Take a culinary trip to Mexico at Akron's new Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant | Local Flavor
There's something about spring and the hint of the warmer weather ahead that makes me wistful for the tropics.
And since hopping on a plane at the Akron-Canton Airport isn't exactly in the cards right now, a trip to a fun restaurant can be the next best, and more affordable, thing.
This bout of spring fever presented the perfect opportunity to try out the Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant that opened about a month ago on West Exchange Street in Akron.
The restaurant took over the space formerly occupied by the El Rancho Mexican Restaurant, and before that, Yocono's Italian Restaurant in Akron's Wallhaven neighborhood.
This was my first visit ever to the restaurant, so I'm not sure what, if any, changes were made in the latest reboot.
The dining rooms were clean and had a few festive decorations, including some colorful geckos − thankfully fake − climbing up the wall by our table.
I'm also not an aficionado when it comes to Mexican food, aside from the rare trips to Chi-Chi's when I was a kid and the occasional late-night trips to Taco Bell.
I did, however, take three years of Spanish cien años (translation: 100 years) ago in high school.
But then again, I'm also the same guy who walked into a women's restroom in the Mexico Pavilion at EPCOT because the sign was in Spanish and, quite frankly, I'm a moron.
It didn't take long for Los Cabos to win us over.
My wife, Jennifer (who, by the way, has never confused a restroom sign), and I had barely picked up our menus before the wait staff was bringing out a bowl of warm tortilla chips and salsa to our table.
I don't know if it was the festive music or if I was feeling like I was on vacation in Mexico or in a bygone Chi-Chi's in Orlando, but we decided to throw caution to the wind and order a flight of margaritas.
The flight of three margaritas cost $10 and the samplings were more than generous.
We opted to forego the lime flavor and instead picked strawberry, raspberry and mango to sample.
They were frozen and delicious, but we did have trouble distinguishing the strawberry from the raspberry.
And we even guessed wrong and had to be corrected by our all-too-polite server.
Our visit was during lunch, so we ordered off that menu.
There were a lot of choices to choose from − for Jennifer, at least.
I'm a creature of habit, and I knew exactly what I was going to order.
Jennifer went for the carne asada burrito bowl ($12) that came with a mix of greens, black beans, avocado, corn, white rice, pico and sour cream.
She loved every bite.
There was nary a scrap left to bring home.
I was intrigued by the six street tacos featured on the lunch menu ($11 to $12) but I stayed the course and ordered my usual.
Just like the music and warm chips and salsa that can transport you to another place, so does an order of hot, sizzling steak fajitas ($13).
If I closed my eyes for minute, the smell of the delicious plate of steak and grilled onions and peppers at Los Cabos took me to a tropical paradise, or a Chi-Chi's circa 1982.
But the sound of the sizzling yumminess in this instance was pretty satisfying and tummy-filling at Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant in good ol' Akron, Ohio.
Olé!
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Culinary trip to Mexico at Akron's new Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant
