Taos Report

My destination after the Grand Gulch expedition and great victory meal in Durango was Taos where I met up with Andy's Better Sister-in-Law and our two dogs to spend the rest of the week leading up to Memorial Day.

Upon hitting Tres Piedras where I was able to pick up a Cingular signal, I called Sue and we decided to meet at Orlando's for lunch. This is consistently one of our all time favorites. Each of us "built our own bowl" starting with a posole base. I opted for chile caribe, onions and tomatos and Sue had green chile, onions and cheese. Orlando's chiles are superb - the chile caribe carries more heat. Accompanied by fresh flour tortillas and washed down with a Fat Tire, we were in heaven.

Dinner that night was sitting at the Anaconda Bar in the El Monte Sagrado, Taos' most expensive hotel. No, we didn't stay there although they do accept dogs - for a mere $50 extra per night. Our usual lodging is a charming casita at Taos Lodging for less than a "C" note per night. The bar menu at the Anaconda is excellent. I had an endive salad with grilled salmon and Sue went for the turkey wrap. Absolutely fresh ingredients made this simple dinner very worthwhile. It's also fun trying to decide which part of Texas the other customers in the bar hailed from.

Day 2 and Day 4 lunch was Antonio's new Relleno Cafe which is a little place with several outdoor tables on a corner just south of the Plaza on Paseo del Pueblo Sur. We have always enjoyed Antonio's main restaurant, surprisingly called "Antonio's." The menu at the Relleno Cafe is more than the usual Tex-Mex. His tortilla soup is stellar and the poblana crema soup a close second. But the real stand-out was his special relleno stuffed with pork, raisins, cranberries, lightly fried and gently touched with a walnut cream sauce. Not your typical deep fried chile.

Day 2 dinner was the real winner at Joseph's Table. We had several excellent dinners at Joseph's original location (which Antonio's occupies now) but then had a real loser when he came back to Taos and first opened in his present location at La Fonda Hotel. We gave him another try and we were more than impressed. You can find a sample menu on his web site. We began with the lobster tamales and things just kept getting better after that! He also has a nice wine list with a very good selection of half-bottles making it feasible to do one wine with appetizers and salad and a different wine with main courses. Attentive but not cloying service by a very knowledgeable server was also a plus.

Day 3 lunch was at the Dragonfly Cafe which is about half a block from Taos Lodging. This is a dynamite destination for both breakfast and lunch and they have an interesting, eclectic menu. Sue wanted breakfast so she only had a bowl of their homemade granola. I had Bibimbop, yes the Korean rice bowl and it was terrific.

Day 3 dinner was back to Orlando's. Sue stayed with a posole bowl but I had the carne asada. What can I say? We've never had a bad meal there.

Our final dinner was at Doc Martin's. It has been many years since we have eaten there because of a run of several mediocre dinners. The patio at the Taos Inn is our regular afternoon destination for Martinis, however. Dogs are welcome which is a nice touch. We went back to Doc Martin's due to a recommendation by some friends but unfortunately it is nothing to write to LTH about. The menu is pretty uninspired. Although our dinners were OK, my elk tenderloin rated an above-OK rating, it was all pretty boring. The wine list is reasonable but my first couple of choices were out of stock. Our server meant well, but he was working too many tables to give us the type of decent service. I doubt that we'll be back.

On another note we saw in the classifieds that one of our favorite restaurants, "Lambert's", is up for sale.