Category: Rating: Outstanding

Outstanding–A stand-out; delivers a memorable dining experience through a harmonious blend of exceptional food, attentive service, and consistent quality

2023 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Texas" Semifinalist2024 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Texas" Semifinalist2025 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Texas" SemifinalistJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMexicanRating: OutstandingTacosTexasUnited States

ELEMI – El Paso, Texas

Gil Garduno11:01 PM

My friend Steve Coleman, owner of the well-written and impeccably researched Steve’s Food Blog has become quite a culinary anthropologist.  Not only does he provide his readers with comprehensive reviews of restaurants throughout the fruited plain, he explores the genesis of the foods he writes about.  One of his passions is to define what constitutes El Paso style Mexican cuisine–its provenance and the cultural role that cuisine has played over the generations.  As he’s discovered, El Paso style Mexican style is still evolving and redefining itself.  Some of that has occurred organically as other cultures have influenced dynamic changes.  Evolution has also been forged by the rediscovery of ancient ingredients and cooking techniques, some of which may once have been traditional. To Steve’s dismay, El Paso’s restaurant scene doesn’t seem to garner the type of adulation and respect accorded to more voguish and dynamic Texas cities such as Austin, Dallas and Houston.  It’s disconcerting to him that even when El Paso restaurants and chefs are nominated for James Beard awards, those restaurants make it no further than the semi-finals.  Steve has traveled extensively throughout Texas and is familiar with the culinary offerings at the chic, anointed cities.  In his estimation,…

AlbuquerqueFine DiningNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

Ex Novo Brewing Co. – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

After years of design and construction, Ex Novo new taproom and restaurant opened its doors in July, 2024.  The 11,500-square-foot edifice is broken into two levels.  On the first level, you’ll find  the restaurant, kitchen, taproom, indoor seating and a large patio.  A full-service bar with food service can be found upstairs in the spectacular mezzanine.  A large outdoor patio accommodates one-hundred guests and will eventually provide live music.   An adjacent  cafe and deli called Sammy’s Cafe & Deli.opened in October, 2024. Sammie’s offers an all-day breakfast menu as well as some of the most sought-after sandwiches imaginable (a pastrami reuben, banh mi, Italian, etc.) Brought in to lead Ex Novo during its founding was Marc Quiñones, one of the most heralded and talented chefs in New Mexico.  At  Level 5 Rooftop Restaurant, Chef Quiñones conceptualized the idea of “Contemporary New Mexican Ranch Cuisine’ which celebrates New Mexico’s historical reliance on the bounty of the earth and its plentiful wildlife.  Chef Quiñones channeled the way New Mexicans preserved and prepared foods a century ago.  He brought that concept with him to Ex Novo.   The chef parted ways with Ex Novo not quite a year after having led the restaurant during…

ArizonaFilipinoRating: OutstandingUnited States

Tambayan Filipino Food – Mesa, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When my Kim required physical therapy after a brief hospitalization, extraordinary physical therapist Lana Ramos was dispatched to our home where she worked with my Kim for several weeks.  Lana was wonderful–a superb and patient coach for my injured bride and a knowledgeable and patient source of knowledge for me.  Having been around many Air Force colleagues married to Filipino women, I developed a fondness for both the culture and cuisine of the Philippines.  Lana reignited that fondness by answering my questions and clarifying a few misconceptions I had.  When my Kim successfully completed her physical therapy, Lana prepared lumpia for us.  It had been a long time since we’d had lumpia. Lana told us that she and several compatriots journey to the Phoenix area periodically to get their fix of Filipino cuisine which–until September, 2024 could not be found at an Albuquerque eatery.  Then came Cindy Recile, an effusive and radiant personality who named her take-out establishment “Barkada’s ABQ” for the Filipino word for “friends” or “group of friends.”   Barkada’s is not a sit-down restaurant in which you can linger to enjoy fabulous flavors.  Instead, you’ve got to use social media to order food which you can pick up…

2022 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueBreakfastBreakfast BurritosJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

