Best Bars and Taprooms in Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico — updated August 22, 2026
Six Santa Fe drinking rooms, from a downtown wine bar to a brewery beer hall on the south side, ranked by how settled their ratings are.
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Santa Fe's drinking is split between the walkable downtown grid, where bars sit inside adobe buildings a block or two off the Plaza, and the south-side industrial pockets and Turquoise Trail, where the breweries have room for actual halls and patios. That split matters mostly for parking and driving. Below, the places are ordered by how well they work as a room to drink in, with review counts included so you can see which ratings are proven and which are still early.
1. Hervé
The highest-rated bar downtown in this group, and it has the volume to back the number: 4.7 across 720 reviews, which is a settled score rather than a promising one. It sits on West San Francisco Street, inside the few-block radius where you can leave the car parked and walk between stops. Its website lists it among the locations of Lescombes Winery, so the wine program is the reason to go rather than an afterthought. Practical note: this is a small downtown storefront address, not a sprawling patio operation, so it fills the way downtown Santa Fe rooms do on weekend evenings.
2. Santa Fe Brewing Company (Beer Hall at HQ)
The beer hall at the brewery's own headquarters on Fire Place, south of town off the highway, rates 4.6 from 602 reviews. That is the second-strongest rating here and it comes from a beer hall format, meaning long tables, brewery-scale space and none of the downtown parking problem. Going to the HQ rather than a satellite taproom means drinking where the beer is made. It is a drive from the Plaza, roughly the opposite direction from most visitors' hotels, so plan a ride if you intend to stay for more than one.
3. Rowley Farmhouse Ales
On Maclovia Street, away from the tourist core, with 4.5 from 738 reviews. The name tells you the focus: farmhouse and sour-leaning ales, the sort of program that draws people who read the tap list before they arrive. The review count is high enough that the 4.5 is a reliable figure rather than a small-sample impression. It is a neighborhood-scale spot in a residential-adjacent part of the south side, which makes it a better weeknight option than a big-group Saturday plan.
4. Santacafé
The most-reviewed bar on this list, at 847 reviews and a 4.5 rating, on Washington Avenue a short walk north of the Plaza. It is listed as a bar, though it operates in a full dining building, so treat it as a place to drink before or alongside a meal rather than a standalone taproom. The location is the argument for it: Washington Avenue is central enough that you can combine it with anything else downtown on foot. Expect it to be busiest at dinner hours.
5. Beer Creek Brewing Co.
Out on NM-14, the Turquoise Trail, with 4.5 from 846 reviews, a count that puts its rating on solid footing. It is categorized as a restaurant, so this is a brewery with a kitchen attached rather than a pure drinking room, and it is the furthest option here from downtown. That distance is the point for some people: it is the one on this list you drive out to, with highway-side space rather than a squeezed adobe interior. Designate a driver.
6. Ahmyo Wine Garden
The thinnest evidence on the list, and worth saying so plainly: 4.7 is the joint-highest rating here, but it comes from 108 reviews, so it is promising rather than proven. The address is 652 Canyon Road, which puts it among the galleries on the city's best-known walking street, and the name points to a garden setup rather than a bar counter. Good as an afternoon or early-evening stop while you are already working your way along Canyon Road on foot.
What we left off
Two places in the earlier version are listed as restaurants rather than bars and were cut on that basis: Market Steer Steakhouse on Washington Avenue and Tomasita's on South Guadalupe. Tomasita's carries more than 8,500 reviews at 4.5, so the omission is not about quality. Both are dining rooms first, and this guide is about where to go for a drink.