Elements

Nice feel to place, lots of local people it seemed like in the bar area. Ordered a hamburger medium, but received it well done, they immediately took it back and prepared me a medium cooked one very quickly! Great bartender Sisco, young man had a great sense of humor and was very polite, and always on his game. Very pleasurable experience.

Poor quality, highly overpriced food! Certainly better food and atmosphere to be had at a much better price. Far from a country club, definitely par for Angel Fire Last Resort.

A local favorite… Known simply as the country club to locals, elements dining room and bar share an immaculate menu ranging from buffalo wings to steak. The cocktails are fresh crafted by their wonderful Bar staff and the ambiance is second to none.

The restaurant itself is closed until December of 2015, for the off season presumably, but the bar and lounge are open. They do not take reservations and they do not seat you, both of which are fine with me.
The small amount of tables, maybe 10, inside were already full so we (3 of us) took a table on the patio where another larger group was seated.
We sat there 20 minutes and received no acknowledgement of any kind from anyone. Not even a sorry we are swamped or a glass of water. Several people made eye contact and we hoped that would be the person to come by and say something. Didn’t happen.
A member of our party called the club from their cell phone and left a message saying we were waiting for service. I don’t agree with this tactic at all but understand why they felt it was ok to make the call. After another 10 minutes I ordered a pizza. Five minutes after that, 35 minutes total, a bar tender who must have received the message from the other member of our party came over and said we would not be able to get service of any kind tonight outside as they were understaffed. This has never happened to anyone, anywhere that I have personally heard of. The table right next to us is meanwhile drinking and eating. The long haired hippy bartender never made it clear if we could grab a table inside or not as we told him we made other plans, but then again the message was definitely that they were to busy to help us and not can we move you inside to a table we have ready.
As we left he kept repeating that they were under staffed as if this explained it all and I said that you can never be so under staffed that you don’t acknowledge someone. Even if you can’t help them, you acknowledge them. He proceeded to argue with me and say they were too under staffed to acknowledge people. He got mad and irritated and made some dog like noises. Never had a server argue with me like that but then again I have never corrected somebody on their job. I know that I was justified in this instance, but also know that if I was wrong a good server can deal with the rudest of customers without batting an eye, let alone arguing and animal sounds of anger.
Lastly, Angel Fire Resort I have been coming here since I was 5 years old. You just spent 15 million dollars renovating a club house that sees moderate use at best, at a resort that is small and never that crowded even during the on season. Yet, you can’t pay $ 2.25 an hour for a couple more servers or hire a manager to teach people to work ‘under pressure’ professionally. Millions down the drain and well on your way to filing bankruptcy again. I put ‘under pressure’ in quotes because I have seen larger, busier, and less staffed dining rooms run smoothly.

ELEMENTS restaurant is w/​o a doubt the best up-​scale restaurant in Northern New Mexico! North of Santa Fe, there is nothing to compare it to. We’ve lived in Angel Fire for 10 years, & believe we’ve scoped out all the better, high class restaurants around.

Another great culinary and beverage opportunity in AF! We have eaten here three times. (All summertime). Right next to the more comprehensive, upscale dining room of Elements, the eponymous Bar and Grill is a smaller, less expensive and has a fun menu. The place can get crowded and the the service less friendly, but most of the times we have been there the wait staff has been gracious and familiar. The cocktails are fine and the beer and wine selections quite acceptable if a bit pricey. The food is well prepared and no one we have been with had a less than very good review of their food-​order. Their burgers are excellent. Salmon grille is v good. I had a special: NY strip that was chicken fried (!) w white gravy and mashed potatoes (I gave up eating for the rest of the trip but it was worth every calorie and the angioplasty I will get next week).

We ate here last December for dinner. I had the best prime rib I have ever eaten! Will be eating there again on Monday Dec 23, 2013. Hopefully its just as great!