TASTE: A New Age of Mexican Cuisine

Isla’s Chef Richard Sandoval brings Mex revolution to Vegas

Max Jacobson

I often get the FT Weekend magazine for its food and drink pages, among the best in the English-language press. The Financial Times, the U.K.'s Wall Street Journal, has cutting-edge writers such as Jancis Robinson, a leading wine guru, plus incisive coverage of food trends in both Europe and the U.S.A.


So I was pleased to read about the "new Mexican cuisine" in FT, and how it is sweeping New York City. One of the featured players is Chef Richard Sandoval, who has recently opened Isla in the TI. I wasn't a bit surprised to see him written up because I've enjoyed his cooking for years, at Maya in San Francisco, and his more famous Pampano in New York City. He may not be doing the daring flavors in his new Vegas venture as he does in his other cities, but at this writing, he still is doing the most inventive, authentic Mexican cooking in Nevada.


Isla is visually impressive. Jeffrey Beers (China Grill) did the striking design, which includes a dark-wood parquet floor, a wall composed of powder-blue tiles, and a gallery of mock Mayan paintings. You enter through a narrow hallway highlighted by electric votive candles flickering in little nooks, then pass a wall of premium, 100 percent agave tequilas, which acts as a divider between the bar and dining rooms.


Wood and amber-colored chandeliers, looking for all the world like upside-down Mayan temples, light the room, and the reddish-orange banquettes are vaguely psychedelic. The overall effect recalls '60s mysticism, what the Haight-Ashbury might look like if it were to go completely yuppie.


A cool, sweet mojito, fragrant from a mess of muddled fresh mint, brought me back down to earth, and soon thereafter I was nibbling obsessively on the house chips, served with a trio of salsas housed in little dishes suspended by a wrought-iron contraption high above the chips.


Then I saw the guacamole cart, gimmicky but appealing, and I knew I had to have a helping. My choice was chipotle adobo, the smoked jalapeno chipotles and toasted pumpkin seeds turning the mashed avocado dip into a new-age dip.


You may want to start with something from the menu's Starters & Small plates. Queso fundido, a three-cheese meltdown that the kitchen serves plain, or mixes with oily chorizo or a restrained portion of roasted wild mushrooms, is a glorious hot starter, ideal for dipping more chips, or smearing up a tortilla.


Empanadas, crisp pastry flour turnovers, are a bit fussy and sweet for my taste, stuffed with a mix of shredded beef, pine nuts, dried cherries and chipotle tomato sauce. They are creative enough, but I'd still rather have a plain old quesadilla, a grilled tortilla that here is filled with chicken and a wad of cheese, then folded.


Tacos are creative too, and exemplary. My favorite is the fish taco made with adobo blackened snapper and chipotle cole sla. A nod also goes to the grilled pork al pastor, spiced barbecued pork with a bite.


Enchiladas, Tamales & Burritos is the name of another section of the menu, and features my favorite single dish at Isla, a trio of seafood tostadas topped with a mixture of marinated crab, snapper and shrimp. These are nouvelle tostadas—the beans are actually under the shell—and the plate is prettily ringed with colorful, tasty sauces, pink ancho chile mayonnaise and a green cilantro sauce.


The nice, hearty tortilla soup is overly pureed, but grilled-chicken tostada salad with a creamy avocado mayonnaise is fine, a great lunch dish.


Family Recipes from Sandoval's Kitchen brings more substantial foods to the table, such as tangy Mexican meatballs in chipotle tomato sauce, or roast pork with pipian, a sweet pumpkin seed sauce that the chef has clearly toned down for his more mainstream customers.


Meats & Fish runs to items like grilled filet mignon garnished with a cheese-filled enchilada, a scoop of guacamole and a France-meets-Mexico potato au gratin layered with mildly bitter pieces of cactus, (a hip steak Tampiquena); and a crispy red snapper with cactus salad and citrus epazote (a flavorful herb) vinaigrette.


Desserts are a mouthful as well, though most are too sweet for me to eat more than one or two bites. The churro fondue tower is hot, squiggly doughnuts with hot caramel sauce and a slew of other accompaniments; mango fever is warm mango pound cake with mango ice cream, mango sauce and Rain Forest crunch; while dulce de leche cupcakes have fluffy burnt sugar frosting and cinnamon-caramel mousse in the center.


Almost everything at Isla is good quality, imaginative fun, and a new wrinkle for a cuisine long plagued by an inferiority complex in this market. I don't know about you, but I'm damn tired of eating Mexican dishes defined by bland salsas and gooey cheeses, so maybe Sandoval will spark something on the Strip. I'd like to see his cooking get a bit funkier, but hey, one step at a time.

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