Blades’ Bistro

I love this place! My husband is from Budapest and I am from NYC so we can be pretty discriminating. We have recommended this place to out of town guest, locals who haven’t been and eat there when the urge to have a wonderful meal outside of our home strikes. The owners are right there seeing to every detail in both the kitchen and the restaurant. Great, consistent and not overpriced — PERFECT! A placitas gem.

Went for dinner last Saturday! Food – Excellent! Service-​Superb! I would love to continue to patronize Blades again… but latest reason to grumble. Is the acoustics. Blades is not alone with the this situation… but nothing dampen’s the mood then us at the table having to scrunch together to have a conversation. Just a suggestion to the owner!

We just finished another amazing dinner at Blades. The lardon salad was unbelievable. My husband always gets the French onion soup and loves it. We both had cassoulet, and it was great. We can’t say enough good about this restaurant, and hope it stays in town for a long, long time.

We went here in October 2015 and it was great. We had terrific service and 3 out of 4 had wonderful meals. One meal was the seafood pasta dish and it was nothing short of amazing, half if a lobster tail, scallops and huge shrimp all cooked perfectly. One of our party had lamb which she loved. Another a perfectly cooked steak! I made the mistake of ordering the special appetizer of 4 crustini, which were just okay. We would absolutely go back! Just a little ding for the one meal.

Good food, however do NOT buy a gift card from them. They do not allow you to deduct the tip from the card! This is such BS and bad business practice. Will not return because of this!

Our first visit in and we are huge fans! This place is a hidden gem out of the city but worth the trip. If you call yourself a foodie this restaurant must be on your list to try. Jeffrey our server was amazing — so attentive and helpful. Tuesday– Thursday have amazing wine bottle specials that are worth it. Get on the highway and stop in for dinner you won’t be disappointed!

Ok… I have tried this place twice now… last year and last night. I will NOT go again!
Terrible service, which I blame on management! Food not so hot except for a good iceberg wedge…
Save your money… suggest you go someplace else!

Excellent! My family and I have had 3 wonderful experiences here. We are planing a fourth. Its so nice to Just drive right past all of the «new» chain restaurants popping up around us.

Love love love it here. It’s your best bet. Everything on the menu is exquisite. Anya gives great wine advice. Kevin’s salad. Sole meunière. Cucumber mint sorbet.

I had the Paella which was very good. Steak frites were good too. Atmosphere was fantastic!

I used to travel to Paris and London and ate at very high end places. I thought I was back in Paris the other night here at this remote treasure of a fine cuisine restaurant. Top quality all around. Service, every single item on the menu, it’s probably one of the best restaurants in the United States, let alone New Mexico. The chef studied at one of the top Parisian schools. The bartender was charming. This place needs twenty stars.

I seem to have bad luck with birthday dinners. This is the second one recently that has disappointed. We ate at Blades about two weeks ago for my wife’s birthday, and I was hoping that the restaurant would be as good as its reviews.
We were seated promptly and given a moment to decide on drinks — I started with a bourbon cocktail that was very good, but they were out of the wine we wanted from the bargain list (Blades offers a very nice list of $ 25 bottles as well as a full wine list), but the second choice was in stock and turned out to be very tasty. So far so good.
The room itself is very nice — kind of rustic with wooden tables and chairs as well as booths. As is common these days, the walls are filled with art from local artists. The exception here is that almost all the art is very engaging and can fuel a lively discussion. The art is hung thoughtfully, with each artist being given space for his or her works to be appreciated without being crowded by other pieces.
So, good drinks, nice room, what;s not to like? I’m getting there. The food reminded me of a nursery rhyme — when it was good it was very very good, and when it was bad it was… well not quite horrid, but very disappointing. Among the good dishes was the Roasted Beet appetizer. The beets were perfectly done and complimented with goat cheese and a balsamic drizzle. The Lamb Chops were also very nicely done and met with the approval of our teenager who has a surprisingly good palate. They were cooked perfectly, a little crusty on the outside and almost rare inside. I think he gnawed the bones.
The disappointment came in the bistro items — those classic French dishes that would normally be the foundation of a menu for a restaurant of this type. On the appetizer side, the Dick Confit salad was lovely… except for the duck. On the entrée side, the same was true of the Cassoulet, a rustic stew of beans, sausage, pork and yes, Duck Confit.
The duck was consistent in both dishes, but had none of the characteristics I’ve come to expect from a confit, except that it was a duck leg. Normally the meat will be somewhat oily from its long immersion in hot duck fat — it will also be pretty dark and the meat will fall of the bone and come apart easily. The two duck legs we encountered in our dishes were light colored and on the verge of being undercooked. The meat had to be carved off (with some difficulty) using knife and fork, and other than a very strong garlic taste, bore little evidence of seasoning or flavor. It was also somewhat dry and chewy. To me it was more like a piece of meat that didn’t spend enough time roasting.
The other disappointment was another entrée, Boeuf Burguignonne. Perhaps the backbone of the American experience with French cooking, it was introduced here (to the majority of folks) by Julia Child and is often regarded as the highest expression of beef stew. Unfortunately, the dish presented to my wife that night seemed amateurishly made, as if each ingredient had been cooked separately and then hastily assembled on the plate. It had none of the cohesiveness that the dish should have, the marriage and blending of flavors that can only be achieved by slowly cooking everything together.
As I said in the beginning, we were disappointed in Blades, and even though there were some good dishes, the flaws were fatal ones to the dishes they were part of. It felt as if the kitchen was trying to take shortcuts — offering slow-​cooked food, but cooking it quickly and hoping no one would notice.
Service was OK but a little absent-​minded — slow on pouring wine, never asked about how the food was — I had to «volunteer» my disappointment to her.
I hope Blades was just having an off-​night, but I’m not sure it’s worth a return visit to find out. If you’ve stuck with me through all this, thanks for reading!

