Shade Tree Customs & Cafe

Eh, it’s closed now so this review won’t mean much. I’ve been here a few times and it’s always dead compared to the rest of Nob Hill. Menu is small and uninspired. I’ve had most of the appetizers, none of which were memorable. I had the mac & cheese once and it was bland. Service was always friendly, though.

This place rules. Great little gastro-​pub. But I don’t think they consider themselves that. They’re too diesel to consider themselves anything.
Great beer selection. Cool atmosphere. And the food is on-​point. Forget the name of it, but there’s a spicy chicken sandwich that rules the nation.
Excellent spot.

I really like this place. It is one of the only spots in Nob Hill that has a boutique bar type of vibe. Overall it has a very successful and refreshing vibe – a nice departure from the area’s repeated attempts at frou-​frou. Sometimes it feels like same thing over and over down here, but this joint has a nice dose of character without forsaking quality. Actually, their product might benefit from just that – a disinterest in being fancy as fuck for no reason.
They have a pretty decent beer selection; I’m currently enjoying Goose Island’s Sophie on tap. It’s a Belgian, along the lines of a Delirium Tremens. The food is really indulgent; very heavy food but done quite well. It would be nice if they had a couple of lighter options so that you could enjoy the beer selection without feeling like a bloated bowling ball upon exit. I actually usually don’t come here for that reason– I don’t want to drink beer *and* eat extremely heavy food at the same time.
This place used to have this motor oil smell which I absolutely loved! That might be bazaar but… what can I say? I liked it!

I’m not sure how this gets a 4 star average, maybe it’s because everyone who reviews it is drunk… I met some friends here Saturday night and I won’t be going back. First off I don’t drink when my SO does which means that I generally have a soda or two, some places are great and offer free soda to the DD but this isn’t one of them, that’s fine, I get it you’re a business and you want to make money. That said 2.50 per coke in a 16oz glass that’s half filled with ice is a bit on the high end for a sit down eatery but OK fine… until I got the bill and it was 2.50 PER soda. The chicken strips were good, the fries were good but the drink prices were a bit excessive. I wasn’t the only one who was surprised by the bill, apparently it’s a well known thing this place is a bit pricey.
One review says best selection of beers but my SO listed several beers and they didn’t have any of them. I’m sure a lot of people love this place and again the food was fine I just think the prices are a bit excessive and this wouldn’t be my first pick if I wanted to go out for pub food and drinks.

What’s not to like? This is a great neighborhood bar, with everything a great neighborhood bar should have: lots of taps, some nice wines by the glass for non-​beer drinkers like myself, classic America bar food (burgers, mac n cheese, some salads) to snack on, and live music most nights. The service is friendly and efficient, which is a nice plus. This is my go to for a casual drink before hitting the Guild or heading on to dinner.

Great vibe, excellent food and a unique setting. What’s not to love? We’re very happy — this is a great addition to the Nob Hill area.
Also, this has to be one of the best beer selections in the 505. Great local and Belgian beers on draft and a nice assortment of ciders.
5 stars and 2 enthusiastic thumbs up!

Perhaps a tad bit over priced — $ 30 with tip for two beers and Mac and cheese. But for quality and quantity, I’m not one to complain.
They have a great beer selection with a healthy combo of local and national drafts. Good service. Nice patio. You can order a bucket of mimosas. Aside from whiskey and coffee, I can’t think of a better way to start the day.
My first tattoo was inspired by their clientele and hilarious but somewhat scary owner.
And the best part, the draught beer has foam tree art. Suck yuppie coffee house.

Great place to go for lunch during the week. Food comes out great and on time to get you back to work.

What a great place for a cold beer and a great burger! Casual, friendly, uncomplicated, great service, FANTASTIC food and local beers. I had the New Mexico Burger – super flavorful, incredibly tasty green chile, real cheddar cheese. Man, it was awesome! I’ll be back!

They have a live blues duo playing. Fits so well with the rustic décor. Loving it!!!

Don’t let the biker vibe keep you away-M.O., the bartender, the waitstaff, the cooks are cordial and welcoming. The food is delicious, and the beer selection is small but tasteful. A place to return. Bonus: wifi, patio, and live music on Tuesdays!

Pleasantly surprised with the new menu.
The Kickstarter breakfast sandwich with fried egg, bacon, hashbrowns, green chile & Habanero cheddar cheese on sourdough was awesome!

