El Nido - Santa Ana

If I could leave negative stara I would . I 've never felt so offended in my life when visiting one of Santa Fe 's places to be . The wait staff and bartenders and everyone else were so beyond welcoming but the one person who runs this potential Gem is the host/manager Jeanine who even talks down and demeans the staff in front of guests and is so comfortable with making visitors feel equally if not more offended. I can 't believe the owners know this person is employed here?! This is beyond ridiculous! NEVER COMING BACK IF SHE IS THERE, AND TELLING ALL OF MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY. THIS PLACE WHO EMPLOYS THIS LADY GIVES SANT FE A BAD NAME. What a shame!

We come here often and always enjoy the food and atmosphere. Ashley the bartender, is incredible and loads of fun. I don't think there's a drink that she can't make. Great place!

This restaurant is split into two, an Italian side and then a sushi side which is where we went for dinner. The room was on the smaller side but was decorated beautifully, and well lit. We tried several appetizers, the seaweed salad, the miso soup, and the daily tempura platter. The seaweed salad was crunchy and salty with hints of sesame seed oil and the music soup was so very rich and savory with umamai overtones, both being some of the best I've had. The tempura was also there to play game as the vegetables were perfectly crisped with no excess oil at all and was extremely flaky and cooked perfectly but the platter changes so you better come back! We started with the Santa fe rolls which had some more tempura, avocado, cucumber and some other sauces, its reminiscent of a California roll if the California roll tried to triple cartwheel into a back-lit and scoring a 10 across the board. The tempura, even though it was inbetwixt suaces and other moist items retained its crispy factor and played beautifully with the other flavors with the supporting feature of the suaces too. Speaking of which the Wasabi here was made fresh, from what it tasted like, and was very flavorful beyond its normal heat factor! We then tried each of the kenpachi and sake, and the Hamachi and hotate all being nigir versions. The kenpachi(amberjak) was fatty and sublime and coupled with a restraining dip into the soy sauce and Wasabi sent it over the moon and the sake(salmon) had a wonderful texture to it to along with having a simple yet gorgeous flavor profile. The Hamachi was hands down some of the best yellow tail I've ever had the fortune of trying and am now a firm believer in them. The hotage(scallops) was one of my first few expierences with scallops and now ill be trying them in hopes they meet this standard, the rice one these did fall apart more where as every other one managed to stay together but hey, no negative points here. For desert we tried the basque burnt cheesecake and I had an espresso martini fully loaded, as its normally decaf and I'm not that kind of person, and while the diner liquor is a bit too much for how little you are getting, im very happy the same cant be said for thus martini as we definitely got its worth. The cake had a marvelous hard top and the interior was like a clod had gotten stuck with high shelf cream and a kiss from the chef in a blender and captured it in the cake, I regret not getting one each but the desert was comped for my birthday. The martini was delicious and dangerous as the taste of vodka was absent from my mouth yet all the wonderful flavors were being enhanced by this now warm and jolly glow I felt about me, just be careful if you are a lightweight or designated driver! All things considered id give this place a 9.5 out of ten and the only reason is that perfection is impossible but lordy loo is this place close, especially when we were expecting to pay 2 or 3 times the price we ACTUALLY paid! If you like sushi, want a fun environment, and get a gorgeous drive to and from, please visit El Nido! P.s. I hope we get to try the Italian side soon!

I have lived in Santa Fe a long time. It is the most wonderful city. However, there are only a handful of restaurants that you can depend on being excellent every single time. El Nido is one of the few. Last night we had a gathering of friends at El Nido to celebrate three birthdays. A table of seven can be very challenging for waiters to navigate. But our service was impeccable and the food was delicious. Everyone of us loved our meals and the drinks were wonderful. I can’t recommend this restaurant enough for a romantic occasion for two or a large group celebrating birthdays. Thank you Janine and your staff. You created an evening we will never forget!

The second you walk into El Nido, you can smell the food cooking in their wood-fire ovens and it's mouthwatering. I was able to sample some of their salads, appetizers, mains, and desserts and everything I had was superb. Their menu has some creative flavor profiles and some more traditional preparations and you can't go wrong with either, because everything is prepared expertly. Plus, i had great service when i was there. I would eat here again in a heartbeat. It's not cheap, but for the quality you get, it is well worth it.