El Molino Sells Glamour and a Little Bit of Mexican Food

Walking into El Molino, tucked away in the food-centric Snider Plaza where Vandelay Hospitality already owns outposts East Hampton Sandwich Co., Jack & Harry’s and Bar Sardine, diners can expect to find something familiar.

It’s clear that the Vandelay design team drew inspiration from Casa Vega, a Los Angeles restaurant named an American Classic by the James Beard Awards in 2022. The same tufted leather booths line the walls, heavy wooden chairs and ambient red lights set the mood. Gold-lined mirrors hang alongside antique Mexican portraits on the walls, minus any hint of whimsy or kitsch, and the furniture is more Spanish Colonial than Mexican rustic. 

“El Molino is a place that I wanted to exist in Dallas that pairs fun Mexican food with similar sexy vibes like Drake’s and Jack & Harry’s,” says CEO Hunter Pond on the inspiration for the restaurant. Wood-fired fajitas are the “heart” of the menu, along with a “cozy, intimate setting.” 

It’s unclear why El Molino is marketed as a Mexican restaurant, however, since the menu is largely composed of classic Tex-Mex dishes.

Interestingly, the menu got smaller in the week after I made my reservation: All strictly vegetarian dishes were removed.

New Ventures

This is the first venture into Mexican food by the hospitality group that was sued by its own employees in 2021 in a labor and employment practices suit that included allegations of discriminatory hiring practices, profiling of guests and use of dress codes to deny people of color service or reservations. There was also allegedly a “forced ranking” system that allowed employees to be fired on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation (at the time, the group denied the allegations and it has subsequently settled the lawsuits). Yes, El Molino does have a “business casual” dress code. 

At El Molino, various proteins are served as fajitas, enchiladas, quesadillas, tacos al carbon and nachos. For mysterious reasons, the branzino, which is generally caught in the Mediterranean or Black Seas, is offered Veracruz-style ($36.99). Perhaps the Gulf of Mexico is fresh out of red snapper, or perhaps Vandelay thinks Park Cities diners won’t bear the price markup. Also unexplained is the presence of a Las Vegas rib-eye ($48.99), served with guajillo pineapple nectar, unless it is a random nod to the city’s history as a Mexican territory. There is also a cheeseburger, which is a shame because it would have been so easy to call it a hamburguresa and keep pushing.

For Starters …

The meal starts where it does at any Tex-Mex spot, with a basket of tortilla chips and a bowl of salsa. The chips are made from corn tortillas purchased elsewhere (our server did not know from where), cut into strips, and fried every half hour or so. They have a light glaze of oil and fresh salt to prove it, but the tortillas tasted a bit stale. The salsa is the platonic ideal of salsa roja made in a blender. The color and acidity are picture-perfect, with just enough onion and jalapeño mix to add flavor, but not so much that it will send your taste buds into the stratosphere. 

The appetizer menu is concise, and it seems to be a mix of apps and kids’ menu items. The guacamole ($12.99) was fresh, featuring light green avocados that were only lightly mashed to retain their chunky texture, along with lime juice. There are also chunks of radish and corn sprinkled on top. With it comes three triangles of a quesadilla, which is an unexpected but welcome addition. The house margarita on the rocks ($15) is delightful, hitting the right mix of blanco tequila and fresh lime juice with orange liqueur, doing what it’s supposed to do.

Jumbo Mains

Moving to the most authentically Mexican food on the menu, the jumbo crab and shrimp enchiladas ($34.99) are a rich, buttery dish covered in mozzarella cheese, offering far more spice than expected based on the rest of the meal, from which any spice, be it hot or Mexican-inspired, was largely missing. The peppers in question appeared to be dried chipotles or chiles de árbol, served as part of the house play on a smooth ranchero “Molino sauce.” The plate came with the expected sides of Mexican rice, which was rich in vegetable flavors, and, despite informing the server that my dinner companion is a pescatarian, a side of refried beans made with pork lard had a strangely beefy taste. There was also a small scoop of elotes, which is another good enhancement, and a few pickled vegetables.

The chicken fajitas ($24.99) did not pack nearly the same flavor punch, and were perplexingly served on a silver tray rather than the traditional sizzling skillet. The chicken appeared to have been seasoned with a dry rub, which meant the meat tasted more like dry medallions from a roasted chicken rather than the long, thin strips typically used for fajitas. The meat sat in the butter and oil it was cooked in, along with wilted, charred whole green onions, half of a tomato, peppers, white onions and half a deeply charred, fully seeded jalapeño.

The usual sides included a small scoop of sour cream, guacamole, shredded cheddar cheese and more of those pickled vegetables that seem ever-present and ever likely to go ignored. The waiter warned me that I would only receive four tortillas — from that same unknown local vendor — with an unspoken threat that more would cost extra. Not very hospitable, to say the least. The tortillas came sandwiched between two plates and were wrapped in a red napkin. Perhaps there is something to be deduced from the fact that El Molino found the budget for Aztec-inspired sculptures around the bathroom entrance but not for tortilla warmers.

Cheesecake for the Win

For dessert, there are two options: vanilla ice cream topped with cinnamon ($5) served as a single scoop in a dish, or a sopapilla cheesecake ($12). Both have at best marginal connections to Mexican cuisine. Save your money on the ice cream and opt for the cheesecake, which is decadently creamy and features a crescent-roll-like crust, topped with a hard cinnamon and sugar layer. It may be the second most Mexican dish in the joint.

There were some hiccups with the service, which mostly involved the utter neglect of our empty water glasses and the kitchen’s oversight of our request to exclude beans from the plate due to dietary reasons, which is no small matter. The overall experience lends itself to many restaurants in Snider Plaza as places that people who live in the area will likely visit out of convenience, while those who don’t may not even realize they exist. The latter group isn’t missing much at El Molino.

El Molino, 6818 Snider Plaza, Monday – Sunday 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.