Santa Fe Dining: 7 Great Places for Dinner

Santa Fe is a food town. The city of just over 70,000 people has more than 200 restaurants. Many of them are good; some are great. Deciding where to have dinner can be challenging and fun. There are some Santa Fe restaurants that are nationally and even world famous. They have been written about extensively in guidebooks, newspapers and magazines. Some have been featured on the Food Network and Travel Channel. The Internet has become a major force for finding restaurants. Through sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp, you can discover even the most obscure restaurants. Some Santa Fe restaurants are destinations for visitors coming to The City Different. Geronimo, The Shed, Café Pasqual's, The Pink Adobe and Santacafé have been around for a long time, have received lots of press and are on many travelers’ lists. The seven restaurants featured here, representing a spectrum of prices and cuisines, are places that are not necessarily on the radar for visitors to The City Different. Put them on your list.

Above: Striking interior of Chef Fernando Olea’s Epazote in Santa Fe. Photo by Don Nadeau of BidOnTravel. All other photos by Steve Collins of the Santa Fe Traveler.

Bumble Bee’s Baja Grill

If you are looking for an inexpensive dinner, Bumble Bee’s Baja Grill is a great option. This casual spot (you order at the counter, they deliver to the table) serves Baja-style Mexican food.  There is a commitment to what comes out of the kitchen here. They use fresh ingredients and everything is made to order. The only fried item they serve is the corn chips. The menu runs from soft tacos and burritos (sold a la carte), to entrees accompanied by a choice of white, cilantro lime or brown rice and a choice of black or pinto beans. You can choose wheat, whole wheat or corn tortillas. The restaurant doesn’t use microwaves, MSG or lard. Bumble Bee’s has a strong commitment to the environment. This no frills eatery uses fabric napkins and metal utensils. Drinks are served in reusable plastic glasses. Takeout containers and utensils are biodegradable.

Recommended: The slow cooked lamb taco or burrito, fish tacos or trout filet.  If you want dinner to go, try the rotisserie chicken. It comes with beans and rice and will feed up to four.

Price range:  The menus prices start at $2.79 for a single chicken, pork or tofu taco to $12.99 for the trout. The take-out chicken dinner is $16.99.

Epazote

Epazote, featuring Chef Fernando Olea’s Inspired New World Cuisine, used to be a well-kept secret, but it’s about to hit the big time. The Travel Channel’s Andrew Zimmern was recently there filming for an episode of his show Bizarre Foods America. Some of the house specialties, such as chapulines (grasshoppers) and cuitlacoche (aka huitlacoche) corn fungus, may seem odd to North American palates. They are considered delicacies in Mexico. The real stars here are the moles. Most people envision this as a dark, chocolate and chile infused sauce. Olea’s complex creations of this food, he says comes from the heart of Mexico, are like nothing you’ve ever tasted. Each dinner begins with a tasting of the evening’s moles on mini tortillas. Your server will tell you the chef's suggested pairings or feel free to create your own combination. Not into moles? Try the slow-cooked lamb soft taco, a shrimp enchilada or one of the other offerings. Epazote is open for dinner Monday through Saturday starting at 5:30 pm.

Recommended: Be sure to order the heavenly Sopa de Amor (poblano pepper puree with blue crab topped with amaretto foam) as a starter and the Mongolian Mousse for dessert. And, definitely, try one of the moles.

Prices: Appetizers range from $7 to $13, entrees range from, $11 to $24

Jambo

Almost from the opening day, word about Jambo (the Swahili word for "hello") was out. Locals flocked here to eat what chef/owner Ahmed Obo calls, “African Homestyle Cuisine”. The extensive menu also features Caribbean and New Mexico inspired dishes. Get here early or be prepared to wait; this busy spot doesn’t accept reservations. The good news is the restaurant has leased the space next door, doubling its size. The new space will have a bar, serving wine and beer, perfect for hanging out while waiting for a table. They will be open by early 2012 if not sooner. Portions are ample and prices are reasonable. They serve lunch and dinner continuously from 11am to 9pm, Monday through Saturday.

Recommended:  Try the slow-cooked, succulent Moroccan Lamb or Goat Stew or the Grilled Jerk Organic Chicken.

Prices: Appetizers range from $4.95 to $7.95entrees range from $8.95 to $13.95.

Luminaria at the Inn and Spa at Loretto

Update, May 10, 2012: Matt Ostrander is no longer the chef at Luminaria. This recommendation has been suspended until the current status is known.

Luminaria, the restaurant at the Inn and Spa at Loretto, is a bit under the radar. Executive Chef Matt Ostrander is turning out what the restaurant calls "Conscious Cuisine," and the results are delicious. Ostrander, a committed Buddhist and student of Ayurvedic culinary principles; brings these philosophies to his kitchen. His holistic creations are also influenced by French and contemporary American cuisine and his native Southwest. The results are what the restaurant’s website calls, “a feast for the five senses”. Ostrander has a strong commitment to fresh, local and organic ingredients, which he uses whenever he can. The hotel restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. Breakfast is from 7 to 11am; lunch from 11:30am to 2pm and dinner, is served from 5 to 9pm.

