Category: New Mexico

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastClosed in 2017Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico Culinary Treasures Trail

Murphy’s Mule Barn – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:09 AM

A mule is an animal with long funny ears he kicks up at anything he hears His back is brawny but his brain is weak he’s just plain stupid with a stubborn streak and by the way if you hate to go to school You may grow up to be a mule. – Bing Crosby Murphy’s law, a popular adage in Western culture is commonly formulated as “if anything can go wrong, it will.”  Murphy’s Mule Barn, a popular North Valley restaurant, hasn’t posited any law that I know of, but if it did, the law might read something like…

AlbuquerqueChineseClosed in 2021Gone But Not Forgotten

Great Fortune Chinese Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:30 PM

According to the Chinese Restaurant News, a respected trade publication, there are now approximately 36,000 Chinese restaurants in America.  That’s nearly three times as many Chinese restaurants as there are McDonald’s franchises.  That’s more than the number of McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King franchises combined. No longer considered exotic, Chinese restaurants are part of the fabric of American culture. There is virtually no American city in which Chinese restaurants aren’t plentiful. A survey by a food product development company revealed that 39 percent of children between the ages of 10 and 13 prefer Chinese food over any other ethnic cuisine…

EspañolaMariscosMexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Mariscos La Playa – Espanola, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:34 PM

Even though it seems most women celebrate it every year in perpetuity, a woman’s 29th birthday actually occurs only once. On my mom’s umpteenth 29th birthday we wanted everything to be perfect so we took her to her favorite mariscos restaurant for a fabulous meal of Mexican seafood served impeccably. We baked her favorite cake, a rich, moist carrot cake with homemade frosting. We had the restaurant play her favorite birthday songs–Las Mananitas (a stirring rendition by Vicente Fernandez whose soulful voice plumbs the depths of the emotional scale) and Mananitas Tapatias by Pedro Infante (the undisputed greatest idol in…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2007Gone But Not ForgottenSteak

The Falls – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:35 PM

New Mexico has been gilded with incomparable scenic beauty and an abundance of sunshine. Cerulean skies graduate in depth of color the higher above the horizon your eyes climb, interrupted only by velvety smooth red-rock outcrops and snow-capped mountains. Fiery sunsets and brilliant sunrises give the illusion that God just threw a bucket of paint into the sky while processions of wispy cloud formations provide the promise of much needed rain as they sweep past the parched escarpment. A vibrant and diverse topography provides striking contrasts in terrain. It’s easy to focus on the many reasons New Mexico truly earns…

MariscosMexicanNew MexicoRating: Very GoodSanta Fe

Mariscos Costa Azul – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno1:07 PM

Costa Azul…The Blue Coast…the name evokes images of pristine sandy beaches, translucent blue waters, lush verdant jungles and brightly plumed birds. For Santa Fe diners, the name may also evoke involuntary salivation and pangs of hunger which can be quelled only by the incomparably fresh and delicious mariscos (seafood) at one of the City Different’s best Mexican restaurants, Mariscos Costa Azul. For years, the word “mariscos” was synonymous with Santa Fe’s two Mariscos La Playa restaurants, about which the New York Times wrote, “Yes, even in landlocked Santa Fe, it’s possible to find incredibly fresh and well-prepared seafood served in…

AlbuquerqueMariscosMexican

El Siete Mares – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:06 PM

Crossing the Rio Grande onto Bridge Boulevard isn’t quite as adventurous as crossing the Rio Grande into Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, but the flesh-rending razor wire fence atop the walls and roofs of some businesses will tell you this isn’t the kinder, gentler side of Albuquerque either. Fortunately the matador motorist mentality so commonplace in Mexico’s fourth largest city isn’t something you’ll encounter on Bridge. Instead of vehicles which look as if they’ve participated in one too many demolition derbies, you’re more likely to meet up with a procession of highly buffed pick-up trucks with gleaming chrome wheels and mega watt…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2009New Mexican

Mis Amigos – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:09 AM

For years Los Cuates has been one of the Duke City’s most revered New Mexican restaurants. One of the most popular New Mexican restaurants in the city, diners line up before its opening and late-comers wait as long as it takes for a table to come open. In February, 2003 after the death of its founder and proprietor Frank Barela, four Cuates employees struck out on their own and launched Dos Amigos at the site of a former Village Inn dining establishment just off the I40 freeway. Four years later they moved clear across town to Juan Tabo and changed…

BernalilloClosed in 2007Gone But Not ForgottenMexicanNew Mexico

Pueblito Mexicano – Bernalillo, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:16 PM

Even onto the 21st century the distinction between Mexican and New Mexican cuisine has been somewhat obfuscated. Restaurants which serve cuisine we recognize as uniquely New Mexican (characterized among other things by the use of piquant red and green chiles instead of jalapeno) bill themselves as Mexican restaurants. The situation is exacerbated by ancianos (New Mexico’s elderly population), many of whom refer to their cuisine as “Mexican.” While many New Mexican restaurants errantly bill themselves as Mexican, neither their menus nor their accoutrements do little to clarify the distinction. That isn’t the case at Pueblito Mexicano. First of all, the…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenJapaneseNew MexicoSushi

Neko Sushi – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:45 AM

In 1968, Mexico City played witness to one of the most overt and controversial political statements ever issued during the modern Olympic Games when African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos extended their right arms upward and clenched their gloved fists in a black power salute. During our inaugural visit to Neko Sushi in the Sun Country Plaza, we couldn’t help but remember the famous civil rights protest when we espied two ceramic Maneki Neko (beckoning cat) figurines on a shelf. The Maneki Neko, a common Japanese sculpture believed to give its owner good luck, depicts a cat beckoning…

AlbuquerqueChickenClosed in 2007Gone But Not Forgotten

Marco Pollo Charbroiled Chicken – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:47 PM

While eating a store-bought rotisserie chicken is somewhat more appealing than than consuming the very last one of Quickie Mart’s perpetually rotating, alutaceous (seared to a leathery sheen under a heat lamp inferno) hot dogs, the prospect of a desiccated rotisserie chicken carcass for dinner is hardly tempting. Experience has taught us that while slightly less leathery, restaurant rotisserie chicken would be a challenge for the most advanced desalination technologies. That’s what we expected during our inaugural visit to Marco Pollo Charbroiled Chicken. Were we ever in for a pleasant surprise! As it turns out, Marco Pollo serves some of…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2009Vietnamese

Kim’s Vietnamese Gourmet Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:43 AM

During a memorable 1974 episode of MASH, it was Hawkeye Pierce’s turn at being physician of the day. Throughout the day he treated local indigenous personnel, all of whom identified themselves as “Kim Luck” when they reported in. Eventually Hawkeye turns to Radar O’Reilly and says “Kim Luck? This is the fifth one today.” He then asks the local, “Can you identify yourself?” Patting his chest and smiling broadly, the local responds “This is me!”. Hawkeye’s retort: “This must be my Kim Lucky day.” Albuquerque’s Kim Lucky day came on September 22nd, 2006 with the launch of Kim’s Vietnamese Gourmet…