Review of Baleen Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Four friends meet at Baleen Santa Fe, the restaurant at the Inn and Spa at Loretta. The restaurant is moderately busy. It takes 15 minutes to get drinks, later, 10 minutes to get salt -perhaps because new chef John Cox, is on vacation. The group is served amuse-bouche of fried quail eggs on grilled bread - very nice. Someone asks the difference between day-boat scallops, listed among the appetizers, and diver scallops, among the main dishes. After a pause, the Server says (with little to no conviction) that the diver scallops are bigger. (They're the same.) Someone else asks how long the slow-roasted chicken cooks. No one believes the server when he says "three to four hours." The menu isn't new; the server may be. OK not to know, un-OK to guess. The slow-cooked chicken, a premium bird, meaty with a crisp skin, is good if not noticeably different from a faster-cooked cousin. The grilled salmon is good, too, though lukewarm. A shared trio of desserts: an outstanding chocolate sopapilla; an interesting duck-egg flan; and a small cup of pointless, thin hot chocolate.' No one can decide how extensively the restaurant has been redecorated; comfortable leather chairs and banquettes plus nickering candles on the mantel of the blazing fireplace are both cozy and handsome.

Two of the original party return. I'm one of them and might as well stop writing in the third person. The chef has returned from vacation, which may account for the difference in service, which is now very good. The captain is attentiveness itself - I don't remember having seen him or any captain on that previous visit He seems° quite happy, singing to himself as he makes his rounds The server - a different one this evening - brings our wines, a fine Stags' Leap sauvignon Wane and a luscious Stags' Leap zinfandel in a trice No amuse-bouche tonight, though I spot them at other tables. I figure the "Soup and Sandwich" (quotation marks theirs) appetizer for some kind of playful pun or deconstruction - maybe a mouthful of hot soup baked inside something. But no; it's a cup of tomato-guajillo chile soup, smallish but within the normal range and a grilled-cheese-and-chile sandwich, about three-quarter size -- a huge appetizer. I send back the lukewarm soup. When it returns hot I immediately recognize it as a winner. I resist finishing the very good sandwich, but every drop of soup is irresistible. We ask the price of the foie gras special our sewer says she will find out but doesn't. We have it anyway. For the first time in the history of specials recited without mentioning the price, it turns out to be less expensive than the regular foie gras on the menu. The captain comes with another appetizer - a chevre-and-beet salad for each of us, compliments of the kitchen. We wonder why. Perhaps it's an apology for the soup 1 sent back. It's good - but filling especially after a soup-and-sandwich starter. Nice of them, but they've killed any possibility of dessert. Fortunately, my main course is light: chile-glazed tofu. I'm actually very fond of tofu, and I wonder what the chef has done with it. The answer is not much. The chile glaze is minimal to absent. It's just tofu. The accompanying vegetables are excellent; the baby squashes and leeks are slightly underdone to bring out the crunch but cooked enough to bring out the flavor. A lamb chop comes with a ° heavy corn pudding. One four-rib chop and a boneless bonus half that size is cooked quite rare, just the way 1 like it. Unfortunately, the person who ordered it asked for it medium. 1 order coffee with tequila liqueur, a nice combination, though, again, not hot.

I return for the six-course Chile Harvest tasting menu with accompanying wines. The amuse-bouche is a pleasant mouthful of marlin on a bed of crab salad. Then come eight succulent mussels in broth with a green-chile base, as irresistible as the previous visits tomato-guajillo soup. Again, I finish every drop. The new chef has a great way with soup, I think - but the next course, warm vichyssoise with a green-chile flan centered in the bowl, is sea-water salty. A chile relleno stuffed with a lobster-scallop mousse looks gorgeous. The waiter warns me that the plate is very hot. So it is, but the chile is tepid while the mousse is warm in some spots, refrigerator cold in others. They must have kept it cold to hold its shape until the last minute and then perhaps microwaved it insufficiently. The captain comes by, still singing to himself. He compliments me on my choice of dinner. The next course, a very rare venison chop (though no one asked how I wanted it), is cooler than the lukewarm vegetables on the same plate. The cheese course comes with a toasted half-croissant, a nice touch with a smidgen of green-chile jam, just to keep the chile theme going. The final pumpkin ice cream between good chile-and-chocolate brownies has melted into a thick cream, warmer than the excellent accompanying natillas (New Mexican-style custard). The half-dozen wines are all good. Pours are consistently generous. Because I have finished my Gruet rose champagne before the first course arrives, my server pours me; another. Because I have admired an outstanding California Stella Marts Meritage, I receive an extra swiglet. A pricier Bordeaux is substituted for an absent wine. Portions are nicely sized; I do not feel six-course stuffed. Staff attentiveness is splendid. We are seated next to a wedding party of 12 and our service doesn't suffer - which, if you've ever sat next to a wedding party in a restaurant, is high praise indeed.

Because of the unevenness in the delivery of the courses, reviewer Rob DeWalt tries the same tasting menu a week later to see how the kitchen fares another time. His experience is more positive than mine, though he has some of the same problems. He asks for and receives a medium-rare venison chop, but the center is ice cold. He also gets melted pumpkin ice cream and uncomfortably briny vichyssoise. But he isn't faced with my simultaneously hot-and-cold mousse. His is perfectly warm and firm all the way through. A few wines are unavailable, he says, but like me, he finds the substitutes as good as or better than the truants. He says his dinner, with only a few missteps, is one of the best in town and a great buy. Baleen Santa Fe is located at 211 Old Santa Fe inside the Inn at Loretto. They are opened for breakfast Monday through Saturday from 7 to11 a.m., lunch Monday through Saturday from 1130 a.m. to 2 p.m., brunch on Sunday from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m., and dinner daily until l0 p.m.