My Moms – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:01 PM

“God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” —Rudyard Kipling Should you have the pleasure of getting to know Chef Marie Yniguez, even a little, you’ll come away with three absolute certainties.  First, Albuquerque’s arguably most famous celebrity chef is unabashedly herself.  The happy, loving, gregarious person you’ve seen on numerous Food Network culinary competitions doesn’t have a pretentious bone in her body.  She is as genuine and sincere as they come.  Though she left the hardscrabble mining town of Hurley, New Mexico a lifetime ago, she remains a country girl at heart. And even though she was as a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef – Southwest” honor in 2022, she remains as humble as if she was starting out again at the very bottom of the competitive chef pyramid. Second, it’s an absolute certainty that you’re going to like the effusive chef.  She makes it a point to greet guests to her restaurant and traffic permitting, will visit with them to ensure they’re enjoying their experience (not just their meals).  Marie is a warm soul with a disarming sense of humor and ability to make everyone feel like a good friend.  She has a…

AlbuquerqueBrunchCoffeeNew MexicoRating: OutstandingSandwich

Sammys Cafe & Deli – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:02 AM

Most foodies have pondered the expession “Never trust a skinny chef.”  Maybe you’ve even mused if there’s any truth to it.   Your line of thinking probably goes something like this: “If a chef’s cooking is any good at all, how can that chef possibly resist stuffing himself (or herself)?”  With this train of thought, every chef should look like Paul Prudhomme, the brilliant Creole-Louisiana Cajun chef who once weighed more than 500 pounds.  Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who’s not shy about expressing his opinion, called the notion that you shouldn’t trust a skinny chef “BS.”  To the contrary, the volatile Ramsay believes “In order to be consistently excellent, a chef must “stay fit.” As my friend Bill Resnik and I strode into Sammy’s Cafe & Deli, we ran into the very fit Chef Marc Quiñones who had just finished his morning run.  Chef Quiñones runs distances some of us get tired driving.  He’s the proverbial high-energy somatype, a dynamic whirling dervish in constant motion.  Moreover, he exemplifies a paraphrase of a famous Homer Simpson quote: “Chef Marc Quiñones: Is there nothing he can’t do?”  At least in the culinary arena, the answer to that Jack Handy deep thought is “no.” …

AlbuquerqueChineseClosed in 2025Gone But Not ForgottenRating: Outstanding

BUDAI GOURMET CHINESE – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:07 AM

“The true gourmet, like the true artist, is one of the unhappiest creatures existent. His trouble comes from so seldom finding what he constantly seeks: perfection.” –Ludwig Bemelmans By definition, gourmets are connoisseurs, taking food more seriously than most and embodying the axiom “live to eat rather than eat to live.” True gourmets, as Ludwig Bemelmans would define them, appreciate food of the highest quality, exalting only in the rarefied experiences–those which require the most discerning palates and noses to cognize subtle nuances in complex and sophisticated flavors and aromas. Bemelmans, himself an internationally known gourmet, posited that the true gourmet will find joy only in tasting, smelling and appreciating perfection, not in its pursuit. I’ve known several true gourmets fitting Bemelmans definition. Most of them are insufferable and condescending. Though endowed with refined palates cultivated by years of indulgence in the finest foods and blessed with olfactory senses which would put a German shepherd to shame, they derive no sensuous enjoyment from most culinary experiences. Nothing is quite good enough. Nothing meets their demanding and exacting standards. Dining (they don’t eat) with them is a test in patience as they deride and diminish everything put before them. Perhaps the…

AlbuquerqueMediterraneanRating: Outstanding

Al-qud’s Mediterranean Grill & Grocery – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:54 AM

The St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Magdalena, New Mexico is adorned with ceramic statues, most familiar and easy to identify…at least for dyed-in-the-wool Catholics like me. After Sunday Mass one September, 2010 morning, we espied a statue of a saint clutching a curious implement to his chest. None of the parishioners we asked had any idea who the statue represented. Father Andy Pavlak, the parish vicar at the time, confirmed the statue depicted Saint Lawrence of Rome and the curious device he held was a gridiron, a metal grate used for grilling meat, fish, vegetables or any combination thereof. Father Pavlak went on to explain why Saint Lawrence clutched the gridiron. Saint Lawrence was one of seven deacons of ancient Rome who were martyred during the reign of Emperor Valerian. The manner of death he suffered was especially gruesome. The intrepid saint was grilled on a gridiron. As his flesh cooked, Lawrence is said to have cried out, “This side’s done. Turn me over and have a bite.” That probably explains why Saint Lawrence is the patron saint of comedians, butchers and roasters. He is also patron saint of several parishes throughout the Land of Enchantment. I suspect Saint…

AlbuquerqueContinentalDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: OutstandingSpecialty

