Picture a date-night emergency: You want Mexican, but your partner wants Chinese. With a set of parallel menus, new Palm Desert import Bobby Mao’s Chinese Kitchen and Mexican Cantina is set to please a variety of palates.
Despite being divided by cuisine, there’s a welcome culinary drift from a variety of food cultures. The Chinese menu includes crispy wonton tacos or soft tacos ($15), with the fillings-—Szechuan chicken, Mongolian beef, moo shu pork-—being more traditionally Asian. One of Mao’s House Special’s is a rice gnocchi ($20), a twist on an Italian favorite. Lo mein noodles ($13-$16) share the menu with Asian sliders ($8-$15), Thai chicken salad ($15) and Hunan shrimp ($20). The Mexican menu focuses more on traditional classics: tacos, flautas, flaming fajitas, burritos and enchiladas, along with a variety of meat and seafood entrees.
Bobby Mao’s arrives at the Galleria at Sunset after a recent expansion aimed at making the mall something of a culinary destination. The resulting, unofficial restaurant row now features a series of new-to-Las Vegas spots: Gen Korean BBQ, World of Beer and Bravo! Cucina Italiana, plus soon-to-open Brazilian steakhouse Rodizio Grill. Galleria spokesperson Jamie Cooper says, “Guests can come every day of the week and try a different cuisine.”
Bobby Mao's Chinese Kitchen & Mexican Cantina Galleria at Sunset, 1300 W. Sunset Road, 702-547-6649. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
