Angelina’s Restaurant

Angelina’s Restaurant has been serving Espanola, NM, residents with smiles, great service, and great food for a number of years. Their green chile is some of the tastiest you’ll find anywhere in NM. Click HERE for the entire review.

OVERALL BITES: 

Value: Most plates are right under $10 but you can get a sandwich for about $5. They definitely won’t break the bank and your meal will also come with a Sopapilla you can cover in honey and have as a desert!

Taste: This is where Angelina’s really shines. You can tell the locals love the taste too because they were super busy. You can’t go wrong with any meal on the menu.

Presentation: Nothing too special here. Just a full plate of good food! The restaurant itself has been around a while and could use a little updating.

Vibe: The staff is super friendly, fast, and they were always checking on me.

Accessibility: As Espanola restaurants go they are pretty easy to find. They are on the South side of Fairview Ln. There is parking on both the East and West side of the restaurant. Keep in mind that they do get super busy during lunch.

Review – Angelina’s Restaurant

So why was I in Española? Well I wouldn’t normally take the 90 min drive from Albuquerque unless I’m going to the Ojo Caliente resort or going for work. On this occasion it was the latter. Once my job for the day was done I decided to try a favorite of mine from years ago – Angelina’s Restaurant.

The lunch rush was almost over, or at least I thought it would be, when I arrived at just before 1pm. The parking lot was still full but I was able to find a parking spot. When I walked in I was approached pretty quickly and since there were a few tables I was allowed to choose where I wanted to sit. After sitting at my chosen booth my drink order was taken.

It was unusually hot this day and I was pretty thirsty so I only had a glass of water. I noticed the carpet is a little worn but the locals don’t seem to mind. They’re there for the food and I was too. There is a dividing wall that separates the dining room into a North and South side. Along the top of the wall you’ll find ceramic Roosters with a plant in between each one which I thought was pretty cool. Plenty of light comes in from the skylights which gives the entire restaurant a brighter feel.

The green chile chicken stuffed sopapilla, my go to New Mexican meal, only took a few minutes. The chicken is in broth when they make the stuffed sopa and it wasn’t drained much so my sopa was a bit soupy. The taste of the sopa was spot on and the green chile was perfect. In fact, I would have been perfectly satisfied with just that. The rice was heavy on tomato sauce and had celery which you don’t see every day but it was really good. Super tasty and no crunch and not mushy either. The beans had plenty of melted cheese on the top and needed a tad of salt for my taste.

I was bummed I didn’t get any chips or salsa but I did end up getting 2 sopapillas as desert!!  So you can’t knock them too much for that. Angelina’s gets 4 Bites! They do have a couple of things you can improve but at the end of the day it’s about the taste of the food, the service, and judging by the parking lot you can tell the locals love Angelina’s.

I didn’t find a website for them but you can find them on Facebook. Take the drive up to Ojo Caliente and give Angelina’s a try. You’ll be glad you did.