7 spots for wastin’ away on margaritas in Las Vegas

Forget plain old lime on the rocks. Discover seven restaurants and bars in Las Vegas that offer unique margarita flavors.

We can’t credit the late great Jimmy Buffet with inventing the margarita, but he certainly helped popularize the drink in the U.S. In Las Vegas, you can waste away on these frozen (and non-frozen) concoctions at bars on and off the Las Vegas Strip. 

From margarita flights and a build-your-own margarita menu to a margarita that makes your tongue tingle, here are seven restaurants and bars with unique margaritas in Las Vegas.

1. Toca Madera

Crystals, 3720 S. Las Vegas Blvd.

A chic, modern Mexican cantina with bold flavors and organic ingredients Toca Modera is located inside the ritzy Crystals shopping mall. The restaurant has a curated menu of tempting margarita options ranging from fruity to spicy. Show off your classy and sassy style with the Noble Margarita topped off with jalapeño, lime, cilantro, agave, and a pour of Salers Gentiane liqueur. Or go the more traditional route with the Oaxacan Margarita, which is made with mezcal, lime, and agave.

2. Mijo Modern Mexican

Durango Casino & Resort, 6915 S. Durango Dr.

Coastally-inspired Mijo Modern Mexican inside Durango Casino & Resort is an eclectic restaurant with themed rooms, an outdoor patio, and a live DJ. When it comes to margaritas, there’s a range of choices: cool ones like the Pepino with cucumber puree and pineapple juice; hot ones like the Spicy Mango with Ancho Reyes chili liqueur, Grand Marnier, mango juice, and agave; and fruity ones with strawberry puree and apple bitters or prickly pear with orange bitters.

3. Ghost Donkey

Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd S.

The fiesta at Ghost Donkey is hidden behind a door in the upscale Block 16 Urban Food Hall at the Cosmopolitan. It’s a small but lively space with lots of drinks on the menu. Since you had the stealth to find your way past the food court to the tiny tequila bar, you deserve the Stealth Margarita, a blend of Cazadores Blanco, St. Germain, cucumber, lime and a dash of chili.

4. Chica

The Venetian, 3355 S. Las Vegas Blvd.

At Chica in Venetian’s Restaurant Row, Chef Lorena Garcias applies her globally-influenced concept to everything on the menu, including the margaritas. For its famous Chica-Rita, the Latin fusion restaurant blends flavors from Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela with pineapple, tiki bitters, Corazón reposado tequila, lime, and agave. It’s a diverse taste of the Americas.

5. Leoncito

Red Rock Resort, Casino & Spa, 11011 W Charleston Blvd.

The Modern Mexican cuisine at Leoncito is delicious, and the margaritas are a choose-your-own-adventure. You can pick your tequila or mezcal, flavor, spice level, and rim to craft the margarita of your dreams. If you’re having trouble deciding, try the margarita flight to sample a bit of everything.

6. Casa Playa

Encore Las Vegas, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd.

Casa Playa is a coastal Mexican restaurant in Encore Las Vegas with an elevated food and drink menu. Margaritas include the spicy yet refreshing Obsidian margarita, made with black sea salt, chiles, and cucumber, and the salt-rimmed frozen Forbidden Fruit margarita with mango and chamoy caramel.

7. Chandelier Bar

Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd S.

Originating at the Chandelier’s Level 1.5 bar, the Verbena margarita is an innovative margarita invented by magical mixology mistress Mariena Mercer. Though she is no longer with the Cosmopolitan, her drink continues to make people’s tongues tingle thanks to its Szechuan “buzz button” garnish–made with a natural alkaloid that reacts with the drink’s citrus, creating a fizzy flavor party in your mouth.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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