Alan,
I’ve always thought that the food at Pasqual’s was pretty good, and I know it’s a popular favorite with visitors. I’ve had good meals there, particularly breakfast, but no GREAT meals. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it on the basis that the quality is high, but in my experience it isn’t special. YMMV.
Alex
Oh, I agree I wouldn’t call it special, but it’s definitely a landmark. Admittedly, I haven’t been in a decade, and even then it was different than the times I went while living in Los Alamos in 84/85, but i still enjoyed it.
I never miss a chance to have breakfast at Tia’s!
Andrew
Hey Andrew, I grew up in P-town!
Cool, I moved here about 13 years ago.
Andrew
Pasquals is still good. For true Mexican not New Mexican food there is Epizote near Harry’s Roadhouse on Old Las Vegas Highway. Best food for me is Coyote Cafe and Geronimos both the same chef. There are so many great places to eat. Bouche, Arroyo Vino, and I could go on even more. Only thing we don’t have much of is Asian foods such as Thai and Chinese but most people don’t go to Santa Fe for those. New Mexican I go for Atrisco or their companions Tomasitas and Tia Sophia. Glad to give reviews on any restaurants in Santa Fe. We eat out a lot and there is are new restaurants as wwll.
Chef/Owner of Epizote is from Mexico City and at earlier restaurants of his featured Mexico City dishes. I always liked them and looked for them.
I haven’t been to Epizote yet because he only seems to be open for lunch.
No liquor license until February, then open for dinner.
Any discussion on top eateries in Santa Fe is not complete without mention of Bouche - outstanding food, wine list, service and room, and Midtown Bistro - great food and probably the best service in town! Midtown is constantly upgrading their winelist and always has some exceptional $100(±) wines - no easy feat in this town.
Both of these are absolutely in the top 10.
Ate at Coyote Cafe last night. Was again blown away by the food and service. Haven’t been to Geronimo in years, but vowed last night with the wife to go back again.
Alan - my family lives in Santa Fe, and we like going to Paqual’s for brunch. haven’t been there for dinner in a while, but their green chile breakfast burritos are out-of-this-world!
- 1 re Bouche. Prior to Bouche chef was The Exec Chef at Rancho Encantado in Tesuque.
I, too, like Midtown Bistro. Many of those responsible for Midtown Bistro were all at SantaCafe for years. There was nothing “negative” that caused them all to leave (as I understand); just a desire to have their own place.
And, just fwiw, SantaCafe is one of my favorites here. I’ve been going there since Ming Tsai was the Chef. Present owners were one-week-new into jobs on the wait staff then. One of them is always present and the place runs like a Swiss watch.
Had lunch there last Saturday… Turkey Pot Pie and Pinot Noir. Loved it
I had a fantastic Chile Arellano there on a visit last winter.
huh? relleno?
Yes, some combination of autocorrect and proofread fail.
Looked for a more recent Santa Fe thread, but it’s not an easy search, so adding to this one as it seems to be the most recent.
Just returned from 3 nights in Santa Fe (and then 2 in Vegas, which I don’t need to go back to for a decade or more). Just a little recap of our restaurant experiences:
Maria’s: Stopped in for a quick lunch after driving up from ABQ. Absolutely quintessential Mexican restaurant (with the obvious NM underpinnings). Loved the variety of decor in the different rooms, I assume added on over time. I had a green chili pork stew that was very good, wife had a kind of chicken tostada, also good. Sopapillas a little on the heavy side.
Pasqual’s: Ate dinner there our first night. Everyone says avoid dinner and do breakfast/lunch here, but we have always had good meals and really enjoy the night time vibe. Bustling, good energy, excellent service, and great food. I wonder how many people downplay Pasqual’s because they don’t have a hard liquor license, but their wine margarita was plenty tasty. Anyway, we’ll happily go back for dinner any time - but make sure you have reservations.
The Compound: beautiful interior, very soothing, elegant and somehow warm despite the almost seeming austerity. Top notch food and service, my veal chop was superb. Very good wine list, typically pricey but not too hard to find something affordable and drinkable (we had a Trimbach Gewurz). On the pricey side overall, but worth it for a high end dinner (high end for Santa Fe). My only complaint was the Chanterelle mushrooms menu addition, which I of course went for, and ended up being $25. Good, but wasn’t worth that, and the waiter failed to mention that my chop was already smothered in a chanterelle sauce. No biggie, but a little annoying when I got the check. Would go back again.
Rancho Chimayo: doesn’t need any recommendation, but we hit this for a late lunch returning from Taos. Man, do I wish there was a place like this anywhere in California.
La Boca: got several recommendations for this little Tapas-style place, so picked up an 8:00 res to have a lighter snack after the Chimayo lunch. Cool place, very comfy and active. We ended up staying and eating at the bar, which had good seating. Did I like it? I guess. But a little underwhelming. Maybe it’s what we ordered, looking for something a little light and easy on the stomach after large breakfasts every morning, and a couple of bigger dinner meals previously. Iberico ham? Gotta have some of that. But it was sliced to thickly, and had a kind of gamey taste. I later figured out this was the same exact stuff I’ve bought in a package from Costco. So not carved freshly, not the beautiful thin melt-in-your-mouth ham I made the mistake of expecting. Next dish was grilled artichoke. Sadly, another plate phoned in, just some artichoke hearts from a jar slapped on the grill for a few minutes, not enough to actually add any flavor or texture, which was fairly hard and undercooked. Disappointing. Then a small order of Paella, which turned out to be plenty of food for two, and a pretty decent rendition, though that’s easy to get away with. Lots of stuff on the menu, maybe we just went the wrong direction with our choices, but 1 for 3 wasn’t a great ratio. I’d go back and give it another try, because it’s a cool place, but this night was disappointing.
Saturday Farmers Market: We only had a few minutes to browse through, and pick up some ground red chili, on the way out of SF to ABQ, but what a cool market. Would really love to be able to hit this in peak summer and early fall, when I assume there are a lot more produce stands there. Mostly apples this time of year, and lots of beautiful decorated red chili bouquets. One stand that sells some kind of Indian bread “pastry” things, we had a pumpkin & pinon that was delicious.
Wife did a 4 hour spa treatment at Ten Thousand Waves, up in the hills above town. She adored it, wants to go back and stay in one of their little villas. I used that time to hit the wine shops in town, wander around and buy her more and my daughter presents. Is that the way this is supposed to work? Was floored at the amount of residential expansion into the surroundings since I was first there in 1984. Wish I was a jet-setter who could afford to have a second or third home there.
Recently we really enjoyed The Compound. Went to The Shedd and really enjoyed it though didn’t think it lived up to the hype. We were there for my nephew’s wedding and his fiance (from SF/Alb area) recommended Gabriel’s just outside of SF for New Mexican and it is outstanding!
JD
A little side not on the Shed: we were staying at the Rosewood Anasazi, and our 3rd floor window looked out over the parking lot behind Shed. When we had our window open, we were entertained by their kitchen crew yelling to each other, dumping bottles into the trash. We wandered into the courtyard where the restaurant is, and it was always packed, looked like a cool place to eat. But that alley view kind of took something from the ambience 