Signature dishes: The award-winning Tortilla soup.

Price range: Appetizers range from $9 to $14 and entrees from $26 to $34.

La Boca

 

La Boca, chef/owner James Campbell Caruso’s tapas restaurant, opened in 2006. The menu is a mix of traditional and contemporary Mediterranean-influenced small plates. In addition to tapas, there are a few entrée-sized portions on offer. Caruso, who was the chef at Santa Fe’s iconic El Farol on Canyon Road before opening La Boca, feels strongly about both using authentic Spanish ingredients and following the Spanish tradition of sourcing food locally. He has relationships with local food producers and participates in Santa Fe’s Farm to Market Restaurant Delivery program. As in Spain, wine is an integral part of the experience here. They have a list of “carefully chosen Mediterranean and South American wines,” combined with servers knowledgeable about felicitous pairings. If you are a sherry aficionado, this is the place to come. La Boca prides itself on being an ambassador of Spanish sherry culture.

Recommended: These three signature dishes are always on the menu: bruschetta w/ mushrooms, fried egg, truffle oil and reggianito; gambas al ajillo (traditional garlic shrimp with oloroso, a Spanish sherry, and shaved almonds) and New Mexico-ranched flat-iron steak with sea salt caramel or cabrales butter.

Prices: Tapas $6 to $14 and entrees $24 to $28. 

Restaurant Martin

By the time Chef Martin Rios opened Restaurant Martin he’d been cooking in Santa Fe for years and had a following. This was another restaurant that took off right from the beginning. It’s a Horatio Alger story. Rios, who was born in Mexico, started working as a dishwasher in local kitchens at the age of 17 and worked his way up to Executive Chef at prestigious local eateries before realizing the dream of owning his own restaurant. While you may have seen him competing against Bobby Flay on Iron Chef (Flay won), Restaurant Martin does not have the fame beyond New Mexico’s borders that some other local places do.  Rios’ philosophy, for what he calls his “progressive American cuisine”, is to use fresh and seasonal items and to enhance the natural flavors of foods, not overpower them. They are open for lunch Tuesday through Friday and serve Sunday brunch. Lunch and brunch are served from 11:30am to 2pm. Dinner, served Tuesday through Sunday, is from 5:30pm.

Recommended: The menu changes seasonally, Chef Martin’s soups, risottos and scallop entrees are always popular. 

Price range: Appetizers range from $12 to $17 and entrees from $23 to $30.

Shibumi Ramenya

Shibumi Ramenya brings the traditional Japanese noodle house and izakaya concepts to Santa Fe. In Japan, a ramenya is a place that specializes in noodle soups topped with meat, fish or poultry. It’s a meal in a bowl. An izakaya, like a traditional tapas place, serves small plates to accompany the drinks. The tapas menu here has over two dozen palate-tempting entries. Try a few and split a bowl of ramen. Chef/owner Eric Stapleman, who also owns the upscale Trattoria Nostrani next door, is behind the stove in the open kitchen these days. Besides burners, he has a Kushiyaki grill (for cooking skewered meat, seafood or poultry) fueled with bincho (Japanese charcoal). Everything is cooked from scratch here. The soup stock simmers for three-days. They believe in using fresh and local foods whenever possible. In season, some of the produce comes from their garden. They have added a few hoop-framed greenhouses so that some things can be grown out of season. Some unusual ingredients not available in Santa Fe are imported from Japan. If you want to see the chef at work, ask for a seat at the sushi-style counter by the kitchen when making your reservation. Bring cash; credit cards and checks are not accepted. Shibumi is located at 26 Chapelle Street. For reservations, call (505) 428-0077.

Recommended: Izakaya: Chicken Liver Dumplings, Kushiyaki:  Barbecue Pork Belly with Eggplant, Ramen: Tonkatsu Soup with roasted kurobata pork.

Price Range: Izakaya range from $4.50 to $12. Kushiyaki from $3.50 to $12 and Ramen from $12 to $15.

Santa Fe offers a tempting array of dining spots. Restaurants can be busy; if they accept reservations, they are highly recommended. Half the fun of dining is figuring out where to go. We hope we have made your search easier.

Author’s notes:

Narrowing down this list from all the wonderful dining options Santa Fe has to offer was a daunting task and some great ones are inevitably missing. If your favorite is not on the list, you can share it with readers by leaving a comment below.

If you want to sample New Mexican cuisine while here, check out Santa Fe Dining: Experience New Mexican Cuisine. 

As former a hotel concierge and owner of a travel concierge and trip-planning business in Santa Fe, the writer may have at some time been the guest of business or services mentioned here or may be guests in the future. These experiences do not influence this post in any way.

More about Santa Fe from The Santa Fe Traveler:

• 6 New Mexican Restaurants Near Santa Fe
   
• Q & A with The Santa Fe Traveler