Memorable | One of the Best
El Farolito
Review by: Michael Stern
El Farolito is a small place, hardly bigger than a house trailer, but for native New Mexican food, you’d be hard pressed to find a better place at a better price. Chilies rellenos, tacos, enchiladas, and green chile cheeseburgers are featured on the menu (which also offers ordinary hamburgers and hot dogs for chilephobes). The green chili is especially excellent: a luxurious stew of bite-size pieces of pork, tomato, and slivers of ultrahot green chile. Red chile is more a sauce, nothing but pureed chilies and spice; and it is used on burritos and enchiladas. But if you’d like a “bowl of red” as a meal, the Trujillos will add beef and/or beans to create a thick, powerhouse stew.
We cannot resist El Farolito’s Frito pie. Dominic Trujillo, son of founders Carmen and Dennis, told us that some customers who get their pies to go have the corn chips packed separately so they don’t get too soft by the time dinner is ready to eat. The way it normally comes from the kitchen, there is a thick layer of relatively mild-mannered red chili spread atop a foundation of corn chips, the chili garnished with melting shredded cheese, lettuce and tomato. It’s the whole food pyramid in a single bowl!
Thanks to Michelle Sullivan for tipping us off to this great find.
Directions & Hours
Information
| Price | $ |
| Seasons | All |
| Meals Served | Lunch, Dinner |
| Credit Cards Accepted | No |
| Alcohol Served | No |
| Outdoor Seating | No |
What To Eat
El Farolito Recipes
Discuss
What do you think of El Farolito?
One Response to “El Farolito”
Andrea Still
March 1st, 2008
I visited El Farolito after reading the reviews here, and going on the concurrent raves of my Realtor; it is hands down her favorite New Mexican place, especially for the green chile cheeseburger.
Kind of a letdown, though; the chiles are bland and clearly canned, and the cheeseburger is tasty but WAY too big, making the chile to cheese to burger ratio way off. The bun is pasty and doughy, heavy almost. Fries are good though. Had a tamale (I’m partial to them), but it came swimming in a weird broth and was pretty greasy.
Still, the roadside allure quotient was definitely high. Maybe it was just an off day. Could have been the time of day too, but I think they could definitely hit the “refresh” button; everything seemed tired.