Category: Rating: Excellent

Excellent – High quality dining experience; very good to excellent food, attentive service, and a well-maintained atmosphere; worth a detour.

AlbuquerqueMariscosMexicanRating: Excellent

El Zarandeado – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:23 PM

“Anyway, like I was sayin’, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that’s about it.” – Bubba from Forrest Gump Benjamin Bufford “Bubba” Blue may have thought he knew all there was to know about shrimp, but he didn’t know about camarones and he had no idea about ceviche. In 1967 while Bubba…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2017Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSoul FoodSouthern

Bucketheadz – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:44 AM

“I think it’s easy to dismiss Southern food as nothing but grease and grits. I happen to like both grease and grits, And if you call them lardo and polenta, no one would have a problem with it.” ~John T. Edge Author John T. Edge acknowledges that negative stereotypes are rampant about Southern food, crediting some of those perceptions to how Southern food is marketed. Instead of Southern food being presented as one of America’s great culinary traditions, all too often it’s presented as bumpkinly and backwater. Instead of focusing on its soul-warming deliciousness and comforting properties, it’s presented as…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2022Gone But Not ForgottenJapaneseRating: ExcellentSushi

Magokoro Japanese Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:20 AM

Emeril Lagasse, the jovial master of the culinary catchphrase, has been known to exhort his studio audience to “feel the love” as he adds a dash or two of something special to a dish. Indeed, love is that extra ingredient many chefs say they add to make everything they prepare taste better. To these chefs, cooking with love is not a labor of love because the gratification they receive is as intrinsically nourishing and pleasing as their cuisine is pleasurable and fulfilling to the diners who partake of it. Asian cultures have known for time immemorial that cooking is more…

BreakfastClosed in 2019Diners Drive-Ins and DivesFood Network Eats New MexicoGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSanta Fe

Tecolote Cafe – Santa Fe, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:35 PM

Everyone knows the most sagacious of all creatures in nature is the owl. The owl is to whom all other creatures go to get some of life’s most pondered questions answered–questions such as “how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” After having posed the question to a cow, a fox and a turtle, a young boy decides to ask the wise owl. “Good question, let’s find out,” the owl retorts. “A One…A two-hoo…A three (crunch sound effect). Three!” It took three licks for the erudite owl to get to the…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Frost Gelato – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:11 PM

“I believe gelato is meant to be treated as medicine and taken daily as a prescription.” ~Author: Betsy Brandt If you’ve never associated such words as searing, stifling, sweltering, sultry, sticky and sizzling with Italy, you probably haven’t been there during a summer heat wave. During the day, cobbled streets heat up like a pizza oven, radiating heat even through the night. Worse, in much of Italy air conditioning is a rare luxury, especially by American standards. Even at five-star luxury accommodations you probably won’t be able to drop the temperature down to the cool 70-degrees you enjoy at home.…

Closed in 2020Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSteak

The Luna Mansion Landmark Steakhouse – Los Lunas, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:36 PM

New Mexico is truly a dichotomous land, a state in which seemingly contrasting qualities exist in symbiotic harmony with each other. While most of those contrasts exist spectacularly in nature, the Land of Enchantment’s architecture is no stranger to contradictions. One such example is the Luna Mansion, a stately manor built in the Southern Colonial architectural style, but whose basic construction material is adobe. The Luna Mansion was built in 1880 by the Santa Fe Railroad Company in exchange for right-of-way through lands owned by the Luna family. In the 1920s, the Luna-Otero family added to the grandeur of the…

AlbuquerqueBakeryClosed in 2018Gone But Not ForgottenPeruvianRating: Excellent

Sara’s Pastries and Deli – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno7:42 PM

Creator! You who give life to all things and who has made men that they may live happy and multiply. Multiply also the fruits of the earth, the potatoes and other food that you have That men may not suffer from hunger and misery. ~Traditional Incan Prayer As recently as 2010, Albuquerque–which rightfully takes great pride in its acceptance of cultural and culinary diversity–did not have a single Peruvian restaurant. Fast forward three years to March, 2013 and there are three restaurants showcasing to Duke City diners just a modicum of the tremendous diversity and deliciousness offered by Peruvian cuisine.…

Fine DiningNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSanta Fe

Santacafe – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:30 PM

Is there anything as pure and simple as the innocence of a child, especially during the most magical time of the year? When my then six-year-old niece penned a heartfelt letter to Santa Claus, there was no doubt in her mind that her letter would be delivered and her wish would be granted. After all, she had been extra good all year long and what she wanted for Christmas was so reasonable. My niece’s fondest Christmas wish was that her family dine at Santacafe—not because of its reputation for inspired cuisine, but because she was sure she would meet jolly…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2018Fine DiningGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Elaine’s – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:54 PM

“They were all impressed with your Halston dress and the people that you knew at Elaine’s”. ~Big Shot by Billy Joel For nearly five decades–from 1963 through 2011–“the place to be” in Manhattan’s trendy Upper East Side was Elaine’s, perhaps the city’s most celebrated and revered A-lister’s hangout. Everyone who was anyone frequented Elaine’s, an eponymous establishment in which luminaries came to see and be seen. Celebrity habitues included glitterati from stage, screen, television, literature and politics such as Woody Allen, Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood, Mick Jagger, Jacqueline Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Andy Warhol and Raquel Welch. Elaine…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicanRating: Excellent

Ben Michael’s Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:47 PM

During the height of the Italian Renaissance, humanist-philosopher Leon Battista Alberti posited the notion that “a man can do all things if he will,” a notion that birthed the concept of the Renaissance man. More than the contemporary Army challenge for American soldiers to “be all you can be,” a Renaissance man was expected to embrace all knowledge and develop capabilities as fully as possible in the areas of knowledge, physical development, social accomplishments and the arts. Perhaps the very best example of a Renaissance man is Leonardo da Vinci, whose gifts were manifest in the fields of science, art,…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2015Gone But Not ForgottenMariscosMexicanRating: Excellent

El Norteño – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:33 PM

No Mexican restaurant in Albuquerque has a pedigree that approaches that of El Norteño, a venerable elder statesperson in the Duke City’s burgeoning and constantly evolving Mexican restaurant scene. El Norteño has been pleasing local diners for more than a quarter of a century as evinced by its perennial selection as the city’s “Best Mexican” restaurant. Respondents to the Alibi’s annual “best of” poll accorded El Norteño that coveted accolade against increasingly more formidable competition every year for seven consecutive years. Launched in 1986 by Leo and Martha Nuñez, El Norteño is an Albuquerque institution, a Mexican restaurant which can’t…