Category: Rating: Excellent

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

AlbuquerqueBakeryBreakfastJewishNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Horizon Bagels & Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno10:39 AM

The furthest thing you can see when you stare out into the sky––the line where the sky meets the earth––is called the horizon.  Now, contemplate the faraway rainbow when it appears on the horizon.  The rainbow is one of the most inspiring displays in nature–the spectacular, high-arching display of colors that stretches across the horizon at the tail end of a rainstorm. This prototypical display of  the colors of the ultraviolet spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, violet) is brought on by sunlight refracting, reflecting, and dispersing as it passes through raindrops.  It’s magical!  No wonder fortune –a pot of gold–and good luck are often attributed to the mysterious arching rainbow. Now study the bagel.  If you slice it in half vertically then stand it up, it actually resembles a rainbow, albeit much less colorful.  Don’t believe me?  Study Horizon Bagels’ logo which resembles a bagel half spanning the horizon.  It may not have the colors of the ultraviolet spectrum, but to Duke City breakfast and lunch goers, it represents the great fortune of delicious bagels and absolutely delicious Jewish foods.  For New York, Chicago and New Jersey  transplants, the horizon–that unreachable faraway point–is finally attainable.  Bagels reminiscent of home…

CajunDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: ExcellentRio RanchoSoul FoodSouthern

K’Lynn’s Cuisine – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:29 PM

Before permanent signage was mounted, a tethered banner in front of K’Lynn’s Southern & Cajun Fusion in Rio Rancho listed a few of the delicious treasures available in the tiny restaurant: “catfish, BBQ, gumbo, po boys, jerk chicken, carne adovada fries & more!” Yeah, we did a double-take, too. One of those items just seemed a bit out-of-place? If you’re thinking “carne adovada fries” don’t belong on the list because they’re not Soul food, you’d be wrong. Carne adovada fries definitely belong on the list. So does jerk chicken which, by most conventional definitions, isn’t soul food either. The one item we thought to be out-of-place was “& more.” I mean what more could you possibly want listed on the banner. If it didn’t have you at “catfish” you probably haven’t had catfish down South…and if it didn’t seal the deal with “gumbo,” you definitely need an infusion of South in your mouth. Beyond catfish and gumbo, the rest is gravy and it’s absolutely delicious. Until the summer of 2016, restaurant-goers craving Southern cuisine had only one option for soul food, albeit a wonderful option in Bucket Headz (sadly now closed). For those of us on the “west side,” the…

Breakfast BurritosNew MexicanNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011Rating: Excellent

Jerry’s Cafe – Gallup, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:31 AM

The Land of Enchantment is bisected north to south by the murky and mucky Rio Grande which meanders some 700 miles through the state.  Throughout the millennia, the fourth longest river in America has been the often tenuous lifeline upon which New Mexico’s citizenry has relied for sustenance and for recreation.  Its precious waters are multifarious in their use–from human and animal consumption to the sustainment of agricultural systems and so much more.  Depleted over time by human dependence and a perpetual drought condition, it is nonetheless a linchpin for New Mexico’s future even as demand for its resources increases and stresses on the river grow. The Rio Grande Corridor is where the vast concentration of New Mexico’s urban centers exist and more than half of its population (over one million) resides.  The four most populous cities in the state–Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe in that order–are all within this riverine corridor.  It’s been that way for the estimated 10,000 years in which New Mexico has been inhabited.  The arable lands near the Rio Grande, for example, is where a vast concentration of the indigenous peoples the Spaniards named “Pueblos” chose to live.  Considering their dependence on…

AlbuquerqueBuffetIndianNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Kabab & Curry – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

A recent study by The Picky Eater analyzed the world’s most popular cuisines and dishes.  Picky Eater’s survey determined that Italian cuisine (highlighted by pizza, pasta, and risotto) is the most popular cuisine in the world, followed by Japanese and Indian food. The study also revealed that Chinese restaurants are the most common worldwide, representing an average of 9.5% of all restaurants in “top-visited cities,” followed by Italian cuisine concepts (roughly 8.5%) and Indian establishments (8%).  Indian restaurants have not propogated as widely in the United States. A 2023 study by the Pew Research Center closely indicates that Indian restaurants account for only 7 percent of all restaurants serving Asian food in America.  That’s starting to change. Although the first Indian restaurant ( the Hindustanee Coffee House in New York City) opened its doors in the late 1800s, it wasn’t  until the 1960s and 1970s that Indian cuisine began to gain wider recognition, as more Indian immigrants came to the United States and opened restaurants and grocery stores. Today, Indian cuisine is a well-established part of the American culinary culture–one that is poised to explode largely thanks to innovative second- and third-generation Indian-American chefs developing new dishes and unique concepts.…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSandwich

