La Casa Sena
Santa Fe is an amazing place to visit. Great Culture, Artists at every turn and amazing food!
3.7
Santa Fe is an amazing place to visit. Great Culture, Artists at every turn and amazing food!
Just off the square, you will run into a sign for La Casa Sena. I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t tell you to venture in and be sure to sit on the patio! Shops, full of lush trees and vines, surround this romantic courtyard setting,making every table feel unique and private. The scenery is magnificent and the tables are parked with shoppers; mostly desperate housewives with over sized Louis Vuitton’s. Every table seemed to be enjoying the Sangria, so naturally I had to try one! The flavor is awesome, but the glass held about a shot of sangria after it was full of ice and fruit! For the $11 price tag, I should have skipped it. Knowing the drink prices and value were obviously skewed, I opted for a bottle of wine. If you haven’t ventured in to Austrian Wines, start now! I ordered the Rose from Schloss Gobelsberg, a 2014($24 a bottle) which proved to be a much better value than the overpriced concoctions on the menu. I ordered off the midday menu, starting with the Tortilla Crusted Shrimp with mango and papaya salsa. I was impressed!. I should have known better than to order mussels in the dessert, but it sounded so good. Then the reality hit. The mussels looked amazing in the bowl, but the sauce didn’t cloud the fishy taste. Plus, a few of the mussels even had a taste that made me spit them out…uh, into my napkin of course. Guys, honestly I saw the skirt steak on the menu the day before and begged She Dines to come back with me! It was sliced and laid on a bed of mashed potatoes that had been roasted in a whole hatch green chili, which gave them a nice spiciness without being hot. The dish was finished with fresh steamed green beans. It was worth the terrible service and the rain that ruined the patio (not to mention the umbrella with the hole in it that I was sitting right under). This lunch had its positives, but all in all, the value is not commensurate with the food. If you want to “be seen” or want a good sandwich and a bottle of wine, this might be your place, but I am pretty confident in saying I won’t rush back.
La Casa Sena is surely a restaurant where you will want to sit on the patio rather than inside. With lush landscaping, soft live guitar music, and an outstanding menu and wine list you cannot go wrong! We started our meal with an organic greens salad which was the perfect combination of manchego cheese along with fresh carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers and creamy red wine vinaigrette. Along with this we ordered steamed black mussels, which unfortunately, were quite disappointing. The sauce they were in was very bland and the mussels a little “fishy”.
For the entrees, our party tried grilled hanger steak with a glaze which was divine We also tried the grilled chicken sandwich and the seared trout. My grilled chicken sandwich was on delicious ciabatta bread, smeared with a spicy sundried tomato spread and the best part: served with delicious sweet potato fries. The server was very friendly and knowledgeable regarding the menu but came across a little scattered at times and slow.
La Case Sena seems to have a following of Santa Fe locals as well as visitors; in fact we met a few very friendly locals while enjoying our wine. One thing to note is to be prepared to spend more than you expect. We ate during lunch and still walked away feeling a little sticker shock.