The Mouse Hole – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

My Chicago born-and-bred bride and I often debate the merits and pitfalls of the Albuquerque metropolitan growing large enough to support more cultural opportunities, larger sports venues and ethnic restaurants we don’t currently have. Having grown up with those amenities, she knows more urban growth also means an increase in crime (as if we didn’t have enough already); more cronyism, corruption and collusion among the political cabal; more pollution, gentrification, traffic congestion, etc. Neither one of us wants Albuquerque to become another Big Cheese like Phoenix (though increasingly we’ve grown to love the Valley of the Sun’s restaurants). We would, however, love a Big Cheese shop like one in Toronto. If you’ve tuned in to a Hulu series called “Cheese: A Love Story,” you know of what I speak. The series centers around Afrim Pristine, one of the youngest maître fromagiers (cheese masters) in the world. That means he really is a big cheese…so much more than a turophile (a gourmet/ connoisseur of cheese) like me. His appreciation for and knowledge of cheese puts me to shame. As in every métier, it took significant time and effort to achieve his level of expertise. It did help that he was born…

Dog FriendlyItalianNew MexicoPizzaRating: OutstandingRio Rancho

M’tucci’s Moderno – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:23 PM

“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere It’s up to you, New York, New York <” ~Frank Sinatra Jeff Spiegel, the much-missed managing partner of the insanely popular M’tucci’s family of restaurants once described flagship restaurant M’tucci’s Italian Restaurant (previously M’tucci’s Kitchina) as “as good as anything we did in New York City.” That is really saying something considering over the course of 23 years, Jeff and his wife, life and business partner Katie Gardner owned and operated eleven restaurants in The Big Apple. Those eclectic eleven were highly regarded dining establishments, earning praise and acclaim from the dining public and media alike. One, The West End Bar & Grill, was a legendary Columbia University institution and veritable second home to students, faculty and staff. Two chefs who once worked for Jeff and Katie have earned Best Chef recognition from the James Beard Society while one has garnered significant notoriety as a chef, author and television personality (some of you might recognize the name Anthony Bourdain). When Jeff and Katie returned to Albuquerque (his hometown) in 2007, they initially pursued other ventures. Eventually the lure of the restaurant world at which they had succeeded at the highest…

AlbuquerqueItalianNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

M’TUCCI’S TWENTY-FIVE – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno10:36 AM

“The best ingredient I discovered in America was ‘freedom.’ The freedom to experiment in the kitchen and the freedom to be open to those experiments in the dining room.” ~Massimo Bottura, Osteria Francescana Chef and Owner Adesso basta!  I’ve had it with the haughty pedantry of my Air Force comrades-in-arms who were blessed to have been stationed in La Bele Paese and to have dined on its incomparable dishes. They’re oh-so-quick to vilify Italian-American cuisine, calling it an inauthentic parody of the madrepatria‘s sacrosanct and sublime cuisine.  They’re even quicker to criticize my devotion to such Italian-American restaurants as Joe’s Pasta House.   I know damn well that the Italian-American cuisine millions of us enjoy might not be recognized in all of Lo Stivale’s regions.  That doesn’t justify miei amici making it an object of mockery and derision. What my colleagues might not know or care to acknowledge is that Italian-American cuisine long ago stopped trying to be Italian.  Sure, when Italian immigrants first landed in the fruited plain, they tried to recreate the foods they enjoyed in the old country.  When many of the ingredients they needed weren’t available or weren’t of the quality they desired, they had to improvise…

FrenchNew MexicoRating: OutstandingSanta Fe

CLAFOUTIS – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:48 PM

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, you only need to know 10 words to understand 25-percent of what native [English] speakers say and write. You need to know 100 words to understand 50-percent of what native speakers say and write, and 1000 words to understand 75-percent of all the words used in common, everyday English. To understand 95-percent of the text used in blogs (even this one) and newspapers, you need a vocabulary of only 3,000 words. Considering the Oxford English Dictionary lists more than 171,000 words in current use (and another 47,000 obsolete words), knowing 3,000 words doesn’t sound very impressive. Many years ago before my first trip to France, I took an inventory of how many French words I knew, arriving at somewhere near that magical number of 3,000. While knowing that many words in English would make me fairly conversant, knowing 3,000 words in French (from a language boasting of 100,000 words) certainly didn’t endow me with conversational fluency. Not even close! French orthography, the spelling and punctuation of the French language, comes easy for me compared to pronunciation. If you’ve ever seen the episode of Friends in which Joey Tribbiani attempted to speak French, you’ll know of…