Vernon's Speakeasy - Isleta Pueblo

The experience of entering a speak easy is not lost at Vernon's. From the time you enter with your secret password until you leave out the special door, you are in a different world. Joshua, our waiter took great care of us. The food was delicious and the 3 piece jazz band was really smooth.

Excellent food and the ambience was fun. A bit pricey for us, but it was a special occasion. Would be nice to have more than one vegie dish. That might seem an odd suggestion, but we have one person who is vegetarian and usually avoid places like Vernon's for that reason.

The atmosphere was nice, we were on the patio with live jazz music. The food wasn't what we expected. It was a set menu for tonight, but we didn't know the menu in advance. It was kind of New Orleans themed which was ok but not the yummy steak and other Vernon entrees we were expecting.

At these prices all dishes must at least be good; however, two of the three courses were quite bad. The service was very knowledgeable and outstanding. My Scallops appetizer was the best I 've ever had (I grew up on the Atlantic Ocean). But the meal plummeted from that point. The Alligator soup was so spicy it lacked taste. Moreover, it was 99% minced potatoes and roughly 1% shreds of Alligator, or something that wasn 't potatoes. A relatively easy steak dish, Prime Rib was a disaster. I ordered my Prim Rib medium rare, but two extraordinarily thin slices were served well done (my wife 's filet was ordered medium but came out rare/medium rare. I suggested to the staff that the thin slices had been under a hot lamp for so long that they would not be able to find meat a piece that was medium rare and that they were going to have to slice into the Prime Rib to get me a properly cooked piece. Think about that. An upscale restaurant is slicing its Prime Ribs well in advance of serving and leaving the thin slices under hot lamps where they cannot possibly be served at the desired doneness and will also be dry and lacking flavor. Fine restaurants that serve prime rib on a regular basis, place the prime rib on a cart and wheel it to the table where it is to be served. It is only at that time that the ordered slice is cut from the Prime Rib. Not unlike a brisket, the thinner skinnier end tends to be more well done and the fatter tail end tends to be more rare. Despite billing itself as ABQ 's premier dining establishment, Vernon 's has not learned this easy trick. Either that or they are being penny-wise-pound foolish and don 't care if they can serve their prime rib at the desired temperature. Likewise, my wife 's steak was undercooked. But rather than bringing my wife a fresh, properly cooked filet, the cook staff served my wife two charred ends from the two sides of the filet. Vernon thus put the loss on the customer rather than themselves. AVOID VERNON 'S!

We were celebrating our wedding anniversary and had an amazing experience. It's going to be our annual anniversary celebration from now on. The food was excellent and the server Gloria was outstanding! She made our evening so special. Even got a complimentary dessert that was spectacular. We will definitely go back.