New Restaurant Sukhumvit 14 - Los Cabos

[BackinBKK]

Was just having a quick bite at Suda on Sukhumvit 14 the other day and noticed that the Thai Restaurant that used to be in the beautiful old Thai House across from Suda is being renovated. It looks like they are opening a Mexican Restaurant with a large indoor outdoor bar. They've painted it yellow and green on the outside, putting in outdoor foutains, and expanding the patio area. Its going to be called Los Cabos Mexican Grill. Will be excited to try a new Mexican restaurant and hope that they have great food and drinks so it becomes a landmark. Easy to get to and easy to stumble home from (hopefully full on burritos and Coronas!). Anyone have any more info on this or know when they will be open????

[Garret]

I met one of the owners in a bar a few weeks past and he seemed friendly enough. From what I gathered he has a lot of experience with Mexican food. I too will give it a try. I think he said it was shooting for an Oct opening........Hope they have tamales!!!!!!!!!!

[wayfarer108]

Where is the owner from?

[Daren]

Awesome! The more the merrier!

Hopefully we get some gooood stuff!

[Daren]

Hey, could is be this guy?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Mexican-Rest...nt-t293405.html

[leftcoastguy]

The owner was the Executive Chef and former partner at Great American Rib Company - Robb Vaughn...he also opened Tequila Reef in Pattaya. He's been out of Great American for over a year working on gettting Los Cabos going. Heard he is going to feature his ribs ..as well as a lot of fresh seafood with the mexican fare. His partner is a restaurant guy from San Francisco and has run a couple of Mexican restaurant companies...went by the other day...it really is looking like it'll be a good hang..

[on-on]

The owner was the Executive Chef and former partner at Great American Rib Company - Robb Vaughn...he also opened Tequila Reef in Pattaya. He's been out of Great American for over a year working on gettting Los Cabos going. Heard he is going to feature his ribs ..as well as a lot of fresh seafood with the mexican fare. His partner is a restaurant guy from San Francisco and has run a couple of Mexican restaurant companies...went by the other day...it really is looking like it'll be a good hang..

Oh yeah, he's a nice guy - talked with him a few times over the years. That's actually good news and I wonder if that's connected to why the new dishes introduced at GARC have been less stellar over the last year or so (the latest brisket special item on the menu insert is just horrible). This should be interesting, I'll be excited to give it a shot when it opens. He's definitely got a palate for reproducing good Tex-Mex flavors with Thai ingredients at times, though who knows what kind of exact variety of Mexican menu he'll be shooting for. The reviews on Tequila Reef look pretty bad, frankly, but I've never been there.

I'll see if I can find info about a soft opening - please drop in any more info you hear too!

Edited September 18, 2009 by on-on

[Ulysses G.]

I know one of the minor owners on Tequila Reef and I've always heard that Robb Vaughn is what made it good when it first opened and is why GARC used to be so good also.

It sounds like whereever he is working is the place to go!

[wayfarer108]

Great, Mexican food for gringos

I'm skeptical of any Mexican restaurant named after a place not especially known for good Mexican cuisine, but I wish Mr. Vaughan luck. He has four respectable competitors relatively close by - Mamacita's, Tacos & Salsa, Senor Pico's and Sunrise Tacos. Soon Sukhumvit may have almost as many Mexican eateries as Italian ones

Edited September 25, 2009 by wayfarer108

[wayfarer108]

I know one of the minor owners on Tequila Reef and I've always heard that Robb Vaughn is what made it good when it first opened and is why GARC used to be so good also.

It sounds like whereever he is working is the place to go!

Until he leaves!

[on-on]

Has this opened yet? I drove by a couple of weeks ago, but it was still under construction. Looking quite nice, frankly. Any word?

[thecatman]

Has this opened yet? I drove by a couple of weeks ago, but it was still under construction. Looking quite nice, frankly. Any word?

I had a look on Tueday. Still looks like it'll be a while.

