El Fidel

El Fidel Review

Set inside the 1920s Spanish-colonial Revival hotel of the same name (rooms are dated and bleak—don't stay here), this casual restaurant opened in 2009 with an ambitious mission to serve creative, farm-to-market American and Italian fare in a region with few dining options beyond old-school New Mexican joints. The kitchen uses mostly local and organic ingredients to prepare such notable dishes as wild-caught albacore sashimi with spicy-lemon Sriracha sauce, butternut squash soup with candied walnuts, and Mexican white shrimp over lemon-herb capellini with sundried-tomato puree. A worthy brunch is served on weekends.