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| - One of my favorite dining experiences in Vegas was happy hour at Café Ba-Ba-Reeba. $3 tapas and half-price sangria! The only bad side was that it was at the Fashion Show Mall. But despite its location, we would gladly trek down to the Strip occasionally for our Spanish-food fix, and we were sad when it closed up shop a few years back.
Now we've discovered Isabela's. The location is perfect: a quaint group of dining rooms overlooking the water at Desert Shores. The prices were reasonable, especially at happy hour ($5 wines and sangria, and a few $7 tapas). And the food was tasty, although nothing could compare to the meatballs at Café Ba-Ba-Reeba!
We each had a few glasses of sangria (delicious!) and split orders of the garlic chicken, carnitas mofongo, lobster roll sliders, and jamon sliders. As I said, the food was good but nothing really stood out, although I did enjoy the fried plantain chips our server brought out as a starter. The sangria was refreshing and not overly boozy. And our server was prompt and pleasant throughout. The menu was huge, but there were surprisingly few items listed on the happy hour menu. (We ordered the sliders off the regular menu, at $15 and $13, respectively, each.)
The best part of Isabela's is the location. This lovely setting would be great for a birthday party or wedding reception. It's also a great place to meet friends for happy hour, and we saw a few groups of young ladies doing just that.
I plan on returning to Isabela's to sample more of their dishes; maybe there's something great on the menu that we just didn't try. (Paella? Tostones? They have them both.) And I hope more people take advantage of this hidden gem at Desert Shores. You don't have to trek down to the Strip for a restaurant with a water view; for many of us, it's right in our own backyard! (Along with the neighboring Marché Bacchus, another great find ...)
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