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Last night, I met up for dinner with two other local Phoenix food bloggers, Seth Chadwick (Phoenix Feast) and JK Grence (What The Jester Had For Dinner) at Los Sombreros in Scottsdale. Mario from I am Jack's Brain was supposed to join us too, but was unfortunately unable to make it. I had never met Seth or JK before, but have read their blogs and thought it would be fun to get together and chat about food.

I've been to Los Sombreros several times before as it's one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. One of the reasons I like it so much is because it's not the typical tacos, burritos, and combo plates smothered in cheese. The food at Los Sombreros exposes you to many of the flavors of Mexico that you just don't get at your local taco stand our burrito shop, let alone the mass of corporate Mexican chains that seem to be everywhere these days.

I got to the restaurant about 15 minutes early. I wasn't sure how traffic was going to be, so I left a bit early. Good thing as when I arrived, the place was packed and the wait for a table was going to be about 40 minutes. I bellied up to the bar and ordered a margarita - rocks with salt to sip while I waited for the other guys. Since I had never met them before, I had no real idea what they looked like other than a general description of Seth from an email. Luckily, the description was enough as we were pretty quick to recognize each other when he arrived. Seth and JK already knew each other, so we didn't have to repeat the whole exercise when JK arrived a few minutes later. Within another ten minutes or so, we were ready to be seated.

I normally order the guacamole at Los Sombreros as it's about as fresh as it gets and bursting with the flavors of avocado, cilantro and lime. I didn't order it on this visit, though, as I planned to have dessert and I knew there was no way I would be able to do an appetizer, entree and dessert.

While we looked over the menu, our waitress brought out a basket of chips with two salsas. One was a chipotle, and the other was your standard variety. Both are made fresh at the restaurant. I particularly liked the chipotle as it had a nice smokey quality.

Both JK and I went straight for the entrees while Seth ordered a jicama and orange salad to start. I had a taste of his salad, and it was really nice. The jicama was cut in french fry-sized pieces and had a nice chili-lime dressing. I can definitely see myself ordering the salad on a future visit.

I had a hard time deciding between the lamb adobo and the Guajillo short ribs. Since I had ordered the lamb adobo in the past, I decided to go with the short ribs this time. They were prepared by braising them in Negro Modelo and served with a red chili sauce. All entrees come with home made tortillas, and a choice of black beans, refried beans, rice, and seasonal vegetables. You get to pick two, so I chose the black beans and vegetables.

The short ribs were huge. There were actually two ribs in my serving, making me wonder whether or not I'd be able to finish them. The meat was very tender and flavorful. The red chili sauce was mild and well balanced against the meat. My only complaint about the ribs was that there was a little too much fat. It wasn't a big deal to cut around, but I would have preferred they been trimmed a bit more.

For dessert, all three of us ordered the daily special - pumpkin seed praline ice cream. I've had their flan and their chocolate tamales before, both excellent desserts, so I figured the ice cream sounded interesting enough. When the ice cream was brought out, I was pretty excited. It looked really good. Unfortunately, there was way too much praline in the mix, and the majority of it was slightly burned. Seth and JK had the same issue with theirs. It's unfortunate because the few bites that didn't have too much praline were really good. If it sounds like I'm making excuses for Los Sombreros, I'm not. Just about everything they do, they do well. I've been there enough times now that there are the occasional execution issues (like the ice cream), but on a whole, it's an excellent Mexican restaurant that shouldn't be missed.

I really enjoyed meeting Seth and JK, and chatting about food for two hours while we had some of the best Mexican food Arizona has to offer. I'm sure this won't be our last get together...