Cheese & Coffee (Uptown) – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Imagine canoodling in a hot tub with your sweetheart while enjoying a brilliant symphony of light courtesy of the aurora borealis as you both sip on hot coffee in which reindeer cheese bobs luxuriously.  It’s likely you find that romantic scenario very appealing save perhaps for seeing reindeer cheese floating atop your hot coffee.  While that scenario may sound unreal…maybe even surreal to most of us, it’s a reality in Finland where cheese is a favorite addition to a type of coffee called kaffeost.  Not just any cheese can make the cut, however. Finnish folks only use a particular type of cheese called leipäjuusto which translates loosely to “bread cheese.”  Despite that translation, “bread cheese” is one-hundred percent cheese.  There’s absolutely no bread in it.  The sobriquet “bread cheese” comes from the cheese’s absorbent qualities.  This cheese soaks up the coffee. You don’t need to be a barista to make kaffeost.  It’s as simple as adding the cheese to your coffee and letting it soak for a few minutes before fishing it out and  eating it separately.  First-timers and aficionados praise the flavor of the cheese which inherits the roasted flavors of the coffee.  The softened chunks also warrant high…

BarbecueNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSanta Fe

The Ranch House – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:27 PM

When it comes to existentialism, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche have nothing on my university classmate Ron at the University of Southerm Mississippi who would argue that the meaning of life is to ponder the meaning of life. In his ongoing analysis of existence, he can turn any subject into a philosophical debate. Once while enjoying a rack of ribs at Anjac’s BBQ in Gulfport, Mississippi, he actually pondered the essence of barbecue–to sauce or not to sauce, what is lamb’s place in barbecue, etc. While he pondered, I ate. It appears my friend is not the only person who has contemplated the essence of barbecue. Meathead Goldwyn, the self-professed “barbecue whisperer and hedonism evangelist” believes “the seductive aroma and flavor of smoke is the essence of barbecue.” Author Rick Browne who has a “PhB” in barbecue argues that the essence of barbecue is the sauce, “the glorious thickened liquid (sometimes not-so-thickened) that we gleefully baste, mop and slop with.” William McKinney who co-authored Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue counters: “Sauce is fine and can perk up the meat, but the essence of barbecue lies in that process.” Los Angeles Times writer Charles Perry weighs in with “the…

2023 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistBreakfast BurritosDog FriendlyFood TruckJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMexicanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSanta FeTacos

El Chile Toreado – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Until 2008, the notion of gourmet culinary offerings being proffered by a mobile conveyance was unheard of.  Prior to then, food trucks were (often rightfully so) known as “roach coaches” or even worse “barf buggies.”  Roach coaches were an eyesore, a medium of last resort usually parked at construction sites, manufacturing plants, public parks or basic military training bases where captive trainees had no alternative.  Roach coaches were a pure convenience with no pretense to gourmet (or even good) cuisine.  Most of them hawked simple fare such as hot dogs and tacos as well as potato chips, cigarettes, candy and chewing gum. During the era of “convenience stores on wheels,” food trucks weren’t worried about building a brand.  Nor were they concerned with repeat business or customer loyalty. There was no such thing as social media at the time and there were no Yelp reviews. These unsightly vehicles (many with actual roaches in tow) were in business to serve a location for a short time period. After at construction job ended at one site, for example,  they would simply move onto the next profitable location and the process would continue.  These “convenience stores on wheels” served a purpose, but during…

2022 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMexicanNew MexicoRating: Excellent

