Mauka Restaurant
Photo by Douglas Merriam
Simplicity is the key to the menu and seating at Mauka
Hallelujah! A new restaurant in Santa Fe challenges our taste buds with interesting flavor combinations, incorporates an up-until-this-point unexplored cuisine, and employs a young chef who plans to compete with the big boys by offering creative food at affordable prices.
The upstart gourmet is Joel Coleman, recently of Mu Du Noodles, a long-time Hawaiian resident self-taught in the culinary arts. His menu is Hawaiian melded comfortably with Asian and European, both in terms of ingredients and cooking techniques. And the interesting flavor combinations are as unexpected as Fuyu persimmon with bacon, tamarind with turnips, and beets with maple syrup. Best thing: everything that I sampled worked.
The cozy location on Agua Fria, at the back of the Sanbusco Center, suggests a sunny cottage you might find on Oahu or in Japan. Beige walls and brown banquettes are dressed up with elegant prints of Hawaiian flowers on the walls. It’s a tidy setting that allows diners to concentrate on the deliciousness of the food amid an understated décor.
Chef Coleman is both confident and cocky with his menu planning. Soft-spoken and serious, he designs dishes with youthful abandon—he’s not yet 30—taking culinary chances and mostly succeeding. A Poke Roll stuffed with barely seared ahi tuna gets an island touch with a sauce of Maui pineapple chutney and a crown of black tobiko caviar.
Organic ingredients abound in dishes like the lunch menu’s yummy hot-and-sour glazed chicken wings and a moist lamb burger served with a bird’s-nest tangle of crispy sweet-potato fries topped with an olive-studded tabbouleh salad. Lacquered bento boxes offer a cost-friendly whole meal of fragrant miso soup, sweet-and-sour cucumber salad, soba noodles, and a choice of crispy pork, chicken, or seared tofu.
For the lingering days of winter, look for comfort foods like soy glazed pork belly on sautéed red cabbage and slow-braised beef short ribs with roasted seasonal vegetables that will be a great chill kill.
The global wine list features many of Coleman’s favorite varietals, chosen specifically to pair well with his eclectic menu. With appetizers, try a crisp Pinot Gris or a fruity Riesling. Meat dishes are set off better with Sangioveses or a rich Spanish Tempranillo. Beer and top-shelf sake are available as well.
The creations of pastry chef Joanna Schneider finish off the meal with even more creative aplomb, evident in her luscious orange tuille fortune cookies complete with handwritten fortunes and the Hawaiian-esque Ginger Spice Cake with Tropical Fruit Chutney.
Mauka, 544 Agua Fria, 505-984-1969; winter hours: Tuesday–Saturday, lunch 11:30–2, dinner 5:30–9
