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    Sun & Sand Restaurant

    3.3 (82 reviews)

    Sun & Sand Restaurant Photos

    SUN & SAND RESTAURANT ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Moderate noise
    Outdoor seating
    Good for kids

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    Recommended Reviews - Sun & Sand Restaurant

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    Reviews With Photos - Sun & Sand Restaurant

    Chill Cheese Burger and taco salad
    Darryl N.

    Nice local diner in a small town. Very local, supporting the local high school teams. With casual American Food. We had a mechanical break down and had to stay in town for about a day and this was recommended to us by our auto repair place. They had wifi and food, so all our needs were met. Booth and table seating. Fairly clean place and bathrooms, obviously the family, young and old, were involved in keeping the service going. Friendly and maybe could have checked on us once or twice more, but no issues and we were able to kick back and surf the net after our meal.

    the menu
    Missi J.

    This place stinks Very poor management Only scheduled 1 waitress I get a 30 minute break I waited 15 minutes for miss turtle pants to take my order I waited another 20 for my meal I then had to eat my meal while driving a semi truck All because this restaurant stinks Thanks for nothing Couldn't even get a regular hot dog with regular chili I was offered red or green chili That ain't a hotdogs Mustard Regular chili Onion That's a hotdog Taco was ok Actually the meat was seasoned very well No plastic ware for my rice and beans do had to eat it with my hands Had grilled cheese But no tomato soup So I'm confused about that too Just do the world a favor Just lock the doors forever

    Sun and Sand
    William H.

    By far one of the best in Santa Rosa NM. Iconic rout 66 diner. Breakfast was very good and staff very friendly. Next best place yo eat going east is in Amarillo. I recommend this place

    Sign out front
    Jon A.

    OK... really, I am completely mystified how a restaurant that has been around as long as this one (apparently its roots go back to the 1950's!) has not had more reviews... Situated on Route 66, this restaurant has multiple generations of workers working in the kitchen and out front. There is memorabilia from the local high school plastered all over the walls, and it hearkens back to the "Good Ol' Days" that we all envision in our minds eye of what it used to be. I was presented with a bowl of chips and salsa immediately after being seated, and they were quite good. I really enjoyed the salsa that came with them, as it was spicier than most salsas that I have been presented with at Mexican restaurants. The chips were crisp and flavorful. For my meal, I ordered the "Mexican Dinner" which was a taco, a chimichanga, and a tamale smothered in a sauce with lettuce and tomato on the side. I was in heaven with this dish. So, if you are travelling through the area and need a nice meal, take a break off of the Interstate and pull into the Sun N Sand for a nice bit of Mexican food!

    cars parked in a parking lot
    Tena C.

    This restaurant was one of the few in town and we were hungry for lunch. It was a big dining room with some partition walls to separate the serving stations from the main seating. I ordered the lunch cheeseburger with fries. It was not the best but edible. I'd probably not order lunch again and try for the breakfast if I came back based on others reviews. They were not very busy, but the was friendly and checked back regularly.

    Over easy eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns
    Johnny S.

    Stopped here for breakfast, customer service was great. Ordered bacon and eggs, both were cooked perfectly. Kids enjoyed their pancakes. Price was a little high, but didn't mind paying it because the food was done right

    Uneaten food

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    2 years ago

    Service was great as was the food! We stopped on our way home and was surprised by this small place.

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    7 years ago

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    6 years ago

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    3 years ago

    Pulled in at 7 this am and NOT OPEN. Facebook posts indicate not first time, so probably another LOCAL place that can't find people to work.

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    8 years ago

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    5 years ago

    Great omelets, really good coffee, even better service, this is tríele a diamond in the ruff

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    4 years ago

    Breakfast was amazing. Great service. Definitely grab a cinnamon roll which is huge and tasted great.

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    Ask the Community - Sun & Sand Restaurant

    Kocina De Raphael

    Kocina De Raphael

    3.3
    (102 reviews)
    55.8 mi
    $$

    Excellent food and service. Cute little place. Very busy. Two servers and they were hopping the…read morewhole time.

