We were in Las Vegas for several days. Since we do not gamble in casinos, we usually take the opportunity to try some of the amazing restaurants that Las Vegas has to offer (we feel especially justified because we usually go for a hike during the day). After Popo’s birthday dinner at Jaleo, we decided to try a more casual, low-key place called China Poblano.
China Poblano is a very interesting place. It is a restaurant that features both Chinese and Mexican cuisine. Strange, right? We thought so too and feared that this meant that neither cuisine was done well. But we were pleasantly surprised.
First, the atmosphere is a blend of the two cultures. Karsen took quite a few pictures of the restaurant.
After a long day’s hike, we decided we needed a drink. Both of us ordered the horchata. Horchata is a traditional Mexican cinnamon rice refreshment. When we were drinking horchata, we were thinking about the Vampire Weekend song that starts “In December, drinking horchata. . . .” We think horchata should not be restricted to just December. It is delicious enough to drink all months of the year.
And the grown-ups ordered drinks too. As usual, mommy ordered the margarita.
As you can see from the picture there is no salt on the rim. Karsen was most disappointed because he always likes to lick the salt. Instead, there was a “salt water foam” at the top. This was also the case with the pomegranate margarita, which Papa decided to try.
Pei pei Ah-yi (our aunt) ordered a lemon drink that came with noodles. Weird, right?
Since we like both Chinese and Mexican food, we ordered some of both.
We are going to try to be orderly and talk about the Mexican dishes first. This includes the chips, salsa, guacamole, tacos (lobster, duck tongue, beef tongue, pork belly pastor, and barbacoa), chilaquiles, and ceviche.The salsa was very spicy and the chips were crispy. The avocados had chili flakes in them and were delicious. The variety of tacos was amazing and MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mommy liked the pork belly pastor best. Popo likes all the tongue tacos.
Below is the queso fundido with chorizo. This was one of Papa’s favorites. He said he would order this again the next time we dine at China Poblano.
This is the chilaquiles. To be honest, we were a little disappointed in the chilaquiles – perhaps because everything else was so delicious. 
We had to try the fries with mole sauce. The mole sauce was delicious and this reminded us of the poutine that we had in Canada. This is what it looked like: 
We LOVED the scallop ceviche. It was presented on a bed of rocks (not edible – that’s one of Karsen’s spelling words) and you are supposed to have it with a squeeze of lime (see below). The combined taste was salty, spicy, and sour. Interesting, right?
After all that Mexican food, you would not think that we had space for Chinese food, right? Well, we did!! From the Chinese menu, we ordered sui mai, dan dan noodles, and har-gau dumplings. The sui mai was average. We got two orders of dan dan noodles. The first order was great but the second was too salty (right yi-po?). And the har gau dumplings were so-so. We were looking forward to the dumplings because they seemed like an interesting twist to the traditional har gau. Traditional har gau dumplings have only shrimp in them. These dumplings had both shrimp and pork belly. We don’t know why but these dumplings tasted just average to us.
In general, we were disappointed with the chinese food and thought the mexican dishes were much better. A real eye-opener though is that everyone can see them make their noodles fresh!! Everything else was average. Anyone can get them at any dim sum place.
Since papa so enjoyed the flan at Jaleo’s and China Poblano is managed by the same chef (Jose Andres), so papa decided to try the flan here also.
This flan tasted different than Jaleo’s, but it was SUPER DUPER CREAMY!!!!!We also ordered the coconut tapioca dessert. Tapioca desserts are among our favorite Chinese desserts.Both desserts were AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We would definitely not mind going again. It was a unique blend of two of our favorite cuisines. If you are in Vegas, you should try it!
As usual, our ratings our out of five smiley faces.
Rating: 😀 😀 😀 1/2
looks soooo good! miss you guys!
We miss you too and it is sooooo good.
Another great meal!
You kids didn’t think it was weird to eat the tongue of another animal?
It is not weird at all to eat the tongue of another animal.
It was a great meal.
Persen, Zander, and I just returned from an amazing trip to Vegas. We stayed in the Cosmoplitan hotel. Awesome view of the Vegas strip, and the Bellagio fountains from our balcony! We went with Zander to several great restaurants including China Poblano. I heard mixed reviews, so I was a little bit skeptical, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good the food was here.
1) The Unruly Monk: decent chinese noodle soup, noodles were fresh made. persen liked this, but I thought it was so so. It had a poached egg in it though that was pretty yummy.
2) Dan Dan Mien: I only had a little bit of this, but I thought this was quite well done, and again the noodles were freshly made, so that was a bonus.
3) Beijing glass noodels: another pleasant surprise, not very traditional, had a cold salad on top of it, but pretty good tasting, and even had avocado topping.
4) Rou Jia Mo: This was really good, a small chinese street sandwich filled with red braised pork, probably my favorite of the traditional chinese menu section at this restaurant.
We stayed away from the dim sum because you guys didn’t seem that impressed by it
5) Silencio! Luscious duck tongue taco topped with Lychee. The tongue was amazingly soft, and I thought the flavor was excellent.
6)Beef tongue taco, another top taco, very soft, awesome flavor, really incredible
7)The pork cochinita, and the Barbacoa beef tacos were both good, but not that different from a normal good street taco. We did think however that having the handmade fresh tortillas for all the tacos were very good. very high quality delicate delicious tortillas.
8) Viva China: Hands down the best item at China Poblano, and maybe even the best dish of my entire Vegas Trip! Soft Chinese style stewed beef tendon, sliced and put on the amazing fresh tortillas, and then topped with a raw oyster! Chef Andres is a genius for coming up with this strange combination, that shouldn’t work, but does with flying colors! The tendons were so luscious and soft, and flavorful. The oyster was small, and didn’t overpower the taco, but added an unexpected ocean flavor. If you go back, as adventurous eaters, you are required to eat this taco!
9) I agree with your Mom that the Al Pastor pork belly taco, is the bomb! Way to elevate the al pastor taco Chef Andres, by using a slab of pork belly!
10) We also enjoyed the guacamole, queso fundido, and mole fries. I though they all tasted great, but I wasn’t super blown away, as I was for the viva China.
11) For Desert, we had the mango sticky rice, but it was done in a molecular style. It had mangoes, but instead of rice, it had some liquidy essence of rice, topped with a mango granita, and then covered with some kind of foam, and then topped with puffed rice. It was pretty good.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Next time we are in Vegas, we plan to return to China Poblano – and try the Viva China. Raw oysters! How could we have missed that one!!??? Did you get anything to drink? The horchata is delicious. In fact, your comment makes us want to go back right now! How many smiley faces would you give it???
What other restaurants did you go to in Vegas? Are there any we should try next time?
Persen said, she would give it a 3.5, I would give it a 4. For drinks we had some cocktails, beer, including the salt foam margarita. We didn’t try the Horchata, but that would be a good thing to get next time!
Also, next time I would order the scallop ceviche which we didn’t have this time, and I would give their dim sum a try even though it has received mixed reviews. The ladies cooking the dim sum seemed to be taking their job very seriously, and it was a fun way to eat, to see them cooking dim sum at the same time!