Review of Zia Diner in Santa Fe, New Mexico

We visited this much-loved restaurant three times - twice for the review and once on our own. During one of those visits, we were told that the Zia was embarking on a face-lift. Since the restaurant has been open for almost 20 years, an upgrade sounded reasonable. But we would like to gently suggest that the makeover include the menu, wait staff training, and, perhaps, some new dinnerware. On one of our visits, I ordered a half-sandwich and salad with blue-cheese dressing. The sandwich, grilled ham and Swiss cheese, was great, and the salad looked fresh and inviting. But the dressing was mysteriously lacking even a hint of blue cheese. When I asked the server if perhaps I'd gotten the wrong dressing, he assured me that it was indeed blue cheese dressing - and to prove his point, huffed off and brought a very large plastic tub to the table. Sure enough, there was blue-cheese swimming on the top. "Maybe they forgot to stir it," he mumbled as he spooned me a new batch.

On a Saturday evening, the room was abuzz. We ordered green-chile cheese fries for an appetizer, with soup and salad to follow, beef stroganoff and a slow-roasted leg of lamb special for our main course. As we sipped margaritas, our soup - a lovely chicken curry with a wham-bang of coconut - and salad arrived. "Must have forgotten our appetizer," we mused, but didn't say anything. About 15 minutes later, our appetizer did arrive. The fries were soggy, but our server was so nice we didn't want to spoil his evening by making a to-do about it. A second drink was forgotten until we gently reminded him about it a half-hour later. The main courses arrived in a timely fashion. I tried to do justice to the heaping serving of lamb, mashed potatoes, and the largest Brussels sprouts I have ever seen. They proved impossible to cut, so I asked for a steak knife. Even so, I was afraid that one would fly off my plate and bean a diner at a neighboring table.

The two sauces that accompanied the lamb - horseradish and chimichurri - were delicious, still only one slice' of lamb was tender and thick; the others were so thinly sliced they barely lasted of lamb. The mashed potatoes were lukewarm. A nicely proportioned banana split was a winner; the blueberry cobbler's small, wild blueberries and tender crust would have made it memorable - had it been served warm. Our next lunch proved interesting..The smoked-salmon quesadilla appetizer was delicious but diminutive, and the half-sandwich ordered with a cup of soup was so small it looked embarrassed to be sitting on the plate. The above were served on the dingiest dinnerware I have ever encountered. The surface of the white plates had rubbed oil in places, leaving a grey, unsightly mess. "They're not dirty," the nice server assured us - small comfort for those who eat with their eyes.

The Zia's strawberry shakes, on the other hand, are magnificent. Icy cold and thick enough to "plop" when poured from the brimming stainless-steel tumbler into the serving glass, they're made the old-fashioned way - with vanilla ice cream and strawberry syrup - and need no improvement whatsoever. Zia Diner is located at 326 South Guadalupe St. in Santa Fe, 988-7008. They are opened daily from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.