Review of La Casa Sena Restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico

The redecorated dining rooms were nearly empty - on soft, warm nights, the patio will always get a few guests. The costs of the refurbishment will probably begin to pay for themselves in the fall, when cooler weather kicks in. In the main dining rooms, new carpeting and new chairs, in matching deep brown with burgundy overtones, and new art from owner Gerald Peers' gallery, give the space a more up-to-date, sophisticated look. The restaurant had always seemed dark and heavy. Now, with fresh paint and a more open window treatment, it is lighter and brighter. The biggest change is the disappearance of the tiny bar to the right of the front door, hardly more than a service bar, with just three bar stools. Instead, La Casa Sena has put in a real bar where the wine store had been.

Some may never have been aware of the wine stores existence - it was tiny and rarely busy. The store sells the restaurants remarkable wine list at retail rather than restaurant markup. It always merited more attention than it received; the new store, which is beyond the Cantina entrance, has been nearly tripled m size and presumably will have a greater impact on visitors to the patio complex. The new bar seats about 20 inside, with comfortable banquettes and low chairs covered in the same burgundy-brown leather. Outside, a half-dozen tables are for the use of bar patrons, who packed both spaces one recent afternoon around 5 p.m.. La Cantina, on the other side of the restaurant has been updated in a similar vein, with new chairs and lighting. The bar is smaller, improving sight lines from some of the tables and better showcasing the singers.

Sadly, our dinner was no match for the new décor Mushroom soup was over salted; the spoonful or so of cooked greens that accompanied my good duck-confít starter was blazingly chile-hot - but someone had forgotten to salt the carrots that also accompanied the duck. (Neither vegetable was listed on the menu; perhaps they were last-minute improvisations.) The best dish of the evening was trout, baked in adobe clay, which was broken at the table to reveal a moist, delicate filleted fish; the worst was a disgraceful veal chop, all underdone, rubbery fat which three of us tried and failed to cut through, even with a steak knife. Another time, the chop ordered rare, came near-raw, tender enough, if bland. Also bland were the accompanying vegetables. The ranchero sauce, tasting distinctly Italian, was more south of Rome than south of the border. The silliest dish was an actual dish - the bowl in which the veal chop was served. Odd-shaped china is chic right now and the restaurants remodel includes the increasingly familiar square, oval and triangular plates that spell innovation, but even a juicy, tender chop would have proved a challenge to carve at the bottom of a deep bowl. Soft, crusty French bread quickly arrived, the butter embedded with tender bits of apricot. Maybe a sweet fruit butter for breakfast, but why before a big dinner? But whatever is embedded in the butter seems to be the luck of the draw - at other times the butter was salty/savory rather than sweet.

Through a succession of chefs, La Casa Sena has always favored its sweet tooth. A goat-cheese appetizer was coated in chile cajeta, a goat's-milk caramel. The menu's description of the mixed grill included, along with rabbit sausage and grilled antelope loin, a sun-dried cherry coulis and a blackberry demi-glace. The enchilada, which also comes with the mixed grill, is stuffed with apple and asadero cheese. A coriander-crusted halibut special came with a sweet lavender sauce - arbitrary at best, inappropriate at worst. The halibut itself was plump and tender, perfectly cooked. The beautifully prepared four-grain risotto that accompanied it - wheat berries, wild rice, basmati, and quinoa - was interesting and well textured. The trout was first-rate, too - the kitchen seems to have a more skilled hand with surf than turf. My mixed grill proved to be three dinners in one - two pretty good, one near-inedible. The antelope loin was on the bland side but lender. With some vegetables it would have been enough for an entrée. The very good rabbit sausage, also along with those hypothetical vegetables, would have been nearly enough for dinner, too. The overcooked hard crusted, around-too-long enchilada was too much. Period.

It wasn't just the mixed grill that was super-sized 1 don't see the point of two goat cheeses as a starter when one and a little salad would have been fine. The mussel, dam, and calamari first course was so generous I knew that the friend who ordered it wouldn't have room for her entrée - particularly that big lump of uncarvable veal chop. We would have sent the veal back, but after all those mussels, clams, and calamari, my friend was full. We ordered two desserts for the table; one a refreshingly icy kiwi-guava puree served in a martini glass settled in a handsome glass bowl of crushed ice, the other a cold red-chile chocolate soup perhaps five times the size of the martini. The mild chocolate soup with a little chile kick at the end would have been enough for everyone at the table if we had wanted to keep dipping our spoons into the same bowl.

The service could not have been better - friendly, informative when asked, a pleasure. Any one of the staff passing by was happy to help. For just a bite and a sip I dropped by the bar afew times. Wines by the glass start at $7.50.1 had an Italian pinot grigio from Friuli for $8, not bad. More expensive wines - up to a fraction over $25 a glass - are kept in a Cruvinet-type device that tops open bottles with inert gases to keep out air that would cause the wine to oxidize. The bar snack menu includes the very good cheese plate from the regular menu and other snacks exclusive to the bar. I tried the shrimp grilled on sugar cane. You also can order off the regular lunch and dinner menus at the appropriate hours - though what would be the point with that lovely patio and the handsome new dining room? Too bad the kitchen has a long way to go before it can match the patio, the new decor, or the prices, La Casa Sena is located at 125 E. Palace Ave. #20 in Santa Fe, 988-9232, www.lacasasena.com