First of all, I want you to know that yes, La Plancha Latin Grill did move from its El Dorado location into Santa Fe to Santa Fe’s Southside. La Plancha Latin Grill is now much closer to our house. I’m very lucky.
The phrase La Plancha means a hot flat iron in Spanish. The name says it all.
I happen to love La PLancha’s Salvadorian Tamales(12.95) which include two traditional homemade vegetarian( In my case) tamales wrapped in banana leaves. The masa to vegetable filling proportion was just right. There was enough of this sweet masa and enough vegetables to know that you are eating a tamale. I hate tamales that have too much masa and not enough vegetable filling. I loved the potatoes, zucchini and spinach in the tamales as well. Just a heads up to let you know that this masa is sweet. It is so flavorful and moist. The tamales are served with Chef Juan Carlos Pineda’s signature green rice which has spinach, green onion, and cilantro. The tamales also have black beans that are re-fried a personal favorite of mine and some wonderful pickled vegetables like carrots, onion, and cucumber. Delicious! You have your choice of red, green or Christmas. I chose Christmas. Both salsas were equally delicious but next time I’m going to try just the red. A big change of pace for me.
My better half had the Camarones Al Mojo De Ajo (17.95) which were the jumbo shrimp served with avocado casamiento(rice & refried black beans) along with grilled vegetables and of course the fabulous green rice.
Full disclosure, I didn’t get my phone out quick enough to take a photo of all the jumbo shrimp. And in my minimal knowledge of Spanish, I can translate Ajo to Garlic. Incredible!!!
Our friend who told us about La Plancha had a variety of appetizers.
La Plancha is a Mom and Pop restaurant. I love that! Chef Juan Carlos Pineda and his wife Lidia are running the restaurant with the help of their son, Juan Carlos Jr. and daughter Tatiana ( our helpful, knowledgeable server). Our friend knew Lidia from visits at the previous location in El Dorado.
For dessert, we had the incredible fried ice cream(5.95). Wow! it was sure incredible. Just look at that!!!
The ice cream was covered in corn flakes and then fried. That was certainly a mouthful of happiness.
La Plancha is open Monday through Sunday 10am – 9pm. At present, La Plancha doesn’t have a liquor license but is expecting to get one in by around December. They are also building a bar inside the restaurant. That’s ok, their ice tea was good.
Right now, La Plancha is doing a brisk take-out business. For a restaurant that hasn’t advertised yet, there were lots of people getting take-out on a Wednesday night.
La Plancha is located at 3470 Zafarano Drive, Suite C. It is right next to Tribes Coffee House. La Plancha’s phone number is 505.466.2060
Santa Fe City Different Foodie 