304 C N Pueblo Rd, Taos, NM 87571 4 Forks
Michael's is exactly what I pictured a local diner in New Mexico to be like. It was kind of like a scene out of Twin Peaks - an old no frills diner with lots of older people and locals having breakfast. And I loved every single second of it. It was a very country town feel and the menu had everything you could think of from American style breakfast to a Mexican style breakfast. I tried to stay a bit healthy and went for an egg white veggie omelette with hash browns and an English muffin. Classic diner breakfast. Since we were in New Mexico, the veggies in the omelette were locally grown peppers, onions, and avocado. It was really delicious and huge portions (as was everything in New Mexico). The only bummer of the meal was that the hash browns were a bit dry on their own but when mixed with the egg and ketchup, it got the job done.
While my meal in general was solid comfort food, what put this review in the 4 fork range was the freaking fry bread that Aarti got as a side to her already enormous breakfast burrito. Fry bread is a local Native American dish that almost kind of tastes like funnel cake in that it's fried dough. This one came out warm and fluffy with a side of sweet butter. Jesus was it delicious and probably really terrible for your health but it's a famous thing to eat in New Mexico, so I had to try it as least once. Deanna's dish came with a side of pancakes and it's been a really long time since I've had pancake and this, again, was solid comfort diner food that made me really happy. Nothing here was elegant or fancy but that is what made it such a great meal. Deanna and Aarti both also got pinon flavored coffee, which apparently is a local nut grown in the area and added a hazelnut type flavor to the coffee - so its worth trying if you're in New Mexico. As I mentioned before, be ready for giant portions -People here really do not understand the notion of portion control but hey, I was on vacation, so what did I care?? Total bill: $52 total for 3 people with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
Ojo Caliente Spa and Resort 50 Los Banos Drive, Ojo Caliente, New Mexico 87549 4.5 Forks
Probably the best thing we did all trip was to take a visit to the Ojo Caliente Spa and Resort. It's about an hour from Taos and is an outdoor resort with 5 different hot pools/springs, spa treatments and you can also stay there overnight as well. We bought a day pass which basically gives you all access to the pools and sauna. Unfortunately when we got there it had started to rain and thunderstorm and they force you out of the pools when there's lightening because of the metal that's around. Understandable but still a bummer. So during our time out, we made our way over to the restaurant to grab a glass of wine at the bar.
Although it's a casual place, I still felt a bit weird in my towel and bathing suit, so definitely bring a cover-up if you're going to go straight from the pool. As you can imagine, the food at a resort spa is somewhat healthier than a typical place. At the encouragement of the bartender, we got the green chili "fries" and a farm fresh salad with burrata. The food here was amazing and probably the best I had all trip. The "fries" were actually strips of local poblano peppers lightly battered and served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. The peppers were mild but sweet with a hint of tang to it. Mixed with the sweet and sour sauce, it made for a perfect rainy day snack and healthier too. I wish more places outside of New Mexico made this kind of dish.
But even better was the salad. Apparently the resort has a local farm a few feet away and everything except for the burrata was picked right across the street - and you could taste the freshness and dirt that came with it. It was a bit heavy on the herbs vs. veggies, but since they were so fresh it didn't really matter. The burrata was soft and paired well with the lightly dressed veggies. Combined with a glass of wine, we were all in heaven.
The rain finally stopped so we were allowed back to the pools but this meal was well worth a bit of an interruption - even if it was a bit on the pricey side. Total bill: $64 total with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
The Love Apple 803 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos, NM, 87571 3.5 Forks
The Love Apple was a very recommended farm to table restaurant that was a 5 mins drive from our Airbnb in Taos. It also got a lot of buzz as being one of the most beautiful restaurants in town as it's housed in an old Catholic chapel from the 1800's and it's still got a lot of the original design in tact. It's definitely a very beautiful and romantic restaurant - we might have actually been the only people not on a date here.
The food is described as local, organic home cooking - so it goes along with the hot buzz of sustainable cooking and all the food is prepared from scratch, which is a nice touch. We actually weren't all that hungry from our nice meal at the Spa but we had to eat dinner because everything in town closes after 9pm, so this was our last chance to really get anything to eat.
We started with the buttermilk yellow and blue cornbread ($6) and since I wasn't hungry I got the small local charcuterie plate ($11) and a local green salad ($10) as my mains. The cornbread was delicious with the right consistency of cornmeal texture. What really made it addictive was the cinnamon butter and lemon chive butter that came with it. I would recommend actually combing the two butters together to get a sweet and salty mix on the cornbread. I was more of a fan of the blue bread but both were fantastic. Next came my charcuterie plate which I should have known to not expect it to be like the ones I had in Italy since I'm NOT in Italy. Needless to say, I was a bit let down by it as it wasn't a true meat place - there are pieces of ham, goat chorizo salami, a mild hard cheese, pickled melon, apricot jam, pesto spiraled zucchini, and scallions wrapped in bacon. It also came with some local sourdough bread which was good for eating the meat and cheese with. It was a very rustic farm type of plate and while it was fine, it definitely doesn't measure up to a traditional Italian style meat board - not even close. By this point, I was really not hungry at all but forced myself to pick at the salad to offset all the cheese and Mexican food I had been having. It was a fresh salad mixed with local peaches, goat cheese and pecans. I usually don't like fruit with my salad and this didn't really change my mind too much. The goat cheese was very very mild which I was not used to at all. To me, goat cheese should have a strong kick to it and this one was way to plain for me. The salad at Ojo was much better than this one. I didn't try Aarti and Deanna's food but they got an amazing looking tamale with a picture perfect fried egg on it - totally instagram worthy.
What redeemed this meal review wise for me was the dessert. We got a peach (I guess peaches must have been in season) crumble and it god damn amazing. Warm and crumbly top served with sweet vanilla ice cream - it doesn't get much better than that. Definitely save room for this. Total bill: $120 for 3 with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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