Los Agaves Offers Great Food In An Authentic Mexican Atmosphere
Los Agaves Mexican Restaurant is part of a family of three authentic Mexican restaurants in Palm Beach County: Los Agaves in Royal Palm Beach, Casa Tequila Mexican Cuisine in Wellington and Rancho Chico Mexican Restaurant in Jupiter.
Fernando Morales Chapman, the managing partner, said the signature dish at Los Agaves is El Patron. There are three options with El Patron, either New York skirt steak, grilled carne asada or pollo asada, along with rice and beans, and shrimp al mojo de ajo. The most popular version is with the steak.
“It’s our main dish. It’s the favorite one of everyone,” Chapman said. “It’s skirt steak with rice and beans, we get grilled shrimp with garlic, and we put onions and peppers underneath as a bed. People love it because it’s really good.”
The menu features traditional Mexican food. Salvador Gutierrez, the restaurant’s owner, created El Patron, and it has been a favorite ever since, Chapman added.
The dishes are 13 inches at the restaurant, which offers generous portions. Fajitas — there are multiple types: chicken, steak, shrimp, vegetarian and chicken with steak — are also restaurant favorites.
Los Agaves, and its sister restaurants, are all family owned and operated. Gutierrez is Chapman’s brother-in-law. Several cousins work at Los Agaves, and Chapman’s wife is another manager. Overall, there are 10 restaurants in the company chain.
The extensive menu features appetizers such as ceviche de camaron, taquitos, quesadillas, queso dip and more, and those can be followed with warm, hearty soups such as the sopa de mariscos (seafood soup) and tortilla soup.
Salads, with shrimp, chicken, tacos and more, offer a lighter meal. Seafood dishes, such as the seafood chimichanga, camarones con tocino and arroz con camarones, offer a fresh taste of the sea. Fajitas and meals such as the asada y mas, carnitas mixtas, brochetas and pork carnitas, offer hearty meals to satisfy any appetite. Burritos are available with chicken, vegetables, beef, picadillo or pork, as are chicken and meat dishes like the chicken mole, tacos al carbon, chile verde and pollo chipotle.
The menu offers authentic recipes that have been adapted from spicy Mexican flavors to be gentler to the American palate, Chapman said. However, all of the items on the menu can be customized to any level of desired spiciness. The only truly spicy item is the camarones a la diabla, shrimp that is sautéed in butter with mushrooms and garlic in a spicy sauce.
When looking around Los Agaves, the colorful, friendly atmosphere jumps out as unique and interesting. There are colorful, hand-carved and painted wooden chairs made in Mexico in the middle of the restaurant. “There’s no chair that is alike,” Chapman said. “They’re all different.”
On a trip to Mexico, the owners found a street artist with hand-painted and hand-carved chairs. They placed a large order for the chairs with the Mexican artist to outfit many of the restaurants and brought them to the U.S. to decorate and add a colorful flair. “Most of our decoration is from Mexico,” Chapman said.
The wooden booths, the barstools, the chairs, the chandeliers and other accessories are brought in from Mexico. “We try to incorporate all of the real colors,” he said.
The restaurant is decorated like a traditional indoor/outdoor restaurant, with seating, a cantina and separate areas.
“The idea was to recreate that, with a United States version,” Chapman said. “It has an authentic look. It really makes you feel like you’re in Mexico. If you’ve ever been to Mexico, those little family-owned hometown restaurants, they’ll be something like this.”
The biggest difference, Chapman said, is that everything is under a roof, and, of course, there’s air conditioning.
A full bar, modeled like a Mexican cantina, offers a wide variety of drinks to accompany any of Los Agaves’ meals, or for gatherings of friends. The house margarita and classic margaritas are well-known, Chapman said.
The best way to end a meal at Los Agaves, he added, is with one of the sweet desserts such as fried ice cream, traditional flan, churros, and, Chapman’s favorite, the cheesecake chimichanga — creamy cheesecake put into a special tortilla, rolled and deep fried, then cut in the middle and topped with whipped cream. There are often requests for large flan orders for parties and special events.
Los Agaves also features a children’s menu. The restaurant offers takeout, private parties and reservations for up to 10 people. There’s a happy hour every day from 3 to 7 p.m. Every Thursday night, there’s live music.
Los Agaves Mexican Restaurant is located in the Village Royale shopping plaza at 1179 Royal Palm Beach Blvd. The restaurant is open every day from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information, call (561) 798-1229 or visit www.losagavesfl.com.
