La Mesita Eatery

Pleasantly Surprised !!! I will return !! French Dip and French Fries were better than advertised. We have high expectations and we weren’t disappointed!!! The location is a little tricky to navigate, we found our way after several closed roads. Frustrating when you can see the building but can’t drive directly to it. Good food and good service!!! y

This review is for the cherry pie we had from here tonight. This pie is out of this world good! I’d love to be able to buy the whole pie. Yum!!!

A solid choice everytime. I prefer to sit at the bar. The bar area is small, but if your lucky & u ask for Sean and he happens to be behind said bar or in the restaurant for that matter, you will have your meal served to you by a complete gentlemen who deeply cares that you have a quality experience in his establishment. I have had everything on the menu, its all good. The pies r excellent. In my heart the real winner is the house dressing.

Absolutely excellent experience here! We were staying at #BuffaloThunder and on the search for food. This is a lovely, locally owned family restaurant. The menu is limited, which was actually very nice. My husband was so happy with their chocolate cake that we had to come back a second time before we left! I enjoyed their fried chicken on my first trip and the T-​bone on my second trip and recommend both.
The service was exceptional. The owner circulates through the dining room making sure your order is correct and generally making your feel welcome. The wait staff was very knowledgable and generally nice people!
I have #mobility and #disability issues. There was plenty of room in the dining room for me to move about with my scooter and the restrooms are large enough to accommodate people with mobility issues.

This place is amazing and super friendly! Service was top notch! Sean who is a 3^rd generation owner is the most friendly and the best as they come! His grandmothers fried chicken is the best I’ve had! Support this place!

The chicken may be the only thing worth ordering, and I’ve heard it’s good. The owner is super nice. But if you are a vegetarian, this is not the place for you. The mac and cheese is the worst I’ve had, and the pasta wasn’t much better. I gave it a second chance last night and I’m sorry I wasted my money. I could have gotten past the bad food if the service would have been good, but they were understaffed and inattentive. Too bad.

I am so glad I decided to check this place out. The Spring Chicken was fantastic. Crispy and hot, the coating was spiced perfectly. I haven’t had chicken this good in years. Being a mashed potato and gravy fan, these were the best.

Excellent fried chicken! Not fast food, but home style instead. We are glad to see the restaurant has returned with a pro chef.

I’m so happy this place is back open. Was my favorite place as a kid and now that it is reopen its my kids favorite place. Awesome food and service! Fried chicken and shrimp is to die for and not to mention the salad dressing is killer good.

I have been wanting to try this place for awhile now as it is a favorite at my work and the history of it was interesting to me. The only thing I can say is that I am disappointed in myself for waiting so long.
I went with a group of 5 and everyone ordered something different. I was lucky enough to try everyone’s meal and every single thing I tried was delicious. I personally had the fried chicken and it was cooked perfectly. My sister had the pasta primavera with cream sauce and hers was also amazingly good. There was also high praise for the ground beef steak, tomato soup and grilled cheese.
The service was friendly, fast and helpful.
We will definitely be back.

I last ate here like 30 years ago when I was in high school, so I can’t really compare it to what it was. What I can say is that the burger was excellent (with green chile and cheese), my kids liked the Mac and cheese, the pasta primavera was good, and the beef shank special was crazy good. A few good tap beers as well. I’ll definitely be back!

Before I get started with my review of La Mesita Eatery a New American Restaurant, I want to clarify some misconceptions about this restaurant that I have seen in other reviews. After reading some of the reviews and having had the opportunity to speak to the owner, this restaurant is not a restaurant for over indulgence. Do not go into this restaurant expecting the oversize portions that you have come to experience at all of the big chains. This restaurant takes you back to a simpler time in the Pojoaque Valley. The menu is a delightful mixture of items that appeared on the original La Mesita Fine Foods menu and some more contemporary offerings.
At the time of this review, the restaurant has been open for a couple of months. The service is great and there are some opportunities to take it to excellent. Our drink orders were taken within minutes of being escorted to our table, the food was prepped and served promptly. The server did forget my mac and cheese, but it was delivered within 15 seconds of advising her that she forgot it. The food was cooked to order. I ordered the ground steak medium and it was medium. My nephew ordered his burger well and it was well. In my opinion, this is a sign of a good operation when the cooking temperatures are correct. The asparagus were, EXCELLENT! I almost asked for more. The mac and cheese was also exceptional, just the way I like it. The smashed potatoes are exactly as they are described on the menu. My nephew really enjoyed his burger.
One may say that the patty is very small, but you must keep in mind that a 2.5 oz burger was common for the time period and today they are serving a 3oz patty with the option for additional patties. The pricing is competitive based on the size. I would highly recommend this restaurant, but do not try to compare it to a chain. It is a restaurant that will take you back to simpler times and if you get a chance, please ask for Sean. He is the owner and will elaborate on the history of the restaurant. I am looking forward to a return visit!

My family has warm memories of the previous La Mesita and nows owner Sean from his bar tending jobs. We wanted very much to love it now that it’s reopened. I do have one friend who keeps going back for the hamburger and fries — he loves the place!
My partner dined there alone and was overcharged on his debit card. (Like, his bill was $ 12 and they charged him $ 18, and he is always a cash tipper so it’s not like he added a $ 6 tip to his tab.) He went back in person, with receipt. The owner gave him a free beer and said he would look into it and call my husband back. Never called. You can blame a lot of glitches on being newly opened and still working things out, but not this.
On the upside, when I’ve dined there with a small child the server has been wonderfully funny and engaging with the child, even insisting that the chicken tenders are made of dinosaur meat. It is very sweet of the staff to go out of their way to help their smallest customers have a great time eating there. I’ve had fried chicken with mashed potatoes, and it was very good. I’ve had their fries, also very good — piping hot, with crispy outside and fluffy mashed-​potato inside. Our service has always been very attentive, drinks refilled promptly, food arrivals timed well. A couple of times upon leaving, we say goodbye to the person at the host/​hostess station and she seems to make a point of ignoring us. That’s unusual and kind of doesn’t feel good, but I can hope it’s just a fluke and she doesn’t make it a habit.

Been to this restaurant twice now since its reopening. Starting with the good, the house salad and La Mesita dressing is really good. The burger was also very good and is affordably priced. I also thought the fries were really good — they’re thick cut and soft (compared to those crunchy, pencil-​thin fries that a lot of restaurants are serving these days). The downside is their mac and cheese… the kitchen staff needs to learn how to properly prepare it so that the cheese sauce doesn’t break into a mess of oily gooey consistency. Get it right or don’t serve it at all (for comparison, Capital Grill in Santa Fe has an excellent mac and cheese — it’s the perfect consistency and cheese/​macaroni ratio). As for the service, the first time I ate at La Mesita the service was somewhat disappointing, our server was not very attentive. But during our second visit, the service was pretty good. I can’t compare it to the old days because I was a kid and don’t really remember it that well. But in looking ahead and reestablishing themselves, I hope they consider these reviews to work out some kinks because our community really needs a good local, family owned restaurant… our only other local restaurants in Pojoaque are the Roadrunner Café which is absolutely disgusting; and the Sopaipilla Factor which is way overpriced for food that is just so-​so.

I have been going to La Mesita since the 70’s and I am so happy for its return! The service was great. The fried chicken is amazing. The owner Sean Ewy has done a wonderful job in recreating his families restaurant. And as a bonus they now have a nice wine list with a full bar.