My wife and I have gone twice recently. Both times we were staying at the Hyatt Tamaya Resort. The drive «up the hill» to Blades was definitely worthwhile – better food at better prices than the resort restaurants.
The food was consistently great. The pork belly salad is fabulous. They have a discounted wine menu during the week and both times I got a really nice bottle of pinot noir for $ 25.
The only thing that keeps me from giving it five stars is that both of my entrees were overcooked. I order the lamb on my first visit and asked for rare or medium rare. I received some medium rare pieces, some medium, and one medium well. I ordered a steak special on the next visit that was billed as medium rare, it was medium well. However, we were 5 guests on my first visit and 3 on my 2^nd and my complaints were the only ones at the table both times.
Service was excellent both times.

I have gone to this restaurant many times over the past five years. It can be a hit and miss. Much depends upon the servers and the menu. Overall, it’s probably the best restaurant in and around Bernalillo or Placitas.
The seafood is quiet good. The wine selection is not bad. We like Table 14. It’s always our go to table. Near the back corner of the restaurant, it is quiet and quite cozy.

The food was top notch, my crab cake Benedict was scrumptious and my friends loved their Paella. It was a Sunday and we were on our way to a winery so I asked the staff if they could put together a cheese and fruit tray. They whipped up something special for us even though it wasn’t on the menu. Love this place and I’m excited to try their other dishes.

We met the owner at the Roadrunner Food Bank Souper Bowl and were impressed with his community spirit as well as their watermelon gazpacho so we decided to give brunch a try. There were 4 of us. We each ordered something different and we all liked our plates. We thought the service was great. One person ordered the paella and thought it was the best he has had since his trip to Spain. I had the split pea and sausage soup that was delicious. We will definitely be back to give dinner a try.

This bistro is filled with locals, the staff is competent. As to the food; it is not bad, but not worth the price.

If you are looking for a great restaurant a little bit outside of town with a beautiful view and atmosphere this is it!
Blades bistro offers a great range of options and great prices. We had the crab cake Benedict and French toast which did not disappoint. Other options were croquet Monsieur and quiche which looked superb as well.
Dinner menu offers French cuisine and seafood options as well. We will be back for oysters and $ 25 wine night soon. Great place.

Poor Service. We arrived before noon Sunday. It was not busy. The owner sat us down. No one took our order for almost 15 minutes. The waiter arrives looks at us, then waits on a table that just arrived. When my blue cheese burger arrived with fries («pomme frites»). I asked the waiter for ketchup. He said «right away». More than 10 minutes later he arrives with marmalade and says «oops», then has to correct it. When we gave our payment to waiter, he took almost 15 minutes, to return receipt to be signed. The food though nice becomes «spoiled» by such negligent service. Unless staff changes and training are made, We do not recommend this restaurant. Thanks for reading. The Bike Chaplain

Having only two restaurants in Placitas keeps things pretty simple. Blades Bistro is the upscale choice (don’t let the little strip mall fool you) and a quite worthy one. They have a nice regular menu and offer wonderful weekly specials, often featuring items you can only find in other states. While the entrees are really nice, my personal favorites tend to be the appetizers and salads. This is where they really set themselves apart. I could make a meal of a couple appetizers and a salad. Great desserts too. Be sure to peruse the fantastic wine list or try one of the house specialty cocktails, which are remarkable. Nice, casual patio dining with live music makes for a great summer evening. The owners and staff are very friendly and have endeared themselves to the locals who frequent this little gem.