Horno Restaurant — Restaurant in Santa Fe

We are Sants Fe natives, so we were very aware of the many wonderful restaurants to choose from for our 45th wedding anniversary, but we chose The Horno restaurant to try something new. My husband went there the day prior and made the reservation in person with the OWNER. The owner chose 1 of 3 preferred tables and assured us we would be seated at 1 of them. The next day we received several notifications as reminders for our special occasion. We anticipated our arrival with excitement, BUT, everything went down hill from the moment we arrived. The hostess took us to the least desirable table available, among two very large parties, in a room on the opposite side of what was promised. We told her we had made arrangements with the owner to be seated at 1 of 3 tables on the other side for our anniversary. She said she was the owner's wife and would check if they were available; although, you could see that all 3 tables were empty when we walked in. She took us over, but again chose the absolute least desirable table (not the empty 1 of 3 by the windows as promised) but cramped in-between two parties towards the back. Again, we spoke up until she finally moved us. She said she spoke to her husband, the owner, who DIDN'T REMEMBER, but regardless, why would she choose the worst available table....I told her we were celebrating a special anniversary....we had reservations... It baffles me! Already feeling unwelcome and discriminated against, it was too late to find another restaurant. The food: my husband ordered his steak well done, but it came chard black and very tough. My meal tasted like chlorine, so they must have soaked or rinsed the noodles, or what ever they were, in unfiltered water, which of course makes for a very bad taste. THEN, they wanted to buy our dessert for our anniversary (so they said); however, we declined just to get out of there. Again, they came back to our table and offered to wrap it up to take home, so we agreed. We paid the bill only to discover they CHARGED US for 1/2 the dessert. To top it off, we found out the next day it was our SON who called in to arrange for the dessert. He called a friend who works there and was ready to pay for it, but the friend said they would take care of it. Again baffled!!!!! The atmosphere: It was INCREDIBLY loud during the whole experience which made talking extremely hard and challenging. We were on the bar side, BUT NEVER HAVING BEEN THERE, we were unaware when the owner recommended the preferred tables. Not only could we not hear each other, we could not hear our waitress nor our own voices when trying to speak. The ONLY good thing was that our waitress was very nice!!! There are many other restaurants in Santa Fe who do take special occasions serious, and who will provide the service you deserve as a paying customer. The Horno...

On July 12th - “I’m sorry for the wait” seemed to be the common phrase here. My boyfriend and I went to Horno after a recommendation from a wine bar that we had an excellent time at. Upon getting there we were told that walk-ins would have an hour wait. We waited the hour, got the call for our table, and were so excited to sit and eat there. We quickly ordered our food because we were very hungry, a bunch of appetizers and salad, and specified that our only preference was for the focaccia bread to come out first. Also, I mentioned that I had a shellfish allergy since a lot of the menu had shellfish. We waited for 30 minutes before finally making eye contact with our waitress, who said, “I’m sorry for the wait, your first course should come out soon.” While continuing to wait, a gust of wind blew an umbrella down which was about to knock over our glasses if my boyfriend hadn’t grabbed it just in time. Nobody said anything to us, but a waitress picked up the umbrella and said, “hopefully this doesn’t fall down again.,” to which both my boyfriend and I asked to please move it. There was no apology for that happening. Another 15 minutes went by, when I asked her again and she responded the same way. Within a few more minutes, the bread, short rib, and caesar salad came out. We started eating, kind of annoyed about the order, but not wanting to be frustrating guests. A few minutes after eating the caesar salad, my tongue started to swell and lips started to tingle, an obvious sign of an allergic reaction. I got nervous because I have had bad reactions in the past, so I told my boyfriend that I was going to the car to take a Benadryl. When I returned, I felt the same way as I had before but I just hoped it would get better. My boyfriend told me that while I was away, the manager said that she had checked with the chef and there was no cross-contamination and diminished my allergy, saying it would probably be fine. I couldn’t drink any more of my wine which I had barely touched and my boyfriend barely touched his either. I didn’t want to be there any longer because I wanted to take care of my allergy, so I asked for the food to go and the check. The waitress took forever with the check, so I told my boyfriend I would wait at the car. He arrived 15 minutes later, saying that it took a while for the check to come. There was no discount and barely any apologies for the length of time of everything and more importantly the allergy that was caused. The best food we had was the short rib but the rest was okay. This experience definitely makes me never...

Category: Fine Food. Both visitors and locals love this restaurant, no matter what it is. We dined there for many years in its prior incarnation as an Italian restaurant. Since Covid, it has been Horno and the owners are doing a great job serving what they call fine food, not fine dining. In fact, I adopted Fine Food as a review category after having a conversation with one of the owners a couple of years ago. The space is simple, off-white walls with hints of Santa Fe architectural elements, beamed ceiling in one of the two dining rooms, a few pieces of well-placed original art, and a short wall-facing bar. The design is pulled together by a hardwood plank floor that has seen many boots over many years. If you read my reviews, you know I spend as much -- if not more -- time describing restaurants' atmosphere as I do discussing the food. That's because I won't dine anywhere that I don't feel good. I feel good here. The owners call this place a gastropub. I think the food and the atmosphere are a bit finer than that, but I agree that it is a comfortable place. The wine list has enough under-$60 bottles to make us happy, and one bottle under $40, which makes us really happy. The menu is an eclectic mix of dishes, from a burger that once won Santa Fe's famous annual Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown, to a couple of Italian-sih dishes, to Bouillabaisse (for 2), to a couple of Asian-ish dishes. On our most recent visit, we sat at the bar, as we often do, and really enjoyed the Korean BBQ Beef Short Ribs and the Dumplings. Although the latter were vegetarian, we added shrimp. But the highlight of this dish was the really delicious lemon grass, coconut, kaffir lime broth. It was so good we took the remaining broth home even though we had eaten all the goodies in it. If you are looking for al fresco dining, there is a line of covered tables on either side of the entrance and sidewalk umbrellaed tables added during Covid that seem to have become permanent. All dog friendly. We have also attended rent-out-the-restaurant parties at Horno, where they do a great job with passed appetizers, food stations, and bringing you a glass of wine even though you moved since ordering it. YouTube's...