La Casa Fiesta ~ Monument, Colorado

Last visit: Jan 2023

First visit: Sep 2018

We had the FNABQ's over yesterday. Who are they, you ask? A family that used to live across the street from us here in Colorado Springs but now live in Albuquerque. Hence, Former Neighbor [now in] Albuquerque. It's highly likely we will see them down there this year as well. Like the Cowcatchers in NE Tarrant, it's apparent we will be keeping in touch, as our friendship has continued to grow. Their son is attending the Colorado School of Mines, and he didn't join us on this occasion. Mrs. RJG and I were hoping they'd arrive with a suggestion for lunch, and sure enough they did: La Casa Fiesta in Monument.

This would have been the only way that Mrs. RJG and I would have returned. As you can see we went once not too long after moving here. We didn't enjoy the experience, and we had such high hopes going in that first time. La Casa Fiesta is one of those restaurants that looks great on paper. Especially Regular Joe's Guide paper. Check the boxes: Their legacy goes back to a Hobbs, New Mexico restaurant in 1957. Current generation opened up a successful Mexican place of their own here in Colorado Springs called Pepe's from 1983 to 1995. Even though I was here then, I don't recall hearing of it. I would have caught it at the end anyway. One year later, they opened up in quaint downtown Monument. The location screams "old Colorado Mexican". Mostly darkened interior and of course, "the best margaritas". They take it further to state "The Best Margaritas on Front St.". Umm, who or what would be the competition?

In any case, we're back. Since we didn't write about the original experience, this entry will constitute our first new review of 2023. On our original visit we were both very disappointed with the salsa that comes with the chips. It was very bland and tasted of tomatoes and little else. I cannot recall if they were just out of their hotter variety or they've added one since, but this proved to be much better. I would suggest their hot is "medium" but the flavor was good. The chips are tri-color (mostly yellow though) and seem out of the bag (still good though). While we were munching on chips, I had a craft beer from Bristol, while Mr. FNABQ had a Negro Modelo. The ladies each had a margarita on the rocks. So far so good. Onto the main event. The FNABQ's shared a fajita platter, and the Mrs. and I each went for the New Mexico stacked enchiladas. And added rice and beans.

And this is when things began to fall apart. The rice was slightly mushy and closer to cold than hot. The refried beans were unimaginative and also lukewarm. The "spicy beef" isn't any such thing, more like ground beef with a taco seasoning. The temperature of this dish was better, still not perfect. We both got Christmas. You know you're in trouble when it's hard to distinguish which is which. There was just enough color variation to figure it out. But this is miles away from what we expect from a New Mexico chile, or even something we would experience in Pueblo. We just cannot get excited about La Casa Fiesta. And we want too - it's location and ambience are perfect. It's also very popular. We have inside knowledge that it has gone down a storm with the local Mormon community, which might explain the lack of extra spice. I fear it will take some other outside event to get us back to La Casa Fiesta. As for the FNABQ's, they seemed to enjoy theirs thoroughly. But we know their tastes run more conservative than ours.

9/1/18; 1/9/23 (new entry)