After seeing Shade Tree on Restaurant Impossible, my friend suggested we give it a shot for our Friday night double date. We arrived a little after 7pm and were seated right away, which was a nice surprise for a small-​sized café on a Friday night. Within a few minutes, we received our waters and the waitress took our drink order. The draught beer selection was respectable, and I was able to order a pint of Marble Wildflower Wheat, so no complaints there.
We received our food in a reasonable amount of time and I have to say… it was delicious! Three of us ordered burgers (2 New Mexico and 1 Original), and one of us ordered the Southern Tasty Chicken Entrée. Based on the tastiness of my own food and the «mmmmm this is really good» comments from my friends, I think it is worth another trip to try some of the other items on the menu!
The one problem we ran into was my friend’s burger was a bit undercooked. She ordered her patty medium-​rare, but it seemed to be much more «rare» than «medium». In any case, the waitress was outstanding in response. She even offered us a piece of their chocolate cake on-​the-​house, which was delicious. For as many people who seem to have experienced poor service, we definitely received excellent service. Many thanks to our waitress for a job well done.

The bf and I wanted to hit up this joint after we saw it on Restaurant Impossible. I’m so effing glad we did. I had the STC Sandwich. A beautiful, handful of spicy, fried chicken loveliness. The chicken was fried perfectly so it was still crispy and juicy simultaneously. The sauce that accompanied the filet was spicy, rich, and a pretty color to boot. The bf had a hamburger with avocado, bacon, and cheddar. The patty was cooked with care and knowledge of how to cook a damn slab of meat (sadly it’s a rare skill these days.) With every bite it filled your mouth with the most titillating buttery taste. Yup, titillating. The bun was toasted so that it was still soft, but added crunch to the bite. I look forward to going back and trying more of the menu. Another great place in ABQ to add to the list :)
Also, the service was on point. Granted it wasn’t too crazy busy our waitress was super attentive and quick.

The title to this review is going to be «Restaurant Impossible, alright!»
I really don’t like writing negative reviews but this is the purpose of Unilocal,right? I had this place bookmarked for quite some time and never made it. After watching Restaurant Impossible, one of my favorite shows, we made a date with our friends for Saturday. An advantage to being on Unilocal,are that once you check in, you can gage the time of your service in the restaurant because it shows the time of your check in. I need to start by saying that we ordered our drinks, which came quickly, and our chips and salsa that didn’t come for 45 minutes, and then the waiter told us they were out of salsa, so he brought guacamole, and the person who ordered the salsa is allergic to avocados and he couldn’t even eat it. About 5 minutes after we got our chips and guacamole, our food came. The waiter brought 2 wrong meals and no flatware or spoons for our stew. He took one of the meals back and made a comment that, «oh well, I just got a free lunch out of that mess up!» Really? He was making a joke out of the wrong meal he brought us that he was going to get to eat now? So, he brought the correct meal out for my friend a few minutes later. The other wrong meal wasn’t realized until she was close to being done. She wondered where her mashed potatoes were. She asked the waiter and he realized that he put the order in for the fried chicken sandwich and not the fried chicken meal. After eating, we went downstairs to the custom motorcycle bike repair shop. It was amazing. Very cool vibe and such nice men who own the shop and restaurant. So, 5 stars for the bike shop and 2 for the restaurant.
I would like to add before I go… my sloppy joe was outstanding and my husband’s patty melt was delicious. Just very poor service… haphazard!

Has always been one of my favorite joints in Nob Hill. We hadn’t been in a while since the menu was revamped BRING BACK THE KICK STARTER! and boy were we surprised.
New vibe, new décor, fancy printed menus, no more live music. I get the music thing, it was always too loud and cramped BUT they could have been acoustic only or something. But I digress.
No more grit, no more edge. Bikes that used to hang from the ceiling are gone. If I wanted to go to Zinc, I’d go to Zinc. (I love Zinc basement btw) We got beers but weren’t impressed with the menu so we decided to head elsewhere.
Waitress asked how we liked it, ehhhh mmmmm ya, we like the old place better. She told us it would be on Restaurant Impossible next week. Ahhhhhhh now it makes sense!
Sorry friends, parting is such sweet sorrow…

I haven’t been back here since before the remodel. Surprisingly the menu changed. I ordered the double decker turkey burger and was not too impressed. The décor changed also and it seems like they made their place more generic looking. I liked the look they had before and not too sure why they felt the need to change everything. The atmosphere is nice still and the beer selection has not changed (good thing). I need to try more items on the new menu to know if I like the new food or not. Don’t be fooled by the patio sign. The patio has yet to be opened and let’s hope I can bring my dog out here when they do. The overall impression of my latest visit is «local vibe turns to corporate vibe «I’ll keep coming back though as long as the beer selection stays good :)

