My wife grew up in the Lower Valley in El Paso, Texas. One day, while we were eating at our neighborhood New Mexico-style cafe, Si Senor, she ordered the gorditas. I was puzzled because she always orders the carne adovado. I looked up from shoveling my chile rellenos into my pie hole, and her gorditas looked amazing! I tried a bite and was totally amazing. I told her that the gorditas impressed me, and she said "Yeah..they’re good, but not nearly as good as Little Diner!"
On our last trip to El Paso, we decided to drive to this mysterious micro meal emporium in Canutillo, Texas. Canutillo is a small community northwest of El Paso, off I-10 at the Trans-Mountain exit.
It is a small dinner situated in a neighborhood, which was difficult to find. We arrived ten minutes before lunch opening, with my Mother-in-Law, Yolie Silva, in tow. Once the door opened people piled in instantly behind us like passenger pigeons to the coop.
The actual name of the restaurant is Canutillo Tortilla Factory and Little Diner, but the locals know it colloquially as "Little Dinner." It fills up instantly, and the fans are loyal raving fans. It does not hurt that magazines and newspapers are hyping the place as the “can’t miss” eating experience. The hype was well deserved, and validated by this video here
,
Little Diner is unique as it offers a hybridized cuisine between traditional El Paso-style cooking, with New Mexico chiles straight out of the Mesilla Valley. The most famous dish at the Little Diner is their incredible gorditas. The crunchy, yet soft zoftic gordita made with house ground masa with lots of delicious red chile mixed in. The savory ground beef has a slight umami flavor and the house-made red salsa is fantastic poured inside this "moon pie" of meat and corn. The texture and mouth-fill is beyond ethereal, and I consider them sacred soul food of the Tonsured Maize God!
Little Dinner also severs Las Cruces-style flat Green Enchiladas, New Mexico-style rellenos with Muenster cheese, instead of the typical yellow or white queso. I do love Muenster cheese, a vestige of my days living in Nocona, Texas down the road from the German hamlet of Muenster, Texas. All the food is well-made with local ingredients. My patron saint, El Nino de Atocha is on a retablo on the wall so Little Diner gets bonus points from me! I also noticed a photo of Dubya's visit on the wall so I guess they get DOUBLE bonus points.
I give Little Dinner… 5 Chile Gorilla Chile Pods
On our last trip to El Paso, we decided to drive to this mysterious micro meal emporium in Canutillo, Texas. Canutillo is a small community northwest of El Paso, off I-10 at the Trans-Mountain exit.
It is a small dinner situated in a neighborhood, which was difficult to find. We arrived ten minutes before lunch opening, with my Mother-in-Law, Yolie Silva, in tow. Once the door opened people piled in instantly behind us like passenger pigeons to the coop.
The actual name of the restaurant is Canutillo Tortilla Factory and Little Diner, but the locals know it colloquially as "Little Dinner." It fills up instantly, and the fans are loyal raving fans. It does not hurt that magazines and newspapers are hyping the place as the “can’t miss” eating experience. The hype was well deserved, and validated by this video here
,
Little Diner is unique as it offers a hybridized cuisine between traditional El Paso-style cooking, with New Mexico chiles straight out of the Mesilla Valley. The most famous dish at the Little Diner is their incredible gorditas. The crunchy, yet soft zoftic gordita made with house ground masa with lots of delicious red chile mixed in. The savory ground beef has a slight umami flavor and the house-made red salsa is fantastic poured inside this "moon pie" of meat and corn. The texture and mouth-fill is beyond ethereal, and I consider them sacred soul food of the Tonsured Maize God!
Little Dinner also severs Las Cruces-style flat Green Enchiladas, New Mexico-style rellenos with Muenster cheese, instead of the typical yellow or white queso. I do love Muenster cheese, a vestige of my days living in Nocona, Texas down the road from the German hamlet of Muenster, Texas. All the food is well-made with local ingredients. My patron saint, El Nino de Atocha is on a retablo on the wall so Little Diner gets bonus points from me! I also noticed a photo of Dubya's visit on the wall so I guess they get DOUBLE bonus points.
I give Little Dinner… 5 Chile Gorilla Chile Pods