    I gave this place one star because the guacamole was good and the interior is clean.. Everything…read moreelse: service, presentation and actual food was bad. We're vegetarians, who don't make a lot of demands. We asked if we could get a taco without ground meat. We were told no. We tried small changes (beans instead of meat, no meat added, etc.) but the waitress said she wouldn't even put it on the ticket because the "cook would just ignore it" as she made motion of throwing a ticket over her shoulder. She seemed a little irritated that we asked about items on the menu. Each time came by, she would say in an irritated tone "are you ready YET" . Since it was obvious this restaurant was not interested in meeting any dietary needs of their customers, we decided to just order something we could eat without asking any more questions. My husband got chips and salsa, and the cheese chile relleno with rice and beans. Since I couldn't substitute anything and I would end up giving my husband my rice, I ordered the papitas à la carte and the cheese enchilada plate with rice and beans. I also got a small (VERY small) guacamole. Now that the ordeal of ordering was over we relaxed and enjoyed the ambience. It is a clean little place and although they were several people dining it was quiet. The chairs were comfortable the tables were big enough. The interior was nicely decorated. One of the things that drew us to the restaurant was that Yelp stated they had outdoor patio. We didn't go to the patio but my husband looked at it before we ate and said that it was a nice, separate area across the parking lot. I told him we'd have to try it the next time we came. Then our food arrived. It's always been my opinion that it's very hard to mess up Mexican food, whether it's New Mexican or Tex-Mex. Basically it's corn, beans, rice, posole, salsas, with cheese or meat. Kocina de Rapfael proved me wrong! Without having been in the kitchen I can't swear, but I strongly believe that they had pre-cooked the food and put it somewhere to sit until somebody ordered it. I suspected it when they wouldn't make even the most simple substitution that every Mexican restaurant has always been willing to do. But when the food came my suspicion grew into a certainty. You could beat on my enchiladas with a fork (see video) and it would literally make a sound like hitting a hard surface. I've never been given a steak knife for cheese enchiladas before, but I needed it to cut through the laminated tortillas that they had wrapped around a big glom of cheese that was so hard it made me gag to swallow it. The cheese on top was burnt to the plate and made a solid, inedible surface on top of the tortillas. I managed to cut a bite, but I couldn't chew it. I had to do that awkward spit it in your napkin thing, hoping that the surrounding diners wouldn't see it and be grossed out. I tried cutting the side of the enchilada open and just eating some of the cheese and it was another disaster. The cheese inside the enchilada was something I've never encountered. It was cheddar, it tasted like cheddar, but it was such a big glob and was so hard that it was making me gag to try and chew it. The papitas tasted like old MacDonald fries that had been put back in the fryer for a minute then served. Instead of being crunchy or crispy they were soft in the middle and hard to chew around the edges. The beans were a pile of dry, smashed up refried beans with no flavor, no seasoning. I don't think they used cumin or other traditional spices and it's doubtful they used lard because they were tasteless and so dry you had to take a sip of your drink to choke them down. I didn't taste the Spanish rice because I don't like it, but it was drenched in tomato sauce to such an extent that it was not even a semblance of light and fluffy rice, more like tomato rice soup. My husband's chile relleno was not that great either. He said it tasted like it came frozen out of a box, heated up and smothered in green and red sauce. He said the breading on the chile relleno was doughy with no flavor just a huge portion of cheese in the relleno and then smothered in hot sauces. They warn on their menu to be very careful because their sauces are so hot.. My husband will eat hot sauce so hot it makes his nose sweat! He said it wasn't very hot so I tasted it. I'm the person who gets the mild salsa from Taco Bell and the grocery store. I can't take any heat and I was eating that sauce just fine. Must've been an off day in the heat department. I've never had such badly prepared food in a restaurant in my life. What a disappointment! We immediately asked for a to go box to bring it home and see if the dogs liked it. They didn't. I don't recommend this restaurant to anyone under any circumstances even if you're starving and it's the only place open I would recommend you go to Walmart and get some at the deli.

    Photos
    Kocina De Raphael
    Taco plate
    Taco plate
    Kocina De Raphael

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    The Skillet

    The Skillet

    4.3
    (249 reviews)
    54.4 mi
    $$

    We walked into the Skillet around 5:45pm, were assaulted by loud music (which we expected from…read moreanother review), and sat at the bar in the quieter room of the restaurant. We ordered a burrito, fries and drinks - a Manhattan for my wife and a chocolate martini with Kettle One and crème de cacao for me. My wife's drink was to her liking, but the chocolate martini tasted like there was coffee liqueur in it. Since I didn't know when our waitress would appear again, I told the first person we saw - a young man - that I couldn't drink anything with coffee because of the caffeine, and that I needed it remade. He took it back to redo. While we were waiting, one of the pool players dropped a very loud f-bomb when he missed a shot. Then a young child began crying very loudly. The young man came back with the remade drink, and the coffee taste was gone. After it had been over 45 minutes I had to ask what looked like the manager what had happened to our burrito and fries. She went back to check, and our food finally appeared. The burritos were long on rice and short on carne asada, something we couldn't know until we started eating. At some point our original waitress came back, and my wife told her we had to send back my first drink because of the coffee ingredient. She denied any coffee-containing spirit was used, and walked away. We never saw her again. I had to ask the manager for an itemized ticket, since the ones we had were sign for a total amount only, with no itemized detail. Since the original waitress had closed out our ticket right after we ordered and had given us our check, we paid and left. No tip was left. If you want a properly-mixed drink, be prepared to explicitly request every ingredient. Better still, don't expect great drinks or food at this place - stay away. There are lots of other choices in Las Vegas NM.

    Walked in and it had quite the scent, like dirty drains/perhaps sewage (disclaimer, I'm pregnant so…read moreextra sensitive). A girl met us at the door with menus and let us know to order at the counter. We ordered and sat down. Food came out quick. We shared the Queso Dip - it was good flavor, little spicy. I didn't love the texture of the cheese, kind of gritty, but the flavor was great and chips great. I got Barbacoa Taco and my dad got a classic taco. They were good. Mine a little dry but put a lil queso on there and that was perfect. Loved the tortilla they use. One thing I didn't like, the kitchen had their music BLASTING, could hear that better than the dinning room music. Very overstimulating with two very different types of music going.

    Photos
    Bar
    Bar
    Spicy Brisket Burrito
    Spicy Brisket Burrito
    Bloody Mary

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    Bloody Mary

    Sun & Sand Restaurant - newmexican - Updated July 2026

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