Named “Best Young Chef” by Food & Wine Magazine, and working in some of the top restaurants in the country with decorated chefs and mentors, Matt Lake and his family ventured to Utah, where Matt saw the local food scene and our incredible produce as an untapped opportunity. After many trials, lessons, and even some failures, Matt successfully launched Alamexo in 2014.
The guacamole is hands-down the best in town and so is everything else here at this regional Mexican restaurant that defies its category's stereotype—Chef Matthew Lake serves fine cuisine of a quality and elegance that surprises anyone who thinks Mexican food must be cheap and heavy.
Alamexo is perhaps the most traditional Mexican restaurant you’ll find in SLC, just not necessarily in the way most Americans might perceive; Mexican cuisine being much like Chinese cuisine, one storied in centuries of rich culinary tradition, but adapted, molded and reworked to local taste buds over the decades.
The refined menu at Alamexo is a humble nod to kitchen customs that stretch back generations before the word smothered skeezily creeped into the menu dictionary.
Lake’s passion for Mexican cuisine is palpable. In Lake’s own words, “this is the only cuisine I can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner”.
Changes to portion size are often one of the easiest ways for restaurants to reduce food costs to accommodate lunch diners' smaller appetites and budgets.
"For Alamexo it was rather simple," says chef and owner Matthew Lake. "The bulk of our lunch menu is scaled-down versions of items from our dinner menu.”
One of my favorite Mexican restaurants, not just in Salt Lake City, but of any that I have ever been to, is Alamexo. Since Alamexo opened, it has been racking up awards, and SLC had really embraced this special restaurant.
I’ll have to confess that this was one of those moments in my life where I thought to myself “What the hell took you so long to eat here?” I love food and writing about food, but I love even more getting really excited about my meal, and telling others about it.
Have you ever met a chef that you would follow regardless of where their kitchen is?.That’s how I feel about Matthew Lake from Alamexo,
A lot of the inspiration comes from Mexico’s culinary center Oaxaca, so it’s true & authentic. The mastermind behind it all – Chef Matthew Lake, has worked at some big time restaurants in NYC and SF, so SLC is lucky to have him!
Alamexo – With a selection of 22 tequilas to be enjoyed on their own or in a margarita for just $1 more, Alamexo is the perfect stop for a Cinco de Mayo celebration. Then explore chef and owner Matt Lake’s Mexican masterpieces like the earthy and rich enchiladas mole poblano, goat-cheese stuffed chile rellenos espinacas or 10 ounces of seared skirt steak heaven in the carne Oaxaquena.
At Alamexo Mexican Kitchen, executive chef Matthew Lake makes tamales that are anything but routine.
Matthew Lake, chef/owner of Alamexo: “My kitchen tool I could not live without is our comal plancha flattop range. We use the range for so many things, from roasting tomatoes and chiles for salsas and warming our tortillas to cooking nearly all our proteins….”