| Overall |  | ||
| Food | | Service | |
| Ambience |  | Prices | |
El Nido touts itself as an old-style steak house, and that fits perfectly. Nothing trendy here, nothing avant’garde or challenging — just big chunks of food, well prepared, served they way they would have been served decades ago.
Food: The menu is pretty simple. There weren’t any starters that caught our eye (except for their traditionalism — how long since you saw Oysters Rockafeller on the menu?), but there was a long line of steaks, roast, lamb, and sea food, which all came with veggies, a salad (Margie’s house salad was tasty; I upgraded to the Caesar which was both large and very garlicky, yum) and a side potato. You could also get specialty upgrades to the meats — I went for the green chiles, which were nicely sauteed and added a pleasantly spicy (but not hot) flavor to my New York. Margie went for roast beef and scallops, and had no complaints.
The specials were all sea food, and looked good.
The wine list was of moderate size, but had a wide varety, priced non-exploitatively, including Silver Oak ($95) and Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin ($28, our selection).
We passed on the desserts, as we were full.
Service: We were greeted nicely, and the staff were friendly and fairly attentive. Been a while since we had a separate cocktail waitress from our “regular” waiter. Glasses were kept full, food was served and cleared promptly.
Ambience: The exterior is a nice, low-slung adobe style, but the interior looks like a very mellow 1970s New Mexico decor — nothing garish, but nothing very interesting. It neither detracts nor adds to the experience.
Prices: Two sizable entrées (with some upgrades) and a lower-end bottle of wine set us back about $100. It felt like pretty good value for the food quality.
Overall: The place is supposed to be a favorite of Santa Fe opera-goers, and it certainly is a location we’d return to again. It’s not wildly creative or distinctly Santa Fean or a place where all the
in crowd and hot celebs are going to hang, but it’s good, well-cooked, well-served food, which is frankly mostly what we’re looking for.
El Nido is part of the 999Dine network of New Mexico (and Durango) restaurants, which lets you buy discounted vouchers beforehand. We got a $40 voucher online for $26 (with a day-of-week limitation), which was a nice discount.
El Nido is located north of Santa Fe about 5-7 minutes on Bishops Lodge Road, just a bit beyond Shidoni Foundry.
El Nido Restaurant, Tesuque, NM – Located at County Rd. 591 at Bishops Lodge Rd. 505-988-4340
Santa Fe – Tuesday
It was up and at ’em waaaaaaaay too early Tuesday, as we had a 6:45a flight out of SNA. Not much to say about that, except we got there in…
Jim and Ginger tried to go here last night on their trip out here, but, sadly, it’s closed.
They went to Rio Chama, and said it was quite good.
Two other places recommended to them were “Zia Diner” and “Cow Girl.”