Lovely to look at, but no place for a Mexican dinner. Being enthralled by the Spanish architecture and charmingly serene city of Santa Barbara, we decided to continue the historic California mood by going to eat at a highly polished Mexican restaurant in the El Paseo shopping Center on State Street. The interior was reminiscent of a hacienda patio, a very large hacienda at that, with a three tiered fountain and exterior stairs leading to the balcony. If you were to dine there during the day, the glass ceiling opens to allow more than the illusion of a patio with full sun and warm breezes. That alone would be worth a return trip, but for no more than drinks and appetizers.
The meal started well enough with a classic chicken taquito appetizer covered in the requisite guacamole; it was nice but lacked the strong, rich flavor of ripe avocado. The chicken was not stringy, but neither was it plentiful. On the plus side, it was a generous serving of 4 taquitos rather than the standard 2 served by most restaurants. Good but not an elevated, above normal taste. With high end restaurant prices I expected much more.
Having a fondness for Mexican Mole sauces, I chose the Chicken Mole dinner that came with rice and beans. If there were ala carte options, my preference would have been to opt out of the starches, but since they came with the chicken I tried them. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary and that is precisely why I usually don't order them. The Mole sauce itself was lighter than some but good and the sprinkling of pumpkin and sesame seeds was a much appreciated textural element that added well to the taste. The chicken itself was not cooked on the bone, lacked any complexity of taste and was a bit overcooked.
Having a fondness for Mexican Mole sauces, I chose the Chicken Mole dinner that came with rice and beans. If there were ala carte options, my preference would have been to opt out of the starches, but since they came with the chicken I tried them. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary and that is precisely why I usually don't order them. The Mole sauce itself was lighter than some but good and the sprinkling of pumpkin and sesame seeds was a much appreciated textural element that added well to the taste. The chicken itself was not cooked on the bone, lacked any complexity of taste and was a bit overcooked.
The other entree at our table looked fantastic on paper, but did not live up to its promise. It was definitely an enchilada plate and the meat filling was indeed filet Mignon, but the two did not go together well. The delicacy of the filet was completely lost in the enchilada sauce. For $26 it should have been more than it was.
El Paseo Restaurant
813 Anacapa St
Santa Barbara
Phone: (805) 962-6050
Hours: Tue-Thu 4pm-10pm
Fri-Sat 11:30am-10:30pm
Sun 10:30am-9pm
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