Izanami Restaurant

Should You Book Izanami Restaurant?

Izanami Restaurant earns a Pearl Recommended designation for 2025, and with a Google rating of 4.5 across 701 reviews, the consensus is consistent: this is one of the more considered dining experiences in Santa Fe. Under chef Mattie McGhee, the kitchen works within a Southwestern cuisine framework at Ten Thousand Waves — the Japanese-inspired mountain spa retreat above the city. If you are planning a special occasion dinner or a date night that needs to feel like an event rather than just a meal, Izanami is one of the stronger calls in Santa Fe right now.

The Experience

Izanami sits at 21 Ten Thousand Waves Way, which means your dinner comes packaged with altitude, a spa-resort setting, and a distinct remove from the downtown Plaza crowd. That physical separation is part of the value proposition. You are not just booking a table — you are booking a departure from the city's more trafficked restaurant row. For a celebration or a first-rate date, the setting does real work before a dish arrives.

The cuisine is anchored in Southwestern tradition but the menu at Izanami draws on Japanese influences from its host property. Chef McGhee works within that intersection, and the result is a program with more range than you would expect from a hotel restaurant at this altitude. The drinks program is worth noting independently: Ten Thousand Waves has a long-standing culture of considered hospitality, and Izanami's bar reflects that. If you are building your evening around cocktails before or after a soak in one of the property's hot tubs, the bar holds up as a destination on its own terms. It is a reasonable alternative to the downtown Santa Fe bar scene, quieter, more intentional, and easier to hold a conversation in. Compare that to the livelier bars covered in our full Santa Fe bars guide and you will see it occupies a different register entirely.

For solo diners, the bar is the natural entry point and the setting is comfortable without requiring a group. For parties celebrating a milestone, the combination of setting, food, and drinks program makes Izanami one of the more complete special-occasion options in the city.

How It Compares to the Santa Fe Field

Against the broader Santa Fe restaurant scene, explored in depth in our full Santa Fe restaurants guide, Izanami occupies a specific niche. It is not competing with Sazón for deep New Mexican tradition or with 229 Galisteo St for downtown proximity. It competes on atmosphere and the spa-resort package, which is a different value trade than most Santa Fe options are offering.

If you are weighing Izanami against nationally recognised destination restaurants, Le Bernardin in New York City, The French Laundry in Napa, or Lazy Bear in San Francisco, the comparison does not quite hold at that tier. But within the Santa Fe market, and specifically for the occasion-dinner category, Izanami is a genuine recommendation rather than a default fallback.

Practical Details

Izanami is located at 21 Ten Thousand Waves Way, Santa Fe, NM 87501, up the mountain from the city centre, so plan for a drive or a rideshare. Booking is rated Easy, meaning you should not face the weeks-in-advance scramble that marks harder-to-get Santa Fe reservations. That said, weekend evenings at a property like Ten Thousand Waves fill up, and pairing a dinner reservation with a hot tub booking requires coordination. If your visit is date-specific, book both at the same time. For further context on hotels near the property, see our full Santa Fe hotels guide. Price range data is not currently available in our records, check directly with the restaurant for current menu pricing before committing.

For more to do in the city, our full Santa Fe experiences guide and our full Santa Fe wineries guide are worth a look if you are building a longer itinerary.

Pearl Picks Nearby

• Back Road Pizza, a more casual option if the occasion calls for something lower-key
• Bodega Prime, worth considering for a downtown alternative
• Bert's Burger Bowl, the opposite end of the price-and-occasion spectrum, in the leading way
• Sazón, if New Mexican cuisine with serious execution is what you are after