Category: New Mexico

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016Closed in 2022Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenIndianMiddle EasternNew Mexico

Tikka Hut – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The cynosure of Tikka Hut, an Indian Fusion restaurant on First Street, is a colorful mural that pays tribute to the extraordinary and constantly evolving history of Mexican cuisine.   The mural depicts the mesmerizing countenance of a beautiful indigenous maiden, maybe even the infamous Malinche herself.  Immediately below the maiden is a Muslim Dhow sailing the azure waters of the ancient world.  The mural was commissioned when the name on the restaurant’s marquee read “Urban Taqueria.”   It’s an evocative spray-painted masterpiece that should inspire contemplation and discussion. It certainly will if you ask owner Hanif Mohamed about it.   Hanif is not only a restaurant impresario who’s owned an extraordinary portfolio of diverse restaurants, he’s quite a culinary historian.  To him and other savvy cognoscenti of contemporary cuisine, the roots of Mexico’s food extend far beyond the influence of the Spanish conquistadores.    Chat him up and he’ll explain how Spanish cuisine itself evolved significantly under the 800 years of Moorish rule of the Iberian Peninsula. He relishes discussing the trade routes that introduced exotic spices and seasonings  which dramatically changed (and improved) the flavor profile of that region’s cuisine that (let’s face it) would otherwise be fairly bland.…

AlbuquerqueAsianClosed in 2024Diners Drive-Ins and DivesDog FriendlyFusionGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Kitsune – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

FROM THE BITE: Albuquerque’s Asian-inspired Kitsune slipped out of its Old Town location with nary an announcement last year, and now the rumors about their new fling with Sister Bar are official. This will be happening Mondays, but maybe not every Monday; the next one looks to be slated for February 26. Here are a few tips if you’ve got  a trip planned to Japan and would like to practice terms to convey your enthusiasm for the delicious meals you’re sure to experience,    After your first bite, use the term “umai” to express how delicious that first bite was. As you continue to eat, use the term “oishii” frequently to convey with alacrity that the food you’re eating is fantastic.  Because it’s considered good manners in Japanese culture not only to finish every single morsel on your  plate but to ask for a second serving, the phrase “okawari” will come in handy.  And to make it even more polite, postface the term with “kudasai” which means “please.” On the last Sunday of October when our planned lunch excursion was to Kitsune, a Japanese term for “fox,” I had hoped to be able to display this gaijin’s (foreigner’s) mastery of Japanese…

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The Hollar – Madrid, New Mexico (CLOSED: December 17, 2023)

Gil Garduno2:59 AM

It wasn’t that long ago that if you played “word association” with almost anyone outside the Mason-Dixon line, the first thing coming to mind if you used the term “Southern food” was probably something like “heapin’ helpins’ of hillbilly hospitality.”  During their nine-year run as one of the most popular comedies in the history of American television, the Clampetts, a hillbilly family who relocated to Beverly Hills after finding oil on their property, introduced “vittles” to the American vernacular.  Vittles, of course, meant such “delicacies” as possum shanks, pickled pig jowls, smoked crawdads, stewed squirrel, turnip greens, and owl cakes.  “Weeeee Doggies,” now that’s eatin‘.” To much of America, the aforementioned delicacies were culinary curiosities–bumpkinly and provincial food no one outside the deeply rural south would eat.  Because the Beverly Hillbillies predated the Food Network and the culinary awakening of America, those stereotypes as to what constitutes Southern food became deeply ingrained in the fabric of American culture. In 2008, Gary Paul Nabhan published Renewing America’s Food Traditions, one of the most important books written about American food. This terrific tome celebrates the vast diversity of foods which gives North America its distinctive cultural identity, an identity reflecting the vast and…

BreakfastMexicanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSanta Fe

Los Potrillos – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:39 AM

Faced with a situation that renders us incredulous, many of us might yammer incoherently, complain vociferously or maybe even utter colorful epithets. Such moments, it seems, are best expressed with succinct precision, a rare skill mastered by a select few wordsmiths from which eloquence flows regardless of situation–polymaths such as the late Anthony Bourdain, a best-selling author, world traveler, renowned chef and “poet of the common man.” Flummoxed at the discovery of a Chili’s restaurant a mere five miles from the Mexican border, I might have ranted and raved about another inferior chain restaurant and its parody of Mexican food. With nary a hint of contempt, Bourdain instead compared the spread of Chili’s restaurants across America to herpes. How utterly brilliant and wholly appropriate was that? Indicating that chain restaurants are “the real enemy, the thing to be feared, marginalized and kept at a distance at all costs,” he wondered aloud why anyone would eat institutionalized franchise food when the real thing is available nearby. Bourdain, a cultural assimilator, would love Los Potrillos, an unabashedly authentic Mexican restaurant which serves the food Mexican citizens eat everyday, not the pretentious touristy stuff or worse, the pseudo Mexican food proffered at Chili’s…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyFrenchNew Mexico

