3 Best Restaurants in Abiquiu, Day Trips from Santa Fe

Reasonably priced, cheerfully decorated, and offering some of the tastiest food in the Rio Chama Valley, this adobe café-bakery run by the former tour manager of the nearby Georgia O'Keeffe Home & Studio. The eclectic made-from-scratch cooking here runs the gamut from New Mexican (green chile cheeseburgers, roasted and stuffed poblanos) to international (red lentil dal, roasted-turkey crepes with cheddar and cranberry sauce). There's a nice selection of wines, mostly from Spain and Italy, and you'll always find a variety of tantalizing house-made desserts.

The name of this refined, romantic prix-fixe restaurant and inn nestled against towering ramparts in the Ojo Caliente River Valley stands for NOrth of SAnta Fe, and indeed this very special culinary retreat is close enough to the city (a 45-minute drive) to draw foodies for one of the rarefied five-course, farm-to-table dinners. But NOSA also has four elegantly furnished suites, in case you'd prefer to spend the night—not a bad idea, given the restaurant's enticing wine list. The high-ceilinged dining room is warmed by a fireplace and has tall windows with dramatic views of the surrounding mountains. Daily breakfasts are also open to the public and have become popular with guests of Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort & Spa, just up the road.

This endearingly modest hole-in-the-wall on the tree-shaded main drag of tiny El Rito doesn't look like much from the outside, but devotees drive for miles to taste the stick-to-your-ribs classic New Mexican specialties, including a rich, smoky green chile stew that's garnered numerous awards and accolades. The drive here—it's about 20 minutes from both Abiquiú and Ojo Caliente—offers stunning views back east toward the Sangre de Cristo mountains.