Tomasita’s serves New Mexican food in Santa Fe as well as Albuquerque.   Named for Tomasita Leyba, the original cook at the place and whose recipes are still served 40 years later.  It started as a small café on Hickox Street in 1974 when Georgia Maryol took over the dying restaurant. Together they built a customer base that outgrew the space and in 1979 it moved to the 100-year old red brick building in the Santa Fe Railyard.  Georgia’s son now owns the restaurant and opened a branch in Albuquerque in 2017.  The railyard location was a large place with rooms scattered around set with bare wooden tables and chairs and a patio.  Music was in the background, there was a large adjacent parking lot, art decorated the walls and statues were on the patio.  Chips and salsa are not included in the meal.  The service was super friendly and efficient but the food was mixed.

Set-Up

Food

They offer a number of margarita configurations and we tried the Skinny Silver Coin which contained Herradura Silver tequila, Cointreau and house-made sweet and sour.  For an extra dollar, you could have it made with 100% fresh squeezed lime juice which we did.  They offered a sugar or salt-coated rim.  We chose salt.  It was a mild margarita and was still too sweet to want more than one.

The Carne Adovada was one of the most popular plates according to our server.  It was chunks of pork that were marinated and slow braised in a spicy red chile sauce.  It was then covered with cheese and served with Spanish rice and pinto beans.  The pieces of pork really varied in their toughness and dryness and most were a tad dry.  The rice was also dry and dull.  The pinto beans were fine and also had some cheese on them.  The red sauce, which they are known for, was only okay.  It did not have the spiciness or depth of flavor I was expecting.

The Enchiladas are served flat with onions, pinto beans, Spanish rice and your choice of chile (red or green).  The basic ones are just cheese but you can pay to add meat.  We did not but did order it “Christmas style” which means there are both sauces on the plate.  Here the green sauce had a much better spark and flavor with the tender tortillas.  The red sauce was the same as in the other dish but it seemed a bit better with the enchiladas. The rice and beans were the same.

Each New Mexican entree includes a sopaipilla served with honey butter and New Mexico raw honey was on the table.  These were 3 puffy, hot, air-filled pieces of pastry.  They were good alone and even better with a bit of the honey butter but I also liked them with some of the honey poured on them.  A nice dessert that redeemed the meal.