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All the United States New Mexico Taos Tiwa Kitchen
Gastro Obscura

Tiwa Kitchen

Taos Pueblo recipes, foraged ingredients, and outdoor ovens define the menu at this eatery.

Taos, New Mexico

Added By
Rachel Rummel
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Preparing blue corn for atole.   tiwakitchen
Preparing blue corn for atole.   tiwakitchen
2024   1just4looks / Atlas Obscura User
Phien-tye: blue corn fry bread stuffed with buffalo meat and smothered in chili.   Alex Day
  tiwakitchen
Inside a warm Indian cookie fresh from the horno   Rachel Rummel
A prune, apple, and piñon hand pie   Rachel Rummel
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About

The Taos people have continuously inhabited the legendary Taos Pueblo, a collection of multi-storied adobe buildings, for over 1,000 years. Located just off the highway en route to this UNESCO World Heritage Site (and National Historic Landmark), Tiwa Kitchen invites visitors and locals alike to stop and smell the hornos.

Ben and Debbie Sandoval began building the traditional Pueblo adobe building by hand in 1992. Out back, they constructed an adobe oven, called a horno, for baking breads, cookies, and pies. When the couple opened Tiwa Kitchen, it quickly distinguished itself as a rare outpost for homestyle Pueblo and New Mexican comfort food. For over 25 years, the Sandovals have been preparing dishes that have been passed from generation to generation—the same ones Ben's grandmothers taught him to make on feast days.

Ben grew up at Taos Pueblo and incorporates local ingredients into the menu. The Pueblo's bison herd supplies meat for their burgers, served on outdoor oven–baked buns. Homegrown blue corn adds a crisp coating to local trout and appears in hard-to-find specialities such as Phien-tye (a buffalo-stuffed, smothered blue corn fry bread) and steaming mugs of grits-like, periwinkle atole. Even popular New Mexican dishes, such as the restaurant's heirloom green chile stew, are crafted using crops harvested from Pueblo land. 

Eating inside Tiwa Kitchen is as close as you can get to being invited for lunch at a local family's table. The dining room is warm and welcoming. Ben and Debbie are often in the building, zigzagging from kitchen to dining room to cash register. Start your day off right with an order (or two) of homemade blue corn tortilla chips, and finish strong with dessert fresh from the horno. The pie made with apples, prunes, and piñons is not to be missed.

Related Tags

Restaurants Native Americans Indigenous Local History Native American Cuisine

Know Before You Go

Tiwa Kitchen is closed on Tuesdays.

Community Contributors

Added By

rachelrummel

Edited By

1just4looks

  • 1just4looks

Published

July 22, 2019

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Sources
  • https://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/taos-pueblo/restaurants/tiwa-kitchen/a/poi-eat/1109775/1334438
  • https://www.newmexico.org/nmmagazine/articles/post/native-restaurant/
  • https://maps.roadtrippers.com/us/taos-pueblo-nm/food-drink/tiwa-kitchen-restaurant
  • https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/492/
  • https://taospueblo.com/about/
Tiwa Kitchen
328 Hwy to Town of Taos
Taos, New Mexico, 87571
United States
36.435355, -105.55346
Visit Website
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Nearby Places

Taos Pueblo

Taos, New Mexico

miles away

The Three Brujas

Taos, New Mexico

miles away

D.H. Lawrence Forbidden Art

Taos, New Mexico

miles away

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Photo of Taos

Taos

New Mexico

Places 3

Nearby Places

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Taos, New Mexico

miles away

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Taos, New Mexico

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Photo of Taos

Taos

New Mexico

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