Meal ideas in Santa Fe - all meal types!

[Heyteacher]

My husband and I are going to Santa Fe in March and though we've been a few times, we haven't been in two years. We would love restaurant ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner - preferably on the cheaper end ($25-$35 total for two) and all types. Thanks so much!!!

[The Librarian]

We've been to Santa Fe many times, and these are the places we keep going back to:

Breakfast: Tia Sophia

Lunch: Bobcat Bite, Tune Up Cafe (tried it for the first time a couple of months ago and loved it), Duran's Pharmacy (Albuquerque)

Dinner: The Shed (we always go there our first night in town - make reservations), Cafe Pasqual (need reservations), La Plazuela (in La Fonda Hotel - great chile rellenos)

Now I'm craving New Mexican!

[DebitNM]

The Chocolate Maven This was really good. We had lunch there. It had a great menu with a variety of items and it was hard to choose. DH had a risotto with feta, shrimp and basil. It was very good, but it took a really long time for it to come out of the kitchen. They were busy, but this was the special and one would have thought it would be out a bit faster. I had bagel, lox and cream cheese. It was very good. The desserts are why people flock to this place. We took some chocolate almond croissants with us. They were very good. [it is a bit out of the way, but worth finding]

821 W San Mateo Rd Ste C http://www.chocolatemaven.com/

La Choza This was a really good spot for lunch, away from the plaza. Same owners as The Shed, but less expensive and a bit more local with New Mexican food. I had chile rellenos with posole which was excellent. DH had a carne burritos. Sopapillos were served on the side, nice and light and fluffy.

905 Alarid St www.sfshed.com/lachoza.htm

Andiamo! for wonderful Italian done simply and at reasonable prices. We went there for NYE. We never go out that night, crowds, rushed service, so so food. This was a really good experience. DH had fried oysters with aioli, I had gravlax and arrugula salad. We both had rack of lamb for dinner. DH had flourless chocolate torte and I had profiteroles with fudge sauce and ice cream.

322 Garfield St http://www.andiamoonline.com/

La Boca for tapas . We ordered a few plates to start. Olives, almonds, duck. All were very good. I was sure we were going to have to order so many plates because the portions were so small. The service was slow, so by the time we got the first round of plates, we were full and didn't order anymore.

72 West Marcy St, http://www.labocasantafe.com/

We had lunch at Torino's 227 Don Gaspar Ave., Inside Santa Fe Village and again, away from the crowds. You wouldn't know it was here if you weren't looking for it..Italian/French home style cooking at great prices. DH had a caprise salad and I had a salad nicoise. Both were really good and great price.
http://www.torinosfoods.com/

We didn't get there this trip but like to have dinner at Paris Cafe on 31 Burro Alley Street, around the corner from Lensik Theatre for a bistro meal that is very good.

http://www.cafeparisnm.com

We also had before dinner drinks at La Fonda and after dinner drinks at Hotel Santa Fe where we enjoyed some wonderful live music.

Mariscos La Playa has really good Mexican style fish and seafood.
We started with: Mexican Shrimp Cocktail and 1/2 doz oysters on half shell, a fresh lemonade and a Dos Equios. I had the shrimp cocktail and it was very good, brimming with avocados, onions, tomatoes, cilantro and a nice tomato sauce. A good number of shrimp were included. Hubby had oysters and they were huge! He got 7 and said they tasted nice and fresh – always a challenge in NM.

For the main course I had Shrimp Kabob with squash, onions, bacon, and an assortment of bell peppers. I got 2 big skewers along with french fries [tasted homemade], rice, lettuce tomatoes. Again, the shrimp were tasty and plentiful. Way too much to eat, but oh so tasty.

Hubby had stuffed talapia. It was stuffed with shrimp and octopus. An entire fish! It came with fries, rice and veggies [corn and carrots] and a side of wonderfully homemade corn tortillas.

537 W Cordova Rd
Santa Fe, NM 87505-1843
[phone]

Deb

[finlero]

Hi, and welcome in advance. There are a number of threads floating around on the board about cheap-ish eats in Santa Fe, so a search will probably turn up a bunch of additional recs. Having said that, let me get the ball rolling with a few ideas:

Breakfast - Harry's Roadhouse. Fun setting on the edge of town, tasty breakfast. Would work for lunch or dinner too, although be warned it gets crowded. Other thoughts: the Pantry, Cafe Pasqual's

Lunch - Clafoutis. Nice little French place just outside downtown. Really lovely lunch. Breakfast here is excellent as well. If you don't mind fast food, Blake's is a terrific local fast food chain. I don't really love Tune-up Cafe, but many people do.

Dinner - the Shed. The quintessential New Mexican restaurant in town. There's better food in this style to be had, but the combination of food and ambiance is hard to beat. Great margaritas, and very good red chile. Again, be warned it gets very crowded. Other cheap dinner ideas would be Bobcat Bite (very good green chile cheeseburgers, very crowded, no alcohol), Los Amigos (probably my favorite New Mexican food in the area, but decidedly light on ambiance), 2nd Street Brewery (boisterous local brewpub with notably tasty food).

Here's a recent thread with a number of good ideas:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/675460

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Bobcat Bite Restaurant
420 Old Las Vegas Hwy, Santa Fe, NM 87505

Harry's Roadhouse
96B Old Las Vegas Hwy, Santa Fe, NM 87505

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

[Heyteacher]

Thank you SO much - I appreciate it, finlero!