Where to eat in Roswell
A short, honest list rather than a long invented one. Every place below is named on the official UFO Festival site's own restaurant write-ups — which means these are the places the town's own organizers put their name to.
A word about how to read this page, because most “where to eat in Roswell” results are worth very little. They are usually a scrape of aggregator ratings, ranked by nothing in particular, listing places that closed two years ago with confident opening hours attached.
We are doing the opposite: a short list from a primary source, with no hours, no prices and no star ratings, because none of those were available to us from a source we could stand behind. Restaurant hours in a town this size change often and seasonally. Look each place up before you drive over — and on a Sunday evening, call.
The list
Antigua Cocina Mexicana
Mexican food and seafood, sometimes with live entertainment.
Pasta Cafe Italian Bistro
Italian — pastas, steaks and fresh pizzas.
Farley's
A family-friendly American pub: burgers, wood-oven pizza, beer on tap.
Backdraft Barbeque at Third Street Station
Barbecue and beer.
Peppers Grill and Bar
A Roswell classic, with a Thursday prime rib special.
Pecos Flavors Winery
A winery and restaurant — the smarter end of an evening out here.
Oasis Bar & Grill
A straightforward spot for a sandwich and a beer, inside the Holiday Inn Roswell.
Checked 16 August 2026. Hours, prices and dates change — confirm with the Roswell UFO Festival site before you go.
What to actually expect from eating in Roswell
This is a working small city in southeastern New Mexico, not a food destination, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. What it has is decent New Mexican and Mexican food, honest barbecue, and a handful of independent places that have been there long enough to be institutions.
The New Mexican food is the thing to seek out. If you have not eaten it before, it is its own cuisine rather than a regional variant of Tex-Mex, and the question you will be asked — red or green chile — is a real question. “Christmas” means both. Order it that way once.
Almost everything is on or near Main Street, which makes it easy to combine with the UFO Museum and a walk downtown. Park once, do both.
Festival week is different
During the UFO Festival every downtown restaurant has a queue and Main Street itself closes for the street events. Eat early or eat late, and expect to wait either way.
That is the week when having a kitchen stops being a nice-to-have. Being able to feed six people at your own table on the night nobody can face another queue is worth a lot — it is the main argument on our festival-stays page.
Cooking instead
Roswell has full-size supermarkets, so self-catering here is straightforward rather than an expedition. On a stay of more than a few days, cooking most nights and eating out two or three times is both cheaper and, honestly, better.
The house has a properly remodeled kitchen and a table that seats six, plus a BBQ grill and an outdoor dining area on the covered patio. From April to October, that patio is where you will want to eat anyway.
Tell us what we have missed
This list is short because it is sourced rather than padded, and short lists get better when people correct them. If you ate somewhere good in Roswell that is not here, or if one of these has closed, tell us and we will update the page and the date on it.