Just because I’d ordered the house special combo at El Tepehuan, in Englewood on South Broadway (one green-chile-smothered bean burrito, one red-chile-smothered chicken enchilada, one beef taco, one bean tostada, rice and beans), didn’t mean that I planned on finishing it.
I would have just a few bites of each item, then haul the leftovers home in a box for breakfast the next day.
After all, when the spread arrived at my table, the sheer surface area of it (it spread across two plates and took up at least half of the four-top I was hogging for myself) was, well, daunting.
But once I started in on the buffet-for-one, taking first a spicy, moist morsel from the enchilada on the and working my way bite by bite across the plates from burrito to taco to tostada, moving methodically left to right as if reading a sacred text, my arm didn’t stop moving, delivering forkful after succulent, comforting forkful to my hypnotized choppers.
It was way too much food. After all, it’s just not normal to finish any house special combo plate on the planet because these combos are, by definition, far too voluminous for the normal human stomach.
But at El Tepehuan, I cleaned every plate on the table, and half a basket of chips, without even looking up.
It took me a couple of days to figure out why, and I think it’s this: At most modest Mexican restaurants, at least one of the items on the “house special” combo (or whatever it’s called; every restaurant has one) is a throwaway. Either the beans are old and crusty, or the burrito is soggy, or the smothering sauce too runny. And the presence of a dud takes away the compulsion to finish.
Not so at El Tepehuan. Every item in the combo was, if not astonishingly fantastic, nonetheless a solid throw-down, gimme-more, don’t-talk-to-me-I’m-eating keeper. Fresh, flavorful, spicy and just naughty enough, from the spicy red chile Colorado to the melty-velvety cheese over the beans to the plump, meaty beans themselves.
Authentic? Depends on what you mean. Maybe not the most authentic Mexican food. But certainly authentic American-Mexican combo-plate fare, which is so ubiquitous west of the Mississippi that you could make a case for granting it official status as a sub-cuisine. Or a sub-hybrid-cuisine. Or something.
Whatever you’d call it, the combo plate at El Tepehuan was a totally memorable example of it. And spicier than most.
Subsequent visits have proven that the house special wasn’t a total fluke. While some dishes have disappointed (the tamale lacked character, the guacamole was underseasoned), there were plenty of standouts on the menu.
One recent score was the chuletas plate of grilled pork chops with rice and beans, and an exhilaratingly spicy red-chile sauce on the side. Hot? Searingly so. But unlike most four-alarm dishes, the heat didn’t compromise the complex flavors hidden among the chiles.
And besides, there’s a fridge on one side of the room stocked with cold beers, and there’s no better way to keep chiles in check.
Also a prize, the la negra appetizer, a sizzling cast iron plate of soft white cheese, zingy griddled chorizo and rings of caramelized onion. Scoop it out with a chip, wrapping the strings of melted cheese around your tongue, and moan as you chew.
One reliable lunch: the so-called Bob Burrito of flaky marinated beef, beans surrounded by a couple of scoops of peppy green chile and all the Ameri-Mex fixin’s you’d expect (shredded yellow cheese, iceberg lettuce, chopped tomato).
Another reliable lunch: tacos al carbon, three corn tortillas with a toss of aromatic marinated, griddled beef on top, rice and beans on the side.
Service at El Tepehuan isn’t indulgent, but it is always friendly, efficient, welcoming and warm. You’ll be directed, with a smile, to choose your own table, and you won’t wait long to be offered something cold to drink.
Often, you’ll be waited on by a succession of servers, each in charge of a different component of your meal (one brings water and menus, another takes your order, a third delivers your plates), each pleasant and accommodating and alert.
Pay at the counter when you’re done, leave a tip on your table, and expect a cheerful “thank you” as you stumble out into the sidewalk, patting your stomach and looking forward to a nap.
I envy the folks in Englewood for whom El Tepehuan is an easy 5-minute, once-weekly drive away. Like the huge number of people that call themselves regulars of the place. If I lived in the neighborhood I’d make it a habit.
More online: Find an archive of Tucker Shaw’s dining reviews. denverpost.com/restaurants
Tucker Shaw: 303-954-1958 or dining@denverpost.com
El Tepehuan
Mexican 3457 S. Broadway, 303-781-0243
** | Very Good
Atmosphere: Not fancy but cheerful and accommodating dining room with open kitchen.
Service: Friendly, speedy, hardworking, efficient.
Wine: Beer!
Plates: Nothing over $12.
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Details: Street parking. All major credit cards. Take-out available.
Three visits.
Our star system:
****: Excellent
***: Great
**: Very Good
*: Good
