Martyrs Steakhouse — Restaurant in Taos

Tremendous meal from start to finish. My wife and I dined on the patio for her birthday tonight. Our wonderful server, Mara, was gracious enough to offer us so warm bread, herb butter and some roasted garlic cloves. Delightful. Had to immediately send it back. I could have eaten 5 lbs of this, but I had way too many good things ahead of me. Can’t get duked by some carbohydrates in round one. Next!

For starters we had the Queso con carne with house made blue tortilla chips along with the Chile dusted baby shrimp. Gotta say I’ve never had a blue corn chip that was thin, crispy, yet rigid enough to scoop with. Fantastic. The shrimp was delicate and spicy which paired well with the cocktail sauce that brought the punch in the horseradish department while a little sweet too. It all worked so well.

For soup they clearly know you can’t pick just one so they offer a trio sampler of Pork Green Chili, Clam Chowder, and French Onion soup. They all were all tasty soups, but the clam chowder was the clear winner. Rich flavor, tender clams and a great consistency. The popping from soup to soup allowed the heat from the chili to kick up the experience of the clam chowder. Best soup experience to date.

Main course dropped with chateaubriand, jumbo shrimp, and beer battered onion rings. The onion rings was the first to get hit and what a pleasantly sweet surprise that was. Great batter that didn’t over power the onion. (Lost opportunity here was it came with regular ketchup. A house made chipotle ketchup would have set this off.) My steak was a little over done into the medium well range instead of medium, but the flavor and crust was still very satisfying. Honestly it was the only disappointing part of the meal just due to the fact the it was a 45 day aged prime cut, but it still tasted great. Tough to be mad at anything that taste that good, but proper temp is more of a texture thing that creates this trifecta sending your taste buds into overdrive.

My wife had the evenings special of pan seared swordfish, mashed potatoes with a pesto sauce and asparagus. I was fortunate enough to have a bite or four of the swordfish.... dang. That was phenomenal. The crust, savory flavor, and overall juiciness made my mouth water with jealousy after the last bite was had. Bravo.

The show stopper was the creme brûlée in the 2 inch dish. Most places use a shallow dish, but not Martyrs. They go all in. The sugar perfectly caramelized where you couldn’t just push your spoon through it without some force. Then it gets topped with powdered sugar. The dish allowed for this combination of warm custard from being freshly torched and then a firmer cooler bottom layer. It was sensory overload. So creamy and very vanilla. (Lost opportunity here was the whip cream garnish the felt commercial. Again a house made whip cream would have put this dish into the stratosphere. In similar fashion it’s extremely difficult to knock something that’s immersed your whole mouth in this velvet vanilla wonderland.)

Cranked it out of the park. Very much enjoyed ourselves tonight without feeling like we had to be rolled out of there like a failed Wonka child. 10/10...

Ambiance is great, food, not so much. We had a seasoned shrimp on a skewer appetizer which was super super salty. The caesar salad was good but a bit light on the dressing as I mostly tasted lettuce. The entree was a complete disaster and left me very puzzled as to what the chef was thinking. I ordered the New York Strip with sauteed vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes which I was looking forward to with my steak. What I got was a bizarre presentation and extremely disappointing quality. The supposed mashed potatoes were on the bottom, then piled on top was the sauteed vegetables, then on top of that was the steak. Very weird. I had to first unstack all my food to begin eating. What legitimate chef does that? The mashed potatoes effectively was nothing different than an unseasoned baked potato with the skin pealed off. There was absolutely no sign of garlic or any savory taste and the texture was that of a baked potato. The vegetables were just okay but I have no clue what the purple stuff included in there was. The steak was clearly a very cheap cut. And speaking of cut, my hands and arm got very tired as I attempted to saw through it. Very very tough meat. On a brighter note, the margarita I ordered was excellent and the waitress was very nice and accommodating. The food came out very slowly. After complaining about my meal the manager stopped by and offered me half off which I accepted. What I really wanted though was just a good meal. This is far from a fine steak restaurant and the tender steak they promised just didn't exist. I don't recommend this restaurant and...

I had high hopes, but unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the most disappointing dining experiences I’ve had in a long time. From the moment we sat down, it was clear that the service was indifferent at best. The servers didn’t seem like they particularly cared about anything—certainly not about providing a quality experience.

To start, we ordered an appetizer that required chips due to an allergy, yet it took over five minutes for them to bring them out. By the time we got them, we had already been sitting there waiting awkwardly, and then—just two minutes later—our entrées were slammed down on the table faster than we could arrange our plates to make space. Speaking of the table, it was way too small to accommodate everything, so we were forced to awkwardly shuffle plates around to make room.

As for the food, I ordered my steak medium, but what I received was very well done, dry, and tough. A steakhouse that can’t properly cook a steak is already a red flag. To make matters worse, I was charged $8 just to add alcohol to a mocktail—something that felt like an unnecessary gouge. Then came dessert, which was clearly not homemade and tasted like it came straight from a prepackaged mix.

After all that, the final bill came to $80 for this underwhelming meal. For that price, I expected something much better than rushed service, poorly executed food, and an upcharge on a mediocre cocktail. Needless to say, I won’t be...