H&H Cafe & Car Wash

701 E. Yandel, El Paso, TX - (915) 533-1144

Overview Reviews(1) Rate Restaurant Upload Photos Bookmark Email

Posted By Michael Stern on 10/31/2010 12:07:00 PM

If you are hungry and your car is dusty from traveling Southwest roads, the place to go is the H&H Cafe and Car Wash, where table seats in the little joint afford a view of your vehicle being scrubbed and dried. We prefer counter stools with a vista of chiles rellenos getting battered and fried and huevos rancheros being topped with a curious buttery gravy flecked with onions and hot peppers. Artimisa, who has been a waitress here for years, frequently conjures up her own special salsa which capsicum addicts know to request. "It will hurt you," warns proprietor Kenny Haddad, who served me a few spoonfuls in a saucer. It is flecked with seeds and pod membrane (the hottest parts) and glistens seductively. Artemisa, who is normally a stern sort of person, broke into a broad grin when she watched me wipe the last of it up with warm tortillas, then wipe the beads of perspiration from my brow with napkins.

Not everything posted on the H&H wall menu is four-alarm. You can eat ordinary eggs for breakfast or a hamburger for lunch (the café closes at 3pm). Burritos are available seven ways: stuffed with chile rellenos, egg and chorizo sausage, picadillo, red chile, green chile, carne picada, or beans. Specials include chicken molé, red and green enchiladas, and – always on Saturday – menudo, the tripe and hominy stew renowned for its power to cure a hangover.

Hospitality at the well-worn cook shop is enchanting. If you speak Spanish, so much the better: you will understand the nuances of the chatter. But if, like us, you are limited to English, you will still be part of the action. The day we first visited, many years ago, we were wearing ten-gallon hats, so we soon became known to one and all as the cowboys. “Vaqueros,” called a waitress as we headed out the door, “Vaya con dios.” With our car newly cleaned and the radio tuned to the rollicking Mexican polka rhythms of Tejano music, we highballed north along the Rio Grande.

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

Chiles Rellenos	Hot Salsa
Huevos Rancheros

Rate this place

Reviewers Photos [Upload Your Photos]

"We've never seen huevos rancheros prepared this way anywhere else. They are topped with a buttery gravy laced with onions and peppers. Those are refried beans at the left and fried potatoes at the right. Tortillas are essenteial for mopping the last of the refritos and gravy from the plate."
Michael Stern

"Available only on request, and only if Artimisa has made some from chiles de arbol, this hot salsa is really, really hot."
Michael Stern

"The Mexican-style omelet comes stuffed with ham and peppers, plus guacamole, refried beans, and two large sliced potatoes on the side."
Cliff Strutz

"From my seat at the counter, I was mesmerized as I watched cheese-stuffed chiles being floured prior to getting dipped in batter and then fried."
Michael Stern

"The batter into which the chiles are dipped is light as foam. After being coated, they are floated in boiling oil one at a time."
Michael Stern

"A view of the snug counter at the H&H Car Wash & Cafe. The woman at the left is Artimisa, who makes the hot sauce."
Michael Stern

"The menu board is full of classic Mexican dishes."
Cliff Strutz

"As a general rule, we love cafes that do double duty: barbecue & bait shop, catfish parlor & upholsterer or, in this case, Tex-Mex diner and car wash. Window tables afford a view of your vehicle being scrubbed and dried. Counter stools face the other way, towards the even more fascinating food-prep area."
Michael Stern