I was down in Phoenix earlier this year for a meeting and afterward I was able to get together with one of my two sisters who live in the Valley of the Sun. I hadn't been to Phoenix in years - nearly 17 years, to be exact - and my sister asked me where I'd like to go for dinner. Mexican food in Phoenix was always a favorite of mine when I would visit there years ago. My sister turned me on to a number of good - and truly authentic - Mexican restaurants over the years and I told her to take me to some good Mexican place. She had heard about a place on the south side of Phoenix situated west of the airport and she suggested we meet at Cocina Madrigal for dinner that evening.
Leo Madrigal was born in Oaxaca, Mexico and as a teenager he worked in restaurants in Mexico City. He learned how to cook both the Qaxacan - well known for their cheese, chocolate and molé sauces - and the more urban Mexico City-style cuisines before heading to Houston in the early 80's to work in restaurants there. In 1988, Madrigal moved to Phoenix to start a family and he eventually became involved in the first Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Scottsdale.
In 1998, Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill - which was based in Austin, TX - put their first location in Phoenix and hired Madrigal to be their corporate chef. He developed a number of popular dishes for the restaurant, but after a number of years he moved on to being a menu consultant for a handful of restaurants including Hopdaddy, Eddie V's, Salty Sow, and Taco Guild.
In 2015, the owners of the Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill filed for bankruptcy protection. An ownership group out of Austin bought the restaurants - the ones that were still open, that is - and one of the first things they did was to hire Leo Madrigal back as their executive chef. Madrigal helped stabilize the kitchens at Z'Tejas, but he was really looking at doing something else - something on his own.
Pictured at right - Leo Madrigal. Photo courtesy Cocina Madrigal.
Madrigal had lived in South Phoenix since 2002. He liked it in South Phoenix, but he felt that the area was lacking in what he would call eclectic Mexican dishes. He decided to start looking for a building to buy, but much of the real estate was too high for his budget. However, a small restaurant space that was very close to his home became available and he grabbed the property. The building was nearly 70 years old and needed some updating, but after renovations and getting things in order, Cocina Madrigal opened in June of 2018.
I was staying at a hotel near Sky Harbor Airport and I got an Uber to take me over to Cocina Madrigal which was located a couple miles away. As we were driving along E. Broadway, I noticed that there was a lot of police activity and some rather sketchy areas. Passing a couple cop cars who had some guys handcuffed, my Uber driver told me, "Yeah, unfortunately, you see that a lot around here." As we turned up S. 16th Street, I saw the sign for Cocina Madrigal on the left. (see map) The place looked, well, it didn't really look like an eclectic Mexican restaurant like my sister said it would be. Getting out of the Uber, I thought to myself, "Good god, what has she gotten me into now?"
But upon entering Cocina Madrigal, I found a lively and pleasant place. The dining room wasn't all that large, but it had a nice slate tile floor, plenty of lighting and it was very clean. My sister had put in a reservation for us for 7 p.m., but she hadn't arrived yet.
After checking in with the hostess, I went to the bar to wait for my sister to show up. The bar area was a little darker than the dining room and also had a number of tables in the stucco-walled room. I was greeted by a gregarious bartender who invited me to have a seat at the bar. I ordered a Dos Equis Ambar that they had on tap. It wasn't long before my sister showed up and we made it to our table in the dining room.
We were greeted by our server for the evening, Eduardo, a tall, affable man with a big smile and a quick laugh. I normally don't take pictures of my servers, but Eduardo was aces all night long. He was excellent with his descriptions and explanations all night long. He was a great guy. He looked at me and said, "You look like you're the kind of guy who needs a top notch margarita." I asked if he had one with Herradura and Cointreau sitting back at the bar with my name on it, and he laughed and said, "A man who knows how to drink a real margarita!" My sister got one, as well.
Eduardo dropped off a couple menus for us to look through. He gave a quick explanation on the food at Cocina Madrigal - everything was made fresh and from scratch. It wasn't an extensive menu - just two pages, front and back - at least not like you'd find at most Mexican restaurants. But many of the items sounded very interesting.
While our drinks were getting made, a basket of chips with two different types of salsa was brought to the table by Eduardo. "This is our house salsa," he said as he pointed to the larger of the two tubs in the basket. "This one is our habanero salsa," as he pointed to the smaller of the two tubs. "It's got a pretty good kick," he warned. And it did. Thankfully, I still had some of my beer left to help take the sting off of my tongue from the habanero salsa.
We also got some of Cocina Madrigal's guacamole. It was made fresh with chunks of red onion, tomatoes, jalapeño, fresh lime juice and cilantro mixed in with the avocado. With the fresh corn chips that were with the salsa, the guac was a great start to the meal. And it helped cool down my mouth which was still raging somewhat from the bit of the habanero salsa that I tried.
One of the things on the menu that I wanted to try was the Hatch green chile pork appetizer. It featured chunks of slow-roasted pork mixed in with Hatch chiles, cilantro, jalapeños, and garlic, all of which was topped with a jack cheese. Fresh made flour tortillas came with it. It was, in a word, incredible. There were so many flavors just popping out of the mixture that were so unbelievable. I could have just had that for my dinner that night, but there were so many other things that I wanted to try
My sister was gung-ho about getting the wild mushroom enchilada. It featured three wild mushrooms chopped, cooked and mixed in with jack cheese, rolled up in a corn tortilla and topped with sour cream, an avocado-tomato relish, and an ancho mole sauce. It came with black beans and rice on the side. She thought it was fabulous. We were sharing food back and forth all night and she gave me a bite of it. After tasting the wild mushroom enchilada, I had to wholeheartedly agree with her.
I told Eduardo that I sort of wanted to try a little bit of everything on the menu, but I knew I would be limited. I couldn't believe how great the pork and green chiles appetizer was and he suggested getting the barbacoa green chile enchilada. He said that two normally come with the meal, but he could get me one and pro-rate the cost down. The enchilada was filled with chunks of tender beef and topped with their great green chile sauce and shredded jack cheese. It was delicious.
I also got a couple tacos that my sister and I shared. One was the tropical fish taco that was topped with chopped mango, a salsa picante, and a coconut cabbage mix. The taste of that taco was unbelievable. There were so many flavors popping in my mouth that I almost forgot it was a fish taco.
The other taco was one of their signature items on their menu - the beef tenderloin taco. Once again, Eduardo was accommodating enough to allow us to get one each rather than the three taco that normally come as a meal. The beef tenderloin is marinated in a chipotle/pomegranate mixture grilled and served with fried Mexican peppers and crumbled gorgonzola cheese. I was just shaking my head in amazement with the taste sensations I was experiencing.
The meal we had at Cocina Madrigal was certainly a great experience. Everything about the place - the food, the margaritas, the service from Eduardo - was top notch. My sister still raves about the wild mushroom enchiladas when we talk from time to time. I couldn't say enough about the great pork green chile appetizer and the barbacoa beef green chile enchilada that I had. Cocina Madrigal may not be much to look at from the outside, but you can be guaranteed that the food inside would be worth the stop.
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