San Luis Restaurant

If there is one thing we have discovered since moving to Omaha, its that 24th street has amazing Mexican food. We wanted to try a new place near 24th street, so we ended up going to a place called San Luis Restaurant. We always take it as a good sign when we go to a Mexican restaurant and most of the customers are Hispanic, and San Luis certainly did not disappoint.

Our experience at San Luis started with a basket of homemade chips, which were thick and reminded me of pita chips, as well as a squirt bottle of orange salsa. The salsa was very flavorful and delicious, our only concern was that we did not have a dish to put the salsa in, so each time we tried to squeeze some on a chip, a chunk of tomato would come out and make the salsa spray in all different directions, making a complete mess. This salsa was good enough to just squeeze straight into your mouth... if you are feeling very uncivilized. 

Similar to our visit at Taco Peligro, we decided to try a variety of items to see how they compared. We ordered a $3 appetizer of Chicherones y cueritas, which is basically a large fried pork skin covered in what appeared to be boiled pork rind with lettuce, tomato, avocado slices, and a sour cream sauce. The fried pork skin was flavorless and crispy, and the pork rind was tender and cold, but a little too slimy for my liking. While this dish was not completely awful, it was definitely something we will not order again. 

For our meal, we ordered four items to share: An al pastor sope, a carne asada huarache, a milaneza torta, and a cheese gordita. The al pastor in the sope was absolutely phenomenal with the perfect amount of seasoning and incredibly delicious pork.

The huarache had moist and delicious carne asada, and was basically a really big sope, as the toppings were the same as the sope, with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and cheese. 

The torta was full of milaneza beef. Milaneza is very similar to chicken fried steak with a saltine cracker breading. There was also tomato and lettuce on the torta. This sandwich was very flavorful, but did not compare in flavor to the sope or huarache. 

When we were placing our order, we asked the server which gordita she would recommend and she told us to order the cheese & peppers gordita. Taking her advice, we ordered it, and were incredibly disappointed. The tortilla "crust" was bland and flavorless, and the cheese was mild and pretty flavorless as well. The peppers were the only added flavor in this dish, and they were all clumped together in the middle, creating an overpowering amount of flavor in one single bite. This picture makes the gordita look as appetizing as it actually was:

Overall, the salsa, sope, and huaracha made this experience worth a second visit, and after seeing what the customers around us were ordering, I think we know what we will get next time (the Mega San Luis, basically a giant plate full of pasta, shrimp, veggies, meat of all types, guacamole, etc). Also, one of the best things about this restaurant was that our entire meal, including tip, was under $20. We will definitely be returning, but next time, we will ask for a dish for salsa, and will order the Mega San Luis!