Restaurant Review: Tortilla Flats

Top of the papas

By: Patricia Greathouse
Published online: Friday, July 20, 2012
Appeared in: Pasateimpo

Tortilla Flats, a Cerrillos Road institution for 25 years, has seen many changes in the neighborhood: the nearby bowling alley is closed; where open spaces were once plentiful, big box stores proliferate. In the early days, the restaurant had a different feel, and during prime dinner hour there was always a wait for a table. A major remodel seven years ago created more space. Now you’re less likely to wait for dinner, and you can sit at the long bar, with a television, if you do.

Unfortunately, our meals at Tortilla Flats showed a marked inconsistency. The dishes during one visit were good; during another visit, they were mostly mediocre. The servers were friendly, but one of the hostesses didn’t speak to us, and the other was MIA for a long time. The table service was attentive and fast, and the busing was efficient — to a fault. At both meals, an employee pulled up alongside us with a rolling cart piled high with dirty dishes and bused plates from the next table.

At dinner, complimentary crisp chips come with a tasty salsa. The dinner menu includes several appetizers, including a large guacamole salad. It was picante but lacked the crunch of chopped tomato, onion, and jalapeños. The El Papa Nachos, a potato lover’s dream of thinly sliced spuds in place of tortilla chips, comes with a choice of chicken, bacon bits, or beef. A melted carpet of the house jack and cheddar cheese blend topped it, and jalapeños came on the side.

We didn’t finish a mediocre Frito pie with pinto beans and the trimmings. The red chile was hot but musty and bitter tasting. The red chile on a cheese enchilada was brighter tasting and flavorful, however. We enjoyed it with an over-easy egg, posole, and refried pinto beans.

Quesadillas are a specialty at Tortilla Flats, and they generally tend to be excellent. On the night when nothing was really right with our dinners, the flour tortilla of our chicken quesadilla was steamy and wet on the bottom, and it fell apart. The filling was more pleasing, however — the chicken was moist, and the guacamole and melted cheese worked well together in the dish. On the day all the dishes satisfied, our roast-beef quesadilla was crisp and golden all over, and the beef made a huge difference in the flavor.

The menu includes sandwiches and hamburgers, both of which come with regular fries or sweet-potato fries (crisp and delicious) for a little extra. The very tasty Southwest chicken sandwich is served with guacamole, cheese, and a whole roasted green chile.

Some dishes could use better ingredients. For instance, the lean pork chops smothered in green chile, a common meal here in the north, were dry and chewy. The green chile was watery and tasteless.

A Thursday special of carnitas also suffered from tough, chewy meat. We didn’t finish them because we just didn’t have the energy to gnaw through the unappetizing beef. The beef sirloin was underseasoned and mangled rather than sliced, leaving me to question the quality of the cut. Clumps of gray meat, sautéed onions, and what the menu called green chile strips (they were chopped) came with a choice of pinto or black beans and sopaipillas or tortillas. The accompanying sopaipillas weren’t greasy, but they tasted like they had been fried in bad oil. On the day of our good meals, the oil must have been fresh.

A margarita menu lists many choices, so just for fun we tried one that was made with bourbon and called a Cowboy. It was watery, and although we could taste the orange liqueur, the bourbon flavor was lost. The lesson of the Cowboy is that if you want to have fun, take your bourbon straight or stick with tequila in your margaritas.

We braved the sopaipilla helada, a dessert big enough for a crowd. It’s a large sopaipilla with ice cream, strawberry and chocolate sauces, chocolate chips, and whipped cream — and a few bites is enough. The creamy flan is a tamer choice. The dark, moist chocolate cake will satisfy chocolate lovers.