Santa Fe

All it took was a nudging from my budding 16-year-old gastronome bemoaning the fact that she had never had Mexican food to book a table at one of the oldest Tex-Mex restaurants in town, Santa Fe. Athens is not exactly Mecca for south-of-the-border cuisine but Santa Fe has been around for a long time and serves up competent food that appeals to the under 50-kilo crowd. The margaritas are pretty good for us in the 50-year-old crowd.

The restaurant is on a back street in a popular suburb, Halandri, set in what was once a typical neighborhood house. The garden is lovely. Most Mexican and Tex-Mex food in Athens is prefab, with things like chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, chiles rellenos and more coming more or less already prepared (frozen) with little for the kitchen to do but pop them in a deep-fryer. That’s mainly because it’s virtually impossible to find the gamut of authentic ingredients necessary to prepare real Mexican food, which is a truly exotic cuisine rich in fish, pounded sauces, exotic flavors, and a rainbow of chiles and herbs that spice up and season almost everything.

Dinner started with—what else—a bowl of nachos and a little salsa, followed by a guacamole, the pounded or pureed avocado dip that is to Mexican cuisine what tzatziki is to us Greeks. It was ok, a little on the bland side, but fresh. The avocado shrimp salad was mild, soft and buttery from the fattiness of the avocado and the dressing. My dining companion liked it! Liking heat and wanting it, despite the mercury, I ordered a prefab plate of jalapeno poppers—jalapenos stuffed with cheese and deep fried. OK. Beyond the heat there isn’t much flavor in anything standardized, right? What was surprisingly decently prepared here was the steak, not a T-bone (which is on the menu) but the Rib eye, which was very large, thick, juicy and nicely charred on the outside. Enchiladas, tacos, fajitas and burritos, the flagship dishes of Tex Mex cuisine which have crossed every border to make it all the way to the Mediterranean, were also, of course, on the menu. We tried a sampling of them in the combo platter, which comes with classic refried beans and rice. The portion was Texas-size.

If I were 20 and wanted something “exotic” I’d love this place. But several decades down the line make me yearn for stuff that’s not prefab or nuked in a microwave. There once was a real Mexican restaurant in Athens that served some of the country’s most unusual foods, but it didn’t last. Santa Fe has, for years. So, who’s right, the reviewer who wants real food or the restaurant operator who’s survived, even flourished, on something in between?

Cuisine: Prefab Tex-Mex “classics” from guacamole to fajitas

Athens Area: Northern suburbs, Halandri
Decor-Atmosphere: Pleasant, fun, nice garden in the summer
Service: Good
Wine List: Ok, with some Mexican beers too Prices:25-30 euro a person Address: 30B, Ag. Georgiou str., Halandri, tel.2106859690