El Paragua Restaurant — Restaurant in Espanola

First, the food was excellent. I got the Mexican combination with red chile and it was fantastic. The salsa is great and the drinks are decent enough.

Now let me explain the two stars. 10 stars are for food quality and negative 8 stars are for service. We arrived with a party of 8. The hostess told me it would be a 45 minute wait. I asked if we could just sit at two separate tables since the only have one table that seats 8. She said no that all the tables were taken.

I asked if we could sit in the bar area and eat and she said yes it is open seating. So we took two tables in the bar area. The bartender was slammed and we were sitting there for about half an hour with drinks for only some of us, no chips or salsa and no menus. I went and asked the hostess for a menu. And she told me, "yeah, the bartender will be right with you" and I told her the bartender was quite busy so could I just grab the menus. Then she dead square looked me in the eyes and said, "I'll bring them right to you."

So there we sat for another ten minutes. Now, I can see her the whole time. She just fiddled around at the hostess stand and glanced over every now and again and then just walked off. We finally flagged down the bartender and she brought menus. Then we sat there again for like 15 minutes with no one taking our order. My husband flagged down the hostess and she said that we didn't make it clear that we wanted to eat (not just have drinks). Then she asked where we were from and since we said Albuquerque then all of the sudden she decided we were able to place a food order. What in the world...

The bartender passed us a couple times and we asked her for more chips (after we got a tiny bowl for the 4 of us) and she never did bring them. I think the owner finally brought them after we asked him.

I'm not sure why that hostess had such a huge problem with us. It was the most bizarre thing I've experienced lately. The attitude, the eye roll, the resistance to give me a menu or acknowledge we wanted food was out of this world. If she worked for me I would be ashamed. And I'm sorry but it's so true.

If you're not from Espanola...

Owner or manager, a man, was not nice at all. We had a large party that the restaurant could accommodate us at either 11am or 3pm. We chose 11. The gentleman insisted that he had told us one check per table and was very rude as he told us this. The food was awful. Nothing made directly from the restaurant except the sopapillas I assume. The beans looked like they had been rewarmed several times. The rice, yuck. Chili, both red and green, not good. My husband ordered huevos rancheros. We assumed it would have corn tortillas, but nope, one large store bought flour tortillas on the bottom. He didn't even care for the bacon and my husband loves bacon. In our group of between 25 to 30 the last order came out to my girlfriend who had ordered 2 alacart ground beef tacos. The tacos were very greasy and shredded beef, not ground. The servers were very pleasant and attentive to our group making sure everyone had waters or sodas. That was the only positive remark I can make. Not sure how this establishment has won food awards, we literally would have been better off at taco Bell. Our bill for 3 plates, the huevos rancheros, my chicken burrito that came with rice and my brother in law's beef burrito that came with beans came to about $51.00. that's with a soda and two teas....... Not worth it one bit! Overpriced and poor food! Unfortunately we will not be visiting this restaurant again nor will we recommend it to anyone. If I know if anyone who will be visiting this beautiful part of northern New Mexico I will tell them to steer far from El Paragua!! Oh!! Almost forgot! The establishment required a $100.00 deposit to hold our reservation! ...

Atmosphere is bustling. We waited nervously to be noticed and seated. After a line formed behind us we were seated by a waitress in a little black dress (waiters wear white shirts and black pants). I wanted to take a pic of our menu as we had scoured the web beforehand trying to figure out prices, but they came too quickly to take our order. I had enchilada atencio $22 and my husband had chile relleno with chalupa $19.50. I noticed something was $60, but I think it was steak for 2. While we waited for our food we had fun looking at the walls full of mementos and deciphering tiles with quotes in Spanish. One roughly translated to "When the woman rules the house, the husband is a pumpkin" with a man washing dishes. Chips were too done for my liking and salsa was very spicy...maybe a degree less than Los dos Molinos in AZ, but similar. Strangely we were served a small plate of salad with Italian dressing, but it added to the "fancy restaurant" vibe. Finally our food arrived. I was disappointed the sour cream was inside the enchilada and thus hot, but that's my fault for not reading menu more carefully. My favorite was the chalupa smothered in cool guac. My husband said he didn't like the relleno as much as Sopapilla Factory's. Pintos were a little al dente for my taste but seemed more elegant that way. Portions were generous and I took half of mine home. Delicious sopapillas with real honey were served. Atmosphere is too lively for our taste, so would probably choose La Cocina for another special occasion. Certainly we will continue to eat at the adjacent Parasol and now won't have to wonder...