New Mexican cuisine has influences of Mexican, Spanish, Native and American cultures. Sounded promising. It is also known for its use of New Mexican chili peppers – red and green. I was excited about our first meal in this state, and was hoping is would be as delicious as Texas, where the local Tex-Mex cuisine also had similar influences.
Mary and Tito’s serves authentic New Mexican cuisine, and has been around since 1963.
The place was charming in a local kind of way. Here was part of the the menu.
We asked the server and she recommended the Adovada, something we would see over and over again on menus throughout Albuquerque. Its basically pork, slow cooked over low heat. Our server recommended the Adovada Enchiladas and taquitos. The meal started with some complimentary chips and salsa:
The salsa was fresh and spicy, and the chips were warm and fresh. Next the main dishes.
Since I was excited to try the chili in this state, I got red and green. I was expecting an explosion of flavors. Sadly, everything was not as expected. The enchilada was not how I expected it to be which is fine with me. I prefer dishes served the way locals have them, as long as the taste is there…but it wasn’t (by the way, they give you tortillas on the side so you can wrap whats on your plate). The chili was hot but lacked any sort of interesting flavors. The meat was soft and falling apart, which is good, but the whole dish lacked seasoning and flavors. This would be a recurring theme in other New Mexican restaurants we ate at. We did have some very good meals in New Mexico which I will post about in the future, including a place which had amazing green chili.
Overall, the service was good, and I am still glad we went to an authentic local place for our first meal. Sadly, I would not return. Its not terrible, but its not outstanding either.