Restaurant: La Boca
Location: 72 W Marcy St, Santa Fe, NM 87501. (505) 982-3433
Date: March 27, 2023
Cuisine: Spanish Tapas
Rating: Pretty good tapas
Trying to mix up our styles while in Santa Fe.
La boca is more or less classic/modern Spanish tapas.
Busy interior.
The menu.
Some Albarino to start.
DRUNKEN GOAT CHEESE. With Marcona almonds + rosemary. Very nice tangy medium cheese.
OLIVES + ALMONDS. Marcona almonds with pimentón, Sangria olives + oil cured black olives.
MANCHEGO WITH MEMBRILLO. Always hard not to love cheese with “jam”.
LOMO IBERÍCO. With membrillo, tomatoes, black olives + rosemary. Very thin cured meat.
ROASTED BEET SALAD. Arugula, coriander, crushed Marcona almonds + Greek yogurt. Nice salad.
BOQUERONES. With pan con tomate. The boquerones were small and not as vinegary as I like, but still good.
Priorat for red.
ALCACHOFAS. Grilled Roman artichokes with Queso de Cabra, orange zest + mint. Very nice and tender.
PATATAS BRAVAS. Romero Farms fingerling potatoes, spicy sherry vinegar, garlic + roasted garlic aioli. This dish varies a lot. This version wasn’t spicy at all. The aioli was good though and the potatoes were quite salty (which was tasty).
CROQUETAS DE JAMÓN. Traditional fried Béchamel croquetas with Jamón Serrano. Ham was subtle but they were tasty.
GAMBAS AL AJILLO. Sautéed shrimp, garlic, white wine, butter + chile de árbol. This sauce had more color than this often does in spain but these were delicious — and begged for bread.
BAGUETTE. Sage Bakehouse sourdough baguette with extra virgin olive. oil.
SEARED YELLOWFIN TUNA. Sweet pea salmorejo, + crispy Jamón Serrano.
GRILLED EGGPLANT. With melted Manchego, capers + saffron honey. Very nice, pretty much like a Scaloppine Saltimbocca.
BRAISED BEEF SHORT RIBS. Caramelized onion – Oloroso pan sauce, Yukon Gold mash + fried sage. Fairly bland, like “pot roast.”
CHICHARRONES DE ANDALUZ. Fried pork belly, cumin, sea salt, lemon + harissa. Very crispy!
PAELLA CLASSICA. Saffron rice, chicken, chorizo, mussels, shrimp, roasted red bell peppers + English peas. Very tasty with good proteins. Rice itself was very moist and there was lots of it. But there wasn’t the crispy rice thing going on that great paella should have.
VEGETABLE PAELLA. Saffron rice, kale, mushrooms, artichokes, roasted red bell peppers + English peas.
The dessert menu — we were stuffed.
Overall, La Boca was a pretty solid tapas bar. Probably better than most/all of the current LA offerings in a “mostly traditional” arena. Not every dish was perfect, but they did have a big menu of pretty much all the classics and bunch of variants and execution was somewhere between good and really good for most dishes. Atmosphere was packed and lively.
