We're trying to budget a bit and Santa Fe is not the most inexpensive
place in the world. However, you can eat reasonably and luckily, three
of our favorite restaurants in town are just that. Good food at inexpensive
prices. Baja Taco is not much more than a fast food place. But I'm guessing
that most fast food places wish they were this good. We've been here before
for their awesome breakfast burritos, but we stopped by in the evening this
time and Lynn had beef taquitos, which were very good and I had a carne
adovado burrito. This is roasted pork in a very hot red chile sauce. Pretty
darn delicious. it's located on Cerrillos Road so it's not exactly in a quiet
and picturesque location, but it's easy to get in and out of, and you definitely
want to do this at least once during your visit to Santa Fe.
The next day, we visited Tia Sophias. It's located near the plaza and can
get its fair share of tourists, but locals flock here as well and have for
years made it one of their favorite spots. It's more famous for its
breakfasts, but we enjoy lunch there and each meal is accompanied by
their tasty Sopapillas, which with honey, make a good appetizer or
dessert. We had combo-type meals since we wanted to sample a
little of everything. We weren't disappointed. I just love the feeling of
this place. It's not overly kitschy and not only are the waitstaff friendly,
they treat you like a local.
Before heading out of town this morning, we stopped at one of my
favorite breakfast places in the world...Tecolote Cafe. Tecolote means
"Owl" in Spanish. It also isn't a super fancy place, but it has just plain
good New Mexican food. New Mexican cuisine is different than Tex-Mex
or even Californian Mexican food. It's really chile-based. In fact, the
official state question of New Mexico is "Red or Green?", meaning, do you
want red chile or green chile with your meal. Much of the time, I prefer
Green Chile, but today, I chose Red as I was having my favorite Carne
Adovado Burrito. Much different than Baja Taco's, this version is
smothered in Red Chile. It was painful. Painful Good! Very hot, but
really tasty. One of my favorite meals and I ordered almost every time
we visit Tecolote. Lynn had a really good looking Spanish Omlette and
with each meal you are given a choice of a tortilla or a bakery basket,
with yummy biscuits and muffins. Lynn chose this, but I opted for the
tortilla since I wanted to soak up more of the delicious red chile.
There's a good local vibe here too as there is a local table set up
where older guys sit and drink their coffee. Tecolote was also
featured in the Food Network show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives"
and there is a poster of host Guy Fieri on the wall. We started coming
here long before Guy visited, and we've tried several of the featured
restaurants around the country, and we haven't been disappointed
yet.
We lived in Santa Fe for three months in 2005 and got to feel like locals
for awhile. After our three month "test period", we decided not to live
here permanently. However, the great selection of restaurants and food
choices here almost tipped the scale in favor of moving here permanently.
If you plan on visiting Santa Fe, let me know and I can give you lots of
suggestions, both food and non-food related about the area. It's one
of our favorite places in the world.
