Artesian Restaurant & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Four Corners States

I am a local and has visited ojo a couple of times. I visited the other day with my sister and decided to get a quick bite after our soaking. It turns out we had to wait for a reservation for 3 hours and we still had to wait 15 minutes after our reservation. Desipte the slight inconvenience, we would have to call Gordon Ramsay on this restaurant. The service was extrodanary, would be nice for our waitress to ask what we would like to drink before we ordered, but it was a busy night so it's understandable that she might have forgotten. We received our muffins first and they were delicious, though very dry. We ordered brucetta and when it came out, the presentation was phenomenal, when eating though, it was quite difficult. If you were to bite it, it would spill the mountain of raw tomatoes everywhere, and if you were to use the fork and a knife that they provided, it will still spill everywhere. The tomatoes and wilted greens on top were overwhelming. I ordered the chicken fajitas expecting a safe option but was very disappointed. The chicken was weirdly sweet and obviously frezzed and the bell peppers were not chopped evenly. I decided to use some of the bland guacamole and unspicy salsa and that barely improved the dish. My sister ordered the carnitas, also expecting it to be a safe option but we both have each other a side eye when we saw how overall red the sauce of the meat was. We don't care about Red 40, but this dish concerned us. The carnitas were also weirdly sweet and the raw calabasitas were odd. The waitress would occasionally check up on us, asking if we enjoyed our dishes and we didn't know what to say as to not make her feel uncomfortable for something she has no control over. We were very disappointed for the price and we had asked for boxes and the check shortly after being greeted with our food. Would not recommend, though if you're extremely hungry and didn't have the time to buy snacks from the stores in Taos or Espeñola, I guess there's no...

We have dined here thrice. Once five years back, and then two nights in a row this time.

We ordered the roasted vegetable chile relleno, a caesar with blackened mahi mahi, and Quinoa Enchilada Casserole. These vegetarian focused dishes were amazing, only the Mahi Mahi was cooked to leather, so that was disappointing. The quinoa Tamale is so good, such a fun take on a Masa Tamale.

The second night, we ordered the Lamb, Fajitas, and Poblano fries. The Poblano fries were a large delivery, very filling. They were a delicious surprise, very good. The lamb was cooked well, but lacked any seasoning and the supposed red sherry shallot reduction sauce was completely absent. The veg sides were also poorly presented, and lacked any seasoning. The Fajitas were a poor dish as well, they lacked any seasoning, no char on any of the veg, tough beef.

So, there very much seems to be a division in the kitchen, for whom presents the specific dishes. Whomever is tasked with prep, preparation, and delivery of the Pure Vegetable dishes, is a fantastic cook.

Whomever is tasked with the proteins, is a poor cook.

If you present as farm to table, from nearby sources, maybe just remove the dishes you can't prepare, or don't want to prepare, and expand the amazing vegetarian dishes.

Final note.

The drinks are ok, but fairly plain for the price. The Chocolate cake was very decadent, and heavy cocoa, real winner. A coffee with it would have been an amazing pair. Maybe offer an expresso shot with it, or ensure your servers ask if the patrons would like one.

I get that the staff may live a distance from the Resort, but decreasing the attentiveness, or rushing to flip the table, is a poor business model for the only restaurant at a Resort. The patrons will happily try suggestions, and purchase more items if you genuinely...

We stayed 2 nights at Ojo in a suite and were very much looking forward to what was sold as an amazing dining experience. Breakfast at the Artesian was amazing. Dinner at the Wine bar was almost as good as breakfast. This review however is for dinner in the Artesian. We made our reservation well in advance and showed up on time. We were quickly seated and our table was terrible. It was a small table for two that was smashed into a corner on the edge of the restaurant rendering half of the already little table worthless. We were basically sitting in the lobby of the wine bar. Our plates were literally two feet away from someone’s head that was sitting in an armchair, waiting. The young man providing the water proceeded to pour over us and poured water all over my partners lap and the table. Our waitress was friendly enough but really rushed us on choices (probably because they were busy). It took over an hour for our food to show up. The food was….meh. I was given shrimp fajitas with tail on shrimp meaning I had to pull shells off of flaming hot shrimp as I was building my fajitas. Little to no seasoning. Just really bland and nothing to right home about. My partner had the relleno and it was better but not memorable. We didn’t hear from our waitress again until she asked us if we wanted a desert menu. We said yes. 15 minutes later she brought it. The in house crème brûlée was not a good choice. It wasn’t set, and was runny under the melted sugar cap. It was over 2 hours from sitting until we were done. We felt more of a burden than a guest. I would not waste my time with dinner at the artesian. Do dinner at the wine bar. Better choices and more friendly service. Breakfast at the Artesian is great. I never write a review but I want to help others avoid...