In this YouTube episode, hosts Josh and Rachael Fillbrandt revisit Javier's in Las Vegas after a three‑year filming break. They walk viewers through the restaurant’s layout, highlight the high‑priced but highly praised margarita menu (pineapple, cucumber, cucumber‑jalapeño), and sample a range of dishes including shrimp empanadas, ahi tuna ceviche, chicken mole enchiladas, and a three‑sauce seafood enchilada trio (shrimp, lobster, crab). Throughout the tasting they comment on portion sizes, flavor balance, and the freshness of ingredients, noting that the mole sauce remains a standout. They discuss menu pricing trends, pointing out increases from $80 to $120 for premium items, and compare Javier's to newer upscale Mexican spots like Viva, Casa Playa, Amaya, and Choco Madera. The hosts also describe the difficulty of securing a reservation (only a day‑in‑advance for lunch) and the long line they encountered despite having a reservation. Concluding, they reaffirm Javier's consistency over five years, recommend the margaritas, mole enchiladas, and ceviche, and encourage viewers to like, subscribe, and follow them on social media.
Chapters
Hey everybody, I'm Josh.
And I'm Rachael.
And over the past 5 years, we have brought you to almost 200 restaurants, and one of them started with Javier's, and we've been back many times but haven't filmed for 3 years.
That's right. We love their margaritas and their mole.
So today we're gonna bring you along and show you what keeps bringing us back, some new ones and old favorites.
Let's go.
All right, we got a nice little booth over here right at the entrance.
Right at the bar area.
And then we get that bar area, which is awesome. Oh, you're good. And margaritas are definitely one of the things that we always want to come here for. They're expensive.
They are expensive, but they're worth it.
Yeah, they're some of the best margaritas we've ever had.
Yeah.
Definitely like the cucumber and the pineapple, and we'll probably have a few. How's the salsa?
It has a kick.
Yes.
Yeah.
So they do give chips and salsa, but last time I remember it was super hot.
I wouldn't say super hot, but it definitely leaves a burn. It's warm.
All right, and looking at our menu, you can see the prices start around $20 for appetizers, upwards of $50+. Salads are $16 to $36. There are enchiladas we feel are one of the biggest things that you should look for, and you can see they're around $50 for the seafood ones. Over here you do have some meat pushing $60 to $90, it looks like.
Oh, there's $121 at the bottom.
Yeah, well, there's $120, but that one, we got that 5 years ago.
Yeah.
And it was $80. So if you want to talk about prices increasing, there you go. And then there's some combo plates and some other dishes looking around $30 to $50 each, and sides are $6 to $15. All right, our drinks are here and they are beautiful looking. They actually are bigger than I remember. Yeah, they are. In my brain, I told myself they were super tiny, but those are good-sized.
They are good-sized.
So you can see I went with a pineapple with some Tajín.
I went with cucumber with salt. Thank you.
And our order is placed. Drinks are here.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Oh man, that's just as good as I remember.
Yes. Oh, that's delicious. One of the big keys for me is that this is not canned pineapple. Fresh pineapple, as it should be.
But— Same with this. It's fresh cucumber and it's so refreshing. I love it.
I love it too. And I don't know what's going on with these ropes, but I love this view. This is one dish that we have always gotten.
Always.
Even when we're not filming, we just sit at the bar and get some shrimp empanadas.
Yeah. Oh, and by the way, um, this goes down way too smooth.
Yes, I love the cucumber. The pineapple is great if you like sweet and then get a little bit of heat.
Yeah.
But cucumber I think is my favorite out of round 1. But you can see these are your empanadas and then This is our first time trying it, I think. Yes, the ahi tuna ceviche. That is so beautiful. Should I stir it up?
Yeah. I mean, I don't want to break it up, but it is pretty.
It's still pretty even after you break it up.
That red of that tuna is just beautiful.
So good looking.
He took our chips, but I hope he's just refilling the basket.
I bet he's just refilling.
Okay.
Because we did just get more salsa and we'll have more chips.
Yeah.
Let's eat this. Shrimp empanada.
Oh, they're so hot. They cut them in half. That's pretty cool.
It is really nice. Yeah, so this is a dish, like I said, we get this all the time. Even when we just sit in the back of the bar, get drinks and these.
I love it because the empanada dough is not too thick. It's nice, crispy, it's warm, and it's shrimp chunks. It's not like ground shrimp. It's not— it's, it's chunks of shrimp in there. And the crema and the avocado is so tasty in there. It's just so cheesy and fresh. Oh, and the cheese. Yeah, it— I love I love these for a warm side dish. I mean, warm appetizer.
All right, just to make it easy, I'm just pulling the dish over to me.
It's so pretty. I cannot believe how pretty that is.
How beautiful these cubes are. Like, there's some good knife work going on. You can see some avocado, some cilantro, some red onion.
But it doesn't look inundated with cilantro.
No, thank goodness. Yeah, some black sesame on there.
I love the fact that any Mexican restaurant that'll bring you chips and salsa is like refillable is like my downfall. Right? So for this with the ceviche, how is it?
