Geronimo -- Santa Fe, NM

Geronimo (724 Canyon Road, Phone: 505.982.1500) is located at the upper end of Canyon Road in Santa Fe. If you're not familiar with Canyon Road, about a mile long swatch is lined on both sides with art galleries, with a few artsy boutiques, tea houses and restaurants mixed in. Geronimo offers the finest dining experience of any restaurant we've enjoyed.

To play it safe we made our reservations before leaving Corpus Christi, almost a week before our visit, and we had been saving up, because we knew this would be an expensive meal. Plan to go into the triple digits. But, as I stated, we saved and went prepared for the extravagance -- having checked out their menu online first. We were not disappointed. This is a gourmet experience, after all, not just a meal.

We walked into sheer elegance. We were seated at a booth type table. The bench seat was padded with pillows scattered around it. The fully set table was smoothly pulled away by the hostess to allow us to be seated without having to scoot around the bench, then pushed back into place once we were seated comfortably. We were greeted almost immediately by our waiter, Steve. Geronimo is not a restaurant where you feel comfortable pulling out your cell phone and taking pictures, and their menu changes seasonally, so you'll have to bear with me as I did not take pictures of the menu, and I'm sure I'll not be accurate with the names of the dishes.

Now, on to our meal. Our shared appetizer was a beautiful Fried Lobster Salad. Here's where the class comes in. We told Steve, that we would be sharing the appetizer. Rather than bring it on one plate, it was split for us and we were served small individual salads, dressed and perfectly arranged on the plates as though we were having full portions. The nuggets of lobster were beautifully fried, cut in half and seated upon a nicely corralled mound of mixed greens. Three red dots of vinaigrette decorated the plate. Just enough to enhance the natural flavors of the salad. The lobster was tender and sweet beneath the crunch of its crust.

I had the Grilled Salmon. We both decided to allow the chef to determine the doneness of our dishes. For my salmon he choose to serve it on the rare side. I normally would not have asked for my salmon rare, but it was delectable. It was grilled beautifully and served over a sweet pea Israeli couscous prepared in the style of risotto, meaning it contained plenty of Parmesan cheese; so creamy and delicious! The peas were cooked perfectly and their sweetness came through. I could have been satisfied with just a bowl of the couscous, seriously. But to top everything was a pineapple chutney that just tied the whole dish together. It was simply amazing.

Rob had the Peppery Elk Tenderloin and Apple-wood Smoked Bacon. I was allowed a bite. The elk was also on the rare side and melt in your mouth succulent. It was served over garlic mashed potatoes and sugar snap peas that were fresh and wonderful, with a savory brandied mushroom sauce, another delicious layer of flavor. Where my dish was sweet and delicate, this one was full of bold flavors, harmoniously combined. There are just not enough adjectives.

Geronimo's dessert menu offers a choice of sweet dishes or an assortment of ice creams and sorbets that are served in a trio of your choosing. Well, Chocolate Cake was on the menu, so you know that's what I had to have, but I was looking at the ice creams as well. We asked Steve if we could customize the dessert and have our choices served together on one plate. He very politely explained that the ice creams/sorbets are served in small, individual bowls, so problem solved. Wanting to share our desserts we chose Mocha, Coconut, and Vanilla Bean ice creams, flavors that play very well with chocolate. We also ordered a divine Tawny Port that paired perfectly with the dessert.

A little aside here. Rob left the table to visit the men's room, while we waited for dessert, and it seems that if any waiter spots a napkin on a table where a guest is absent, he or she will stop and fold said napkin while asking if everything is too your liking. Pure class.

Dessert arrived beautifully presented. The cake was about a three inch round stack of three layers of chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse in between, all encased in a coating of ganache. The ice creams were served, a small scoop of each in three tiny bowls, lined up on a rectangular plate. The presentations and the flavors were rich. We scooped a small amount of ice cream onto the ends of our forks and dug into the cake mixing the flavors in different combinations with each bite. Our taste buds were delighted!

We thoroughly enjoyed Geronimo. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Every penny. Do we spend money like this often? Absolutely not! There is no way we could afford to, yet we would save up to do it again. For a truly elegant, gourmet quality experience, we highly recommend Geronimo's.

For sample menu and pictures of the restaurant and food, visit http://restauranteur.com/geronimo/menu.htm or their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Geronimo/290337600063.

El Ferol -- Santa Fe, NM

We felt it would have been a wasted trip not to visit the Canyon Road art galleries while in Santa Fe. Among the galleries sits a wonderful restaurant called El Ferol, at 808 Canyon Road (elferol.com, 505-983-9912). While we strolled through the artwork, we kept our eyes out for this place, as we had it on good authority that they served great tapas, and since we knew we'd have a large dinner later, that was just what we wanted. We found it at the opposite end of Canyon Road from where we started, which was perfect.

We arrived there just after noon and tables were plentiful. There are not a lot of people out art gazing mid-day, in the middle of the week during the off season, forunately for us. Felicia , our server, brought us a generous basket of bread, and took our drink order as we settled into the tapas menu. All tapas are $7.75 each or 5 for $38. We knew we couldn't hold five so we decided on three to nosh on. We ordered Ceviche De Atun, Puerco Asado, and Roasted Red Bell Pepper with feta cheese.

As we waited on our choices we nibbled on the bread. Each table is set with small plates, a bottle of olive oil and a pepper grinder. We poured olive oil onto plates, ground some fresh pepper into it and thoroughly enjoyed this firm and chewy country style bread.

First to arrive was the Ceviche De Atun which is described as "mango citrus cured seafood." There was a lot of flavor in this little bowl of scallops, shrimp and fish marinating in mango, lime and jalapenos, garnished with cilantro and avocado. So beautiful and fresh, we dug right in and it was half gone before we thought to take a picture. My apologies.

Then the Puerco Asado, pork tenderloin with figs, port and Idiazabal cheese, and the Roasted Red Peppers with feta arrived. The Asada was so rich and savory and communed well with the sweetness of the figs. The cheese was its crowning glory, hard and slightly sharp. The red peppers, I thought, also worked well as a side to the pork. Rob was not so fond of the peppers and feta, but he is not fond of anything that has any real tang to it. That worked in my favor.

We enjoyed our time at El Ferol and will visit again if we find ourselves in Santa Fe. They serve tapas, lunch, and dinner. You may dine inside or out, and they have live entertainment in the evenings (Wednesday thru Sunday). It's a little pricey, as are all of the restaurants in the area, but in the art district the food is expected to rise above the normal restaurant fare and what we had at El Farol certainly does.