Salt and Board – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno1:00 PM

“Five years ago, everyone was making beer in their bathtubs, and now everyone’s making charcuterie in their garage!” ~Brian Malarkey, Chef When my friend Carlos, a punctilious polyglot conversant in four languages, asked what my Kim and I ate over the weekend, my poorly-pronounced beginner’s French response was “une assisette de charcuterie et de fromages.” “Oh, you had cold-cuts and cheese,” he responded. “No, we had charcuterie!” I emphasized, slowly pronouncing each syllable of the term: “char-cu-te-rie.” “Only the French,” he retorted “could convince you a plate of bologna and slices of cheese is a gourmet dish worth thirty dollars.” Carlos was only kidding, of course, but beyond his flippancy was a veiled challenge. He wanted me to figure out what distinguishes “charcuterie” from any other plate of cold-cuts and cheeses thrown together. It could be argued that charcuterie’s historical roots extend hundreds of years back when early civilizations figured out how to cure and preserve meats. The term “charcuterie,” which is derived from the French words for flesh (chair) and cooked (cuit), finds its genesis in fifteenth-century France. Charcuterie was essentially born out of the necessity for foods to have a long shelf life. Because pork vendors were prohibited…

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Fork & Fig – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:06 PM

FROM THE FORK & FIG FACEBOOK PAGE (November, 2024): Thank you Albuquerque for 10 wonderful years! Skyrocketing rent and food costs have really impacted us. We have loved serving you. We are moving to a private chef/catering model. Stay tuned for our next adventure. Listen to Billy Joel’s 1983 doo wop hit Uptown Girl and you’ll probably get the impression that uptown is synonymous with uppity or at least upscale. The lyrics describe a working-class downtown man (ostensibly Joel himself who’s originally from blue-collar Long Island) trying to win the heart of a wealthy, white bred uptown girl (Joel’s future wife Christie Brinkley). The perception of uptown’s haughtiness were reenforced in “The Contest” episode of Seinfeld in which John F. Kennedy, Jr. lived in trendy uptown. When they finally came into money, the Jefferson’s moved on up, too. Until just a few years ago, the Albuquerque neighborhoods around which conversations typically centered were Old Town, downtown, Nob Hill and even EDo (East Downtown). Uptown was solely where the Coronado and Winrock Malls were. With the closure of the Winrock Mall and subsequent launch of ABQ Uptown, a pedestrian-friendly, open-air lifestyle center, Albuquerque’s uptown area seemingly became “the heart of the…

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Damacio’s Bar & Tapas – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“I wanna open a Jamaican/Irish/Spanish small plate breakfast restaurant and call it Tapas the Morning to Ja.” ~Harris Wittels (Comedian) It wasn’t Wittel’s humorous quip that came to mind as we approached Damacio’s Bar & Tapas but rather something legendary raconteur and television host Anthony Bourdain once said.  During a 2013 episode of his CNN television show Parts Unknown filmed in Granada, Spain, he declared “We will never have tapas culture in America.”  Calling tapas “that greatest of Spanish traditions,” Bourdain added “You may think you know what a tapa is.  Like if you’ve had small bites at some fusion hipster bar where they do a whole lot of little plates. Yeah, that ain’t a tapa. Quite naturally Boudain’s comments got me to thinking: what exactly is a tapas culture and what are we doing wrong here in the Land of Plenty. Accompanied by his longtime Director of Photography Zach Zamboni and his fiancé, who live part-time in Granada, Bourdain was told by the fiancé that “Tapa is for free.  That’s the main issue of the tapa.”  Bourdain liked the concept: “So, you’re just paying for the wine. So if I were like a degenerate wino I could still eat…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyMexicanRating: Very Good

