Santa Fe Grill

My In-Laws live in Salem and whenever my family visits we stop off at Santa Fe Grill and have their Green Chile Cheeseburgers. They have burritos made to order as well, I've never had those but the fillings look pretty good. There are not too many choices for dining in Salem, especially after 5pm but Santa Fe Grill is a pretty good option.

Don't make any dinner plans if you are traveling through Hatch.  The whole damn town rolls up the carpet after 4pm.  You have two dinning options at your disposal. First, there is a Subway located in a gas station located at the edge of town. Your second option is oh so conveniently located within the same gas station, which is where you will find the Sante Fe Grill.  Now the last time I had a meal at a gas station was on a drunken road trip to Panama City Beach,FL during spring break.  However, the Santa Fe Grill serves up made to order burritos that were surprisingly satisfying.  The burritos are generously filled with a selection of freshly prepared fare that is accompanied with the Hatch green chiles that put you on highway 26 in the first place. The burritos are grilled for a moment to give the tortilla a nice crispiness and then served with a homemade spicy red salsa.  It might have been due to a serious lack of options, but I enjoyed my burrito from the Santa Fe Grill.

In the culinary wasteland that lies alongside America's rural interstate highways, it is nigh on impossible to find a restaurant that's: a) fast, b) reasonably priced, c) not part of the burgeropoly and d) offers food that won't dramatically decrease your life span.  Hidden in the Fina gas station on the north side of town is Santa Fe Grill.  This eatery shares the interior of the building with a micro-Subway and the typical quik mart, but these others are no match for the Grill.  Santa Fe Grill offers a wide range of custom burritos, but we didn't have time to hang around so we snapped up a couple pre-made burritos to go and throughly enjoyed them.  They were not overwhelmed with rice or a myriad of fringe ingredients like certified organic guac or free range goat milk sour cream.  Instead, inside you'll find simple, classic ingredients like frijoles refritos, pork, potatos and the local green chile peppers.  These packets of goodness are then grilled to toast the tortilla.  While I wouldn't recommend you go to Hatch specifically for these burritos, if you find yourself passing through the area for some reason, make sure you give this litte gem a try.