“I eat uno, dos, tres, quatro burritos
Pretty soon I can’t fit in my Speedos
Well, I hope they feed us lots of chicken fajitas
And a pitcher of margaritas”
~Taco Grande by Weird Al Yankovic
While perusing the slogans–One Bite And You’re Hooked; Cooked Slow, Served Hot, Loved Fast; Hot Chile makes Everything Better” on the windows of La Sierra, I half expected to see lyrics from the “Weird “Al Yankovic song “Taco Grande” (a parody of the song “Rico Suave”). What I didn’t expect was for La Sierra to live up to its self-aggrandizing hype. Of course, diners always hope a restaurant is as good as it professes to be, but all-too-often an eatery doesn’t live up to the hype. La Sierra does…and then some!
Albuquerque’s very first instantiation of La Sierra (not to be confused with the venerable Mac’s La Sierra) launched in July, 2025 on the corner of Menaul and University at the site of a former Little Anita’s. Some nine months later, a second La Sierra opened its doors. This one is located on Alameda just west of Corrales Road. You may recall that this location once housed The Whole Enchilada which was later renamed Tarasco. Both locations of La Sierra are owned by impresario Leo Nuñez and his family. Leo also owns the epoonymous Leo’s Nightclub on 12th and Candelaria. His son Gabriel manages the Alameda location.
We were somewhat surprised that La Sierra wasn’t more crowded during our inaugural visit. If there’s one positive to be gleaned from the restaurant not being packed, it’s that we got to spend time with the personable Gabriel Nuñez and the restaurant’s effusive greeter-server Jazmine. Based on our inaugural experience, it shouldn’t be long before teeming throngs discover La Sierra which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not only is service efficient and affable, the food is quite good. It’s also very inexpensive (a bonus for these economically challenging times).
Gabriel explained that La Sierra sources its red chile from Chimayo and its green chile from Hatch. La Sierra is comfortable on both sides of the line of demarcation between New Mexican and Mexican food. Both of Gabriel’s parents grew up in Mexico, but Gabriel has spent his entire life in the Land of Enchantment. Family business ventures have had a presence in Albuquerque since 1985. Cumin is added to dishes made with red- and green-chile, but it’s barely discernible even to me (that’s a huge plus). The menu is extensive, offering a few dishes you won’t find elsewhere.
The first page of the menu is dedicated to breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Listed first are “breakfast tapas:” sopaipilla and French toast. Appetizers–including such surprises as birria pizza, mini chimis and birria beef tacos–are listed next followed by kids’ breakfast and a sixteen-item breakfast menu. Page two of the menu lists six burgers, five vegetarian plates, five skillet plates, four kids’ meals and seventeen lunch and dinner plates. Among the more intriguing offerings are the “Rio Grande mango shrimp.” The third page of the menu lists a la carte items, drinks, aguas frescas and desserts. Among the aguas frescas listed is one made with mango, not a very common offering in Albuquerque.
As you peruse the delightful menu, make sure you’ve got an order of chips and salsa at your table. Salsa ingredients include jalapeños, onions and cilantro. It’s a very good salsa, just thick enough for Gil-sized scoops. The yellow corn chips are formidable enough for those scoops (I’ll never dip a chip). In terms of piquancy, it’s become disengenuous for me to declare any New Mexican or Mexican item as “mild” because virtually every chile- or jalapeño-infused item is mild to me. That said, La Sierra’s salsa is pleasantly hot.
“Weird” Al Yankovic’s “Taco Grande” song begs “Give me something hot and spicy now.” That may be perfectly fine for New Mexican volcano-eaters, but those of delicate taste buds would beg to differ. Fortunately jaunty Jazmine, obviously intimately familiar with the menu, pointed out every item that can be made without chile. My Kim’s choice was the chicken and beef fajitas which arrived sizzling and smoky. Punctuated with red, yellow and green peppers as well as pearlescent onions, the fajitas are beautifully nestled on an iron skillet which ensures they remain hot for the duration of your meal. They’re served with thin tortillas and sour cream. My Kim, a fajita fanatic declared La Sierra’s version “outstanding” and “among the best I’ve had.” They must have been good; she gave me only one piece of each protein.
New Mexico is well-worthy of its “Land of Enchantment’ sobriquet. It remained to be seen if “The Enchanted Enchilada” (flat or rolled cheese, blue corn enchiladas smothered in red and green chile. Meat and fried egge optional. Served with rice and beans) would also be deserving of its appellation. The Enchanted Enchilada (which I ordered “stacked,” the way they’re made in Northern New Mexico) is beautifully plated on a triangular white plate. As with the aforementioned fajitas, the plate is almost too hot to handle. One of my (many) pet-peeves is food that’s served lukewarm. Flavors seem to jump out at you more when food is served at a hot temperature. It’s only one of the many reasons The Enchanted Enchilada was so good. The Chimayo chile is probably the main reason. Chimayo red is superb, the very best in a state which boats of the best chile in the universe. The green may be slightly more piquant and is quite delicious in its own right. I eschewed rice and asked for two portions of the refried beans. They, too, were wonderful. While my Kim doesn’t like beans much, Gabriel and I reminisced about growing up having beans for breakfast, lunch, dinner…and snacks. Long live los frijoles.
There are only three desserts listed on the menu. When in New Mexico, however, you do dessert the way New Mexicans do dessert. That means sopaipillas. La Sierra’s sopaipillas, while not especially puffy and large, are superb. Moreover, they’re served with real honey, not that vastly inferior honey-flavored syrup. The sopaipillas were made to order and arrived steaming hot to our table. Though not a dessert per se, the horchata is as sweet as left-over milk from a kids’ breakfast cereal. Kids of all ages will love it. My Kim praised the copious amount of cinnamon on the horchata.
In discussing what we should order during our next visit, Gabriel was effusive about every menu item. He admitted to enjoying a bowl of posole every other day or so. Maybe I’ll just follow “Weird” Al’s advice: “You see, I just gotta have a tostada, carne asada. That’s right, I want the whole enchilada. My only addiction has to do with a flour tortilla. I need a quesadilla.” If our inaugural visit is any indication, we’ll be visiting La Sierra quite often.
La Sierra is the type of restaurant every New Mexican would like to have in their neighborhood. For outstanding chile, convivial service and reasonable prices, you can’t beat it.
La Sierra
10701 Corrales Road, Suite 25E
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 494-5966
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LATEST VISIT: 14 April 2026
# OF VISITS: 1
COST: $$
RATING: N/R
BEST BET: Chips and Salsa, Fajitas, Horchata, Sopaipillas With Honey,
REVIEW #1522