Who
hasn't dreamt of a luxurious Mexican Villa overlooking pristine sandy
beaches and translucent blue waters--a distinguished gate, thriving
gardens and a capacious floor plan with earth-toned terracotta and ochre
floors and walls festooned in vibrant colors?
Think of it--your own
personal chef preparing the briny delicacies of the sea for your every
meal, the soulful voice of a Mexican singer plumbing the depths of your
emotions, a fresh Pacific breeze negating the balmy climate. It
would be an idyllic life.
The Villa del Mar
restaurant on Albuquerque's Central Avenue won't make all these dreams a
reality, but it will serve you a meal that--maybe just for a
moment--will transport you to that villa of your dreams.
Villa del Mar, launched
in April, 2007, gained notoriety before it even opened when several
palm trees were planted in front of the
restaurant. While Albuquerque may be in the desert, our winters
tend to be too severe for most palm trees. Sanibel Island, Florida
we're
not.
Atop the Spanish tiled building and
impaled on a pole is a large blue marlin, a large sporting fish that is
rarely, if ever, table fare.
The nautical theme continues inside
the restaurant where fish nets are suspended from the ceiling and over
the entry into a second dining room. Framed seascapes festoon the
walls while hanging on an oceanic blue wall are a turtle, tarpon and a
tiberon (shark).
Aside from the usual table condiments,
each table is decorated with a decorative foot-long craft palm tree, the
only kind likely to survive New Mexico's weather. A small bowl of
smoked jalapenos also sits on every table.
The menu is primarily mariscos
(seafood), however, other Mexican favorites are available. As you
peruse the menu, the personable wait staff brings to atypical salsas to
your table. One is an avocado and sour cream based salsa and the
other is a salsa made from roasted green chile, jalapenos and tomatoes.
The latter is most definitely a winner.
Both
salsas are muy piquante and muy sabroso. We liked the green chile
and jalapeno salsa so much we paid four dollars for a sixteen ounce
Styrofoam cup of the stuff and considered it a bargain at that price.
We also did our best to consume about sixteen ounces of that salsa with
our meal.
This salsa reminded me very much of
the roasted green chile on which I was weaned in Northern New Mexico.
We used to spread that chile thickly on a warm tortilla then added a
slice of Cheddar cheese to offset the capsaicin burn.
The avocado based salsa isn't quite as
piquant, but it's certainly a dynamo in its own right. The accompanying
chips are thin, crisp and served hot. Best of all, the
accommodating wait staff will replenish both chips and salsa throughout
your meal.
Like so many of the mariscos
restaurants in the Duke City, Villa del Mar serves several aguas frescas
(literally "fresh waters"), a refreshing drink popular throughout Latin
America. The restaurant's horchata is one such agua fresca.
It's not nearly as sweet as at some restaurants in which it tastes like
the milk from a child's breakfast cereal.
The
menu lists several appetizers, but when mariscos is featured fare, it's
usually best to start with tostadas de ceviche, raw fish (pescado)
or shrimp (camaron) marinated in lemon and piled atop a crisp taco shell
with red onion, tomato and avocado slices.
Interestingly ceviche originated where
seafood was plentiful and refrigeration was rare. Usually served
as an appetizer, it is low in calories and has a refreshing taste that
melds the briny savoriness of fish with the citrusy tang of the lemon.
The lemon won't quite pucker your lips and won't overwhelm the fish.
It's a marriage made in seafood heaven.
During our inaugural visit, we didn't
make it past the especiales del chef (chef's specialties) on page two of
the menu. That's where we saw the entrees we just had to have.
For my landlubber wife it was the
Steak Tampiqueña
that snared her. You probably won't ever obtain consensus as to
what Steak Tampiqueña
is. Ostensibly, it originated in Tampico, Mexico, but rarely will
you see any two restaurants in one city preparing it the same way or
even using the same cut of beef. At high-end restaurants, this
steak might be a ribeye or a New York Strip while at less expensive
dining establishments, it might be a thinly cut skirt steak. At
some restaurants, it's doused with red chile and at others, it's just a
slab of unadorned beef.
At Villa del Mar, the Steak Tampiqueña
is a succulent, marinated and grilled skirt steak without the usual
toughness for which skirt steak is renown. Being thinly cut, the
steak was served at about medium well, but it somehow managed to retain
the juiciness of a good slab of beef.
The Steak Tampiqueña
comes with enchiladas (which my Kim substituted with a taco), rice,
salad (lettuce and tomato with no salad dressing) and a baked potato.
The rice is light and buttery with a lot of flavor for rice.
No one in the world serves better
baked potatoes than Mexican restaurants and Villa del Mar is no
exception. While not the size of footballs as you'll find in some
American steak restaurants, these tubers are absolutely delicious,
tender, slow baked and served in aluminum foil. At your request,
the cook will slather on drawn butter and sour cream, a carbohydrate
laden feast.
For me the first choice at a mariscos
restaurant in which it is featured is parillada del mar (grilled
seafood). It's also been my experience that rarely do I order this
entree a second time. That's because at most restaurants the
seafood tastes as if just plucked out of the Dead Sea. It's briny
and salty enough to warrant desalinization.
It was a wonderfully pleasant surprise
when my first bite of the crab meat met with sweet, succulent and tender
crab meat. The other seafood in this delightful mix--shrimp,
octopus and fish--were grilled to perfection in a bed of bell peppers,
sweet onions and a special seasoning.
Without a doubt, the best and freshest
seafood parillada we've had on this side of the border, the Parillada
Villa del Mar restored my faith in this entree. This is an
entree I could eat every day of the week without growing tired of it.
Winter doldrums call for a change of pace and the enveloping comfort of
something warm and delicious. Villa del Mar offers such comfort in
the form of various soups.
A wonderful option is the restaurant's
caldo de res, a Mexican beef soup that is extremely hearty,
satisfying and delicious. It derives much of its flavor from hind
shank and bone marrow. Villa del Mar's rendition (pictured at
right) also includes large pieces of cabbage, corn on the cob, carrots,
onions and cilantro.
Most Mexican restaurants vary in their
preparation of this popular soup, but one common element seems to be in
delivering the perfect winter comfort food.
The
menu lists only three desserts, our favorite being the pastel tres
leches (cake of the three milks). As its name implies, this
cake is made with three kinds of milk: evaporated milk, condensed milk
and either whole milk or cream. Butter is not an ingredient and as
such, this is a very light cake with a lot of air bubbles.
As you press your fork down on this
cake, it positively oozes with milky goodness, but there's no way you
can call this a soggy cake. It's delicious and refreshing, a great
way to end a terrific meal.
Years ago there were very few mariscos
restaurants in the Albuquerque area. Today it seems a new mariscos
restaurant launches every few months or so and savvy Albuquerque diners
can't get enough. Villa del Mar is poised to compete with the very
best mariscos restaurants in town. With an unbeatable green chile
and jalapeno salsa and sweet, succulent seafood, it promises to ascend
quickly up my restaurant ratings.
