Adelita's Mexican Restaurant - Santa Fe, NM - So you sit down at Adelita's and the first thing you see on the cover of the menu is a picture of some Mexican hottie.....who, I'm assuming is Adelita in her younger days when she helped Pancho Villa invade the US during the, now infamous, 1916 "Taco Revolution". There would have been a significant loss of life had it not been for a young US soldier who was posted to "outlook" duty that night. Staring across the dark sky into Mexican Territory, the young soldier smelled the unmistakable scent of stewed carnitas and knew an invasion was about to occur. The soldier mounted his horse and galloped through town screaming "the tacos are coming - the tacos are coming". As we all know now, the tacos came, kicked ass and haven't left.Maybe the other reason the restaurant chose this picture of Adelita for the menu cover - toting her humongous-ass gun with TWO full belts of ammo - is just a reminder to those doubters, that she will not hesitate to blow your ass into Michoacan if you even THINK about asking for cheese on your taco.
So I've been to Adelita's a bunch of times because: 1) it's probably the best Mexican food I've had in New Mexico 2) it's cheap 3) the people that work there are super friendly and 4) most important, they have beer. It's a pretty small place, so plan on a long wait on the weekends, especially Sunday after about 11:00 am when the place will be packed with, uh Mexicans (mostly guys in large white cabellero cowboy hats) slurping down giant bowls of menudo, shrimp cocktails and buckets of Coronas.So, what about the tacos?
So I sit down and order the Tacos de Carne Asada and am waiting there munching on chips and sampling the three different salsas of the day and here comes this big plate with 4 tacos, some pico, limes and......sheeite! What the hell.....soup? Hmmmm, don't remember getting soup with an order of tacos here - but whatever, bring it on amigo - I'm down with a little "Sopa de Dia". The second it lands on the table and I can smell it - it's got an awesome smoky smell - and turns out to be some sort of jalapeno/bean/ham/chorizo craziness and I'll tell you what, it was awesome. I'm serious, that was the best soup I've ever had. I'm not joking - in fact I'm jones'n for a bowl of it right now. Wow, what an awesome side for a taco plate. So ya, the tacos were amazing as they always are - carne perfectly grilled with some pieces actually a bit crunchy, perfect seasoning, no gristly nasty morsels. The torts were just pretty ordinary - and I'd prefer if they double-torted the tacos, for a little secondary containment of the inevitable asada break-through. A little cilantro would have been nice too - but I had the soup, I wasn't about to start bitchin' about anything.
Taco Break Down:
Authenticity 4.5/5.0
Carne Goodness 4.5/5.0
Extra stuff 4.8/5.0
Nice People 4.3/5.0
Historical Relevance: 4.2/5.0
Price/value: 4.6/5.0
Overall Score: 4.48 delicious points
