Category: Mexican

AlbuquerqueMexicanNew MexicoTacos

Rotiseria Y Taqueria Alcantara – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, grocery prices have vaulted up 29% since February 2020.  Indeed, an Associated Press survey conducted in 2025 revealed that “the cost of groceries has become a major source of stress for just over half of all Americans — outpacing rent, health care and student debt.”  Very, very few grocery items have proven themselves inflation-proof.  Among those rare items is Costco’s rotisserie chicken which has remained the same price for years.  That consistently low price is a major reason Costco sells  more than 100-million ready-to-eat chickens each year. The obvious question when you peruse the menu at Rotiseria Y Taqueria Alcantara is “can a rotisserie chicken at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant possibly be six times…

AlbuquerqueHot DogsMexicanNew MexicoRating: Very GoodSandwichTacos

Dogos VIP – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Thanks largely to a 1974 Chevrolet commercial and its catchy tune, the phrase “As American as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie” has purportedly defined what Americans hold most sacrosanct.  Never mind that hot dogs are derivative of European sausages, they’re inextricably part of the fabric of the fruited plain. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (yes, there is such a thing) estimates that Americans eat seven billion hot dogs (so it’s not just me) during the unofficial summer season which runs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. That’s 818 hot dogs per second and more than a third of the hot dogs eaten per year! July 19th has been designated National Hot Dog Day, but a case…

AlbuquerqueMexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Tacos

Arriba Shihuahua – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“How do they get away with using the name “Shihuahua” instead of Chihuahua,” I pondered, noting to myself that wokeism and cultural sensitivities have declared offensive virtually any term that  is perceived to diminish a culture or an individual (that perception usually being in the eye of the offended).  Surely, the National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee would take umbrage at that name, much as it did more than fifty years ago when Frito Lay introduced the Frito Bandito.  For those of you not geriatrically advanced enough to remember the Frito Bandito, he was a cartoon mascot who spoke broken English and robbed people of their Fritos corn chips, a reference to the “Mexican bandit” stereotype in Western movies. As if to reinforce…

AlbuquerqueMexicanNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Fiesta Azul Tequila House Mexican Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

TIM WALZ: “I have white guy tacos.” VP KAMALA HARRIS: “What does that mean? Like, mayonnaise and tuna? What are you doing?” TIM WALZ: “Pretty much-ground meat and cheese.” VP KAMALA HARRIS:  “Do you put any flavor in it?” TIM WALZ:  “Uh, no.  Black pepper is the top of the spice level in Minnesota, ya know” A promotional  video featuring the Democratic Presidential nominee sharing a funny exchange with her Vice Presidential pick revealed the latter’s “Midwestern tastes” which include a “white guy taco.”   Analysis of America’s voting preferences has been done for virtually every demographic category save perhaps the “taco vote.”   Sadly, in the world of politics even a video elicits rancor and outrage when it depicts candidates behaving…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2025Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenMexicanNew MexicoTacos

Taco Santo – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

NOTE:  In July, 2025, Taco Santo ceased operating as a taqueria, reverting back to Holy Burger, long one of the city’s most popular burger joints. Jay Rayner, one of my very favorite restaurant critics and authors, has an inimitable gift for luring readers with reviews that go far beyond describing food.  His review of Santo Remedio, a Mexican restaurant in London, is one such example, starting with his astute   observation about the debate between authenticity and verisimilitude in culinary culture: “All too often in the food world, the war of expertise becomes a lumbering battle between the Real Thing and the Good Stuff. The Real Thingers have knowledge and experience on their side. They’ve eaten dishes in their place of origin,…

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…

2025 - James Beard Foundation Seminfinalist in the "Outstanding Wine and Beverage ProgramMexicanRating: N/R (Not Rated)TacosTexasUnited States

Taconeta – El Paso, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The meme below purports to show where the highest quality of tacos in Texas can be found.    Study the map and you’ll get the impression the meme’s creator believes tacos are “nonexistent” throughout about half of the Lone Star State.  That includes the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex as well as all of West Texas.   Most of what the meme’s creator believes are the Lone Star State’s “best tacos” can be found only in San Antonio and the South Texas Plains as well as in portions of the Texas Hill Country.  A “best tacos” designation is also accorded to the El Paso area. There is, of course, no official sanctioning of this (or any other) Texas Taco Map.  It’s just someone’s…

2022 James Beard Foundation Award for "Emerging Chef"MexicanMichelin: Bib GourmandRating: N/R (Not Rated)Restaurants Which Have Earned Michelin HonorsTacosTexasUnited States

Nixta Taqueria – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Man cannot live on barbecue alone–not even in Austin, Texas where the world’s very best barbecue is to be found.  To limit one’s self to barbecue–as transformative as it may be–is to deprive yourself of some of the best Mexican food and best fried chicken in the known world.  Though the primary purpose of my week-long visit to the City of the Violet Crown was to visit Michelin starred barbecue restaurants, to have done so have been “going deep,”  exploring just one segment of the Central Texas culinary Utopia.  “Going wide” meant exploring options beyond barbecue–options such as some of the aforementioned Mexican food joints for which Austin is renowned. At the very top of my list was Nixta Taqueria…

ArizonaMexicanRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Chilte – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“Me Vale Madre.”  If you grew up speaking Spanish–or maybe just being around Spanish-speaking people–you probably know it’s a derrogatory term.  Essentially, even though the phrase inludes the Spanish term “madre” which means “mother,”  it’s telling someone you don’t give a fu…fudge.  “Me Vale Madre” is Chilte’s mantra.  It’s the restaurant staff basically saying “we don’t care that we don’t meet your conceptions of what Mexican food should be.  We’re going to do it our way.”  How can you not love that?  I asked our server to explain to my Kim what that mantra means and he gave us a polite, G-rated version that was as far from the truth as a political promise. Chilte’s website makes no bones about…

AlbuquerqueMexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Herencia – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

When he founded Los Equipales in 1996, restaurant impresario Henrique Valdovinos admitted “I wouldn’t have tried this ten years ago, but I think people are ready for it.”  As recently as a quarter-century ago, two types of Mexican restaurants existed across the fruited plain.  Most common were those sharing reciprocal expectations with diners who expected and received such stereotyped “Mexican” food as fajitas; hard-shelled tacos filled with ground beef, cheese, lettuce and sour cream; chiles rellenos made with bell peppers and enough yellow cheese to clog a dinosaur’s arteries.  Denizens under the spacious skies didn’t know any better and enjoyed the watered down versions of the real deal.  This “Mexican” food became mainstream. The other type of Mexican food restaurants…

2025 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMariscosMexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa FeTacos

Escondido – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” ~Luke 8:17 “Escondido (which translates from Spanish to “hidden”) sure proves that Bible verse wrong,” I lamented as I cursed Google Maps for having led me to a nondescript residential neighborhood in Santa Fe.  Though not as execrable as the time Google Maps insisted I make a left onto a crude and rocky dry wash when trying to get to Kayenta, Arizona, I nonetheless took Google’s name in vain then followed my instincts.  Fortunately, crossing over Agua Fria onto another neighborhood shed light on my quandrary.   There in front of me was Escondido, the restaurant destination I…