[Jingthing]

The current food at Tequila Reef is extremely horrible. I had some of the Mexican items a GARB Pattaya close to when they opened and they were OK, but not good enough to my palate to even try a second time. I personally think offering American style ribs is a bad sign for a so called Mexican restaurant. It may be a good business decision though, especially for places offering more ambiance and drinks as opposed to a focus on Mexican food.

Edited October 24, 2009 by Jingthing

[BackinBKK]

Went by a week or so back now and am told that the place will be open in late November. It looks like a fun place to hang outside and enjoy some tasty margaritas, cold coronas, and some mexican food. The owner seems to be really passionate about mexican food and I used to enjoy going to GARC sometime back. Keep us posted on the exact opening dates if anyone gets them before I do and hope to see you guys there to try it out.

[SaigonDaze]

Great, Mexican food for gringos

I'm skeptical of any Mexican restaurant named after a place not especially known for good Mexican cuisine, but I wish Mr. Vaughan luck. He has four respectable competitors relatively close by - Mamacita's, Tacos & Salsa, Senor Pico's and Sunrise Tacos. Soon Sukhumvit may have almost as many Mexican eateries as Italian ones

Senor Picos is hardly respectable. If it weren't in Rembrandt, it would have closed a long time ago.

[rgs2001uk]

If we are talking about the same place, it used to be called, bahn lek tee neung Thai restaurant.

Yes the setting was most pleasant, especially the upstairs dining on the verandah.

However, I found the food to be no better than could be had elsewhere, and the prices were through the roof

for what was offered in terms of portion size and service.

If it is the same owners now attempting to turn the house into a Mexican restaurant and charge similair prices as the previous Thai restaurant, there will be a lot of dissapointed people.

I can only wish them good luck in the quest to bring decent Mexican food to Bangkok, in the mean time T&S will do.

[getgoin]

From what I have heard it will never open due to lack of funds. Anyone? Including the OP?

[JR Texas]

The current food at Tequila Reef is extremely horrible. I had some of the Mexican items a GARB Pattaya close to when they opened and they were OK, but not good enough to my palate to even try a second time. I personally think offering American style ribs is a bad sign for a so called Mexican restaurant. It may be a good business decision though, especially for places offering more ambiance and drinks as opposed to a focus on Mexican food.

You tell it like it is Jingthing (true thing?). There are two items at TF I can eat: pork fajitas, and the LA Burrito w/pork..........the rest, well, sucks! It is supposedly derived from Baja and Calif. style "Mexican" style cooking.

All I can say is please do not mimic anything remotely similar to TF...........and we don't need a combination pork rib plus "Mexican food" place.

The easiest thing to make is good salsa/hot sauce..........TF has the worst I have ever eaten. I think the owners were likely told this 100000 times but never changed the recipe.

A Mexican restaurant should be just that: Mexican food restaurant..........no BBQ this or that........no sushi.........no Italian food.........no steak and potato.......make real Mexican food and forget the rest.

What is real Mexican food? Tex-Mex, of course!

[on-on]

From what I have heard it will never open due to lack of funds. Anyone? Including the OP?

This would be interesting. They've done a hel_l of a renovation. If it doesn't open, someone should pick that bad boy up and do something with it.

[rgs2001uk]

From what I have heard it will never open due to lack of funds. Anyone? Including the OP?

This would be interesting. They've done a hel_l of a renovation. If it doesn't open, someone should pick that bad boy up and do something with it.

This building sits on a fair old chunk of land, dont know what it would fetch on the open market, but its prime real estate.

Shudder to think how much would need to be paid in a monthly rental fee.

on-on, why dont you step up to the proverbial plate, many hungry customers await.

[on-on]

From what I have heard it will never open due to lack of funds. Anyone? Including the OP?

This would be interesting. They've done a hel_l of a renovation. If it doesn't open, someone should pick that bad boy up and do something with it.

This building sits on a fair old chunk of land, dont know what it would fetch on the open market, but its prime real estate.

Shudder to think how much would need to be paid in a monthly rental fee.

on-on, why dont you step up to the proverbial plate, many hungry customers await.

