Cocina Linda

I very much enjoyed my brief visit here. Linda was very accommodating, the food was great! I had opted for breakfast and had some very colorful locally grown potatoes, scrambled eggs, and salsa. Food was wonderful with flavor and curiously satisfied this foodie. I appreciated the local flavor. I will definitely return on my next trip to durango.

If I could give negative stars, I would. This was by far the worst Mexican food I have ever had. I’m slightly spoiled, being from LA. My pork burrito had literally six all indelible little chewy fatty pieces of meat with a copious amount of beans, rice and an odd tasting cheese. Honestly the meat tasted old and slightly rancid. I spit out every one. My BF had a beef burrito which also had an odd old beef rancid flavor. These were fairly small burritos and we didn’t order drinks. Our over priced bill was $ 25. The people next to us were having tamales which they said were extremely dry with very little filling. AVOID this place unless you want an overpriced, bad meal!

Just might be the best meal you will have in Durango! Highly rec the corn & zucchini tamales. They use locally sourced food, have farmers markets on site during season & host a Fall CSA.

This is my new favorite place in Durango. The food is great, but even better is that the food all comes from the closest source as possible. Local, organic food for the win! Linda is amazing and actively trying to improve the quality of food everywhere, starting with what she offers. Every dollar spent on food is a vote between Big Industry (like Monsanto) and Local Farmers and Food. When you eat at Linda’s, you vote local, the way it should be. Eat food that makes you healthier, eat at Linda’s!

OK,
I love Durango, CO and I visit every year during the winter months. The biggest complaint I usually have is– NEVER enough time to spend with the great town of Durango. Just last week I was visiting for my annual snowboarding trip. Unfortunately, I broke my collar bone on the first day of my trip. Needless to say I had the opportunity of exploring the town of Durango. At the end of my day I noticed Cocina Linda and stopped in to grab a bite. I was excited because the main dish that afternoon was POSOLE Mexican Soup. Being from the Southwest I was extremely excited to try some. Especially, after all the raving reviews I saw on Unilocal.Well I was greeted with a disgruntled cashier who took my order and was hesitant on letting me order the soup (which I should have caught on to right away). She kept asking, «are you sure you don’t want the chicken soup.» I asked what was wrong with the Posole and I got a roundabout response, «nothing». In the end I received a bowl of broth with Hominy and red crushed peppers. It had no traditional flavors. I have had stuff out of a can that tastes 10 times better (and I wouldn’t feed that to my worst enemy). I also ordered tea with my soup which I never received. I waited for several minutes to see if I could speak with one of the employees but I was completely ignored. I felt as if I was a ghost. For some reason they were catering hand and foot to another couple that was in the establishment. I am not sure the importance of the two individuals and nor do I expect to be treated as a king, just be treated with common courtesy and respect. I walked out of the place in slow onward pace hoping to get any reaction from the staff, and I got nothing. Yet, they got my money and my bad review. They also got to keep the watered down bland Hominy-​Broth.
* 3 cups cooked pork, cut into bite sized cubes (pork shoulder is traditional; or other pork roast)
* 2 tablespoons lard or 2 tablespoons bacon fat
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
* 1 teaspoon cumin
* ½ teaspoon oregano
* ½ teaspoon black pepper
* 2 (4 ounce) cans diced green chili peppers (or 2 fresh green chili’s seeded and diced)
* 2 (15 ounce) cans white hominy, drained and rinsed
* 1 ½ cups cooked pinto beans (or 1– 15 oz. can pinto beans) (optional)
* 1 quart pork stock or 1 quart chicken stock
* salt
* ½ cup chopped cilantro (garnish)
* lime wedge (garnish)

Great organic and locally grown food! The pork tamale is ridiculous and the service is always great.

All organic, locally sourced, made fresh and great tasting. Linda is overflowing with hospitality and positive energy.

Yee-​haaa! This place is un-​freaking-​believable! The food positively SINGS with high energy. And it’s no wonder: It is obvious that producing amazing quality food with amazing quality ingredients is truly Linda’s PASSION! It feels GREAT to actually do things right for their own sake and that’s clearly what’s going on here.
I live near Phoenix and just can’t wait for the day I can get back and «do more Linda»! And to see Linda’s smiling face.
(By the way, the name has changed to Linda’s Local Food Café.)

Awesome!!! Incredibly delicious food, very flavorful and creative. Extremely fresh fruit and vegetables, tasty meats, huge portions and lots of choices for meat eaters and vegans/​vegetarians. Linda and staff are super friendly and welcoming. My husband and I ate here three days in a row while recently in town for our niece’s wedding. Extra points for using organic and local ingredients. I would give more stars if I could!

If you are looking for authentic Mexican, this is not it. If you want a hippie burrito that keeps you on the toilet for hours, this is your restaurant.

