Good Taste: New Mexico pork chile at Tio Flores

Like a lot of new restaurants, Tio Flores is still working out the kinks.

Several of them, in fact. This fun and colorful Mexican-theme project at 16th and South Streets, from the owners of Hawthornes and the Cambridge, is especially prone to overusing its "Tio spice," an orange powder that gives everything from the tortilla chips to the taco-shell salad bowl the salty aspect of Dorito cuisine.

As much as I dislike that choice, with no plain chips available, there is one great dish here I can't stop thinking about - the New Mexico pork chile, which isn't exactly presented like a traditional stew, either.

Chef Ricardo Sandoval marinates a whole pork butt for 36 hours in a garlicky mojo criollo of citrus juice and epazote. After a slow braise, he serves a tender chunk of it over a rich rice turned vivid green with buttery pureed spinach and cilantro (which was, thankfully, not half-cooked and crunchy like the red rice served on several other dishes).

The chile's essence, meanwhile, is really in the sauce, a zesty brew of smoky chipotles, coffee, raisins, and stock that melds with the pork, rice, and charred scallions for a tasty plate of respite in the Tio-spice-free zone.

- Craig LaBan 

New Mexico pork chile, $16, Tio Flores, 1600 South St., 267-687-2220; tioflores.com