3 Best Restaurants in Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Eating out is a major pastime in Santa Fe and it's well worth coming here with a mind to join in on the fun. Restaurants with high-profile chefs stand beside low-key joints, many offering unique and intriguing variations on regional and international cuisine. You'll find restaurants full of locals and tourists alike all over the Downtown and surrounding areas. Although Santa Fe does have some high-end restaurants where dinner for two can exceed $200, the city also has plenty of reasonably priced dining options.
Waits for tables are very common during the busy summer season, so it's a good idea to call ahead even when reservations aren't accepted, if only to get a sense of the waiting time. Reservations for dinner at the better restaurants are a must in summer and on weekends the rest of the year.
So-called Santa Fe–style cuisine has so many influences that the term has become virtually meaningless, especially with many of the city’s top eateries embracing a more international approach to cuisine, albeit all the while sourcing more and more from local farms and ranches. At many top spots in town, you’ll detect Latin American, Mediterranean, and East Asian influences. Yet plenty of traditional, old-style Santa Fe restaurants still serve authentic New Mexican fare, which combines both Native American and Hispanic traditions and is quite different from Americanized as well as regional Mexican cooking.
Santa Fe's culinary reputation continues to grow not just in terms of restaurants but also in businesses that produce or sell specialty foods and beverages, from fine chocolates and local honeys and jams to increasingly acclaimed New Mexico wines, beers, and spirits. Don't miss Santa Fe Farmers' Market, one of the best in the Southwest.
Fiesta Oaxaca
The cities of Oaxaca and Santa Fe actually have several things in common (a thriving art scene, a complex history, and fantastic food), and this modern Mexican eatery brings a bite of Oaxacan culture into its dishes based upon Mesoamerican culinary traditions. A tribute to the cuisine of its namesake region, the star of the show here is, of course, mole, which you can enjoy with a number of mouthwatering sauces over meats and vegetables. Diners can also choose from authentic tacos, burritos, and quesadillas with dine-in and take-out options.
Sazón
James Beard Award-winning, Mexico City–born chef Fernando Olea has been working his culinary magic at different Santa Fe restaurants since 1991 and now offers his upscale take on regional Mexican fare, complete with an exhaustive list of artisan tequilas and mezcals, at Sazón. Within the handsome dining room warmed by a kiva fireplace and filled with Frida Kahlo and Day of the Dead–inspired artwork, the focus is on one of Mexico's greatest dishes, mole. The waitstaff begin the dining experience with a sampling of mole sauces and small, fluffy tortillas to try each one—you can then order one of the night's featured proteins with whichever mole you prefer. You can also try the chef's prix-fixe (degustation) menu, and don't miss the infamous "Sopa de Amor" of poblano chile cream, blue crab, and Amaretto whipped cream. Save room for the unabashedly rich Volcán de Chocolate cake and the surprising helado de mole poblano (hickory-smoked mole poblano ice cream in chocolate).