Santa Fe Day 5 Visited 9/5/2016 3 Forks

Luminaria    Inn and Spa at Loretto, 211 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501

Our last morning in Santa Fe was a quick one as we had to get back to Albuquerque for our 11:45AM flight, so it only made sense to grab dinner in our hotel.  The setting is quite beautiful with a lovely patio that is a really relaxing place to have a meal.  

Unfortunately we were in a hurry and had to be a bit pushy with our waiter - who took it in real stride, so I give him big kudos for dealing with us being anxious and annoying.  I wasn't super hungry and wanted something quick, so Deanna and I just got the steel cut oatmeal with fruit and nuts ($11) and Aarti got the huevos rancheros ($15) - which was kind of a smart move because I should have gone out with a Mexican breakfast bang.  The oatmeal was totally fine - a bit boring as it is freaking oatmeal after all. Maybe adding some brown sugar would have spiced it up a bit but overall it was a fine quick hotel breakfast.   Given the long day I was about to have, I should have gone the breakfast burrito route and I really wish I had more time to really relax and take the time to enjoy my meal.   This is the kind of place where you should get a cup of coffee, a mimosa, a big hearty breakfast burrito and read the newspaper cover to cover.   As expected, it's a hotel restaurant, so it is a bit overpriced but compared to a lot of other hotel restaurants, the price wasn't all that bad.  If you can get a later flight, do it and don't rush through a nice relaxing meal before you take the gorgeous 1 hour drive back.  Total bill:  $70 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Santa Fe Day 4 Visited 9/4/2016 3.5 - 4 Forks

The Plaza Cafe  54 Lincoln Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501                                               4 Forks

Another morning, another Mexican breakfast.  We had wanted to go on a hike early in the morning but needed to fuel up and get some breakfast first.  We tried to go to a few other places first and even at 10AM, there were long lines everywhere (this is what you get for going to a city that's mostly older).  The Plaza Diner also had a wait but it was only 15 mins, so we stuck with that instead of hopping around.  

The Plaza Diner is the oldest restaurant in Santa Fe and it shows, but not in a bad way.  It's just very old school and full of locals and tourists alike.  This was actually the first place on the entire trip where I saw chilaquiles on the menu - which is one of my favorite Mexican breakfast dishes.  I was on the verge of getting it when I realized that the huevos divorciados ($10.50) was a similar dish but also came with guacamole, sour cream and salsa - sold.  

Honestly, at the end of the day, it was another really solid Mexican breakfast with beans, chili and eggs.  I got my eggs sunny side up and they were perfectly cooked - very very runny and yolky. Delicious.  The service was great and the location is convenient (right off the local square), what more could you ask for? 

I was definitely getting sick of this kind of food after eating it for 4 days straight but now that I've been home for a few weeks, I really do miss having this kind of flavorful hearty stuff for breakfast. Lesson learned to never take green chili for granted.  Total bill:  $58 for 3 people

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Iconik Coffee Roasters  1600 Lena St., Ste A2, Santa Fe, NM 87505                                       4 Forks

Every city, even Santa Fe, has to have a hipster coffee shop and I found it in Santa Fe at Iconik Coffee Roaster (I mean, even it's name is kind of hipster with the "k" instead of "c").  It's located in a really random part of town behind all these non-descript office buildings but if you're on your way to the insane interactive art experience Meow Wolf  (which I HIGHLY recommend - and even more so if you are on drugs - not that I advocate for that), this is a great pit stop.  It's super spacious and has a real artisanal feel to it - it actually reminded me a bit of Blue Bottle, which I love.  It's also got a similar mission of working direct with coffee farmers and creating coffee that's not mass produced and crafted with love. 

They had a nice small food menu, so I got an iced latte and a veggie stir-fry dish but they had all sorts of yummy sounding sandwiches, bagels and other snacks too.  My traditional opinion about stir fry is that I can make it at home myself so why would I order it out?  And while that's still true, I haven't made it at home in a long time so it was actually a very welcoming and nostalgic meal to have.  It was made with brown rice, a nice medley of fresh vegetables and lots of sriracha in it.  There was nothing mind blowing but it was just done right and it was super satisfying.  Despite eating a bunch of rice, it felt healthy because it was brown rice and chock full of veggies.  I could really see myself hanging out at a place like this if I ever lived in Santa Fe - it was one of the few places in the city that really seemed more geared towards younger people - although it does close at 5pm, so I guess that still makes it kind of geared towards the older crowd/early birds!