I can cook three things well personally. An old Texas family recipe involving tortillas, enchilada sauce, cheese, onions, ground beef and a fried egg. Chili. Jerk chicken.

I'm not sure that menu's going to pay the rent Probably have to sell my body to make up the difference, so basically I'll starve.

[BackinBKK]

After a few stop bys to see the progress, I was invited to come for a food tasting at the restaurant last night. There was about 15-20 people there and they had chips, salsa, guacamole, small shrimp tacos (tacquitos,?), assorted burritos, grilled chicken, pork ribs, and of course margaritas and beers. It was a very informal testing of part of the menu and to drum up a bit of goodwill prior to the soft launch, which I was told would be sometime this coming week.

The restaurant looked really great, especially as they had just installed most of their outdoor lighting which illuminates the big trees over the verandas and patio area. It looked like there were just some decor items and odds and ends that needed to be put in before they can open to the public. I will say this, I don't know of many places in the center of Bangkok where you can sit outside and enjoy this kind of atmosphere and sip margaritas and beer without going a bit far out. Should be a great place, especially for those who live/work around Sukhumvit.

The food was quite tasty. I tend to like my guacamole a bit chunky and I think Robb (the main partner/Chef) at Los Cabos must feel the same way as that was what we had. The shrimp tacquitos were very nice and a bit different than what is on offer at other mexican places around town. This is where the baja style comes in (fish tacos, shrimp tacos/tacquitos, other seafood items, etc). They also had some excellent chicken and beef burritos on offer, which again were very much to my liking. Interestingly, they did also have BBQ pork ribs and grilled chicken. The pork ribs had a semi-spicy chipotel rub on them and were served dry, with chipotle BBQ sauce on the side. Probably some of the best ribs I have had. Maybe not what you would expect at a mexican restaurant, but trust me if you order them you will be glad they are on the menu! Also, the chicken was so good. It was slowly grilled and came out perfect. They served it with some type of mole, which gave it a bit more bite if this is what you like.

We were also served margaritas, however, Robb mentioned that he had changed the recipe a bit and would be serving slightly different style than what we were drinking. I look forward to tasting the new margaritas and also hope they have a nice selection of different tequilas on hand as well.

Robb mentioned they would be soft opening in a few more days. I will certainly be back once they open and hope to make it my new home for after work drinks and Mexican food lunch/dinner in Bangkok!

Congrats Robb!

[dirtbiketrails]

I'm gonna pop by on Friday and see if I can get a beer and a burrito. With all the fixins

[on-on]

Thanks for the update BackInBKK!

[Powerband]

im really curious to see if this is going to be yet another meager offering for the sake of profit..or a genuine food lovers creation.

[BackinBKK]

From what I have tasted so far.... I think Robb the Chef really knows how to cook. Add to that his passion for and experience with Mexican food and I think this will be a really great addition to Bangkok. Went by last night and looked like they were open. Called there this afternoon and confirmed that they are open for business from here on out. Might stop by for some fajitas and margaritas this eve!

[on-on]

From what I have tasted so far.... I think Robb the Chef really knows how to cook. Add to that his passion for and experience with Mexican food and I think this will be a really great addition to Bangkok. Went by last night and looked like they were open. Called there this afternoon and confirmed that they are open for business from here on out. Might stop by for some fajitas and margaritas this eve!

Excellent - thanks for the heads up!

[sabaijai]

im really curious to see if this is going to be yet another meager offering for the sake of profit..or a genuine food lovers creation.

For the sake of longevity, let's hope it's for profit

[BackinBKK]

I agree....I wouldn't visit a restaurant or any business that is set up purely for profit more than once, but I do realize that without profit the restaurant wouldn't survive. I am sure Robb set it up because he wanted to serve a well needed niche in the market.....which hopefully translates into profit and longevity for the restaurant and lots of us customers who have found a new home for Mexican food in Bangkok.

[Ulysses G.]

Robb has a very good track record as long as he is involved with a restaurant. Let's hope that this is a keeper!