What: Mesquite-smoked carne asada
Where: Eight4Nine Restaurant and Lounge, 849 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
Contact: 760-325-8490; eight4nine.com
How much: $37
Why: It’s perfect every time.
Most of the food and drink items featured in this space are new finds for me—but the mesquite-smoked carne asada at Eight4Nine Restaurant and Lounge has long been one of my favorite entrées in the Coachella Valley. I was sure I’d waxed poetic in this space about the dish before, but a rigorous search on our website showed I hadn’t … so I am now.
There are so many things I love about the dish. There’s the delicious, almost-always perfectly cooked skirt steak. There’s the Negra Modelo ranchera sauce, which is tangy and slightly sweet—a perfect complement to the steak. The refried pinto beans add some earthiness; the pico de gallo and the little pile of yellow corn esquites both offer texture and freshness.
Pro tip: Ask for tortillas with the dish. Then load up said tortillas with the slices of steak, the sauce and the other accompaniments, and revel in the deliciousness.
Eight4Nine has become a valley favorite for many reasons, just one of which is the mesquite-smoked carne asada. Whether you’re there for lunch, weekend brunch, dinner or simply drinks in the lounge, you’ll enjoy yourself. (Endorsement within an endorsement: The fried bacon on the lunch menu. You can get it by itself for $11, or as the star ingredient in a Bloody Mary for $15. Just don’t tell your cardiologist.) The “crisp white” décor inside is beautiful, and the patio outside is one of the town’s loveliest.
If you’ve never been to Eight4Nine, you should change that. If you’ve been to Eight4Nine, but have never had the mesquite-smoked carne asada, you should change that. If you have been to Eight4Nine and have had the mesquite-smoked carne asada … you know what I’m talking about.