Papa Nacho’s – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno1:47 AM

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” ~Laurie Colwin, Novelist The notion of cooking alone is unthinkable to Ignacio and Brigette “BeBe” Lopez, founders of Papa Nacho’s. Since they launched their popular Mexican restaurant in 1995, the restaurant has embodied the aphorism “the family that cooks together, stays together.” Papa Nacho’s is and always has been a family affair, with daughters Gloria and Marcial practically having grown up in the kitchen. Today Marcial and her husband Richard Jimenez own the restaurant and Gloria is living in California.  The gracious Gloria once reminded me, “it wouldn’t be a family restaurant if it wasn’t about family.” More than most restaurants in Albuquerque which promote themselves as being “family owned and operated,” Papa Nacho’s lives it. Some of Gloria’s most cherished times were when she and her dad come in at four in the morning to begin the extensive preparatory work it takes to serve their patrons. At Papa Nachos, there are no short-cuts. Vegetables are hand-cut and all sauces are meticulously prepared. Pinto beans…

AlbuquerqueMexicanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentTacos

Tako Ten – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:57 AM

Gustavo Arellano, author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, wasn’t kidding when he quipped “The Taco Bell taco is dead. Long live the taco.”  Boomers like me may not have grown up heading for the border, but we did grow up with the Taco Bell “taco template”–a crunchy hard-shell tortilla crammed with seasoned ground beef, chopped tomato, lettuce, a fistful of shredded yellow cheese and a large dollop of sour cream.  We’ve long since joined enlightened millennials and generation Z diners in railing against what Chef Rick Bayless calls Taco Bell’s “near-laughable caricature” of authentic Mexican tacos.   So just what are authentic Mexican tacos? Travel throughout the Land of Montezuma and whether you get your tacos from upscale restaurants, market stalls or street vendors, you’ll quickly discover their versatility, diversity and deliciousness.  Adventurous diners can, for example, enjoy palm-sized tortillas filled with virtually every part of the pig, cow, or chicken.  These proteins can be stewed (as in a guisado), barbecued (for barbacoa), roasted on a vertical spit (al pastor), cooked atop a griddle (a la plancha), or served campechano (a mélange of chopped meats). Tacos de mariscos (seafood), pescado (fish) and chapulines (grasshoppers) are also pretty popular…

AlbuquerqueRating: OutstandingVietnamese

CAFE DA LAT – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:03 AM

While the term “Vietnamese cuisine” is broad and overarching, any attempt to pigeonhole this very diverse and eclectic culinary culture is a failure to consider its complexities and nuances.  Even when culinary taxonomists compartmentalize Vietnamese cuisine regionally into “Northern,” “Southern” or “Central,” these wide-ranging generalizations fail to take into account the variations–often influenced by socioeconomic factors–that occur not only between villages, but often within small neighborhoods.  James Nguyen, proprietor of Albuquerque’s Cafe Da Lat is very cognizant of those variations.  That’s why he takes it in stride when a compatriot visiting his restaurant contends “this isn’t like the Vietnamese food I grew up eating.”  Obviously, he says, they didn’t grow up with his mother’s cooking.  His mother’s recipes are at the heart of Cafe Da Lat’s menu, but like every successful restaurateur, he understands that in order to grow business year-upon-year, the menu has to remain interesting. Though wholesale changes aren’t necessary, over the years he has continued to introduce amazing new items we now can’t live without.   Every year James travels to Little Saigon in Orange County, California where he takes the pulse of innovative new trends in Vietnamese cuisine.  When he discovers something he believes Duke City…

AlbuquerqueBetter Call SaulBrunchDog FriendlyFine DiningRating: Very Good

Vintage 423 – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 PM

My friend Bill Resnik, a professional stand-up comedian for more than two decades, performs a bit in which he “translates” Spanish terms for linguistically challenged audiences.  “Paseo del Norte,” for example, translates to “Paseo of the Norte.” For Duke City residents, the “Northern Route” is no joke.  It’s the corridor from the Northeast Heights to Albuquerque’s burgeoning West side, ferrying nearly 100,000 vehicles a day.  Paseo del Norte is widely credited with the rapid development–from 30,000 residents in 1980 to more than 85,000 in 2006–of the city’s growth north of Interstate 40 and west of the Rio Grande.  What most city residents don’t realize is that the official Department of Transportation designation for the 25-mile passage is State Highway 423. It makes sense therefore that a restaurant in which people connections are made daily would incorporate into its name the highway designation for the bridge (figuratively and literally) between Albuquerque’s residents.  Because of its extensive wine offerings, the word “Vintage” (as in the year or place in which wine of high quality was produce) also makes sense, ergo Vintage Four Twenty-Three, a sophisticated and trendy milieu unlike any in the Duke City.  Launched in January, 2012, Vintage has since been…