El Jefe — Restaurant in Angel Fire

We came here for a mid day ride food and drink fix. We wanted to vary it up from the on mountain dining experiences we had the past couple of days.

My experience here was great. It was a sunny beautiful cool day so we were able to enjoy our food outside.

Heads up - it is a counter order service vs a personal waiter. Although it was very busy I feel the line went at a decent speed. Maybe grab a drink from the shorter drink line first and enjoy as you wait in the food line.

Carne Asada Burrito - the trick on this is to ask them to coat it with queso. The carne asada was nice and tender. The ratio of meat to other fillings was perfect heavy on the meat side. The queso was flavorful and I think a must for this dish.

Spicy del Mar Cajun Shrimp Taco - mmm mmm good. The shrimp tasted fresh and the spicy aioli was a nice flavor with a kick here and there.

Taco Al Pastor - meat was tender and the pineapple looked like fresh pineapple pieces.

Caribbean Bowl Salad - not much chicken but the pieces were crunchy. This was a bit more heavy on the lettuce than toppings.

Churro - genius to have this as a donut. This was straight up a churro that was shaped like a donut - not a donut that was flavored like a churro. It was nice and crisp and crunchy and flakey and buttery all at the same time. The whipped cream seemed freshly made. It was not sweet, so it was perfect to counter the sweetness of the churro.

The only thing would be portion size to cost ratio felt a bit off. For sure would have expected a larger portion for the price. But honestly El Jefe had good food compared to the same price as say the overpriced average hamburger from the actual Angel Fire...

We have supported El Jefe for years. Today, I was completely disgusted. I waited in line twice and then didn’t even end up being able to order food. After waiting in line, I got up to the register and was told “we aren’t taking food orders for another 20 minutes. We will only take chips and queso orders” Okay so we chips, salsa, and guacamole, and drinks and Sit down for 20 minutes. Then we get in line again now I’m behind about 10 people that just arrived. I Wait and wait. Then I hear the person at the register saying , “it’ll now be 45 minutes for food After you order”. She continues to tell everyone now that it’ll be 45 minutes. After like 10 more orders for like 30 people how Are they going to have all of their food out at the same time?!?! . We are siting outside and cold. So we asked someone to turn on the heaters. They never even tried. We were just told that some of them don’t work.. So we froze and we didn’t eat lunch. So disappointed. Why didn’t y’all just keep taking orders so that people didn’t have to wait until twice?. So that people are already there didn’t have to wait in line again and then be behind all the people that just walked in the door? It doesn’t make sense!!! Terrible customer service! And we waiting until 1:30 to come eat. I advise that you don’t take outside Colin orders on days when the skiing is this busy. And you go ahead and take the orders even if the kitchen is backed up and just tell them they have to wait longer instead of having to get in line again to order food!!!! So Ridiculous! We are platinum members, and I vow to never ever...

Came to Angelfire to celebrate my 32nd birthday. Had a really great time with the exception of lunch. While we'll be back to the park, we'll skip El Jefe in future.

For weirdly specific reasons (name change, travel timing, MVD being closed on the weekend, etc), I intentionally let my driver's licence expire the day before my visit here, as it's still legally valid for driving & purchasing alcohol. However, the person taking the order scrutinized my ID (my husband initially thought they were about to wish me happy birthday based on the date...noooope) and ultimately refused the purchase of a margarita due to being 1 day expired and therefore somehow no longer proving I'm 11 years beyond drinking age. They also refused to allow my husband, who had a non-expired ID, to purchase a drink because our original intention was to share it. See NM Stat § 60-7B-2 (2021), "B. An identity document is valid for the purposes of the Liquor Control Act [60-3A-1 NMSA 1978] even if it has expired." But FYI, the resort supposedly has a stricter policy, so I guess don't tell them you're going to share a drink?

I'm clearly mostly disgruntled about the principle of the thing here. However, the food was of average to low quality, bland, and $$ for what it was so perhaps a drink would have made it more enjoyable. That said, it wouldn't have changed how heavy the food sat in my stomach for the next run. So, I guess thanks for saving us the $14 on what probably would have also been an extremely...