Albuquerque City Limits – Albuquerque, New Mexico

“It’s when I reach the city limits that my sense of security ends and my sense of adventure begins.”
~Anthony T. Hincks
Author: Verbs in Storyland

Why is it the term “city limits” conjures the same type of trepidation today that very early (before the Third Century BC) explorers must have felt when they thought the Earth was flat and if they navigated too far west, they’d fall off the edge of the map?   Why is it Hollywood has consistently portrayed the area just beyond city limits as either a dystopian wasteland or a bastion of lawless libertinage?  For that matter, why do so many “inner city” Duke City dwellers believe the city limits is too far a distance to travel for a good meal?

Think I’m kidding?  When I told friends and colleagues about having discovered one of the state’s very best green chile cheeseburgers in the South Valley, their typical reactions were “only you would go that far for a burger” and “why didn’t you just go a little further and eat at The Owl.”   You’d think I had trekked to South America, not the South Valley.  You’d think I had risked life and limb.  Perhaps the South Valley of their imaginations and memories is not the South Valley of today.  It’s still somewhat rural and more agricultural than any part of the city, but there’s a lot of modern infill, too…as well as some pretty good dining opportunities all culinary explorers should visit.

My friends and colleagues are not unique in taking distance into account when deciding where to eat.  It’s been shown statistically that most diners do not venture very far away from their regularly beaten, regularly eaten path.  Statista, an online statistics, market research and business intelligence portal, revealed that distance from home to a restaurant was the second most important factor (behind only food quality) when choosing a restaurant.  Conversely, the lowest rated factors were recommendations from friends and online recommendations (unless they come from Gil’s Thrilling…).  Another online source indicates the average distance from home or place of employment to a favorite restaurant is less than eight miles.

But come on!  If a superb green chile cheeseburger isn’t sufficient enticement, would you venture ten miles further than usual for creamy, decadent natillas priced just right?  Magellan would have.  Marco Polo would have.  So would Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.  Heck, they would have ventured there just for the sense of adventure.   Okay, “right priced” means the natillas are free to first time visitors of the City Limits Restaurant, but even at full price, they’re worth the drive from anywhere in the metropolitan area.  By the way, Albuquerque City Limits isn’t the only culinary treasure in the shopping center.  One of its neighbors is the superb Gold Street Pizza which serves one of the two or three best pizzas in the Albuquerque metropolitan area.

True to its name, the City Limits Restaurant is pretty close to the sprawling city’s southernmost limits.  It resides in a pretty homogeneous shopping center on the intersection of Coors and Rio Bravo.  The City Limits has been serving the Duke City…or at least those of us who venture outside our comfort zones, since 1999.  That’s nearly thirty years of doing things right. Among other things done right is service.  Sure, you’ve got to walk up to the counter to place your order, but the staff (mostly owners Roy and Debbie Gonzalez and their daughter) is very friendly and accommodating.  Debbie runs things at the counter while Roy ferries orders over to hungry customer.  He’s pretty handy with the spatula and frying pan, too.  How good is the service?  You won’t find an empty coffee mug on the premises.  Another of those things done right is breakfast being served all day long.  Right, too, is the menu, a compendium of deliciousness.

That menu is replete with New Mexico comfort food–including red or green enchiladas, carne adovada, tacos and tostadas as well as chicken fried steak and meatloaf–served in generous portions.   At half-a-pound each, burgers are twice the size of the Quarter Pounder and they’re served with your choice of steak house fries, a side salad or housemade potato salad.  You can also have your burger on a tortilla or sopaipilla.  Chicken sandwiches, deli sandwiches and burritos round out a bounty as alluring as the seven cities of gold were to Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.

28 June 2019: There are eleven burgers on the menu, each one an invitation to enjoyment.  All burgers are topped with lettuce, tomato onion and mustard.   Each half-pound (8-ounce burger) is hand pressed to order and comes with your choice of steak house fries, homemade potato salad, chips or a side salad.  You can have your burger on  standard sesame seed buns or on a tortilla or sopapillia.They’re prepared to your exacting degree of doneness.  The green chile cheeseburger is a picture-perfect exemplar of New Mexico’s most sacrosanct sandwich, and it takes two hands to handle this beefy behemoth between sesame seed buns.  The beef is fresh and well seasoned, the green chile roasted and piquant.  It’s one of the very best green chile cheeseburgers in the Land of Enchantment and that is saying a lot!  The steak fries are also prepared to order.  They’re crispy on the outside and soft and tender inside.

28 June 2019: As for the free to first-time visitors natillas, if you’re not already preparing for a trip to the South Valley, you’re going to miss out on an addictive treat.  These natillas are in rarefied air as some of the very best in a state that prepares natillas better even than Spain.  The secret, my server, explained is constant stirring.  That’s evinced in a creaminess that’s entirely devoid of those annoying little lumps you find in arroz-con-leche.  A generous sprinkling of cinnamon lends an intoxicating aroma and warming qualities that temper the sweetness of the natillas.  Natillas are served in eight, twelve and sixteen ounce sizes and arrive at your table steaming hot.  In July, 2026, my Kim enjoyed her first free natillas and declared them “best I’ve ever had.”

