Zia Diner

Back in the 90's and early 2000's the Zia Diner had the best Fish & Chips ever and a very yummy meatloaf. Unfortunately that no longer is true. I had the Fish & Chips a few months ago and they were no longer the big meaty fish planks they used to be. Instead I got a few small fish sticks and cold fries. This plate used to come with coleslaw and fries. When I inquired I was told only one side but I could get the coleslaw for an additional $3.95. Wow for $10.95 I got a few greasy fish sticks and cold fries. This week I visited the Zia Diner at the request of a coworker for his birthday lunch. Had the meatloaf!! Another mistake for $14.95 I got a very small slice of meatloaf with absolutely no flavor, instant mashed potatoes with no flavor, cream gravy with no flavor and a huge pile of broccoli with no flavor. It was disappointing to see that the Zia Diner has lost its quality. I don't mind paying SF prices but not for prison like food. My coworkers were also disappointed. The Cobb salad was a small portion for $13.95, the chicken on Wedge Salad was dry, the chicken on a chicken sandwich was also dry. The buffalo burger was not very good also. Getting into the Zia Diner used require being there early...now peak lunch and there were very few people on both occasions. Bring back the quality and you will bring back the business. You can't have price dishes that taste horrible and expect return customers. This will be my last visit. Santa Fe has too many great restaurants to waste my money on this one.

The food at the Zia Diner is excellent. I've recently sample their happy hour fair with a business associate. We had the nachos and the artichoke dip and chips. Both were amazing. The staff was friendly. We ate out on their patio which is shaded and quiet. We really enjoyed eating at this restaurant.

My companion and I ordered the meat loaf plate with mashed potatoes, gravy and broccoli. This is the worst meal I have eaten in Santa Fe in a very long time. First of all, it was served cold. Secondly, it tasted horrible. Where did this meat loaf recipe come from? Zia used to have good meat loaf. It was a large piece, but it had absolutely no taste, no seasoning - in short, it was the worst tasting meat loaf I've ever eaten. Also the mashed potatoes were bland and unappealing. The gravy should have gone in the garbage can. The broccoli was fresh, but had no flavor, no seasoning. In short, the plate should have been sent back to the kitchen with a message to the cook that it was inedible, however, a one hour lunch demanded it be eaten.

My son and I had breakfast here on 02/20, Presidents' Day. I think it was also the coldest day in Santa Fe this year and the diner was basically empty at 7am. The service was friendly, and the food was great. You won't find a bagel, donut, or muffin on the menu, just good Santa Fe cuisine. Easy to walk to from any downtown hotel.

Visiting this place for the 1st time today, it will for sure be the last also. First they don't update their web page saying it was open at 7.00 (opened at 8.00 as of the 1st of September !) so we had to wait till the opening. Second the basic American breakfast came with only one slice of bread for a good 5.95 and an extra of 3.00 was charged for 3 dehydrated slices of beacon ! Third, usually the drink (coffee) is included but as we asked for the an extra 2.50 was charged. So I would not recommend this place, at least for tourists. They seems to consider us as 3 weeks old rabbits !

I keep trying to give this place more chances to impress me because it was great about 5 years ago. Nowadays, every time I go in there, the hostess is extremely rude and arrogant. Keep in mind, I am very polite and I always give over 20% tips regardless of the service. This is not something that is just being reciprocated. When we entered the restaurant, she saw us, but continued chatting and laughing with one of the bar attendants. Not the first time. The waiters are usually very polite and attentive and helpful. When we were leaving, we waiting at the register to pay for a few minutes before a busser began to ask us if we had been helped, and the hostess interrupted him to say, "Need help, kids?" and not in a joking manner. For reference, my boyfriend and I are in our twenties and we were both personally offended to be referred to, as well as treated like children by this woman on numerous occasions. We had a gift card and attempted to pay with that. She ran it, closed out the transaction, then asked about the cash for a tip. We were not aware that a tip could not be taken from the gift card, so I offered to pay with my card, and she told me just OBVIOUSLY rudely and sarcastically, "There's nothing to apply that to, sweetheart." Then nodded up at my boyfriend and said, "what about you, you got any cash?" Eventually I just gave her a larger bill from my wallet that I was saving to get my kid diapers, had we had any time left in my lunch hour to get them. It'd be nice if that was written on either the gift certificate or posted somewhere in there. "WHETHER YOU HAVE A GIFT CERTIFICATE OR NOT, YOU WILL STILL HAVE TO SPEND YOUR OWN MONEY." Also, they expire after a year. My apologies to the giver, but I don't think I'll be returning. Although once when I dined here, we had no waiter. The bus boy brought us to our table and we already knew what we want and ordered, then someone brought us our meal after about an hour of waiting and having to flag them down, then when we got to the counter and the same hostess basically told us that we could not leave without leaving a tip. The macaroni and cheese was disgusting. I was told it would be creamy, but the cheese is more of an oily curdled soup with overcooked noodles, and the green chile has absolute 0 heat, which I was told prior to ordering - supposedly it gives the dish flavor - but they gave the meal a weird sort of rotting flavor. The portions were small, but utterly overpriced. The éclairs used to be the largest and most tasty in town. Now they are about half the size and the cream within is a consistency that suggests it has been left out all day. Which they are. Which reminds me of another time that I came with my boyfriend specifically to return an éclair that he had gotten me because I truly did think it had gone bad because of how dry and sticky it was (the supposedly "fresh" one they gave us in return was just as bad - oops.) and there were two flies buzzing around in the pastry case up front and sitting on the pastries. It was pretty gross and we asked if they had fresh ones, which is how we discovered that it's just a bad recipe. The one star I gave was for the waiter (hey, at least this time we had one, right?) That hostess has been there for a while. It blows my mind that she hasn't been fired when she's so blatantly bad at her job, and when she so often blows off customers to converse with the bar attendants. We won't be back. We dined on 01/15/2015 from about 12:00PM - 1:00PM

I had the carne adovado and my SO had green and red chili eggs. My pork was good but the sauce was unremarkable and the same for the green and red sauce on the eggs. They were not bad but could have been canned for all I know.

I ordered the Zia’s Famous Meatloaf - it was very good! Also, I had a slice of key lime pie, which was excellent. The service was great. They have Newcastle on tap - a plus!