If you haven’t eaten at D’ La Santa yet, just up the hill from Montlake, you’re missing out.
Scouts from the Montlake Flyer have visited D’ La Santa six times over the past year, each visit better than the next. Our favorites: Rib Eye served on a hot plate and Conchinita Pibil, a Yucatan dish of marinated pork with spices cooked in banana leaves. Both children and adults loved the Molletes, toasted French bread halves topped with refried beans and cheese. Carne Asada tacos are another kid favorite. Meats are the focus here, which made us all the more surprised that the Tacos Gobernador—shrimp sautéed with garlic—were so delicious. Don’t miss the margaritas either, served in a jicara, a type of cup used by Mayan people to scoop water. Other popular dishes are Tacoarte (a family style taco platter), D’la Santa Parrillada (family style meat platter), and Chile en Nogada (poblano stuffed pepper). For dessert, the flan and plantains were both excellent.
Photo: Angelica Villasenor (middle) with her daughters Angelica and Stephanie Iriarte.
D’ La Santa is family-owned and operated, and it shows in the home-cooked flavors and friendly service. Head cook Angelica Villasenor co-owns the restaurant with her daughters Angelica and Stephanie Iriarte, her sons-in-law Manuel Iriarte and Alejandro Castillo, and her brother Herman Villasenor. The restaurant is in the old XO Bistro space at the corner of 10th Ave E and Miller on North Capitol Hill.
Angelica told the Flyer she wanted to create a different kind of Mexican restaurant with D’ La Santa. Mexican food is so much more than cheese melted on top of food, she told us. D’ La Santa’s menu shows just how varied Mexican food is, with dishes from the Yucatan, Oaxaca, Puebla, Guadalajara, Mazatlán, and Sonora. Angelica shopped Mexican markets to decorate the restaurant.
Upon seating, all diners are served a salsa platter with pickled onions, cilantro, white onions, radishes, pico de gallo, and salsa tomatillo. Angelica said the platter lets guests top food how they want to.
After one year and 4 months in business, Angelica credits their success with a homemade cooking style and constant tasting and adjusting. “We aren’t chefs,” Angelica explained. “We cook homemade.” Regulars and new guests alike can look forward to five new dishes coming to the menu soon.
D’ La Santa
2359 10th Ave E
Seattle, WA 98102
Web Site: https://dlasanta.com/
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