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Cafe Pasqual's  121 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501                                           3.5 Forks

Cafe Pasqual's seems to be THE place to eat in Santa Fe.  It constantly had a line out the door and we were only able to get a reservation at 9pm (which is super late in Santa Fe) on Sunday night.   While it was a fine experience, I'm not sure that I really get what all the hype is about and with other options so close by, I'm not sure if I would wait 45 mins in line for it.  In any case, we made our way there late on a Sunday and even though we had reservations, they were not ready for us and it took them almost 30 mins to finally seat us.  It would have been ok if there was a bar or some place to wait, but there is pretty much no lobby, so we had to stand outside.  Even though Santa Fe is a totally safe city, there were a few teens cruising the street with loud music and a crazy homeless person screaming at the top of this lungs so not a super pleasant waiting experience. 

We finally got seated and it was definitely getting late - even for us New Yorkers, to have dinner. Not surprisingly, the menu here has a Mexican slant but unlike some of the other places that we ate at, they actually had other types of dishes on the menu, which was a relief to us.  For starters, we got the little gem salad ($13) and the warm french brie ($17).  For a main entree, I was torn between getting something totally different like the Warm Thai Rain Noodle Salad vs. something traditional like the Bison Burger.  In the end, the bison burger won out because I knew that once I came back to NYC, I wouldn't really indulge in burgers that often and even more rarely with ones that had green chili on it. Plus I can't imagine that the Thai food here would be better than what I could get in NYC.  I opted to get the sauteed mushrooms ($7) toppings - which I highly encourage anyone who orders this dish do. Aarti and Deanna ended up getting the Thai Noodle salad ($26) and the Plato Supremo with chili relleno, enchilada and a tamale ($29).  As you can see from the prices of the last two dishes, this was definitely the most expensive meal we had on the trip. 

The little gem salad was served with romaine, rainbow carrots, sugar snap peas, radishes, chives and then tossed with a homemade ranch dressing.  It was a nice intro salad and dressed nicely with a ranch that wasn't too heavy or creamy.  The brie was served with an entire oven roasted head of garlic and crostini.  I'm usually a huge lover of brie, but this dish was actually a bit underwhelming.  The brie was luke warm so it wasn't gooey and I would have preferred something a bit softer than the thin crostini bites.  It could have also used some honey or extra sweetness to it. 

The burger was served on an English Muffin but I ended up not even eating it because I still felt full from all the rice I had earlier.  The burger came with green chili, jack cheese, caramelized onions, tomato, salsa, and the pile of mushrooms I added.  While I enjoyed the burger, I didn't find it to be in the top 10 of best burgers I had.  It could have been a bit juicier - it's probably because it's bison meat which is leaner and not as fatty (hence delicious) as a beef burger.   The best part of this dish was actually the side of kale salad I got with the burger.  It felt like the first clean veggie dish I had eaten all trip.  It was nicely massaged kale with lemon juice and olive oil that didn't taste rough or tough to chew.  It was actually a really great kale side that I would have gotten as a main if it was offered with some chicken or another protein. 

If I had stopped my meal here, I would have given this place a solid 3 fork review.  Good but over-hyped and over priced.  But what bumped this place up a 1/2 fork was the amazing dessert we had. Since it was our last meal of the trip, we went all out and got the fresh mint ice cream AND the berry shortcake ($11 each).  OMG - that ice cream was freaking amazing and saved this review.  It was totally fresh natural mint that pretty much punched you in the face with freshness. It was amazing yet somehow not overpowering at all.  The shortcake was wonderful and served with fresh cream, a variety of berries and a delicious vanilla ice cream as well.  We should have totally skipped the brie to save calories and room in our stomachs.  By the time our meal ended it was well after 11pm and we were exhausted and literally the only people left in the restaurant.  I definitely had better meals for less on the trip, but I'm glad I stayed til the end and enjoyed the best dessert we had all long weekend.  Total bill:  $210 for 3 people with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Taos and Santa Fe Day 3 Visited 9/3/2016 3.5 - 4 Forks

Taos Diner  908 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos, NM 87571                                        3.5 Forks

Another local diner, another huge Mexican breakfast.  I could definitely get used to this, although my stomach probably can't.  We checked out another local dive breakfast place that is old school and full of locals.  I mean, it's called the Taos Diner, what else were you expecting?  The menu had all the classics of a New Mexican style breakfast place.  I opted for the papas and huevos (obviously potato and egg in Spanish) with a side of turkey sausage because despite all the food I had been eating on this trip, I wasn't really getting a whole lot of meat in my diet.

