Category: Rated 23

Closed in 2022Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew MexicoRated 23Santa Fe

Roque’s Carnitas – Santa Fe, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:04 PM

In more cosmopolitan metropolises it isn’t uncommon to see sidewalk vendors plying their trade over chuck wagon stands and proffering high quality fast food such as hot dogs, tacos, gyros and sundry quick meal items. Some of the best food in cities such as Portland, Oregon can be found near city parks where enterprising street vendors concoct culinary magic on portable kitchens and what we typically deride as “roach coaches.” Roque Garcia has made such a business an art form–a very successful one. In fact, Roque claims carnitas paid for his home outside Puerto Vallarta in Mexico and for the Mercedes Benz automobiles he likes to drive. Roque’s cart is stationed on the southeast corner of the Santa Fe plaza…

New MexicanNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011Rated 23

El Bruno – Cuba, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:49 AM

Fool that I am, after my first visit to El Bruno’s in 1997, I spent half an hour pondering how best to describe the restaurant in alliterative prose–adobe abode of amazing adovada, beguiling bastion of bountiful burritos, captivating citadel of chile con queso, earthen edifice of enchanting enchiladas–and while El Bruno is all of those and so much more, a simplified yet wholly accurate description would be “one of the five or six best New Mexican restaurants in the state.” El Bruno’s is almost equidistant between Albuquerque and Farmington, about 75 miles away from each. The drive is spectacular with a preponderance of scenic vistas and an unbelievable, multi-hued topography that includes hulking hoodoos (columns or pillars of bizarre shape caused…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastClosed in 2012Gone But Not ForgottenRated 23

Milton’s Family Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:03 AM

In a 2002 column Jason Sheehan, one of the best in a succession of outstanding Alibi restaurant critics assembled a dream menu of the best foods he had ever eaten, a “desert-island top ten” from which he’d choose if ever asked the question, “If you could eat only one thing every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?”  His top ten list included the phenomenal red chile breakfast burritos from Milton’s Family Restaurant in Albuquerque. As a restaurant critic I’d flatter myself disingenuously if I compared myself to Sheehan, but at least in terms of our mutually high opinion of Milton’s breakfast burritos, we’re completely simpatico. I first discovered those tortilla encased treasures when stationed at…

FrenchNew MexicoRated 23Santa Fe

315 Restaurant & Wine Bar – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:15 PM

>Compared to the extraordinarily perceptive 19th-century detective Sherlock Holmes, his best friend and confidante Dr. John H. Watson was an ordinary man, a perfect “foil” for the brilliant Holmes. Though lacking his friend’s deductive abilities and almost prescient ability to solve problems, Dr. Watson was, however, prone to occasional observations of brilliance and statements of profound eloquence. For example, in the 2004 novel Sherlock Holmes and the Hapsburg Tiara, Dr. Watson describes a three-hour French meal: “Each dish was more fantastical than the last. One can only conclude that it is the special purpose of French cookery to dissolve the entire substance of a dish into polish, so that no trace of the primeval beef, pork, or chicken remains, converting…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2019Gone But Not ForgottenRated 23Vietnamese

Cafe Trang – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:05 AM

In years of dining in Vietnamese restaurants, we’ve always marveled at the close-knit extended family structure evident in the daily operation of Vietnamese restaurants. Getting to know the wonderful families that run those restaurants, we learned how the lives of individual family members are almost always intertwined with an extended family structure that might include grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts and second and third cousins. In most of Albuquerque’s Vietnamese restaurants, you’ll find family members working side-by-side to serve their customers. The welfare of the entire extended family unit is always more important than the interests of individual members (Mr. Spock would be proud). It was no surprise to discover that Trang and Phong Nguyen, proprietors of…

AmericanClosed in 2020Gone But Not ForgottenNevadaRated 23United States

Mesa Grill – Las Vegas, Nevada (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:06 AM

With an upset rematch victory over über Japanese iron chef Masaharu Morimoto in a 2003 Iron Chef competition, (arguably) America’s preeminent grill master and New York City restaurant impresario, Bobby Flay became more than a pretty face on several Food Network television shows and the CBS morning news. He cemented his credibility as a legitimate force with which to be reckoned in the world of fine dining where chefs have become larger than life glitterati. On October 7, 2004, he launched his first restaurant outside New York City within the confines of Caesar’s Palace which has become a Mecca for some of America’s premier celebrity chefs. A flame themed ambiance features a flamed patterned carpet, copper flames on the wall…

Closed in 2011Gone But Not ForgottenIllinoisRated 23SandwichUnited States

Siegelman’s Restaurant Deli – Arlington Heights, Illinois (CLOSED: 2011)

Gil Garduno4:27 AM

Who would have thought that a nondescript restaurant in a nondescript shopping center would feature food beyond description–food for which you run out of adjectives and synonyms for delicious (let’s see: savory, scrumptious, yummy, tasty, mouth-watering, appetizing, delectable, luscious)? In Siegelman’s, the quintessential Jewish deli, we found some of the very best pastrami (and it’s no surprise that it carries the Vienna Beef label) in America–perfectly marbled to bring out its dramatically captivating (not nearly sufficient to describe it) flavor and in such huge proportions that your mouth is agape (and watering) at first sight. There’s a Yiddish word that perfectly describes Siegelman’s sandwiches–“farshtopt,” a word which means “stuffed” as in crammed full of meat. An even better word might…

IllinoisRated 23SeafoodUnited States

Bob Chinn’s Crab House – Wheeling, Illinois

Gil Garduno11:09 PM

Over 900,000 customers in 1999 couldn’t be wrong when they spent over $28M, the third largest revenue for the year among independent (non-chain) restaurants at Bob Chinn’s Crab House in land-locked Wheeling, Illinois. In 2004, Bob Chinn’s was fifth in revenue among America’s independents. Fresh seafood flown in daily to a capacious restaurant is the reason why. Turn-away throngs of patrons line up to order their favorite fish feast from a fabulous menu. Many indulge on one of the shrimp lovers choices, all of which are perfectly seasoned (or sweetened as in the case of the wonderful coconut shrimp) with a generous amount of right-sized, de-veined, peel and eat shrimp. You can have your shrimp hot and spicy or bathed…

BurgersRated 23TexasUnited States

Kincaid’s Hamburgers – Fort Worth, Texas

Gil Garduno3:24 PM

Local, statewide, national and international acclaim for Kincaid’s Hamburgers places this former grocery and market in stratospherically elite company as one of, if not THE best hamburger restaurants in the world. In 2003, Michael and Jane Stern, America’s preeminent dining Americana authorities proclaimed Kincaid’s one of America’s top ten burgers. A book called The Perfect Hamburger, replete with effusive testimony by long-time patrons, was published in 1999. Call it blasphemy if you will, but I believe perfection can be improved. Add New Mexico green chile and you would have the very best hamburger I’ve ever had. Even without green chile, Kincaid’s does serve a phenomenal burger, each one containing a half pound of 76 to 80 percent lean chuck roast…