Dining: Albuquerque and Santa Fe

Church Street Café

Located in Old Town Albuquerque, this unassuming café, one block from the main plaza, is loaded with historical charm. The house was built during the founding of Albuquerque, in the early 1700’s. The age of the house has been confirmed by its building materials, which consist of terrones, an adobe brick used until the early 1800s. Inside, the café is cozy, with unique historical artifacts adorning the walls and free-standing on the floor.

The food is predominately authentic New Mexican. I ordered the Handmade Tamale Plate with pork and the vegetarian green chile sauce, and my husband chose the Old Fashioned Chile Rellenos with red chile. Both were excellent. As red and green chile sauce is the staple of New Mexican cooking, it is therefore an extremely important part of the meal. Church Street Café knows how to make chile sauce.

Head here for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Visit their website for the full menu.

Tomasitas

This long-time favorite, located in the old train depot on Guadalupe Street in Sante Fe, is, in my opinion, over-rated. Skip it. It’s uncomfortably busy and noisy, the wait staff is inattentive, and the food is barely a step-up from a TV dinner. Don’t be wooed by celebrity stories and pictures on the wall. Eat elsewhere.

SantaCafé

This Santa Fe icon is worth every penny you will spend. (But it will cost you a lot of pennies!) Described as American cuisine with a southwest flair, SantaCafé has received endorsements from The New York Times, Gourmet Magazine, and The Food Network’s Giada DeLaurentiis.

The ambience is casual elegance, with simple white linens and tableware. The wait staff is attentive without being annoying, and the food is, quite simply, some of the best I’ve had. I also give high marks for the plating and originality of the dishes, as well as the wine list. The menu changes often (weekly, I believe) so your experience will never be the same. I had a delectable salmon dish with lentils and chard in, I believe, a butter-carrot sauce. The sauce was so good, I could have licked the plate clean. For dessert, I ordered a blood orange tart which came topped with a gorgeous sugar sculpture. Excellence all the way around.

Tulips

I was excited to try this restaurant, as I’d heard great reviews of chef Steve Jarrett. I was a bit disappointed, however. My first turn-off was the waiter, who was, quite honestly, one of the snobbiest and unhelpful people I’ve ever met. After being rude to my husband on the telephone, he messed up his drink order (on purpose, we feel).

The food itself was unique, but my dish at least didn’t match up to SantaCafé. However, I do believe chef Steve Jarrett is incredibly talented, and his personality is expressed in his unusual dishes. My husband ordered an elk tenderloin, which he described as perfectly cooked. I ordered the night’s special—olive encrusted blue crab cakes. I see potential in this dish, but it wasn’t quite there yet. The crab was a tad on the tough side, if that’s possible, and the flavors of the crust were hard to define.

Like SantaCafé, and most high-end restaurants in Santa Fe for that matter, the prices at Tulips are high. A bit out of range? Maybe. I ‘d like to try this place again before making a final decision.