Border Grill has been the consensus pick as our city’s top Mexican restaurant for years, at least half as long as celebrity chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger have operated the large and popular location at Mandalay Bay.

But with their weeks-old, second Border Grill on the Las Vegas Strip—on the first floor of the Forum Shops at Caesars—the famous duo and their talented team are showing this reliable favorite is also our most versatile and dynamic Mexican restaurant.

The new Border is smaller and more sleek than the sprawling, colorful two-story Mandalay location. Taking up the space formerly occupied by P.J. Clarke’s, it maintains the indoor “patio” area and adds a handsome, somewhat cantina-fied bar and lounge, a ceviche bar, a more serene dining room with lots of booths and a private dining room with its own bar. Rusted steel, orange tiles, purple light fixtures and woodcarvings create a more intimate vibe than the original.

Border classics like fresh guacamole, green corn tamales, plantain empanadas, and achiote-rubbed pork shoulder braised in banana leaves ($24) remain on this menu, but there are just as many new dishes as familiar ones.

You must begin with an extensive tour of that ceviche bar’s offerings. The traditional Peruvian ceviche ($14) or Border’s own baja ceviche ($15) are worthy, but more experimental dishes come with mind-blowing results. The Caribbean carpaccio ($16) decorates raw slices of a rotating fresh catch in a coconut chile broth with celery leaves, red onion and crispy fried shoestring yams. The smoked mussel ceviche ($16) is astounding, an unexpected combination of sweetness, fresh vegetable crunch from golden beets and jicama, and rich briny brilliance in the form of cold-smoked Prince Edward Island mussels.

But the single unmissable bite is the agua chile verde ($22)—a neat, sweet stack of calamari and Alaskan king crab with avocado and mango swimming in a razor-sharp, cool-yet-hot cucumber serrano broth. This finely curated take on a traditional street dish displays the chefs’ dedication to their craft.

The ceviches are worth a trip on their own, but other new stuff includes: crispy ribeye-topped sopes with pepper relish; spicy lamb albondigas meatballs ($17) with yogurt and chimichurri; hibiscus-glazed duck breast ($36) with two stunning sauces, marcona almond mole and a creamy carrot puree; and the versatile, creamy-spicy black bean and corn esquite salad.

Some dishes tweak Mexican recipes and others head in exciting new directions entirely, lead by executive chef Chris Keating. You can share a selection of small plates, appetizers and ceviches with your group, or you can course out a meal with salad, entree, and vegetable sides, or you can order a bunch of tacos and get down to business. No matter what kind of experience you’d like to create, Keating and his crew have all bases covered.

Border Grill has been such a steady stalwart for so long—almost 15 years in Las Vegas—it’d be natural to overlook this second spot and assume it’ll be more of the same at Caesars. But it’s a fresh, different experience, deserving of renewed attention.

Border Grill Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-854-6700. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 11 a.m.-midnight.