I needed to update my review of Shade Tree since they have been open for some time.
Shade Tree needs to be renamed: The place where service goes to die and you are forced to listen to a plethora of loud music during dinner.
Long story short, Shade Tree has kind of become my hell. The first and second visits I had great service. They might not have known their stuff, but they were able to accommodate my needs. However, I haven’t had good service since. If you walk in thinking, «man I need a quick bite to eat!» you are sadly mistaken as the whole ordering drinks, ordering food, and getting things like mayonnaise can take upwards of an hour. Not to mention you might not find a server for a good ten minutes. That’s right folks, plan for an hour just to get your food on the table. Also, it doesn’t matter how many times you ask for mayo or extra napkins, because Shade Tree believes it takes a village to serve one table. As for the check, it takes a good 20 minutes for that to arrive, and it may be the second time you’ve seen your original server all night, when they come begging with big eyes for tips.
The music is something else entirely. I am a fan of local music playing at restaurants/​bars at night for funsies and drinskies. I am not so much a fan of it starting during dinner hours, so around 7:30. That’s dinner time for us working folk, and there is nothing like talking to your friends or family while old men gyrate their hips to music. Nothing. Can. Explain. This. Experience.
The food is still good, although, I’m never sure what to expect anymore. Some days I get hash browns with breakfast, other times they tell me to not bother ordering them because the dish comes with them only for it to arrive, you guessed it, an hour later without hash browns. However, since it’s affordable food I can’t complain with the quality, but it’s definitely not worth waiting an hour for a grilled cheese with some ham and a side of fries. To me, an hour wait is worth quality, and Shade Tree is not the quality kind of place. It is the place where the unwashed, underdressed, hippies who have turned to motorcycles go. I’m cool with that, but I’m not cool with waiting an hour to hang out and listen to these conversations while waiting on a freaking grilled cheese.
So, Shade Tree gets two stars, because I still like their food. However, the service BLOWS and there always seems to be some sort of drama going on with the servers. Seriously, it BLOOOWWSS. Then, you have to eat dinner at normal people dinner hours with loud music blaring over your dinner conversations.
This is a place I wanted to succeed, because it has so much potential! SO MUCH! However, it has really turned into a place I hate going even if it’s yummy.

There are two major reasons to come to Shade Tree, as far as I can see… When you are feeling worn down (or hung over), there’s great food that’s the right balance of bad and gooooooood.
And for Southerners (especially those nursing broken hearts or homesickness), who want to enjoy their cultural food traditions with a side of fresh veggies.
Oh, and I guess there’s a third reason too… The food is solid and the people are great. It’s a touch loud. But just a touch. Rock on Shade Tree. I’ll see you again!

Shade tree has the most interesting selection of beers in nob hill. Food is good, I have had amazing sandwiches and not so great ones. The Burgers and the fried chicken sandwiches are where it is at. .I love how they have live music a few nights a week. Beer selection is good and fairly priced. Sure they are out of a few things from time to time, but I appreciate they are small and it does not bother me. They do not have a full bar, it is just wine and beer. So you will have to enjoy a martini elsewhere.
Atmosphere is low key and is easy to go in and grab a beer and chill and check out some tunes, unassumingly. It is a bit brighter than many pub/​bar atmospheres. It can be pretty loud in here, not the spot for an intimate evening. But there are plenty other choices for that. I think Happy hour is 3 – 6. They have an industry night for service industry professionals, which is moving to Wednesday. The staff is cool, and no big bad biker attitudes here. They also have a motorcycle shop downstairs. Which would bring joy to anyone who loves the smell of 2 stroke engine oil.
Food is pub fare they have burgers and sandwiches, a vegetarian chilli, I have only had apps. I really liked the non fried jalapeño poppers, and would order them again, there is bacon involved. Onion rings were too toothy for me to order again. I make onion rings at home a few times a year, so maybe I am fussy regarding this. I have my favorite styles. I had tried the deserts at an event here, they were tasty. I would say the food hits the spot and fills the void.
The ape hangers above the urinals, are a nice touch. It is worth going in just to witness their glory. It gets packed (the restaurant not the bathrooms) especially on the weekends when there is music, so come earlier if you want to try to get a table, and have dinner.