For the late night party people, or just those who work the swing or graveyard shift, finding something good to eat in the early hours of the morning can be difficult. Usually the only options are fast food joints or greasy bar food (though the recent smoking law is reducing the number of these places still serving food). There are times when this is what you actually want, but other times, this is the meal on which you’re forced to settle.

Enter Ricardo’s Mexican Restaurant and Cantina. With 28 years of experience catering to Las Vegas locals, Ricardo’s proprietor Bob Ansara knows that unlike most cities, Las Vegas doesn’t have set breakfast, lunch and dinner hours. Some people are eating their breakfast when others are having lunch and some eat dinner at a time most would be getting ready for breakfast. To that end, Ricardo’s keeps hours that should appeal to everyone, regardless of the shift they work. And, with a convenient location at the corner of Decatur and Flamingo, just a few minutes from the Strip and a short drive from Downtown, Ricardo’s just might be the perfect spot for the city’s legions of gaming and hospitality employees.

Ansara is the first to admit that when it comes to food alone, it can sometimes be hard to distinguish one Mexican restaurant from another. Staples like enchiladas, tacos and burritos abound, and if you’re in too much of a hurry for a sit-down meal, you can find any one of these items in nearly every strip mall throughout the Las Vegas Valley. Nonetheless, that doesn’t stop Ansara from finding ways to set Ricardo’s apart from the pack.

 “It all starts with quality and commitment,” he says, referring to both the ingredients and team members at Ricardo’s. “Mix in spirit and consistency, then authenticity and creativity and that’s what we do. It’s not so creative you can’t get your hands on a burrito, and not so traditional that you won’t be able to find something new.”

First and foremost, the majority of customers who frequent Ricardo’s do so for the food. It’s just a simple fact that the dishes served up by the experience staff—some 49 employees have been with the company for at least five years, and a handful have been there since the first restaurant opened in 1978—are some of the best in the Valley. Ricardo’s team members take great pride in the little things, and that carries over onto the entrees served to the customers.

The kitchen is spotless and meticulously organized, as is the cooler, where the fresh ingredients, after being prepped, are laid out and labeled daily. Just about everything that can be is made fresh daily—salsa, tortillas, tortilla chips, etc.

At times, this creates some divergence from traditional Mexican food. Entrees like Carne Asada are traditionally made with a lesser cut of meat, which is marinated to not only flavor the otherwise bland cut, but also to help tenderize it. At Ricardo’s, the Carne Asada is made using a U.S.D.A. Choice New York steak. Grilled to perfection and served with a cheese enchilada and rice and beans, it is hard to argue with the decision to stray from tradition.

Other more creative items like the camarrones chipotles—shrimp sautéed and served in a chiptole-garlic cream sauce with rice and vegetables—and the pollo ranchero—chicken breast sautéed in butter, wine, lemon and oregano, accented with a mild ranchera sauce, mushrooms and melted cheese and served over a bed of rice, also stray from the traditional Mexican restaurant offerings, but are exceptional entrees regardless. As Ansara says, “they are some of the best flavor combinations we have.”

And, if you want something custom made, say you would like a Carne Asada taco or burrito, they can do that for you too. “As operators, we have to be able to say ‘Yes’ to any question the customers have, and we find every reason I can to tell people, ‘Yes,’” Ansara says.

The kitchen is open from 11 a.m. to 6 a.m. every day, and all menu items are available at all hours. Ricardo’s also serves a buffet lunch, designed for those looking for something more than fast food, but who don’t have an hour or more to dedicate to a full-service sit-down meal.

Whether you’re going with a simple, shredded or ground beef taco or the pork carnitas, you’re going to need something to wash it down, and if you’re like most people, you’ve been inculcated to immediately associate Mexican food and Mexican restaurants with Mexican drinks like Dos Equis and margaritas. In this category, like the others, Ricardo’s does not disappoint. The margaritas are made with nothing less than Cuervo Especial, and there are plenty of top-shelf tequilas from which to choose, should you desire.

Should you wish to fire a few sawbucks at that elusive royal flush or four-of-a-kind, Ricardo’s has recently entered the gaming business, adding 14 table top Game King machines to the newly remodeled bar area. The gaming is new that promotions are being created as this goes to press. Given the creativity and success Ansara and his team have had with everything else, it may be worth it to get in on the ground floor with the gaming here, too.

 “There are a lot of reasons for people to come to Ricardo’s, and it’s not just food,” Ansara says. “Ricardo’s is a clean, well-appointed place where people can come by after or before work, get something to eat, relax, hang out, and, if they want to, we have gaming, too.

 “It’s all about people—customers, employees—who care about quality and hard work and service.”

Ricardo’s Mexican Restaurant
4930 W. Flamingo Rd.
(702) 227-9100
Hours
11 a.m. to 6 a.m.

By Greg Jones

Greg Jones is managing editor of Casino Connection Nevada, as well as associate editor of Global Gaming Business magazine.

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