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El Dorado Modern Mexican Kitchen and Cantina opened a month after Cinco de Mayo. The restaurant is ready to welcome families who have recently honored their ancestors during the Día de Los Muertes holiday. Located in Hacienda Crossings, El Dorado is a place to enjoy sophisticated, yet traditional foods. Special occasion favorites such as tamales, mole negro, and sopapillas are available throughout the year and are made in house.
Families are welcome at El Dorado. The ambiance has changed dramatically from the darker tones of Black Angus, the previous tenant that closed in 2021. Mexican scenes and cultural icons adorn the persimmon colored walls, and colorful tile backs the bar.
Cooking is a passion for owner Jésus Gonzalez who developed the recipes for El Dorado. Mentored by his father who owned several restaurants in Ft. Collins, Col., Gonzalez adds his special touch to traditional Mexican food and their presentation. Specialties such as tableside guacamole and 7 Mares seafood soup are rarely available at local cantinas.
Take a standard breakfast dish at such as huevos rancheros. At many Mexican restaurants, huevos rancheros often arrives as a chaotic pile of tortillas, black beans, chilis, ranchero sauce, and eggs. I liked the presentation at El Dorado with distinct layers of the freshly made corn tortillas and deep chili flavors of the ranchero sauce.
Other favorite morning foods are available: brunch burritos, healthy power bowls, French toast, and chilaquiles, a mound of tortilla chips with egg, beans, and cheese in a green or red sauce,
The El Dorado Happy Hour is prime time to experience El Dorado. Held on weekday afternoons with a second hour starting on Fridays at 9:00 p.m., consider the well-priced full-size portions of Flautas Mexicana and nachos. The house made jalapeño and red pepper jelly was an ideal dipping sauce for the flautas. Wings and a quesadilla are also Happy Hour specials.
Gonzalez’s family is from Jalisco, the Mexican state where Tequila is made. At Happy Hour, I enjoyed a well-priced Classic Margarita, and Palomas are also menued. Jalisco’s Los Altos highlands are known for cattle ranching. Meat dishes associated with Jalisco include birria, tender beef braised in adobo, served at El Dorado in Quesa-birria Tacos. Enjoyed in Mexico and domestically, molcajetes are sizzling entrées often prepared with meat and served in a molcajete bowl that is traditionally carved from volcanic basalt.
A regular at El Dorado, Peunh Boualouang frequently visits friends in Dublin and San Ramon. “I looked forward to El Dorado. I like the hospitality that extends to the friendly servers and bartenders. At Happy Hour, I get tacos and flautas. For a full meal, I like Molcajete Mixto, which is full of flavor. Today I ate all my churros and tasted my friend’s flan.
One of the most popular El Dorado dishes is Molcajete Mixto. “I think customers like molcajetes because they are served in a lava rock bowl with our Jalisco style sauce. The volcanic stone helps keep the meal hot,” said Gonzalez.
The Molcajete Mixto is made with skirt steak, chicken, shrimp, and chorizo in a green tomatillo sauce. The dish is garnished with several grilled items: nopal pad (cactus), cambray onion, which is like a large, bulbous spring onion, jalapeño, queso fresco, accompanied by rice and beans. Molcajetes are also prepared with seafood or beef.
Other meat dishes associated with Jalisco are listed in the “Especialidades” section of the menu: Carna Asada, which is flame broiled skirt steak, and sautéed Steak Jalisco with a spicy sauce. Other specials include Pork Carnitas, Chile Verde and Chile Colorado. “Favoritos” such as the Super Wet Burrito, Enchiladas, and Quesa-birria tacos are served at lunch and dinner.
Gonzalez created the mole sauce for enchiladas and pollo (chicken). “My mole has 25 ingredients including spices, nuts, and Mexican chocolate, and the flavor is between spicy and sweet.”
Fajitas are available with steak, chicken, shrimp or mixed. Shrimp are offered in several styles from spicy to creamy sauce with vegetables. Other selections include a richly flavored tortilla soup and two seafood soups.
Vegetarian options are menued for fajitas, tacos, enchilada, tostados, molcajetes, taco salads and burritos. White rice is an alternative to Mexican rice, which is made with chicken stock.
Sopapillas are a traditional holiday dessert. Gonzalez serves the puffed pillows of fried pastry dusted with cinnamon sugar in triangular shapes for easy eating. A generous helping of churros is served warm with ice cream and house made dulce de leche caramel sauce for dipping. Caramel sauce tops the flan and covers the plate. For those who love chocolate cake and flan, the Chocoflan arrives with layers of cake and flan topped with caramel sauce.
On the beverage menu, fruit flavored Margaritas range from classic to blackberry and mango to tamarind and jalapeño. Margarita flights include four of the flavors rimmed with house made seasoned salts and a bar snack. Gonzalez selects El Dorado-labeled white and red wines that are made at his friend’s Windsor, Calif. winery. Beers are from Mexico, the U.S., and beyond. Gonzalez’s recipe for Micheladas mixers for beer features several flavored options.
With extensive hospitality experience in Sonoma and Santa Rosa, Gonzalez looks forward to relocating to the Tri-Valley soon, and added, “We would like to share our recipes and food in other locations in the future.”
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