Category: Albuquerque

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2024Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew Mexico

Monica’s El Portal – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:33 PM

“It feels so true when I’m with you I’m free A place I go that feels like home to me It feels so true It’s time well spent when I’m with you.” ~Feels Like Home (New Mexico True) For years, as we luxuriated over steamy mugs of freshly ground coffee on lazy Sunday mornings before church, my Kim and I tuned in eagerly to New Mexico True Television, an invigorating half-hour of adventure and travel that fed the soul and captured the imagination. Hearts swelled with pride, we lived vicariously through host Michael Newman as he treked throughout our breathtaking…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2021Dog FriendlyFrenchGone But Not ForgottenRating: Excellent

P’Tit Louis Bistro – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:07 PM

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” –Ernest Hemingway I’ve often wondered if Ernest Hemingway would have felt at home in Taos during the “roaring twenties,” a period of dynamic artistic, societal and lifestyle upheaval. Instead of communing with the Taos Society of Artists and other inspired Bohemian minds, Hemingway spent much of the decade in Paris, a city whose own liberal attitudes attracted poets, painters and writers from throughout the world. Paris…

2022 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2022Diners Drive-Ins and DivesFood Network Eats New MexicoGone But Not ForgottenJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersRating: ExcellentSandwich

Bocadillos Slow Roasted: A Sandwich Shop – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:19 AM

The Food Network’s television cameras just love Chef Marie Yniguez who’s been showcased on not one, not two, not even three, but four of its prime-time programs. Aficionados of her cooking will tell you that in three of those programs she even upstaged Guy Fieri, the spiky-coiffed chef-glitterati.  Marie is a larger-than-life personality whose irreverent sense of humor, Burque pride and charisma can’t be contained within the small screen.  It’s inevitable that some network executive will someday make a movie of her life.  The question is who would play her.  Lady Gaga?  Nah, not enough personality.  Meryl Streep?  Ditto and…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastBrunchClosed in 2023Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Modern General – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:47 AM

“I went to a general store but they wouldn’t let me buy anything specific.” ~Steven Wright While nay-sayers may regard New Mexico as an anachronism–stuck in a time warp somewhere between Victorian times and the Happy Days of the Fonz and Richie Cunningham–there are artifacts of the “good old days” for which I wax nostalgic.  Among those artifacts is a real general store, a concept largely relegated to history in this age of instant gratification through internet shopping.  In small villages, general stores were not only stocked with such necessities as groceries, dry goods and hardware, they were quite literally…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyFood TruckNew MexicoPizzaRating: Very Good

Punchy’s Wood-Fired Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:16 PM

In the parlance of the pugilist, “punchy” is synonymous with punch-drunk, the result of having been battered violently by an opponent. You know, like Rocky Balboa after a few rounds with Apollo Creed. Don’t ever try to correct the family of Giordano Bruno (1905-1992) if they insist on a different definition. They’ll tell you Grandpa Giordano, the family patriarch, earned the nickname Punchy because of his punching prowess as a Golden Gloves boxing phenom. He could really pack a punch they say, winning 80 bouts and going undefeated during his career. More often than not, it was his hapless opponents…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2019Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenMexicanNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

Sophia’s – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:01 AM

Exterior signage for Dennis Apodaca’s new restaurant venture sports the name of the previous tenant, a short-lived eatery named MIXX. In a February blurb announcing Dennis’s return, the Albuquerque Journal called his new venture “REMIXX.” A handwritten note scrawled on the front door, however, informs you that you’ve arrived at “Sophia’s – that you knew & loved on 4th St. NW.” Not taking any chances, Yelp lists entries for both “REMIXX by Sophia’s Place” and “Sophia’s.” So which is it? Ask Dennis and he’ll tell you that despite what the sign says, his restaurant is a relaunch of Sophia’s, the…

AlbuquerqueChineseDim SumNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

It Dim Sum – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno6:22 PM

Shortly after “moving on up to the east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky,” George Jefferson was uncharacteristically late returning home.  Knowing George had gone to a Chinese restaurant after work, his dutiful wife Weezy asked neighbor Tom Willis what Chinese restaurant George might have visited.  Ever the gourmand, Tom asked what style of Chinese food George liked then proceeded to rattle off five different types of traditional Chinese cuisine available in the neighborhood: Mandarin, Sichuan, Hunan, Cantonese and Shandong.  Until that very moment I had no idea there were so many different styles of Chinese cuisine, wrongly…

AlbuquerqueBurgersClosed in 2020Gone But Not ForgottenHot DogsNew Mexico

Burque’s Burgers & Dawgs – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:40 PM

A 2016 quality of life survey conducted by the city of Albuquerque revealed that denizens of the Duke City are split pretty much down the middle when it comes to the nickname “Burque” (which, by the way, is NOT pronounced “burr-key” though you’ll be forgiven if you can’t roll your r’s).  28-percent of respondents viewed the sobriquet favorably while 28-percent had an unfavorable impression and 35% were neutral.  Residents of the Northeast Heights viewed the nickname less favorably than did dwellers of North Valley, downtown, west side and UNM areas. The survey did not address former Mayor Marty Chavez’s 2007…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2025Gone But Not ForgottenMexicanNew Mexico

Rusty Taco – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:18 PM

In 2015, food critic Mike Sutter embarked on a quest Don Quixote would envy when he ate at a different taco joint in Austin, Texas every day for an entire year. During his 365-day adventure, he consumed a whopping 1,600 tacos. When he moved from Austin to San Antonio, he embarked on a similar venture and not even life-altering thyroid cancer and its associated treatments and surgery could stay this critic from his appointed quest. He had surgery on a Tuesday and was back on the taco trail on Friday. Asked what his favorite taco was, he singled out a…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastClosed in 2024Diners Drive-Ins and DivesFood Network Eats New MexicoGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanRating: ExcellentTravel Channel Eats New Mexico

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

Gil Garduno8:12 PM

FROM INSTAGRAM (December, 2024):  After 25 years on the corner of 6th & Silver, Cecilia’s Café has closed its doors. This New Mexican breakfast and lunch restaurant was once featured on the Food Network and was a beloved space for locals.  Owner Cecilia Baca cited persistent challenges with homeless people, issues finding employees, and the remote/hybrid work phenomenon as key reasons for closing. Since the pandemic, “customers aren’t working a full week,” she said. “Just a lot of little things that made me realize that Downtown will not come back to life the way it was before COVID.” Pasqual Baylon’s…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyFood Network Eats New MexicoNew MexicanNew Mexico Culinary Treasures TrailRating: GoodThe Secret Life OfTravel Channel Eats New Mexico

El Pinto – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:41 PM

Over the years, perhaps no restaurant across the Land of Enchantment has garnered as much recognition from the national media as has El Pinto.  Rather than recap all its accolades across the years, let’s focus on just one year: 2015.   For almost any other restaurant in New Mexico (or anywhere else for that matter), 2015 would be considered a banner year, an auspicious annum, the type of year for which every restaurateur aspires. For Albuquerque’s El Pinto, however, 2015 could be considered just another year in which praise and recognition–local and national–seem to be heaped on in abundance. It’s…