Turquoise Trail Bar and Grill

Great bar & grill located inside the Buffalo Thunder Casino!
+food was great! I had Caesar salad, & best of all-​shredded beef chimichanga Christmas style (red&green sauce) :P
+nice/​classy looking bar & restaurant with plenty of seating at bar & tables with several TVs
+food was served promptly
+food & drinks are fairly priced & portioned: beers/​cocktails: $ 5-​$ 6. Most appetizers/​foods:$ 8-​$ 14
–bartender wasn’t very cordial with a stern personality, but he provided timely service & made a good drink
–bar could benefit from having at least 2 bartenders; as single bartender has to make/​serve drinks & go to back kitchen to pickup/​serve food at bar :/

The cheeseburger and the nachos fries are good. Chilaquiles are good if you go with green. The service is SLOWER than molasses.

Ive been here several times and am always disappointed. I asked if the guacamole was freshly made, I was told it was. It was NOT. It was the stuff that comes in a container with tomatoes added to it. The salsa was sour. The prime rib was dry and over cooked. The green chile stew tasted like Campbell’s stew with green chile added to it. As a native New Mexican, this place is a joke. Spend 2 minutes driving south to Gabriel’s and eat there instead.

Okay, I must admit the first couple of times I had been here I wasn’t a fan. The reason why I had went back was because I wanted to grab a drink while staying as a guest at the hotel. This is the point where my mind was changed about this place.
I sat at the bar and had a moscow mule, which was pretty good. It was a little after dinner time and I decided to give the food another chance. I had an order of their wings and the quesadilla with chicken. The wings were very spicy, which I enjoyed. The quesadilla was good and a good size. I have then since been back a of couple of other times and have discovered their breakfast is pretty good too.
So the service is where people have an issue with this place. Yes the service is very slow, but then again, so is the service at all the other restaurants in the resort. I feel for the price and the overall taste of the food, this is the better restaurant to go to while at Buffalo Thunder. It’s definitely on the cheaper side in comparison to the other restaurants on the property.
The only warning (besides the slow service) I’d like to mention, is the fact that they will initially charge an extra couple of dollars on your check if you pay with a card. These extra dollars will be pending on your account and will eventually go away after the transaction has processed.
Long story short, I learned that ALL the restaurants on the property do this if you pay with your card. I confirmed this with the manager of this restaurant because I had noticed the pending charge (pre-​tip) on my account did not match the bill I had recieved at the restaurant.
So you may want to pay with cash at ANY of the restaurants here at the resort. It’s not a big deal since the extra dollars go away once the transaction has processed; I just felt like it’s a suspcious thing to do.

I only order one thing here, the stuffed sopapilla, I get it with the pork Adovado and red chile, and it’s always awesome. What is not awesome here is the service, prepare to be ignored and thirsty, the servers will drop off a drink, then your food and then vanish, never to be seen again. More than once I’ve had to get my own drink refills from the bar. I’ve tried to tell the servers that if I have to do their job they don’t get a tip, but have failed to make an impact. I’ve given two stars only because the food IS good, if the service here met my minimal standards (just keep my glass filled) they would have gotten at least three stars.

Food is ok… it’s convienent when staying at the hotel. The food isn’t the best but isn’t bad either. The service is terrible. Not a friendly staff member in the restaurant. The server lost my credit card when I paid the tab and another waitress shhhed me when I got upset.

My wife and I are vacationing in Santa Fe and visited the Buffalo Thunder Casino. When it was time for our dinner meal, we choose the Turquoise Trail. Our order was Grilled Mahi Tacos and Fish & Chips. Both dishes had good flavor for a bar and grill.

Excellent spot for quick burger and fries. Started with a side of guacamole and chips. Then moved onto the Trail Burger with sweet potato fries. Both were delicious and brought out fast. Live band was fun too

Straight forward, fast food. I ordered takeout to bring up to my room to enjoy on my balcony. No complaints, service was friendly, food was as expected.

For a restaurant in a casino, it’s about what you’d expect. Nothing stellar, but not horrible. Service was pretty slow for the number of people there, but it is the cheapest restaurant at the resort, so I guess you get what you pay for. We got the stuffed sopaipilla and the jerk chicken salad. I was underwhelmed by the sopaipilla. I got it with carne adovada and red chile. It tasted kind of like enchiladas. Not bad, but not great either. The salad was a little better. The chicken wasn’t spiced very well (I like a lot of jerk seasoning), but everything else was on point. Of course, everything else was just regular salad components, but at least they tasted fresh. If this weren’t in the casino, I’d definitely not recommend going here, but if you are going to be there anyway, it is pretty convenient.

The stuffed sopapilla was awesome. I went carne adavoda Christmas on the chile. We went with a large group and the staff was very friendly, accommodating and gave great service. It is worth a try if you are in the area.

I recently stayed the weekend at Buffalo Thunder Resort and after spending money on apps and wine at the resort’s upscale restaurant Red Sage, my friend and I headed over to the cheap eats Turquoise Trail located in the casino. I’ve read other reviews of this place and I do not understand why people are expecting so much from a sports bar located in the heart of a loud casino, but c’est la vie. We were positioned right in front of the big screen t.v. to watch a playoff basketball game – unless you sit at the bar, you don’t have a choice. Not a sports fan but hey, we had a comfy booth and we both really enjoyed our food. I had a turkey and green chili sandwich and my friend had a french dip. We also had an order of the green chili cheese fries. So, yes, this is a SPORTS bar and yes its in a CASINO so just be aware of what your in for. Service was good, food was yummy and we will be back if we ever return.

Beers took forever to get, basically got beers when our food arrived. Ordered the $ 12.99 BBQ special… ugh. should have known better to get BBQ in a New Mexico casino grill. The corn was stale, the slaw had no flavor, ribs were not cooked or microwaved appropriately.

Oh lordy. It’s a freakin’ bar at a New Mexico casino. What’s there to say? Kinda depressing, but get your beer to cry in, slam it down, and get back out there and lose the rest of your money. Life could be worse. At least you’re not in Oklahoma.

The ambiance here was cool, but in the end the food seemed like «out of a can» quality, and was unimpressive and boring. Even with the 2 for $ 20 deals, I don’t think I would come back. If you’re staying at the Casino and resort you’re better off just heading into town for some decent grub.
Wouldn’t recommend.

This has to be the WORST place I’ve been to in the country. Since there was snow storm, I made it to the hotel very late. Pretty much all restaurants in the casino was closed except this one. Also, driving to any nearby restaurants (which was slim to begin with) would have been dicey to begin with. So, ended up here. Waiter was completely clueless and food tasted awful. I don’t think I had that kind of awful dining experience in more than 10 years. They really need to hire better waiter and cookers ! This is only restaurant that I would have given 0 star if i could.
Service — 0.0
Food — 0.0
Ambiance — 0.0

Buffalo Thunder is trying, but I have to say that I’m not too impressed with this bar and grill. They do have decent drinks, but the food is pretty standard and nothing to write home about. The waiter sho served me pretty much completely disuaded me from ordering the nachos, so I ordered the hot dog and what I got was a chili dog that was pretty gross. They do have a 6 pound hamburger here that I’d like to try out sometime with a few friends. And here’s a tip: if you become a card holder, you can go to the kiosk and print out a $ 3 off coupon to eat here… So I guess that’s a plus.