The plate was enormous as expected (I should note that Aarti's breakfast burrito was practically the size of her head) and probably had a pound of cubed potatoes smothered in Christmas salsa (red and green chili), scrambled eggs, sour cream and guacamole.  It was a great combination of food but I really could have done with way less potato and more egg in it.  The whole trip I had been focusing on the green chili because that's what New Mexico is famous for, so I figured I should at least try the red or Christmas version at some point.  While I'm glad I tried it, the green chili solo was much better. There's just something tastier to it that I can't put my finger on.  The red version seemed more smokey and less appealing to me.   I tried really hard to finish the dish but there was just too much potato for me to really enjoy the dish entirely - I was getting uncomfortably full and it was really unpleasant at one point.   But don't let this discourage you, it's definitely worth a visit - plus there are 2 of them (Diner I and Diner II), so you really have no excuse when you're in Taos.  Total bill:  $42 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Coyote Rooftop Cantina  132 W Water St., Santa Fe, NM 87501                                       4 Forks

We finally made it to Santa Fe!  It was a nice beautiful drive with a few stops along the way, but we finally made it to our final destination around 3pm and we were starving.  The hotel we were staying at, the lovely Inn and Spat at Loretto, was smack in the middle of all the action which was great.  The staff there was super helpful and one of the valets told us to check out the Coyote Rooftop Cantina for a quick affordable snack.  There is a more formal dining area in the bottom but just go up the stairs to the rooftop to reach the Cantina.  

The weather was great and it was nice to sit in a rooftop bar, which there weren't any of in Taos, so it's worth going to here just to get a change of scenery and decor.  What I also didn't realize until later was that most of the bars/restaurants in New Mexico only served beer and wine - no liquor license. But Coyote Cantina was literally the only place we went to all trip that actually served booze - so you could get a real margarita with tequila in it - not some gross wine substitute.  We sat at the edge of the bar over looking Water Street, so it was good people watching.  Aarti and I got a prickly pear margarita and Deanna got a mango one.  I should note here that due to the elevation, you should be careful when you drink alcohol here.  Apparently 1 drink really equals 2 drinks, so it's easy to get drunk quickly.  But regardless, I was happy just to have a real drink in hand and the prickly pear margarita was delicious.  I slurped it down quickly and definitely got a headache afterwards but it was worth it.  

I also got the shrimp ceviche tostada ($14) to snack on, Aarti got the trio of salsa ($6) and Deanna got the veggie tacos ($14).   The shrimp ceviche was really tasty - very plump pieces of shrimp that were well marinated and served with avocado, cucumber and radish.  I was trying to stay away from the tostada part but it was covered in the yummy marinate that I ended up scarfing that down too.  While this ended up being much more than a quick snack, I really liked this place.  It was one of the rare places also that seemed to cater to a younger crowd as New Mexico is definitely not a vacation hot spot for the under 50.  Luckily there were a few weddings going on that weekend, so there were more younger people hanging out at the restaurant that made it a bit more lively.  Total bill:  $90 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Shed  113 1/2 E Palace Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501                                                       4 Forks

The Shed is probably one of the most popular restaurants in Santa Fe.  It's got a great location right in the middle of the plaza and a lovely outdoor patio as well.  Every time we passed by this place there was always a huge crowd in place.  We had originally wanted to go to Cafe Pasquale for dinner but it was a 45 mins wait and the wait here was luckily only 15 mins.  You know you're not in New York anymore when most of the restaurants close at 9 or 9:30pm, even on the weekends.  So when we got there at 8:45pm, they told us that they would squeeze us in for the last seating.  Craziness - in New York people are only just making their way to dinner at that hour.

We got a seat outside and quickly ordered.  The problem with having a late snack at 4pm is that you're not really all that hungry at 8:30pm.  Plus at this point I was starting to get really sick of "New Mexican" food and really just wanted a freakin salad, which I could have gotten here but alas I felt like I had to keep up with the vacation theme.  I opted for the fish tacos ($15) which were 2 soft tacos with grilled white fish, avocado, red cabbage, and pineapple salsa and a side of dirty Spanish rice.  I was glad the fish was grilled to make it a bit healthier and while I wasn't super hungry this did hit the spot and all the flavors balanced each other out.  An interesting but random touch was that all the dishes came with a side of garlic french bread.  Weird but hey, I love garlic bread, so I'll take it.