La Guelaguetza – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno10:39 PM

“I am tenacious. And I love to eat.  I go into the field and see some delectable things they’re cooking, wild plants perhaps, and think, ‘Oh my God, I have to write about this.’ I just think it’s insatiable curiosity. To me, life is a continuous process of learning.” ~Diana Kennedy As an essayer of the Land of Enchantment’s culinary condition–primarily as it’s expressed by its restaurants–I’ve always marveled at the passion and appetite of Diana Kennedy who built a lifelong career by compiling, publishing and teaching indigenous Mexican recipes.   Just as Julia Child reduced the nuances and inflections of French cuisine and culinary techniques for home cooks, Diana introduced home cooks to highly developed, often centuries-old culinary traditions they didn’t even know existed.  Emanating largely from indigenous Mesoamerican cultures that predated Columbus, those culinary traditions might have been lost to time were it not for Diana Kennedy who wrote several classic books on authentic Mexican cooking. A case could easily be made that before Diana Kennedy, much of the fruited plain perceived Mexican food as some homogeneous combo plate brimming with rolled enchiladas topped with a brownish “sauce” just a shade darker than the refried beans on the plate;…

AlbuquerqueItalianPizzaRating: Excellent

Giovanni’s Pizza & Subs – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:46 PM

Frequent and lengthy business trips to California in 1997 nearly ruined me forever for a food that belongs on America’s food pyramid (never mind the government’s nutritional aspects)–pizza. Despite an open mind and willingness to try anything, the heretical toppings adorning Golden State pizzas quelled and quashed what I had thought to be an everlasting love. Even today, I’m traumatized by nightmares of pesto impregnated crust desecrated with sushi grade sashimi, artichoke and the designer vegetable de jour. Returning to the Land of Enchantment with the taste of pizza parodies fresh on my mind, it was weeks before I could bring myself to even contemplate partaking of the pie Italians (and those who wish they were) consider sacred. Then we discovered Giovanni’s Pizza & Subs, a neighborhood pizzeria in the finest tradition of East Coast pizzerias. Giovanni’s is one of several Duke City area pizzeria claimants to proffering “New York style” pizza. In my estimation and that of several Metropolis transplants of my acquaintance, it’s also the very best. New York Yankee memorabilia, framed Mafioso movie photos and an “I Love Me” wall replete with dozens of favorable review clippings and awards told us this restaurant might be more than…

AlbuquerqueBakeryItalianRating: ExcellentSandwich

Tully’s Italian Deli & Meats – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:19 AM

The sense of smell, more than any of our other senses, influences our ability to recall past events and experience. From among the five senses, fragrance is considered the most potent medium for conjuring up memories. True enough, some of the most enduring sensory memories of my years in the Boston area are reawakened thanks to the amazing aromas that greet me each time I visit Tully’s Italian Deli & Meats on San Mateo. It is with increased rarity that you find an authentic Italian deli which greets you at the door with the incomparable aroma of pastas, meatballs or sausages simmering in a perfect marriage of tomato sauce, garlic, basil and oregano. It’s also rare to find an Italian kitchen equally practiced at preparing outstanding pasta dishes and Italian meats. Tully’s Italian Deli & Meats is then indeed an anachronism because it does capture you before the door with wafting odoriferous emanations that bid you welcome and which have a Pavlovian effect on your taste buds. The Camuglia family–John, Geraldine “Gerry” and Johnny–has owned and operated this memory triggering deli since 1970, in the process creating new and wonderful memories for the legions of patrons who frequent their deli.…

AlbuquerqueChineseClosed in 2026Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRating: Excellent

China Luck – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:06 PM

A few years ago,  The Daily Meal, an online resource which purports to produces more culinary content than any other resource published a feature entitled “Chinese Food You Won’t Find in China.” The list was replete with many popular favorites you’ll find at virtually every Chinese restaurant in America: General Tso’s Chicken, Crab Rangoon, Fortune Cookies, Chop Suey, Sweet and Sour Pork, Egg Foo Yong, Orange Beef and even Egg Drop Soup. Many of these dishes were, in fact, invented in the United States.  You can’t accuse Americanized Chinese food of being subtle.  Brash, gaudy and maybe even over-the-top, but never subtle. In fact, the flavor profile of Americanized Chinese food is generally so gunked up with MSG, sugar, salt and vinegar that by comparison, authentic Chinese food (invented in China) may come across to unacculturated diners as comparatively bland or boring. When Daniel Wilcox recommended a visit to China Luck, my initial inclination was to dismiss the restaurant as yet another in the pantheon of Albuquerque’s Americanized Chinese restaurants.  That dismissal was based on previous visits to both the now defunct China Luck restaurant in Rio Rancho and the also now defunct China Luck in Albuquerque’s Montano Plaza Shopping…