La Sandia Park Meadows
Guac is extra? Well so are we!
denv.her. was invited to visit Richard Sandoval Restaurant, La Sandia Park Meadows, to try out their most popular dishes and to check out their Fifth Annual Guacamole Festival!
La Sandia offers delicious twists on Mexican standards and they have a HUGE tequila selection to choose from #yesplease. This restaurant has a really warm & inviting cantina vibe with dragonfly, bird & flower design light cutouts filtered throughout the dining area, colored glass opposing walls, and an ornate silver ceiling.
Once seated, we began our meal by ordering drinks. I chose the Spicy Orange Infused Tequila Margarita and Treslyn tried the Mandarin Mojito Mocktail (Treslyn is training for the Chicago marathon so is staying away from alcohol at the moment)!
The Spicy Orange Infused Tequila Marg was an interesting twist on a traditional spicy margarita that I had never had before. The initial onset taste was that of citrus & orange and the jalapeno spice kicks in a bit after you swallow. I really enjoyed this drink!
Treslyn really liked her Mandarin Mojito Mocktail which was not overly sugary like some mocktails can be. The Mandarin Mojito Mocktail is a great option if you are not indulging in alcohol for the evening and still looking for a refreshing drink.
Now what can be more difficult than choosing what guacamole's to try at a Guacamole Festival?! One does not simply choose just one guacamole! Since we wanted to try them all (seriously we’re obsessed with guacamole), we ordered the Guacamole Sampler #problemsolved! & this way, we were able to get a good taste of each regional flavor of guac La Sandia is highlighting.
The Guacamole Sampler includes four guacs to try; two of which that were created specifically for the Guacamole Festival.
The first guac we tried was the Chunky Guacamole that is served with avocado neatly cubed & garnished with heirloom cherry tomatoes, pickled pearl onion, radish, cotija, and roated serrano peppers. Y-U-M. This guac was creamy, delicious, and everything you could want in a standard guacamole! The cubes also make for beautiful presentation! We had never seen guacamole served like this before!
Next up was the Guacamole Verde. The Guacamole Verde was extremely refreshing due to cucumber in the guacamole along with shrimp and aguachile sauce. This guac definitely has the refreshing seafood appeal.
The third guacamole we sampled was the Guacamole Huarache. The Guacamole Huarache is made with crispy chorizo, queso panela, roasted corn, radish salad, and pickled jalapeno. We really enjoyed the pickled jalepeno in this guac and the chorizo made it very savory. This was the heartiest of all the guacs on the Guacamole Sampler.
The fourth guac we tried was the Sweet and Sour Guacamole (I would eat this guac every single day if I could)! The Sweet and Sour Guacamole featured fresh mango, banana plantain chips, caramelized pineapple and dried apricots. The dried fruit in this guac provided sweetness with each bite! We also enjoyed the differentiation on standard chips here with the plantain chips.
Although all the guacs were great and we would order each again, the Sweet and Sour Guacamole was hands down both of our favorites!
After we eagerly (and happily) consumed our body weights in guacamole lol (seriously they all were so good), next up was entrees! Our fabulous servers suggested the Chicken Zarape and the Salmon Adobado for our main meals and we decided to take their advice. Nothing is better than having knowledgeable servers that can point you in the right direction on what to order!
Our server's suggestions ended up being on point! The Chicken Zarape is pan-seared with bacon and then served beautifully with panela and a chipotle cream sauce drizzled across the top. This dish comes with refried beans and white rice on the side.
The Salmon Adobado was cooked to perfection and served over a bed of corn esquites with habanero aioli and micro cilantro.
We will 100% order these dishes again when visiting La Sandia. I favored the Chicken Zarape while Treslyn loved the Salmon Adobado.
To finish our meal, we had the Churros which were served with strawberries, chocolate sauce, and caramel sauce. Both my sister and I are suckers when it comes to dessert and these churros were the perfect sweet ending to a great meal.
We recommend La Sandia when looking for great Mexican food and drinks! Make sure to get out to one of the two locations in CO to check out their Fifth Annual Guacamole Festival!
Happy Eating!