We were welcomed cheerfully and led along a spiral path
to a little nook with 3 or 4 deuces and a 4-top. I think
we got the best of the twos. One waiter and several subs
worked this section as well as the adjacent much larger one.

A bread basket had pretty good corn cakes and excellent
green chile Cheddar scones, served with soft sweet butter.

We started off with the Gruet n.v., which has been
represented to me as the best of the New Mexico wines; it
had a very slight bitterness on the opening and lemon and
honey on the palate. Tiny bubbles. Very slightly off-dry.
A clean wine with a clean finish, pretty good.

Roast New Mexico red chile soup, huitlacoche fritter,
nopales, cotija cheese - this was shockingly but not
unpleasantly sweet, the very salty fritter helping the
balance when broken into the soup. A lot of cactus pad
julienne, which Carol thought a bit ugly. The cheese,
instead of being crumbled on top, was blended in; I
didn't care for that, but most likely would not mind.

A blackened habanero and duck confit tamale was altogether
too mildly spiced, the habanero notable by its absence,
the confit by its non-confitness. Of the advertised
garnishes of cracklings, shiitakes, and Anasazi beans, the
first were absent, the second very subtle, and the last
very abundant. The masa was tasteless (what an opportunity
for added flavor, wasted).

Brined grilled bobwhite quail was sublimely delicious, the
thighs one of the most memorable poultry tastes I've ever
tasted. Its sweet potato, pear, apple cider bacon tamale
garnish was also good; although I was getting a bit tired
of tamales, I admit that its corn component was well
seasoned and quite delicious. A dried cranberry mole was
sort of like sweet and sour sauce anywhere but at least
not thickened.

Carol's Southwest garden sampler was competently done but
to my view not really notable, A white corn wild mushroom
enchilada was nice but "so what"; I didn't try the goat
cheese tamale, which got similar positive but not ecstatic
impressions from the consumer; the poblano relleno with
huitlacoche sauce was fine, a pleasant surprise being
kernels of fresh roasted corn in the stuffing.

An almond meringue layered with chocolate-cinnamon mousse,
Kahlua ice cream was kind of peculiar, the meringue part
being more like a rather coarse, heavy flourless cake, the
mousse sticky and odd. The ice cream was I thought more like
an Irish Cream flavor.

The oatmeal cookie sandwich with honey ice cream had tasty
but overcooked (hard) cookies and an intensely flavored
ice cream with a yummy pinon brittle mixed in.

A good but, aside from the one astonishing high point, not
a stellar meal. The desk guy at the inn had said that Coyote
has the best dry-aged steak in town, but I or perhaps my
arteries didn't feel like a steak that night.