Category: Albuquerque

AlbuquerqueAsianJapaneseNew MexicoRamenRating: Outstanding

Oni Noodles – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:06 PM

In retrospect, the monsters and bogeymen who frightened impressionable children of my generation were pretty lame. Perhaps the most lame of them all was Frankenstein, a lumbering behemoth who walked around with his arms outstretched like a sleepwalking Shaquille O’Neal. Frankenstein snarled and growled a lot, probably because Gene Hackman poured hot soup on his lap. Then there was that pasty-faced vampire Dracula who could be repelled with garlic (which explains his aversion for Italian food). Dracula couldn’t even enjoy New Mexico’s 310 days of sunshine without sizzling and hissing like a strip of bacon. In comparison Japan’s monsters are…

AlbuquerqueAsianChineseNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Fei’s Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:12 AM

Some say the map of China looks like a chicken.  The province of Sichuan in Southwest China would be right in the stomach of that chicken.  That’s fitting because the cuisine of Sichuan is internationally renowned for its liberal use of spice.  What characterizes Sichuan from the other regions of China is its use of Sichuan peppercorn, chilies, and the ability to take even the most mundane of ingredients to create fabulous dishes.  There’s a term for the flavor profile associated with Sichuan cuisine.  It’s the word “mala” which translates to “numbing spice.”  The “ma” portion of that term comes…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastBreakfast BurritosMexicanRating: Excellent

Delicias Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:59 PM

There’s no denying the ever-increasing popularity of Mexican food across America, but it may surprise you to learn that in the estimation of some sources, it has supplanted Italian food as the favorite ethnic cuisine in the land. Marketplace, a nationally syndicated business oriented radio program with more than nine-million listeners a week, says there’s no bones about it, calling Mexican food “the most popular ethnic food in the U.S., bigger than Italian or Chinese.” Askmen.com confirms only that “Mexican has become one of the three most popular cuisines in the U.S., with nearly 90% of the total population having…

AfricanAlbuquerqueEthiopianNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Clay Pot Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“This stuffing of food in your fellow diners’ face is called gursha, and that’s what you do to show your affection and respect. Try this at the Waffle House some time and prepare for awkwardness.” ~Anthony Bourdain, Season 6 of Parts Unknown Eating Ethiopian cuisine involves eating with your hands. That can also be said about eating pizza, sandwiches, tacos, gyros and a number of other foods common to the American palate. But what about being fed from someone else’s hand?  In Ethiopia, that practice is called gursha.  Gursha is a term for the Ethiopian tradition of hand-feeding a bite of food,…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2026Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Sandwich

Kaufman’s New York – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“I’ll have what she’s having.”  Can it really be 35 years since Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal created their famous fake orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally?  The scene was filmed at New York City’s Katz’s Delicatessen where sumptuous sandwiches are skyscraper tall and absolutely delicious (my sole visit was in 1978).  Unlike Meg’s character, most of us wouldn’t have to fake our “excitement” with one gander of the sheer size of Katz’s pastrami sandwich.  A Katz’s, the world-famous pastrami sandwich is enormous, featuring about one pound (12–16 ounces) of hand-carved meat stacked between rye bread. The sandwich stands roughly…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastBreakfast BurritosNew MexicanRating: Good

Twisters Burgers & Burritos – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:00 AM

One of the sure signs of spring and summer in New Mexico is the presence of dust devils, those haphazardly whirling, dirty, dusty dervishes which seem to whip up out of nowhere to vacuum up all surface detritus on their unpredictable paths. Tumbleweeds, trash and soil spin skyward to heights of up to 100 feet only to be deposited–torn, tattered and worse for wear– sometimes great distances from their points of origin.  Normally lasting no longer than a few seconds, dust devils are nature’s hot wind temper tantrum, capable of wreaking havoc quickly and with tremendous force. At their worse,…

AlbuquerqueMediterraneanNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

Anatolia Mediterranean – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

As a bumpkinly but book-smart twenty-year-old away from home for the first time, I practically ached for adventure, something different… the antithesis of  my agrarian upbringing.  The Air Force accommodated me, sending me first to the cultural, culinary and cosmpolitan region around Boston, Massachusetts.  It was an illuminating experience which I thoroughly loved, but after two years my wandering soul wanted to experience even further away lands.  Though very open-minded, the only places not on my “dream sheet” of assignment preferences were Thule, Greenland; Shemya, Alaska; and the country of Turkey.  The latter was based on having seen Midnight Express…

AlbuquerqueRating: Very GoodSandwich

The Yeller Sub – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno10:20 AM

In the town where I was born… Lived a man who sailed to sea… And he told us of his life… In the land of submarines… – The Beatles: Yellow Submarine The phantasmagorical 1966 Beatles song Yellow Submarine may or may not have been the inspiration for Albuquerque’s venerable Yeller Sub, but one thing’s for certain.  Since it launched in 1979, the Yeller Sub has been the Duke City’s land of  oversized sub and torpedo sandwiches. Long-time residents will remember that the Yeller Sub was first located on Juan Tabo not too far from Manzano High School. Today it resides…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: ExcellentRating: Very Good

Rudy’s Country Store & Barbecue – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:49 AM

In 1983, country crooner Ed Bruce released a song titled “My First Taste of Texas,” the first line of which was “My first taste of Texas was her blue eyes and golden hair.” Some ten years later, I experienced my first taste of great Texas barbecue when visiting Rudy’s Country Store & Barbecue in Leon Springs, Texas, a San Antonio suburb on the fringes of the magnificent Texas Hill Country. At the time Rudy’s was just beginning to make inroads toward becoming a significant barbecue presence in Texas where beef and brisket are king. Back then Leon Springs appeared to…

AlbuquerqueItalianRating: Good

Mario’s Pizza & Ristorante – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:25 PM

In the 1978 movie Same Time Next Year, Ellen Burstyn’s character lamented that her husband considered his years in the Army the best years of his life. When Alan Alda’s character, her partner in a 26-year adulterous affair, commiserated that many men felt that way about their time in the military, Burstyn retorted, “but he spent two years as a prisoner of war.” Only a husband who wants to sleep on the couch would admit to any source of happiness outside of marriage… and only an honest answer to the loaded question “does this dress make me look fat“ is…

AlbuquerqueBuffetIndianNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

Taste of India – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:16 AM

“Don’t go and cook Indian food if you never cooked Indian food, you know?” ~Wolfgang Puck Those who can’t do, write.  The pan is mightier than the pen. Pick your aphorism.  When it comes to cooking Indian food, both certainly apply in my case.  Every effort to prepare even the most basic of Indian dishes is a painful reminiscence of the Chemistry courses which confounded, confused and frustrated me in equal measure.  Sure, covalent bonds made sense (because they were easy), but the math-based system of writing complex chemical equations may as well have been Klingonese.  So, too, are most…