Eating in Santa Fe (New Mexico)

Full Santa Fe Travel Guide »    Santa Fe Interactive Map »    Print This Article »

Santa Fe, and the rest of New Mexico, is known for its huge and spicy plates full of Southwestern food. Restaurants in Santa Fe run from expensive haute Southwestern to down-home fast-food style plates, where you will be asked "red or green" (chile). You can try a mix of both red and green chile peppers by asking for your dish "Christmas". However, Santa Fe also has a number of excellent restaurants offering other cuisines -- possibly too many of them, in fact, as the highly competitive marketplace forces even some very good ones out of business before their time. It is almost impossible to overstate the dining possibilities here; they far outstrip those in most American cities ten times Santa Fe's size. As with several other New Mexico towns, restaurants in this description are broken into the sub-categories "New Mexican" (which, note, is not the same as "Mexican" by any means) and "Other." Meals (exclusive of drinks and tips) will usually cost $10/person or less at the "Budget" places, $10 to $25 at the "Mid-range" ones, and more -- sometimes much more -- at the "Splurges." Note that many Santa Fe restaurants are somewhat "casual" as regards business hours; if a place doesn't have hours listed below, inquire locally as to when it's open, as the hours may change erratically.

• Santa Fe Farmers Market, 1607 Paseo de Peralta (Paseo de Peralta at Guadalupe), ☎ (505)983-4098, www.santafefarmersmarket.com. The Santa Fe Farmers Market represents over 100 active vendors and features hundreds of different agricultural products. To further meet Santa Fe's demand for fresh, local produce, the Market began operating year-round in 2002, and with more and more farmers using extended growing techniques, the "off season" becomes more successful every year.

• www.santafefarmersmarket.com