Rio Grande Grill and Tap Room

Made it out to Rio Grande to try out their wings and other things, we've been hearing good reviews from others. We were not disappointed!! The parking looks bad from the street but there's some behind the building.
We ordered wings, spinach artichoke dip, fish & chips and finished it off w a carrot cake. Also ordered drinks; root beer and the hard tea.
The wings were fantastic! Perfectly crispy and not too saucy. We ordered 2 orders of 6 so we could try both the spicy boq and the honey sriracha sauces.
They were not too spicy or too sweet, a very good blend of the flavors.
The carrot cake was devine!! The best cake we have had in Ruidoso so far! Our server actually recommended the cake to us and I'm very glad he did!
The spinach artichoke dip was okay, I wouldn't order it again. It was a little too cheesy and more spinach than artichoke and was lacking flavor.
The fish & chips were alright, again I wouldn't order them a second time. A little too much batter on the fish and the tartar sauce was bland and the coleslaw was watery. The chips were perfect though!! Best fry I've had around Ruidoso so far!
The root beer was delicious and their hard tea was pretty good, we were offered a chance to buy some to-go which was cool.
The restaurant is really cozy too, all wood and warmth, and the tables are located upstairs. That was nice bc you can be away from the bar area to enjoy your meal w a more restaurant feel upstairs.
Definitely recommend and we look forward to going back to try some burgers and steak!

I am torn because I would really love to give 5 stars for the tap room. A local skier recommended it in the Gondola on the way to the "top of the world" and the food, the beers and the ambiance are indeed great. I hope I only caught an unlucky night when it took an hour from arrival to getting the beers due to lack of communication at the door and a bit of chaos around the tables. Anyways, I'll be back and try it again!

Excellent service and the food was prepared perfectly. I had NY Strip (perfect medium) with Shrimp scampi and my wife had hatch chili chicken Alfredo. Our appetizer was housemade spinach dip. It was creamy and thick.

Hot Italian was good. Famous Green Chile Lasagna was just okay and TOO SALTY! Well, as salty as most restaurant food I suppose. All that cheese. I ate it all anyway.

We came in for an early dinner on a Saturday and were seated right away. We got a flight of hoppy beers and jalapeño poppers to start. We realized early on that service was slow and ordered our drinks and food before we wanted them.
For our entrees, my daughter got the lasagna, I got the crispy chicken sandwich, and my husband got the elk burger. Food was pretty good, portions are massive!