Yes, I think this is gonna be the best bite. Now that tuna is super fresh. I don't, I don't know how to describe tuna other than super fresh, nice, cold, delicious.
Oh, I can't wait.
I think we probably found a new favorite.
Oh, good.
This is so good. Everything came out, uh, pretty quick.
They did. I'm gonna say Josh said this might be our new favorite. It would be a new cold favorite. You cannot beat these as a hot appetizer.
Correction, yeah.
Yeah.
A new favorite.
Yes.
Not the new favorite.
Right. I mean, like, you want a cold appetizer? You want a hot appetizer?
Yes.
Most definitely. But I went with the enchiladas poblanas, chicken mole enchiladas. I am a sucker for good chicken mole. I've said for since we started coming to Javier's that this is my favorite mole ever.
Yep.
So let's see if it stands up.
This was the dish that kept bringing us back.
100%. It has been very consistent throughout the years.
While Rachael's taking that bite, I do want to mention, I feel like Javier's almost doesn't get as much credit anymore. And it's a little bit because there's been a lot of new places that come up that are kind of following the Javier's style. When you look at Viva, Casa Playa, Amaya, and Choco Madera, all of them very similar. Like they're the almost like gourmet Mexican, high-end, nice margaritas, club feel.
It's consistent from the time we came here, what, 5 years ago to today. That is one of the best mole sauces I've ever tasted. The chicken is nice and tender. It's not dry. I will tell you, we've had the mole dish or the chicken mole entree.
It was like a chicken thigh.
Yeah, I prefer this. Yes, as enchiladas, much better. It will be my last bite of the night because— or the day— because it is my favorite, hands down. It is so good.
All right, my turn. And like we said in the beginning, enchiladas margaritas. Those are kind of our thing here. I went with the trio, which is a seafood trio. This has shrimp in this very first one. You can see there's 3 different sauces too.
I was going to say, I like the fact that there's 3 different sauces.
A little bit more heat than I was expecting from it.
Really?
That's good. It's a nice fresh— it's baby shrimp. It's not like giant chunks of it.
Okay.
Not like what you're getting in the empanadas.
Yeah, that empanada has some big chunks of shrimp in it.
Then right here in the middle, I'm going to try In the green sauce is the lobster one, but I think it's really good. And I think the nice thing is it's only one.
Yeah, that might— that would probably save on the richness.
Yeah, and that one actually has more heat than I was expecting. So we'll see as I move along. Yeah, there's more spice. And that, you know, I know I had mentioned it earlier, their salsa here is hot.
It is hot.
If you're not into hot salsa, I don't think you're gonna eat as much as us. We got a second bowl here.
Yeah, I love it.
And then the last one is a crab one.
Now their enchiladas It just came out as enchiladas, so we did order rice as a side appetizer or a side dish with it. Good Spanish rice?
It tastes like Spanish rice.
Okay.
Luckily it's only $6.
Yeah.
Which a lot of side dishes in these high-end restaurants are pushing $10 to $20.
Yeah.
But I think it's good. I love it, and we have a ton of food to eat now.
Do you have a favorite of the 3 you just tried?
Um, right now I'd say lobster.
Really? Okay.
I like it's got a little bit more texture and it's got a little bit more heat. All right, that was a fantastic meal. I'm so glad we went back and we did a full meal this time.
I am too, and I'm glad we re-recorded it because we keep— yeah, we keep recommending Javier's to every— anybody who asks about best Mexican. And I will tell you, the enchiladas and margaritas and empanadas and now ceviche, yes, are worth the recommendation in gold.
Yes, I, I love it. I feel like a lot of times it doesn't get as much credit as it probably deserves because there's a lot of new places that keep popping up and people keep promoting those ones. But it's good. It's been around for a while. There's a reason for it. Yeah, it is pricey.
The line at 11:30 blew my mind because we got reservations. You can only do reservations like a day in advance for lunch. Yeah, and we had them yesterday and I thought no big deal. That line was crazy.
Yeah, I'm glad we got them. And also, you don't need the rice.
No, don't get the rice.
I don't know what I was thinking. I was like, oh, suddenly I need a plate of rice and We don't eat rice.
Yeah, like Spanish rice normally, so it's funny, but that's okay.
All right, on that note— oh, we did get a second round of drinks also.
Oh yeah, and we asked if you could do a cucumber jalapeño and they did, which is exactly what we want.
Perfect, a mix of spice and some freshness. What was your favorite bite?
Oh, chicken mole enchiladas, hands down my favorite. Yours?
You know, I loved everything but the rice. Because we didn't need the rice. It's so hard to pick, honestly. I, I will say, out of the seafood trio, the lobster was definitely the best.
The lobster was really good.
Yeah, there was just a lot more flavor to it, a lot more texture to it. So I mean, I'm not gonna say that was my favorite, but I definitely think you should check it out.
What was your favorite margarita?
The last one, which is cucumber and jalapeño.
Yeah, 2 of our favorites.
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