I’m fairly certain one of the things most of my friends had to hear after I moved to California was that the Mexican food here was no where near as flavorful as the New Mexican food I had experienced while attending college and working in New Mexico. There was just something amazing about their chile sauces, and I still remember the first time I heard “red or green?” asked after ordering something there. Over nine years I learned to appreciate both the red and green styles of chile, including eating giant bowls of the stuff with tortillas and sopapillas. Speaking of which, sopapillas are also something I missed after moving, as it is wonderfully delicious, soft and pillowy fried bread that accompanied almost every New Mexican dish you would order or they would stuff them with deeply rich meats cooked in chile sauce and then smother it with more. You rarely had to ask for more chile because there was always a huge amount of it in the dish to give you a ton of flavor and heat every time. I’ve often thought about trips back there, but I wondered if people I knew would forgive me to find out that I was actually travelling back to eat the food and not really to see any of them. (Sorry/not sorry.)
You can imagine how excited I was to find out that someone had opened up a New Mexican restaurant here in San Francisco. As soon as I found out about it, it went on the list as a place I needed to give a try. Then, when a friend of mine told me he was going to be in town, my mind immediately went to Green Chile Kitchen! The two of us met in New Mexico, but he also moved away, and I know he gets the cravings for green chile like I do, so he would be the perfect person to try it out with to see if it could stand up to our overly high expectations. I was slightly worried when I saw that the location in San Francisco didn’t take reservations (although the one in Marin does), but I hoped a weeknight mean ridiculous queues. And when we arrived, it was fairly busy, but since it’s a place you order at the counter and sit down, I can see why they don’t do bookings. That being said, the people handling the counter seemed a bit all over the place and they did just leave people waiting in line for awhile at times.
But we did finally manage to order some food and sit down. I decided on the chile relleno combination which consisted of two chile rellenos, a taco (I went with carne adovada) and some posole. My friend really wanted a burrito smothered with green chile, so he had that with steak (plus a side of sopapillas for good measure), and the other half went for the carne adovada stuffed sopapillas covered in green chile. I also went for the large chile margarita. Sadly, the margaritas are made with agave wine as the venue only has a beer and wine license. Plus they were made with that neon margarita mix so it was quite sickly and not fantastic. I thought about just having wine, but they only do wine on tap, and honestly, fresh wine really isn’t my favorite style, so the margarita seemed like the better choice. The frozen green chile in the margarita was actually one of the hottest things I ate all night!
It did seem like it took awhile for the food to arrive considering it’s an order at the counter type of place, but when it finally arrived, it did remind me quite a bit of what I would expect at a place in New Mexico. I would have expected there to be a bit more green chile smothering everything, but that did not deter me from digging in. In my combination plate, the chile rellenos were really well cooked and tasty, and when I cut into the first one, the cheese did come oozing out. My partner felt the need to have a few bites of it, as he wasn’t too impressed with his stuffed sopapilla. Mostly because the pork was overcooked (although it did have nice flavor), and honestly, the texture of the sopapillas were just wrong. They were too flaky and less pillowy than they should be. I thought that the posole on my plate was the best thing I’ve eaten at a Mexican place in a very long time. The corn was tender and the red chile on the outside was fantastic. It also reminded me why I moved away from green chile toward the end of my stay in New Mexico and drifted toward red, as it just is usually a bit richer and has quite a bit more flavor. My taco wasn’t the best as the pork was quite dry and the taco shell was really way too thick, so it also had a really strange texture in my mouth when I was eating it.
After dinner, I wanted to get a slice of pie to go as apparently they are well known for their bakery that is nearby, but sadly, the server at the counter told me that the bakery had closed as of the previous week and they would not have them anymore. I was more curious than anything, because it seems that their carb-making game is a bit off as both the sopapilla and the tortilla weren’t amazing. Overall, the meal did really scratch that New Mexico itch I always have though, but it really could have been better. The rellenos and posole were fantastic, and my friend’s steak burrito was pretty decent. I think I would come back to have a few things now that I have a better idea of what things on the menu are good. Like the posole. I’m fairly certain that I could eat that every week and really be a happy man. Given how that tasted, I’m also interested in giving their other stews a chance to see if they are at the same level.
Score: 3/5
Recommendation: Posole. (And if you’re really hungry, the rellenos, but make sure to also get the posole.)
Green Chile Kitchen
1801 McAllister st
San Francisco, CA 94115
Right I remember these mentions long ago but I didn’t dispute your opinion. I understand how a local style of food can raise or alter standards on the more widespread examples. People from Chicago might have this issue with pizza. I think a lot of local cuisines don’t export well because of a reliance on magical local ingredients. I’m glad you liked it. I wanted to tell you my favorite jar of salsa right now is the New Mexican Red Chile from Frontera. I don’t know if it’s authentic at all, but it’s really distinctive. It has a smokiness that’s much more nuanced and pleasant than salsas with chipotle chiles.
Yeah I know it’s just me! But I do like a big hit of spice with my Mexican food. I’ll have to take a look out for that salsa. I’m fairly certain Rick Bayless tries to keep the flavors real, even if maybe he’s not completely authentic. He seems passionate about Mexican at least. I’ve never actually eaten at Frontera, so I really have no way to know!