My wife and I split a chile rellano and a local pork burrito. Chile rellano is one of my Mexican food tests, 80% or more of them are horrible, using Velveeta or worse for cheese. So, it’s great to find Linda’s, and real rellanos. Edible San Juan did a feature article on Linda’s in their recent issue, focusing on their choice to source local ingredients. I applaud this, even though it may mean the «authentic» Mexican style may change a bit. Also applaud their egalitarian beer selection, one choice from each of Durango’s four breweries. The Albertson’s parking lot is a bit of a put off, but you have to think, from the house that Linda’s sits in, that albertson’s came later, and so many places in the West are like this anyway, it’s not an adjustment. People in New York and Paris regularly eat, and enjoy eating, while ingesting carbon monoxide from streets, so what’s a little asphalt. Look the other way or eat inside. I do agree with the 97 cent salsa comment, and is the only reason I didn’t give Linda’s a five. The salsas are so good, it’s a compliment to the chef to have people ask for more than one flavor. How about giving folks a second one for free anyway. It’s the little things that count. That said, we’ll be back!

I love-​love-​LOVE her food. When I think of the best tamales, hers are at the top of my list. And because of her tortilla soup, I’m now on the search to finding the perfect recipe to recreate at homesince I don’t live in Durango anymore. I love the choices of salsas and the menu that is always made from fresh, local ingredients. The place is small, cozy and warm, which is all I need.
People complain about the location, but they are missing the point. It’s all about the FOOD, because if she wanted to be next Tequila’s, SHE COULD.
Whenever I’m in town, I order frozen tamales to take with me.

This place is right next to Albertsons on College in Durango, and honestly I don’t think I ever noticed this place before I found it online, even though I had been to the Albertsons many times before. Maybe because it is so small. My husband and I went in for dinner around 6.30 and it was empty. He said he had seen a bunch of people in this place a couple of days before but of course I did not notice. It is a cozy little place.
The food was pretty good. Nothing extremely special but it wasn’t horrible either. My husband had the bean and avocado burrito, which had rice, beans, salsa, avocado, cheese, and sour cream. It was pretty big and around 9.00. I asked him to rate it and he gave it 4 stars. I had the corn and zucchini tamale with a side of beans. The tamale was around 6.00 and I think the side of beans were in the 1.50 range. I really like the beans, probably mostly because they are not made with lard, which is hard to find at a Mexican place, and the flavor of them was pretty good too. I could have eaten a whole plate of them, but I also love beans. The tamale was also large, and while it tasted good, it also lacked some flavor. I got the medium red salsa on top, which had no spice whatsoever. I am not a huge salt fan, but I found it needed a little something extra. The tamales seem to be a huge hit with people here because they ran out right after I ordered mine, and everyone that came in after us asked for tamales. They were filling, I will say that. I looked at my plate and thought I was still going to be hungry after my meal, but got pretty full about halfway through.
We both liked this place enough that we will most likely come back when we visit Durango again. I felt that it was a decent deal, 20.00 for the two of us and that was with iced teas as well as our food. And I have to give them props for all of the vegetarian options they had. It is nice to find a restaurant that understands that not everyone eats meat and has more than one vegetarian option to choose from, like so many other places.

Cute little space, but the food was pretty tasteless and we paid too much for what we got. The worst example was the chips and salsa. I paid $ 3.99 for a plate of chips that were freshly fried, but way too hard as if they had been fried previously and then fried again to give them that «fresh» taste. I don’t know how you mess up chips, but they succeeded. The salsa came in a tiny little portion cup and I noticed on the menu that they charged $.97 for additional little portion cups of salsa. I just hate being nickel and dimed like that. Makes me feel like it’s all about the money to them.
The chile relleno had a sauce on it that tasted like tomato paste, it was that bland. And the beans were boring as well. It was pretty funny to note that all of the salt shakers in the entire place were empty and I had to ask for salt at the counter. Gee, I wonder why people used all the salt?
My wife ordered a side of guacamole and when our food came out, I thought they’d forgotten it because I didn’t see anything green on our table. Then I saw a portion cup with mainly tomatoes with a hint of chunks of avocado mixed in. They’re trying to pull the chunky style guacamole on us as an excuse to give less avocado I think. Again, really disappointing.
Definitely will not be back.

We went here for lunch. We both had chicken burritos which we thought were way overpriced and bland at best. A very forgettable experience and a poor value.

All right, after making numerous trips back and sampling a bit of everything on the menu, Linda’s gets five stars from me :) Maybe it’s the fresh, local, and flavorful ingredients she uses (woohoo for grass-​fed, James Ranch beef!) or maybe it’s her salsas, her true Mexican cheese, or her creamy, dreamy beans, which I could eat for all of eternity. Maybe it’s the fact that I had the most fantastic afternoon there about a week and a half ago, lazing in the sun on the patio, flipping through the Telegraph and nibbling on my zucchini-​corn filled wonderfulness and loving the true epitome of Durango that my actions embodied — a laid-​back attitude, some fantastic food, and a gorgeous day. All I needed was a microbrew :) As I yelled goodbye to Linda and stepped out into the world outside, I was relaxed, sated, and finally, FINALLY, I felt like a local. Hallelujah!