Category: Albuquerque

AlbuquerqueBurgersNew MexicoRating: Very Good

Grassburger – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno1:20 PM

For nearly a decade, television viewers have been subjected to a very successful advertising campaign depicting contented cows talking and singing about the pleasures of life in sunny and warm California. The slogan for the “happy cows” campaign’ is “Great cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California.” The campaign would have you believe the cows are happy because they feast and frolic on a diet of delicious grass from verdant hillsides and not on troughs full of grains which don’t taste quite as good. I don’t know about cows being happier because they graze on grass, but…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicoRating: ExcellentThai

Thai Boran – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:34 AM

Many of us with a puerile sense of humor can probably recall giggling like silly school kids the first time we visited a Thai restaurant and perused a menu. We went straight into the gutter the first time we came across such foods as phat prik and fuktong curry. Even after learning that “phat prik” is actually a stir-fried chili dish and “fuktong curry” is a pumpkin curry, the sophomoric among us couldn’t order these dishes with a straight face. It gets even worse when we actually learned how to pronounce the names of Thai dishes. Not even Bob Newhart…

AlbuquerqueAsianChineseNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSeafood

East Ocean Chinese & Seafood – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:01 PM

In 2022, Freddie Wong posted a TikTok video that went viral on several social media platforms. In the video, Wong, purports to find the most “authentic” Chinese food by utilizing restaurant review website Yelp in a unique way.  “The easiest way to find authentic Chinese food, assuming you’re living in a major metropolitan area, is to go on Yelp and to look for restaurants with three-and-a-half stars,” declared Wong in his TikTok video, which garnered an astonishing 7.2 million views in only two days. “Exactly three and a half, not three, not four. Three-and-a-half stars is a sweet spot for…

AlbuquerqueBakeryCoffeeNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSandwichVietnamese

Banh Me & You – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:47 AM

According to The Tanner Food Group, a a food consultancy focused on international trade, industry preparedness and regulatory activities, there are now nearly 8,000 Vietnamese restaurants stateside.  Food Scientist Michael Murdy, founder of robustkitchen.com attributes the  popularity of Vietnamese food to the “wide range of flavors and textures associated,” specifying that “the combination of sour, sweet, savory, and spicy flavors, as well as the use of fresh herbs and vegetables, makes Vietnamese food particularly attractive to people.” From among the nearly 8,000 Vietnamese restaurants on this side of the pond, it’s a good bet many of their menus are graced…

AlbuquerquePizzaRating: Very GoodSaladSandwich

Dion’s Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:35 PM

Toga! Toga! Toga! Ever since the misfit Delta Tau Chi fraternity threw the most debaucherous toga party ever in the 1978 “teensploitation” comedy Animal House, the toga party has been ingrained in the college party culture. The genesis of the toga party goes back much, much further than Animal House. Toga parties, in fact, precede collegiate life in the fruited plain by many hundred years. The first toga party was actually organized in ancient Greece in honor of the Greek god Dionysus, the deity of the grape harvest, wine-making and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theater and religious ecstasy (that’s…

AlbuquerqueItalianNew MexicoPizzaRating: Excellent

Luigi’s Ristorante & Pizzeria – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:40 AM

Luigi’s is the eponymous brainchild of Luigi Napolitano whose very last name translates to citizen of Naples, the city from which his mother Tina emigrated more than four decades ago. Tina is the bread-baking, pasta-making dynamo in the kitchen and is also responsible for many of the restaurant’s homey touches.  Tina painstakingly hand-sewed the delicate lace covering over each lamp (below) as well as the curtains over each booth.  Other homey touches include viney plants hanging from pillars throughout the restaurant and a framed picture of the Mona Lisa hanging above the buffet. Tina, a spry octogenarian, is one of…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyItalianPizzaRating: Very Good

Il Vicino – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:54 AM

Undoubtedly the most oft-quoted line on Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” is “good fences make good neighbors.” Frost, a four-time Pulitzer Prize award winning American poet certainly didn’t have Il Vicino (“the neighbor”) in mind when he penned his prose. Fortunately fences are no obstacle to patrons of this popular contemporary Italian trattoria. A well-regarded neighborhood eatery with three Albuquerque locations, Il Vicino is probably best known for its wood-oven pizza and award-winning brewery with popular micro-brewed ales but it offers much more than that. Known in some circles for prized beers, Il Vicino has a private wine label designed…

AlbuquerqueAsianChineseJapaneseKoreanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSushi

East Asian Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Perhaps more than anyone I’ve ever met, my Singaporean friend Ming Lee (God rest his beautiful soul) regarded people by the content of their character, not by physical characteristics.  So, it surprised me to hear him joke “we all look alike.”  It was an unsolicited admission that even he couldn’t always discern the cultural genesis of Asian people he met.  He also joked “at least I can always tell where an Asian restaurant’s food comes from.”  Ming was a bona fide gastronome who introduced me to the cuisine of Singapore and Malaysia.  Like me, he disliked restaurants in which overt…

AlbuquerqueBar & GrillDog FriendlyMexicanNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Tacos

Calavida Cantina – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

At Calavida Cantina, you’re invited to “party like the dead.”  If you haven’t partied like the dead, you’re probably not well acquainted with the Mexican tradition of “El Dia De Los Muertos,” the Day of the Dead.  During this Mexican holiday, the profusion of skeletons of all sizes performing day-to-day activities signifies the return to this world of the dead who remain who they were when they lived, doing what they did.  For example, skeletal figures depicted on the artwork at Calavida Continue would have been party animals when they graced this earthly plane.  Therefore in death, they remain party animals–eating,…

AlbuquerqueAsianChineseNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Red Chilli House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Red “Chilli” House…doesn’t “Chilli” read like a misspelled word that knocked a spelling bee contestant out of the competition?  Or like someone added one too many letter “l’s” to the already misspelled word “chili?”  Actually, that spelling (which some of us purists consider Texan) is by design.   The delightful Chinese restaurant sporting that appellation–which opened its doors in June, 2024–wouldn’t change it.  Among other things, it illustrates just how important Capsicum is in some provinces of China, particularly Sichuan and Hunan. Capsicum, as most New Mexicans know, is the genus to which all chili (chile in New Mexico) peppers…

AlbuquerqueGreekMediterraneanRating: Outstanding

Gyros Mediterranean – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:39 AM

It’s not easy being a gastronome about town when you make less than a thousand dollars a month and have a car payment, rent and a social life. Stationed at Kirtland in the early 1980s, my Air Force salary pretty much dictated that most of my meals were at the base’s chow hall (which thankfully was legions better than mystery meat meals at the Peñasco High School cafeteria). The little that was left of my meager monthly take-home pay meant social outings were pretty much of the cheap eats variety. The epicenter for many of my off-site meals seemed to…