{"id":10795,"date":"2007-06-30T07:53:51","date_gmt":"2007-06-30T14:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/06\/30\/restaurant-review-amaya-at-hotel-santa-fe.html"},"modified":"2007-06-30T07:53:51","modified_gmt":"2007-06-30T14:53:51","slug":"restaurant_review_amaya_a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/06\/30\/restaurant_review_amaya_a.html","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Review: Amaya at Hotel Santa Fe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 <\/em>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Overall<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Food<\/td>\n <\/td>\n Service<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ambience<\/td>\n <\/td>\n Prices<\/td>\n <\/em><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Food<\/strong>:  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.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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-saut\u00e9ed 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We skipped dessert.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Service<\/strong>:  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.<\/p>\n

Ambience<\/strong>:  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.<\/p>\n

Prices<\/strong>:  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.<\/p>\n

Overall<\/strong>:  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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Amaya Restaurant <\/a>at the Hotel Santa Fe – 1501 Paseo de Paralta (at Cerrillos), Santa Fe, NM – (505) 984-1788,<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-drink","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10778,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/01\/santa_fe_2007.html","url_meta":{"origin":10795,"position":0},"title":"Santa Fe 2007","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 1-Jul-07 9:00am","format":false,"excerpt":"Master Index of posts for our Santa Fe vacation ... 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