Upscale in Santa Fe

Cafe Pasqual's

• ★ 4.8
• New Mexican
• $$$
• Downtown / The Plaza

Chef Katharine Kagel has cooked seasonal Pueblo-meets-Mexico-meets-Mediterranean at Cafe Pasqual's just off the Plaza in Santa Fe since 1979.

Izanami at Ten Thousand Waves

• ★ 4.6
• Japanese Izakaya
• $$$
• Eastside / Hyde Park Road

Izanami serves elevated izakaya plates and one of North America's deepest premium-sake lists inside the Ten Thousand Waves spa, off Hyde Park Road.

Joseph's Culinary Pub

• ★ 4.6
• New American
• $$$
• Agua Fria / South Capitol

Chef Joseph Wrede, Food and Wine Best New Chef and multiple AAA Four Diamond winner, runs this 2013-opened pub-meets-fine-dining adobe on Agua Fria.

La Boca

• ★ 4.6
• Spanish Tapas
• $$$
• Downtown / The Plaza

Chef James Campbell Caruso, an eight-time James Beard nominee, opened La Boca in 2006; modern Spanish tapas, an all-Spanish wine list and deep sherries.

Secreto Lounge at Hotel St. Francis

• ★ 4.6
• Cocktail bar
• $$$
• Downtown / The Plaza

Drink Smoked sage margarita

Secreto Lounge is Santa Fe's most awarded cocktail room; the smoked sage margarita and garden-to-glass program live inside Hotel St. Francis one block off.

Rowley Farmhouse Ales Pub

• ★ 4.6
• Cocktail bar
• $$$
• Agua Fria / South Capitol

Drink House saisons and Belgian-style sours

Rowley brews farmhouse sours and saisons in a small Maclovia Street facility; the gastropub plates farm-to-table dinners alongside the tank lineup.

Arroyo Vino Wine Shop

• ★ 4.6
• Wine bar
• $$$
• Southside

The Arroyo Vino wine shop houses 600 bottles next to the restaurant; the on-list corkage is bottle price plus $20, the kitchen plates while you sip retail.

Radish & Rye

• ★ 4.5
• Soul food
• $$$
• Agua Fria / South Capitol

Radish & Rye pairs farm-to-table Southern plates with 175 American brown spirits in an Agua Fria adobe; bourbon flights and steak tartare lead.

Paloma

• ★ 4.5
• Modern Mexican
• $$$
• Guadalupe / Railyard

Paloma cooks fresh, handmade Mexican plates and pours an extensive agave spirits list a block north of Tomasita's in the Guadalupe district.

Tonic

• ★ 4.5
• Cocktail bar
• $$$
• Downtown / The Plaza

Drink Seasonal craft cocktail menu

Tonic is the city's serious-cocktail room, an art deco intimate space pouring liquor-and-house-syrup seasonal classics on East Water Street.

Maria's New Mexican Kitchen Margarita Bar

• ★ 4.5
• Cocktail bar
• $$$
• Southside

Drink Maria's Special margarita (Casa Noble Crystal and Cointreau)

Maria's pours over 150 hand-shaken margaritas and stocks 170 tequilas in a Cordova Road cantina since 1950; former owner Al Lucero wrote the Margarita Book.

El Rincon Cafe

• ★ 4.4
• New Mexican
• $$$
• Downtown / The Plaza

Family-owned El Rincon Cafe upstairs in Hotel Chimayo on Washington Avenue Santa Fe, a Northern New Mexican kitchen with French technique, farm-to-table.

Santa Fe Spirits Downtown Tasting Room

• ★ 4.4
• Cocktail bar
• $$$
• Downtown / The Plaza

Drink Colkegan Single Malt and Wheeler's Dry Gin cocktails

Santa Fe Spirits, founded 2010 by Colin Keegan, pours locally distilled Colkegan single malt and Wheeler's dry gin in a tasting room off Galisteo on Read.

VARA Vinoteca Santa Fe

• ★ 4.4
• Wine bar
• $$$
• Downtown / The Plaza

VARA Vinoteca is the Santa Fe branch of the Albuquerque winery; wines from California, Spain and New Mexico, plus vermouth and chicken croquetas.

Radish & Rye Bar

• ★ 4.4
• Wine bar
• $$$
• Agua Fria / South Capitol

Radish & Rye sits closer to bourbon-bar than wine-bar (175 American browns) but pours bottle wine alongside Calabrian-chile steak tartare and bone-marrow.

Coyote Rooftop Cantina

• ★ 4.3
• Cocktail bar
• $$$
• Downtown / The Plaza

Drink Margaritas and Mexican beer

Coyote Cafe's seasonal rooftop runs April through October above the downtown dining room; tacos, tequila and the city's most visible Plaza-edge sunset.

Susan's Fine Wine and Spirits Back Bar

• ★ 4.3
• Wine bar
• $$$
• Agua Fria / South Capitol

Susan's has sold Santa Fe over 1,000 wines, 400 craft beers and top-shelf spirits since 2005; the back bar serves cocktails next to the cellar shelves.

CAVA Santa Fe at Eldorado Hotel

• ★ 4.2
• Cocktail bar
• $$$
• Downtown / The Plaza

Drink Seasonal mezcal cocktails

CAVA functions as the Eldorado Hotel's living-room bar, with craft cocktails and live music six blocks west of the Plaza on San Francisco Street.