Truly one of the most disappointing places in El Paso for good coffee, Good Coffee delivers on breakfast like no other Mexican restaurant in the city. And who needs a good cup of coffee to deaden the magnificent flavors of dishes like Enchiladas Montada and Chilaquiles? (Recipes for all of these dishes are provided in the Cook it Yo'Self section at the bottom of this review just in case you're reading this after Good Coffee closes for the day and the urge to cook takes over.)
As is typical with several Mexican dishes served on the breakfast menu, Enchiladas Montada turns a traditional dinner item into an amazing breakfast item by adding two simple ingredients, eggs over easy and hash browns. Enchiladas Montada (pictured above) comes with two cheese enchiladas smothered in red chile sauce topped with an egg over easy. Simply breaking the egg yolk covers the enchiladas with a creamy yolk, adding a smooth texture to the already soft textures of melted American cheese and soft tortillas. Every spoonful can be taken to the next level with either a small bit of refried beans or hash browns, a perfect flavor combination. An incredibly heavy breakfast, I usually make my walk through half of the plate, taking the other half home to dine on as a late afternoon snack.
Another excellent breakfast dish that comes with a stronger flavor and texture kick is Chilaquiles, with red or green chile sauce. Made from scratch this dish can be incredibly time consuming but 100% worth the effort. Several corn tortillas are cut into chip-sized bites and deep-fried in oil. In a blender you can puree red or green chiles to make the sauce, which is poured over the chips after they’ve been fried, covering the chips entirely with a red or green sauce, depending on your flavor craving. Next the chips are coated with shredded American cheese, chopped scallions and topped with two eggs over easy. Depending on how much you fry the chips and how soon the chile sauce coats them, the chips can be crunchy or soft. I prefer my Chilaquiles dish to have a texture combination of hard chips, soft cheese, crunchy scallions and soft egg yolks melted over it all. Normally served with refried beans, this dish is also heavy for breakfast and usually half of my meal makes it home to my refrigerator.
If heavy Mexican dishes aren’t your thing for breakfast, the American breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes is another menu item worth exploring. Good Coffee’s pancakes are thick and light and fluffy, a combination of textures rarely achieved in a pancake. Served with a huge helping of butter and endless syrup, the pancakes are divine. The bacon is thick and fried to a perfect crisp, which tastes delicious alongside eggs scrambled in butter.
I’ve yet to be disappointed in the food at Good Coffee but haven’t really explored the lunch and dinner items, as I can’t seem the get past the delicious breakfast. After attempting to love the coffee, I just plain gave up and now order lemonade or iced tea with my meals.
Why the name Good Coffee for a restaurant that serves up such delicious Mexican food and such terrible coffee? Both “Great Breakfast” or “Yummy Food” would make excellent names but who really cares about the restaurant’s name when your tastes buds are dancing on the back of tongue as the flavors of red chile, melted cheese and eggs over easy make their way into to your stomach, right?
Does Good Coffee serve some of the best Mexican food for breakfast in El Paso? Absolutely. If you’re in El Paso for a short visit, this is definitely one restaurant you need to place on your culinary schedule. Breakfast dishes run $5 - $9.
Cook it yo'self:
Click here for a red chile sauce recipe
Click here for Rick Bayless' Chilaqules recipe
Click here for an Enchiladas Montadas recipe
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