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The large lamb chops at Angelina’s Restaurant are served with pinto beans and green chile. (Don Strel/For The Journal)
If I find myself in Española and hungry, Angelina’s has long been one of my favorite places to stop for a meal. Friendly and unassuming, this family-oriented restaurant has a broad menu with a specialty in New Mexico lamb and good red chile. Owners Angelina and Fidel Gutierrez come from the Velarde area, and grew up around farming and gardens. Reflecting this tradition, the restaurant buys locally as much as possible, and the results show in the freshness of the food.
My friend and I arrived hungry, so deciding what to order provided a challenge. Everything looked good. The waitress recommended the lamb. Lamb is well represented on the menu: lamb ribs, lamb burger (regular and ranchero style with jalapeños), lamb fajitas, roast leg of lamb, ground lamb burritos and tacos. There’s even a roast lamb sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy.
Traditional New Mexican chile-based dishes take up another whole page of the menu. You also can request traditional American favorites like chicken-fried steak or liver and onions, grilled or fried fish and seafood, a T-bone, sandwiches and burgers. This menu offers something for everyone, unless you want Asian dishes or lasagna.
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Angelina’s Restaurant LOCATION: 1226 N. Railroad Ave., Española, 505-753-8543 HOURS: 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays and 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays BEER AND WINE |
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After much deliberation and some encouraging suggestions from the waitress, we tried the lamb chops. Wow. The meal consisted of three thinly sliced but large chops, a bowl of warm fresh pinto beans with green chile (we could have had red) and sopaipillas ($10.25). The lamb had us both singing its praises. Even though the cut was slim, the kitchen staff managed to keep from over cooking the meat, leaving it juicy and naturally delicious.
I’ve paid in the neighborhood of $30 for lamb chops in Santa Fe. While they may have come with fancier side dishes, the meat wasn’t as good as this. If you like lamb, Angelina’s merits a trip for this dish alone.
The carne adovada ($8.99) gets accolades too. The cubes of pork sat in a luscious red chile carribe marinade. The sauce had serious heat as good adovada warrants, so the palate-soothing refried beans and rice that accompanied it came in handy. The generous serving might leave less hungry folks with some to take home, but my friend and I wolfed it down.
We also sampled two traditional northern New Mexican meals-in-a-bowl, posole ($5.50) and chicos ($7.99). I haven’t found chicos on very many menus. The stewlike dish comes from dried corn simmered in a pork broth with spices until the kernels grow soft. Chicos have a chewy sweetness to them. They make a very different meal than the soft posole, served with red or green chile here. They make good posole here, although I prefer mine with more oregano.
Angelina’s included two sopaipillas each with our entrées. We didn’t really intend to eat all of them, but you know how it goes. They looked beautiful, golden brown and puffy as pillows, and the aroma made our mouths water. And that little squeezable container of honey sat right next to them.
One bite confirmed our suspicions that they would taste good, too – light, nongreasy, crisp on one side and softer on the other. It would have taken more will power than we had to leave them uneaten.
However, because of the sopaipillas, we did pass on dessert. We resisted even though the list included flan and ice cream, either of which would have been welcome counterbalance to the lingering spicy heat of the carne adovada.
Angelina’s children’s menu was on the other side of the table card that listed the desserts. The choices for kids include several New Mexican dishes and some standard American favorites, all priced below $5.
Angelina’s doesn’t go in much for unnecessary frills. The ambience includes posters for firewood sales and pet grooming services at the entrance. Ceramic roosters, some local art, and ristras of dried red chiles and Indian corn provide the decor in the large dining rooms. The staff wear black pants and aprons, and the workers knew many of their customers by name.
Angelina’s survives on locals, and treats them – and the visiting outsiders – well. The restaurant has a large open seating area with booths and tables in the front and another room to accommodate meetings, family reunions, parties and the like. The walkway from the back parking lot offers a fine view of the Sangre de Cristos.
