Category: Albuquerque

AlbuquerqueBetter Call SaulNew MexicanRating: Good

Taco Sal New Mexican Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno10:58 PM

Rachael Ray, the hyper-bubbly kitchen diva recently divulged that casinos pipe in the fragrance of cumin because it causes gamblers to lose their inhibitions and gamble without guilt. Cigarette smoke and cumin…that doesn’t sound like an olfactory arousing aroma combination to me, much less one which would lure anyone to a purlieu of poker and slots. Now, if casinos figured out how to pipe in the intoxicating aroma of chile being roasted, New Mexicans might never leave. Marcia Nordyke, the Public Relations Director for the Hatch Chile Festival believes the aroma of chile being roasted would make a wonderful air…

AlbuquerqueBakeryBreakfastClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenJewishNew Mexico

Nosh Jewish Delicatessen & Bakery – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 PM

You see, Elaine, the key to eating a black and white cookie is that you wanna get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate. And yet still somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie, all our problems would be solved. ~Jerry Seinfeld While creative personnel and television promos touted Seinfeld as the “show about nothing,” the truth is every episode of the half-hour comedy offered a number of complex plots, sub-plots and plot twists. So much of the hilarity centered around food moments that readers of…

AlbuquerqueBurgersClosed in 2022Gone But Not Forgotten

B2B Bistronomy – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:02 PM

Marshall: Just a Burger? Just a burger. Robin, it’s so much more than “just a burger.” I mean…that first bite—oh, what heaven that first bite is. The bun, like a sesame freckled breast of an angel, resting gently on the ketchup and mustard below, flavors mingling in a seductive pas de deux. And then…a pickle! The most playful little pickle! Then a slice of tomato, a leaf of lettuce and a…a patty of ground beef so exquisite, swirling in your mouth, breaking apart, and combining again in a fugue of sweets and savor so delightful. This is no mere sandwich…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBar & GrillBreakfastClosed in 2021Dog FriendlyGone But Not Forgotten

Kelly’s Brew Pub – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:34 PM

“If you ever plan to motor west Travel my way, take the highway that’s the best A-get your kicks on Route sixty-six It winds from Chicago to LA More than two thousand miles all the way Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.” ~Nat King Cole With a population of approximately 30,000, Albuquerque had just about as many people in 1939 as Alamagordo has today. In 1939, life in the Duke City centered around Central Avenue and 4th Street where F.W. Woolworth’s Department Store (Albuquerque’s first national chain store) was situated. That year Route 66, the fabled Mother Road, saw a…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2017ColombianGone But Not ForgottenMexicanNew Mexico

Panchito’s Restaurant & Bakery – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:35 PM

“Let’s get one thing straight: Mexican food takes a certain amount of time to cook. If you don’t have the time, don’t cook it. You can rush a Mexican meal, but you will pay in some way. You can buy so-called Mexican food at too many restaurants that say they cook Mexican food. But the real food, the most savory food, is prepared with time and love and at home. So, give up the illusion that you can throw Mexican food together. Just understand that you are going to have to make and take the time.” ~Denise Chavez, A Taco…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueClosed in 2017Diners Drive-Ins and DivesFood Network Eats New MexicoGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

The Cube – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:45 AM

Timon: [singing] Luau. If you’re hungry for a hunk of fat and juicy meat Eat my buddy Pumbaa here, ’cause he’s a tasty treat Come on down and dine on this tasty swine All you gotta is get in line Are you achin’… Pumbaa: Yup, yup, yup. Timon: For some bacon? Pumbaa: Yup, yup, yup. Timon: He’s a big pig. Pumbaa: Yup, yup. Timon: You can be a big pig, too. Oy. From Disney’s Lion King Succulent swine. Porcine perfection. Bodacious baby backs. Pulchritudinous pulled pork. Every serious barbecue aficionado should go hog wild at least once in their lives…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastClosed in 2019Gone But Not ForgottenMexican

Rey’s La Familiar Restaurante – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:30 PM

Many similarities exist between writing beautiful lyrics for a memorable song and developing a great recipe for memorable food. Great lyrics involve putting together the right words so that they flow easily around a meaningful topic. Great recipes involve putting together the right ingredients so they coalesce into a delicious whole. There are no real rules to writing great lyrics or recipes, but not everybody can do it. You’ve got to have the right combination of talent, dedication and inspiration. Great lyrics and great recipes often require extensive trial and experimentation over a long period of time until they can’t…

AlbuquerqueRating: ExcellentSteak

Rancher’s Club of New Mexico – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno1:51 AM

While the Ranchers Club of New Mexico may evoke images of J. R. Ewing holding court with fellow oil barons and business magnates in Dallas, this magnificent milieu is, at its core and essence, unabashedly New Mexican in its attitude and spirit. Don’t let its ostentatious trappings–a sophisticated big city opulence meets a decidedly westernized look and feel–fool you. Sophisticated doesn’t mean haughty and ostentatious doesn’t mean exclusive. The Land of Mañana’s well-renowned inclusiveness means more than just the one-percenters will feel at home. It’s been that way since the Ranchers Club opened in 1985. More than half the dinner…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2013Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

Paco’s International Smoked Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:01 PM

“If salt is the odorless spice, smoke is the ephemeral magical invisible spice. You can’t feel it, you can’t touch it, but you can taste it.” ~Chef Seamus Mullen, Tertulia Restaurant, New York City. Have you ever wondered why some people drool when they pass by a computer displaying a fireplace screen saver? They’re not thinking about romance. They’re thinking about barbecue. There’s just something about smoked foods that has excited humans across the millennia. It’s been that way since a lightning bolt struck a mastodon and rendered its flesh delicious. Since then humans have been genetically predisposed to crave…

AlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2018Gone But Not Forgotten

Milton’s Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:11 AM

“Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes You might think that a world-famous cookbook author and New York Times food writer who dines at four-star white-tablecloth restaurants and routinely drops $200 or more for a meal would be ecstatic about his culinary opportunities. Instead, Mark Bittman appears to have had too much of a good thing and longs for, of all things, a restaurant which feels like home (ostensibly without having to do the dishes). Bittman laments “I want “my” place, don’t you? A place with a working…

AlbuquerqueAsianClosed in 2019Gone But Not Forgotten

Street Food Asia – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:51 AM

What is street food? An informal poll of friends and colleagues generated some interesting answers. One colleague equates street food to road kill– the flattened fauna, car-crashed carrion and furry Frisbees found on and along the highways and byways throughout the fruited plain. (Hmmm, that answer might explain his halitosis.) To another, street food is synonymous with hot dog carts while yet another colleague answered simply “roach coaches” (a pejorative for food trucks). The most interesting answer, provided by a geriatrically advanced friend not quite contemporaneous with Charles Dickens, was “chestnuts” with which not everyone in my focus group was…