes need to be modified, but if that is the case, don't advertise that it will come with some ingredients when they don't. You can buy bags of asadero cheese or even quesadilla cheese at Walmart in ABQ, or if you go to any of the Mexican grocery stores in Santa Fe or ABQ, you will find the actual asadero cheese, in both presentations, as a tortilla (for montados) or round blocks.

I am willing to come back and try some of the other dishes, like tuetano, enfrijoladas (with the right kind of cheese),...

Definitely will not return. Mexican is my favorite food, as you can tell by my reviews. Pros: Chips are really good and the beans are really good. Wide range of food. Wide selection of flavored lemonade. I got peach, could definitely be helped by reducing water to mix ratio as it's kinda weak flavored but was okay. Waiting staff was good, 5 stars (until we had a complaint, then she got a very poor attitude said "she didn't have time for that today") Cons: Everything else that we had for lunch. Chips and salsa, $5 (most places this is complementary), no big deal. Chips are really good (thick, lightly salted, cruncy). Comes with 3 sauces. All are very runny (water consistency) and were not flavored well. I asked for queso, and they don't have queso, but have a melted cheese twist on queso. It sounded great. Came in a 4" cast iron skillet, sizzling from the oven. Litterally melted cheese (but that's what i was told). 1/8" layer of oil on top, very thick and stringy. Not any seasoning, very bland. It's not comparable to any queso consistency. Within 5 minutes, it was cooled and hardened up that it was nothing more than a slab of cheese on the table. Stick a chip in it and the entire chunk of cheese would come out of the skillet. Oh and they wanted $12 for it. Flautas with shredded chicken, you get 4, 4" flautas, smaller than most but looked good and cooked well. Shredded chicken tasted as just boiled chicken. No flavor, no cheese inside, no sauce. It is just boiled and shredded chicken wrapped in a 4" flour tortilla and deep fried. Came with red and green sauces (again, very runny, not much flavor). I had to use them because the flautas were very dry. Beans are...