This much celebrated
North Valley restaurant is situated in a 100-year-old territorial style
adobe home and remains one of the Duke City's most popular family-run
dining establishments. Remodeling in the 21st century has made it
even more attractive and certainly more functional as now there's a
spacious area in which you can wait until a table is available for you.
Several dining rooms can easily accommodate large groups of diners but
you can still enjoy more intimate, private dining.
Seasonal dining is very
popular in the restaurant's flowing green garden area replete with a
charming waterfall and pond once populated with as many as 100 coy fish.
Even if Albuquerque's balmy summer days make outdoor dining prohibitive,
ask to be seated where you'll have a view of the pond so you don't miss
the teeming life (including very active dragonflies) as it flits and
floats as if entertaining you. If coy fish and dragonflies aren't
sufficiently entertaining, occasionally the restaurant brings on
strolling musicians to serenade you while you dine.
Casa de Benavidez was
one of the first restaurants we visited after moving back to Albuquerque
in 1996. It didn't surprise us when this casa was the 1996 winner
of KOB TV's "Salsa Challenge." The salsa is
piquant and has a garlicky flavor aficionados love while the chips are
unfailingly crisp and fresh. Alas, sometimes because of overflow
crowds your empty salsa dish isn't replenished as faithfully as at other
New Mexican restaurants. Despite being hurried, the wait staff is
polite if not attentive.
The red chile tends to
be more piquant than the green chile which to real fire-eaters is just
slightly more incendiary than a bell pepper. The red chile does
bite back.
The menu features many
New Mexican standards including the American created chimichangas
(Tucson) and fajitas (Texas), but it also includes a few
signature items such as the trademarked "sopaipilla burger."
Repeat after me (to the tune of the Big Mac jingle --one all beef patty,
refried beans, lettuce, cheese, tomato and chile on two sopaipilla buns.
It's one of the better items on the menu and has been known to leave
mouths watering at the mere mention.
Lunch specials are not
nearly as good or generous as dinner entrees, but they are less
expensive. Casa Benavidez is one of the more pricey New Mexican
restaurants with many entrees exceeding ten dollars. We have yet
to try the restaurant's chili dog which will set you back more
than seven dollars, but at that price it's got to be better than its
Weinerschnitzel equivalent.
One of the restaurant's
very best entrees are the succulent pork ribs: four meaty ribs on
which is slathered a semi-sweet and smoky homemade sauce. You also
can't go wrong with some of the combination plates. Combination
plate number one, for example, includes a cheesy enchilada, a taco,
a crunchy chile relleno and a tamale. Of these, the real stand-out
is the crunchy chile relleno whose battered texture is unlike any other
we've had in Albuquerque.
Unfortunately, that
texture can't save the restaurant's chile relleno stuffed with
chicken breast and cheese. This is an uninspiring, insipid entree
whose only lasting impression might be heartburn. Despite a
composition of great ingredients, it lacks any discernibly pleasing
qualities other than it's filling.
