LA Cocina Restaurant, Espanola

La Cocina has been my go-to New Mexican restaurant for over 14 years. There is not another place that I have liked better, for service, ambiance and food.

On Sunday, 05/20812, my family and I went to La Cocina for breakfast. It was not busy at the time and we were greeted and seated immediately. My mother ordered hot plain black tea (like Lipton tea) and was told they do not have plain tea, so she ordered iced tea which she said tasted like water. My mother also ordered wheat toast and a side of crisp bacon. The wheat toast was not toasted and the bacon was burned black. I ordered the pancakes and crisp bacon and my bacon was also black. My aunt ordered pancakes and ham. The ham was very, very, very thin and tasteless. It appeared to be a cheap lunch meat ham. The waiter came back to the table very briefly to ask if my aunt and I wanted more coffee and that was it. When I went to go pay, I told the hostess about the hot tea and burned bacon and asked her if the cooks were angry that day because of the state of the bacon and she said she would go back and see what was wrong. She was not very nice about the situation. She informed us that we should have told the waiter about everything wrong. Shouldn t the cooks notice when something is not cooked properly and the customer treated and be served edible food? This is supposed to be Espanola s upscale restaurant yet we are receiving very mediocre food for the money. I will not recommend anyone to eat here.

We stopped for lunch and were very happy. Our server was very helpful and attentive and the New Mexican food was quite good.

This place sucks big time. Food was either under-cooked or over-cooked. the chips were stale. The salsa was good but the taco and tostada simply awful. The sopapilla was cold, greasy, and tasted like old oil. Don't waste your money.

I thought the food was average, they served some of our party, but one guest had to wait about 15 minutes longer for her food, then we all finished earlier, so we had to wait for her to finish eating. The chile was decent but seemed a little scorched.The sopapillas were kind of thick on 1 side, dough-like, and were greasy.

I'm driving up from ABQ today to eat here. That's how good it is. The chile is hot with good flavor so beware if you're not used to it! I would say that La Cocina and Chope's (near Las Cruces) are my two favorite New Mexican restaurants. Enjoy!

I had the guacamole enchiladas, with both green and red chili. They are the best in the world! No grease! FRESH vegetables and sauce from Heaven-with perfect cheeses. It is like food at someone's own home. The staff treated me as if they knew me. I am ALWAYS coming back! It is worth a special trip to Sante Fe to eat there. Thank you for having such a great restaurant. Robert Russell & Son Steve.

I'm a native northern new mexican growing up on this food. This restaurant makes everything delicious and offers vegetarian choices too. I have nothing to complain about here. The guacamole was made with fresh chunks of tomatoes and onions, as well as the salsa. This place was extremely busy, but yet they seemed to keep up with the crowd. I go to this place as often as I can. Haven't been disapointed yet. Worth the drive from Santa Fe.