Peppers New Mexican Cafe

2355 Calle de Guadalupe
Mesilla, NM
(575) 523-6700

The Double Eagle sign means you are also entering Peppers, the lunch time version of the restaurant

The Double Eagle is one of the best known and most historic restaurants in the Las Cruces area, but its prices are on the high side for some. Over the years I have made many visits to the Sunday brunch buffet because I found it to be worth a splurge every now and then. At those times I looked at the signs for Peppers Restaurant and thought, “Hmmm …. I wonder what that is all about?”

Entryway into the restaurant

Then on a hot summer day in April 2025 I saw a board in Double Eagle’s entryway announcing that they had a Saturday special of enchiladas, and saw that they were so special you only have a chance to try them on Saturdays (and yes, summer has now officially been extended back to April in the Texas/ New Mexico area due to the official calendar people not wanting to ignore the obvious).

This was actually the entryway of Peppers Restaurant, though, due to the fact that it is the lunch version of Double Eagle with a different menu, and open Monday through Saturday (on Sunday the Double Eagle serves brunch). The Sunday brunch is still called a buffet by some but I think this ended after COVID. In any case, it is a totally different setup than Peppers Restaurant.

Peppers has an extensive menu, but not many of them are Mexican (which is the way locals refer to New Mexican cuisine, the style of food served at many restaurants here). My instinct about the enchiladas was apparently correct– the only time you can get them is on Saturday. The regular menu has rolled enchiladas but the Saturday version is flat (other details seem to indicate the weekday version might be a little Anglicized but I haven’t tried them– instead I would just say get the Saturday version because it is less expensive).

Daily specials at Peppers

The dining areas, however, seem to be different for the two restaurants. Lunch at Peppers takes place in the large covered Patio area. This has an outdoor feel but is covered and air conditioned during the torrid April heat. I suppose there is still a time when they need to actually turn on the heat and Peppers/ Double Eagle is ready to do this if necessary.

The indoor patio looked very full the Saturday that I took this picture

The indoor patio looked very full the Saturday that I took this picture. Some are saying on the Internet that dogs are allowed in the patio area but I do not know if this is the official word from the restaurant. The rest of the building contains several very elegant dining rooms that were empty at lunch time but used by Double Eagle patrons. Two that I saw were the Isabela room and the Maxmillion room.

The Food
The Double Eagle is described as a steakhouse, and Peppers is definitely not that. It does have a number of items falling under the category of New Mexican food, as well as some that I would call Southwest. It is family oriented and I would not feel out of place coming solo. There seems to be something on the menu for just about everybody.

Green chile wontons

I have never been much of a fan of fusion Mexican food, but I sampled the Green Chile Wontons that one of my dining companions ordered. To me it was interesting and better than having the typical side dishes that restaurants serve. I think that what got lost here was the idea of what a wonton is supposed to be. It is, however, something you will probably not find anywhere else.

Enchiladas with red and green sauce

The reason my friends and I came here was that we saw the blackboard listing the daily specials, and when we saw that Enchiladas were the special on Saturday we all wanted to try it. In fact these were “Saturday” enchiladas and not on the menu other days. The regular menu enchiladas are rolled, so I know the Saturday special enchiladas are different but I don’t know how much.

Isabela Room

I found the “Saturday” enchiladas to be good examples of New Mexico style enchiladas and would accept this as a worthy place for out-of-towners to try them. The tortillas were laid flat like they should be and the chile was good (both red and green). The strange part, though, was that they put the red sauce on one layer and green on another so that every bite had both types of chile. Usually when you order “Christmas” you get red on one side and green on the other. I would pick either all red or all green over the way they did it, but red and green together are still a good meal.

Maxmillion Room

Another strange thing was that the rice had a cumin flavor but I did not detect it in the enchiladas. This kept the cumin damage to a minimum (I don’t know why so many Las Cruces restaurants go overboard on the cumin).

Other Notes
Prices were not as high as I expected them to be. They did, however, have a very annoying fee on each bill of 3.5% for a processing fee. This is whether you use a credit card, pay cash, or whatever. I never found out what the justification was for doing this.

The setting is very nice and sometimes I think would be preferable to a hole in the wall that had really good New Mexican food (also Peppers offers many more items than just the New Mexican cuisine).

The enchiladas would have been in the top ten in the city if I had ordered just red ones or green. I cannot say that the chile was not spicy enough or that it did not taste good. It was that I never got to find out how either the red or the green really tasted. Sorry, I don’t give credit for what a restaurant is capable of doing, but on what I actually get on the plate.

RATING: 22

Mexican Food Details

Chile Index:
Cooking Oil:	N/A

 

Special Ratings

	Enchiladas
	Green Chile Wontons