Pasqual's

121 Don Gaspar Ave, Santa Fe, NM - (505) 983-9340

Overview Reviews(3) Rate Restaurant Upload Photos Bookmark Email

Posted By Michael Stern on 1/22/2003 5:17:00 AM

Pasqual’s is a modest corner café with spectacularly good food. It serves three meals a day, and we love its squash and red onion enchiladas as well as the chicken mole and truly excellent “Ranch Burger” served with garlic fries; but the best time to come is breakfast. The whole wheat pancakes are large but featherweight, served with real maple syrup. French toast is made from house-baked honey whole-wheat bread. Granola is world-class, and the five-grain hot cereal with butter and syrup is impossible to resist. For those who want something really exotic, there is a tamale dulce, wrapped in banana leaves and garnished with Mexican hot chocolate. Or how about fried blue and yellow cornmeal mush?

There is no more wonderful corned beef hash than the one served here. Good-size nuggets of zesty brisket, some of them velvet tender others crunchy, are scattered with scallions over a plate of buttery home fries, the whole shebang topped with two quivery poached eggs. To make this one of the best morning meals ever, we like to side it by a glass of Mexican hot chocolate, which is garnished with freshly grated cinnamon and packs a dizzying cocoa/spice character that is subtle but impossible to stop drinking.

It’s a very popular place. At any mealtime in the split-level dining room, you are lucky to find a seat at a small table or at the large shared one, where a local or a stranger from just about any part of the world might break bread with you.

After a few meals at Pasqual’s, it is easy to feel affection for its unpretentious, sometimes clamorous ambiance; this is a restaurant with a brilliant personality that perfectly complements the high quality fare from the kitchen.

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

Corned beef hash	French toast
squash & red onion enchiladas	Mexican Hot Chocolate
granola

Rate this place

Reviewers Photos [Upload Your Photos]

"Made of good-size chunks of corned beef, Pasqual’s hash is part crisp, part tender. And the potatoes underneath are buttery-good."
Michael Stern

"Always a festive place, Pasqual’s is especially fun around Christmas."
Michael Stern

"A close-up view of Pasqual’s superb Mexican hot chocolate. Freshly-grated cinnamon on top makes all the difference."
Michael Stern

"The pancakes are light and fluffy. The bacon is thick and crisp. A perfect breakfast!"
Michael Stern

"Pasqual’s fabulous spinach and cheese enchilada is accompanied by a ridiculously tender roasted banana."
Michael Stern

"Despite its long-standing status as one of Santa Fe's best places to eat, Pasqual's remains what it's always been: a casual corner cafe."
Michael Stern