Alex De Vore
Throw that chicken and mole in the tortilla with some of that rice and beans, baby!
Way back in the beginning days of the pandemic—early fall, 2020, and during a time when we were all cautiously engaging with the world again— SFR editor Julie Ann Grimm and I made the trip to Eldorado to sample La Plancha Latin Grill. At the time, I spoke highly of its ambiance and service, though ultimately came to the conclusion that I likely wouldn’t make the drive to the restaurant on any kind of regular basis.
Now, though, I don’t have to—La Plancha (3470 Zafarano Drive, (505) 466-2060) has made a new home in San Ysidro Plaza, the very same shopping center that boasts such food and coffee businesses as Tribes Coffee House, Santa Fe Capitol Grill, Cleopatra, the Plaza Café Southside, Pizza Centro and El Milagro. Actually, as I type out all those names it occurs to me that despite the loss of the Regal movie theater in the same little strip mall, it has lots to be proud of in the food milieu—and anyway, who doesn’t love a good redemption story?
By way of a little mea culpa, I must first address my experience at the original La Plancha. I ordered grilled salmon and, in retrospect, might have gone for something a little more specific to the La Plancha vibe. As I’ve looked into the restaurant’s owner/chef Juan Carlos Pineda, who runs the business as a family affair, it has become clear I should have ordered something from the restaurant’s Mexican/New Mexican/Central American selections rather than a piece of grilled fish. And now that I’ve re-sampled what Pineda has to offer, too, I’m here to say it: La Plancha is excellent, especially since its new convenient location is the very definition of a perk.
And we arrived almost by accident during an afternoon where the only directive was, “I bet if we head that way we’ll find something good.” Though La Plancha’s new location is what one might call minimalist in its brightly painted interior, it’s a clean space with a friendly staff waiting to make diners feel like they matter. I’m growing less accustomed to people seeming excited to see me, but without dipping into that faux and impersonal saccharine politeness that plagues many a restaurant worker, our server was friendly and attentive and, more importantly, spoke to me and my dining companion like we were regular human people.
As we munched chips and guac that came in one of those underrated tortilla chip ramekins ($8.50), selecting from the menu proved challenging. Chef Pineda has crafted a rather enticing range of dishes consisting of familiar things like salads, huevos rancheros, tamales (in both local and Central American style), enchiladas, burritos and so on. But he’s also known for trying out weekly specials and crafting unique items from familiar ingredients. In the end, my companion opted for the always-available vegetarian tacos ($13.50) and I for the chicken mole lunch dish ($14.50). In both cases, our plates came with black beans (refried for the taco plate, whole for the mole) and Pineda’s signature green rice—a deliciously bright combination of rice, spinach, green onion and cilantro.
The tacos were, frankly, stunning, both in scope and presentation. Served as a trio, the veggie version came packed with spinach, mushroom, corn and tomato, all of which are grilled to near-perfection with the slightest hint of char on their respective exteriors. The two sides of salsa—a traditional red and a creamy green with hints of onion—altered the profiles of the tacos wonderfully, from the crisp bite of the red to the cool and complex green that slowly unfurled on the tongue with evolving notes. Had I not experienced one of the most delectable examples of mole I’ve ever found in Santa Fe, I might have been jealous of those tacos, but hear and believe me about Pineda’s mole chops—they should be legendary around here.
I’ve often found mole a deceptively simple bit of sauce wizardry. Too earthy and you miss out on nuance; too much sweetness can overpower the entire dish. In Pineda’s hands and served atop grilled chicken, the expertise was unmistakable. It took all I had, in fact, to not grab the chicken breast in my hands and ravenously devour it, but the three soft corn tortillas that came with the meal (served steaming hot, wrapped in foil) gave me the option to craft my own chicken mole mini-tacos. And as I shoveled my side of green rice and whole black beans into the tortilla along with a healthy smattering of that deep, red mole, I knew I’d found the type of restaurant one recommends to friends for years to come.
We capped the meal with a shared slice of tres leches cake ($7.50), which sadly lacked any notable elements. If I had one piece of advice for any would-be La Plancha patrons out there, it’s to skip dessert and focus more on the entrees. I’ve already crafted a game plan for a future visit, one where I’m ready to receive chef Pineda’s gifts more readily. In other words, if this is what this guy does with mole, what the hell else have I been missing over there? I’ma find out.