28 February 2020: Every year on Holy Thursday at about 7PM, my brothers would set off on the 25-mile pilgrimage to the Santuario De Chimayo, a torturous walk through winding roads that climb and descend precipitously. They would arrive home the next day thoroughly exhausted.  Too exhausted, it turned out, to enjoy my mom’s traditional Good Friday lunch of tortas de huevo. That left more for me. Tortas de huevo are a traditional Lenten dish typically served on Fridays when New Mexican Catholics are expected to abstain from meat. Moreover, they’re absolutely delicious. Picture a sort-of egg fritter whipped into a light, fluffy texture and fried then topped with red chile. Five or six of these eggy chile delivery vehicles with pinto beans and calabasitas and there’s no way you can bemoan the fact that you didn’t have a single hamburger on a Lenten Friday.

On Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent in 2020, City Limits serves torta de huevo with calabasitas and frijoles (pinto beans), preparing them nearly as well as my mom did. The calabacitas (sautéed zucchini, onions and corn) make me wish Lent lasted longer than forty days.   They’re fresh, crisp and delicious.  Thankfully pinto beans are an everyday dish in New Mexico, not just one served only during Lent.  For good measure, City Limits adds a sopaipilla to this Lenten bounty though my disappointment was probably palpable in seeing a plastic squeeze bottle of honey-flavored syrup.

28 February 2020: Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong lamented “You like potato and I like potahto. You like tomato and I like tomahto.”  Northern New Mexicans tell our less cultured Southern brethren “You say sopa.  I say capirotada.”  By any name (City Limits calls it “sopa“), this unique bread pudding is one of my very favorite desserts during, before and after Lent.  Alas, City Limits offers sopa only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  One of the things that makes sopa unique is the use of aged or savory cheese.  It’s a nice counterbalance to the sweet syrup in which the bread is soaked.  City Limits uses feathered Cheddar which is shredded, but not to a fine degree.  It’s a great melting cheese which helps make sopa an outstanding bread pudding.  My dearly departed friend Larry McGoldrick, the professor with the perspicacious palate and an expert on bread pudding, would have loved it.

3 July 2026:  Most Duke City diners associate the term “Stacker” with Stackers Burger Co., an award-winning purveyor of some of the state’s most regaled green chile cheeseburgers.  Savvy diners will argue that “The Stacker” from Albuquerque City Limits is even better.  Certainly it’s larger.  The Stacker features a half-pound beef patty, a slice of American cheese, two strips of bacon, Hatch green chile and homemade guacamole with your choice of condiments (mustard, mayo, ketchup)  and garnish (lettuce, tomato, onion).  Though it’s also available on a sopaipilla or tortilla, most traditionalists will enjoy it on sesame seed buns.  No matter which canvas you select, it’s bound to fall apart.  That’s how moist and jam-packed this burger is.  Naturally, I asked for my burger to be prepared with every available condiment and garnish (maybe I’m a massocist).  Predictably, this is a messy, multi-napkin monster of a burger.  It’s also quite delicious, truly befitting its name.

3 July 2026:  With her mind affixed on the natillas she would have later, my Kim took a bit longer to study the menu.  There are certainly a lot of options from which to choose.  Eventually she ordered the chicken fried chicken (crispy breaded chicken breast served with homemade mashed potatoes, white gravy, a dinner roll and a fresh side salad).  Among her idiosyncratic dining preferences is a dislike of gravy, either brown or white.  Whereas my friend Lynn Garner and I could swim in gravy, my Kim equates it to spoilage.  When she scraped of much of the chicken fried chicken’s batter, I told her “I just can’t take you anywhere.”  The chicken breast was moist, perfectly seasoned and absolutely delicious–even with the batter having been scraped off.  I wouldn’t try the mashed potatoes (made with real potatoes, not the abomination that comes in a package) without gravy, but she said they were wonderful.

3 July 2026:  Culinary talent runs in the Gonzalez family.  Roy and Debbie didn’t have to go far to procure what may well be the very best cheesecake in New Mexico.  Alas, that cheesecake comes from Wolfforth, Texas (in the Lubbock area) courtesy of daughter Monica at the Desert Rose Baking Company Cheesecakery. These outstanding cheesecakes are made from scratch. You can take one home or give one as a gift (preferably to yourself…or to me)! Cheesecake is available by the slice. You’re advised to call ahead to reserve yours today because they tend to go quickly.  That’s the lesson we learned during our July, 2026 visit.

The only cheesecake available to us was a peppermint cheesecake.  Yes, peppermint.  It’s one of several non-conventional cheesecakes Monica prepares at her Wolfforth operation and sources to Albuquerque City Limits.  This cheesecake is absolutely magnificent.  It’s a skyscraper-sized behemoth as pretty as the panorama on the restaurant’s east wall of the city backdropped by the Sandias.  The soft and light filling is rich and creamy while the base is crushed Graham crackers mixed with sugar and melted butter. The filling is the antithesis of those cheesecake in a box creations you can make at home. We were especially surprised at how light the filling was and how refreshing the peppermint flavor was.

The ABQ City Limits Restaurant in the South Valley should evoke a spirit of adventure in all culinary explorers. Not only should you explore a menu replete with delicious options, you should spend some time in one of the city’s most beautiful areas.

ABQ City Limits Restaurant
3211 Coors Blvd, S.W.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 873-8959
Web Site | Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 3 July 2026
1st VISIT: 28 June 2019
# OF VISITS: 2
RATING: Excellent – High quality dining experience; very good to excellent food, attentive service, and a well-maintained atmosphere; worth a detour.
COST: $$
BEST BET: Green Chile Cheeseburger with Fries, Natillas, Torta De Huevos with Calabasitas, Sopa, The Stacker, Peppermint Cheesecake, Chicken Fried Chicken
REVIEW #1119