I think since it was late and the waitstaff wanted to get home, dinner felt a bit rushed and our waiter wasn't that engaging.  Otherwise, it was a pleasant experience and I can see why it's a popular place for lunch or dinner.  I will say that up to this point, I've enjoyed all my meals in New Mexico but the bar and standard is definitely very different than what it's like in more urban cities like NYC or SF. While all the food is delicious and satisfying, it's definitely much less refined and fancy, which is absolutely fine but it is a pretty noticeable difference.  Total bill:  $71 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Taos Day 2 Visited 9/2/2016 3.5 - 4.5 Forks

Michaels' Kitchen Restaurant and Bakery 

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

Taos Day 1 Visited 9/1/2016 3 - 4 Forks

The Hollar Restaurant  2849 Hwy 14 N., Madrid, NM 87010   4 Forks

Deanna, Aarti and I took a fantastic long weekend road trip in New Mexico and one of the most popular things to do is to drive the Turquoise Trail up to Taos.  Along there way there are cute tiny towns to visit with quirky museums (Tinkertown Museum is a great stop), art galleries and jewlery shops as well as just fantastic scenery all around.  The "biggest" town on the trail is Madrid - it's actually got a main road and is about 3/4 of the way along the trail, so it's a good place to stop and take a lunch break. 

There are about 3 total places to eat in this whole town and The Hollar has the nicest atmosphere with a large outdoor patio facing the main street.  New Mexico is famous for their green chili and it is indeed on every single menu I saw.  It is not really a spice pepper but a tangy one and it adds a level of flavor that I really enjoyed and now miss in NYC.  The menu here is classic Southwest cafe food - salads, sandwiches, burgers as well as a hint of Southern cuisine such as grits and fried green tomatoes.  We were all starving because we didn't really eat breakfast, so we started with the fried okra and I, of course, had to get the burger with green chili and swiss cheese on a pretzel bun with a side of potato salad.  This was all washed down with a cold local beer.  I was one happy girl at that moment. 

The fried okra was great - small bite size pieces that you could pop in your mouth and served with house made ranch dressing.  The okra was cooked just right - not too slimey and the fried crust was a light corn meal batter.  It definitely curbed our hunger right away.  The burger also was super satisfying.  It was a 1/2 lb angus burger cooked medium rare.  The pretzel bun was a nice option as it was very sturdy and kept all the juices and flavors together.  I kind of assumed that the green chili that would come with it would be more like a green salsa like consistency but it turned out to literally be roasted green chili peppers - so that was a bit disappointing.  But it still added some great pop to the meat and I could see why everything has green chili in it.  The potato salad was a redskin curry flavor potato salad with pickles which was a nice twist to a regular mayo based salad.  Deanna got the same burger but in a veggie version and on a buttermilk biscuit and Aarti got the fried green tomatoes with grits.  They both liked their meal but said that the grits had a bit too much black pepper on it. 

Overall, it was a lovely way to kick start our vacation.  The place had a folky hippie vibe which is exactly how I pictured New Mexico - so this place did not disappoint.  Everyone was pretty nice there and it felt like a chill local joint that even people from neighboring towns might check out.  Total bill:  $26/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Orlando's New Mexican Cafe   1114 Don Juan Valdez Lane, Taos, NM 87571                3 Forks

 We finally arrived in Taos in the afternoon and checked into our super cute Airbnb.  It was smack in the middle of town and within walking distance or a short drive away from most of the main shops and restaurants.  Our host had recommended checking out Orlando's which was a around the corner for our place.

I should have mentioned earlier that all the portions in New Mexico are HUGE.  I mean, you see it and your eyes are literally bulging at how much food is on the plate, yet somehow I always manage to finish everything.  The shrimp enchiladas came on blue corn tortillas which was a nice touch and it was smothered in green chili (what else?) and cheese.  I wish there were more pieces of shrimp as it felt a bit skimpy and the pieces I did have were overcooked a bit and dried out.  Aarti mentioned that her burrito was under-seasoned, which is surprising given how many ingredients were in it and Deanna's veggie bowl almost kind of looked like soup because of how watery the beans and tomatoes were.  

I should also mention that very few places in New Mexico seem to have a liquor license.  Most of the places we went to only had beer or wine or this really overly sweet wine margarita mixture.  While that isn't a deal breaker, it is kind of a bummer to have so much Mexican food without any tequilla. Overall, the meal was fine and was a nice foray into New Mexican food but we all thought that there was room for improvement for each of our dishes.  It was kind of like a nicer/sit down version of Chipotle.  Our waitress started off really nice, giving us a free taste of the wine margarita, but in the end kind of came off bored.  It might be because everything closes at 9pm in New Mexico and that they were trying to usher us out, which I can kind of understand if she was looking to get home quickly.  Total bill:  $15/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp