El Santo
Address: 680 Columbia Street, New Westminster B.C.
Phone Number: 604 553 1849
Website: www.elsanto.ca
With a copious variety of restaurants to choose from in the iconic waterfront district of New Westminster, El Santo pronounces its presence by being known for creating authentic and delicious Mexican cuisine at an affordable price. It has been a go-to restaurant of mine for about a year now and I have come to appreciate the saporous yet simple food it offers.
Upon entering El Santo is buzzing no matter the time of day. The contemporarily stimulating and airy atmosphere is refreshing. The appetizer of my choosing is typically the Guacamoles with the Mango option. Crispy cooked to order tortilla chips with a creamy avocado dip topped with a delicate sprinkling of mango, red onion, red pepper and cilantro salsa. The tortilla chips have a house made seasoning lightly coated on each containing cumin and cayenne pepper and the guacamole has the perfect amount of acid. An excellent start to any Mexican meal.
I followed this with a vegetarian taco, the Verduras, and an easily sharable main, the Chili Relleno.
Every taco order comes in pairs and The Verduras is loaded with an abundance of goodies. Sweet and spicy marinated cauliflower, bursting with flavour, mango salsa with mixed peppers and finely chopped crisp onion with a smooth Mexican pumpkin seed spread.
The Chili Relleno is almost too beautiful to eat. A poblano pepper stuffed with delicious green cilantro rice that has been laced with a generous amount of velvety Oaxaca cheese. It is topped with another layer of melted and toasted cheese, a light decorating of sour cream and then rests on a thick salsa ranchera tomato sauce. Absolute perfection for any cheese lover. On the side they provide a pepita (pumpkin seed) oil sauce which I poured on top and assisted in cooling the sneaking heat from the pepper. Simple but sensational.
El Santo offers the typical lunch, dinner and weekend brunch menus but has gone above and beyond by also providing a Farmers Market Menu that is available from 4pm until kitchen close every day of the week. This menu showcases only the best locally sourced and sustainable items. For me this truly is a trait that I have come to admire from restaurants these days.
Every meal at El Santo ends with an offering of their house made marshmallows this time being earl grey flavoured. I would expect nothing less from a place that prides itself on making all items from scratch in the most traditional way possible.
Truly a gem of New West that will keep this Cobra coming back, time and time again.
