Restaurant Review: Amaya at Hotel Santa Fe

Our guide book indicated this restaurant — located in the Hotel Santa Fe — was noteworthy for combining popular food with interesting local flavors (“Eclectic New Western”).  While less nouveau than I’d expected (which is not necessarily a bad thing), it was a good place to eat, and a largely pleasant experience going there.

Overall
Food		Service
Ambience		Prices

Food:  The menu was not huge, but there were several things of interest.  There was plenty of innovation on the menu, but not so much as to be off-putting for a relatively conservative diner like me.

We got there before they opened at 6:30p, so we hung out in the lounge; Margie had a ice tea, while I had a “Desperado,” their local margarita with a splash of cognac (which didn’t really add to the drink, to be honest).

For starters I had a green chile bisque — which, just as it sounds, was a delightfully creamy green chile soup with a small rolled tortilla in the middle.  Very nice.  Then for entree a Kobe beef steak (like butter), garlic-sautéed shrimp (yum), wasabi-spiced risotto (a bit bland), and soy beans with a very hot sauce dotted to the outside.  The food ranged from delicious to quite accectible, and there was more there than I could eat.

Margie had a baby arugula house salad she enjoyed, then a green chile enchilada dish that was festooned with tons of stuff.  Again, more than she could eat.

We skipped dessert.

The wine list was moderate-sized and reasonably priced.  Interesting, the top three most expensive wines were Pinot Noirs, and there was a Merlot on there also more expensive than any of the several Cabs they had; I’ve never seen a restaurant with such a weak Cab list.  We had an Argentinian Malbec, fairly reasonable and pretty tasty.

Service:  Service was friendly and attentive.  No complaints, and a fair amount of praise — I didn’t feel good friends with any of the staff afterwards, but they all did their job with precision and grace.

Ambience:  Sitting in the lobby area of the hotel, it’s hard to have enough ambience.  The decor was nice, and we have a window seat looking out on the thunderstorm system passing through, but there was nothing particularly special about it all.

Prices:  Not cheap, but not wildly excessive.  Our entrees ranged from $16-28, with the soup and salad extra.  The wine was a bit pricey, and I had an extra drink beforehand, so we ended up paying more than we’ve paid the earlier nights.

Overall:  Amaya isn’t a “destination” restaurant, but it’s worth going to — which is saying more than it sounds, because it is a loooooong walk SW from downtown, through some marginally sketchy neighborhoods.  I don’t think I would go out of my way to return, and it’s not going to be anyone’s keynote Santa Fe dining experience — but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it, either.  The food was tasty, mildly interesting, plentiful, a bit pricey, and satisfying.

We arrived on a Thursday night at opening, and had no problems getting seated without reservations; the place is not huge, though, and has the hotel to support, and so was beginning to get a bit more crowded by the time we left.

Amaya Restaurant at the Hotel Santa Fe – 1501 Paseo de Paralta (at Cerrillos), Santa Fe, NM – (505) 984-1788,