Going to Santa Fe for a a long weekend towards the end of October. What regional food dishes should I try and where are the best places to eat?

I'm also looking for the best places for day hikes and outdoorsy scenic type stuff. I've never been to the southwest so I'm on the lookout for unique stuff to do.

Hi,

Let's start with what I know - Food!

Breakfast  
Flying Tortilla facebook page
Get I really like the breakfast burrito with bacon, green chile sauce and homestlye potatos.
Do not get side of bacon. It is always crispy in the burrito but often limp as a side order.

Tia Sophias website
Breakfast burrito here too.
Everything is good.


The Pantry website
Get - Chicken fried steak with green chile and cheese sauce.
Do not get the biscuits and gravy. It's a real let down.


Harry's Roadhouse website
Get Tres Leches French Toast
Everything is well made here.


Lunch

Harry's Roadhouse
Get Carne Asada tacos or Smothered burrito
Do not get vegan entrees or Turkey Rueben (Turkey rueben was a real let down).

Famous Plaza Cafe  tripadvisor (This is not the plaza cafe southside which I would not recommend)
I like the Avacado BLT.

Street Tacos on Airport Road.
There are four or five trucks on Airport Road that do a great job with tacos.

Dinner

The Bullring website They have a hard time with medium ask for medium well.
I had this last night really great.
appetizer escargot in butter sauce served in mushroom caps.
entree petite filet
desert Chocolate Mousse.

Luminaria at the Inn and Spa at Loretto website

I've eaten here a lot and their menu is always inventive. The steaks are excellent. However, the menu recently changed and I have not been there since the change. The menu is now more European than southwestern.



La Plazuela in La Fonda hotel website
Get Steaks, Rellenos de la Fonda, filet and enchiladas.


On food - you'll be asked red, green or Christmas this refers to the type of chile sauce you'd like. Red or green gives you only that one sauce. Christmas gives both.

The best thing to do if you are staying in town is to hike the Santa Fe National forest. It is only a few miles out of town and the views are spectacular.

Here are a couple of websites that list the trails.
Alltrails.com

US Forest service

I encourage you to do small hikes. It can take several weeks to acclimatize yourself to the altitude. Some of these trails are 9-10,000 feet and the Santa Fe National forest can reach 13,300 feet. Altitude sickness and oxygen deprivation is a real threat.

Stay hydrated and go slowly.
@SevenMMmag

Also on Food my wife reminds me that La Choza is excellent for regional cuisine. Frankly I'm embarrassed not to have remembered it.

website



Appetizer Green Chile stew

Entree - All of these are excellent.

Enchilada plate either chicken or ground beef. They offer carne asada too but I just don't like it as much in enchiladas. This is a personal preference.

Chile Relleno Plate

Burrito Grande any meat

no flying tortilla.

Pantry is OK.

you want, good, real deal New Mexican food, I mean the top notch stuff. Drive up to Rancho De Chimayo.

Big Tesuque is a pretty close, pretty easy hike.. Its a popular trail so there might be a lot of people and finding good parking can be hard. Its mountain and woods hike going up in altitude.

https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7005591/big-tesuque

if you wanna see more unique desert there's tent rocks.

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/new-mexico/tent-rocks-trail

Albuquerque guy chiming in, so I'm just as much of a tourist as anyone who doesn't live there.

The above posters have mentioned great stops.

If you're into beer, Santa Fe has two of my favorites in the entire state- Santa Fe Brewing, and 2nd Street Brewing.  Depending on where you stay, 2nd Street has a place on the Railyards, with a full kitchen.  It's pretty good, but usually I just got there for a pint and a snack.

Santa Fe Spirits is also worth a stop, they have both a tasting/cocktail room close to the plaza as well as the distillery itself.

Food, again, the locals know best, but 2 places I enjoy since I've been going there since I was a kid is The Shed, and La Casa Sena.  They're in the plaza area, so again, depending on where you're staying that could be a factor since parking can be fun, depending on what's going on.

Personally, when I go up for the day, I'll park at the Railyards (underground garage) and walk, since it's really close to the touristy areas.

The Shed is the sister restaurant of La Choza. I’ve been to both and I give the edge to la choza; but, that’s just an opinion.

2nd street is better than Santa Fe brewing. 2nd street also has the Rufina location but thats more of a locals spot.

Draft station downtown is probably the best place to grab a beer though, especially if you like good Pizza because they sell rooftop pizza's food their. hanging out over the Plaza with a great pizza and excellent beer. I suggest the BLT.

I can't believe no one mentioned this, but check out Meow Wolf too..