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AlbuquerqueClosed in 2018Gone But Not ForgottenJapaneseSushi

I Love Sushi – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:49 AM

According to the US Census Bureau, more than half (49.3) of all Americans reported they did not “dine out” between Fall, 2009 and Fall, 2011. That’s the lowest percentage since 2007 and could be indicative of the pervasive economic malaise or perhaps of the uncertainty as to what constitutes “dining out.”  The Census Bureau did not define the term so it’s conceivable “dining out” was interpreted as a meal at a “fancy restaurant” with table service and a wine menu as opposed to say, a meal at a fast food restaurant or  picking up a burger from a food truck. One data point the Census Bureau did not research is the percentage of people who don’t like sushi.  A sushi chef acquaintance tells me sushi isn’t something people merely just “like” or are indifferent to.  They either love it or hate it.  He contends that most, not all, people who claim to hate it have never tried really good sushi.  A quick perusal through Google seemingly contradicts his theory, revealing numerous sites and Facebook pages dedicated to the derision of sushi.  In almost all cases, the haters had tried sushi and found it not to their liking (to say the…

AmericanBrunchClosed in 2013Gone But Not ForgottenLos Ranchos de AlbuquerqueRating: Outstanding

Ezra’s Place – Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:46 PM

When it comes to food, most bowling alleys strike out.  Ardent keglers are subjected to such catastrophic “cuisine” as perpetually rotating hot dogs seared to a leathery sheen under a heat lamp inferno, soppy messes of nachos bathed in gloppy processed cheese topped with gelatinous jalapeños and greasy onion rings with the texture of fried rubber bands and as oily as well-slicked lanes.  Getting something edible at most bowling alleys is as tough as picking up a seven-ten split. Los Ranchos de Albuquerque has somehow managed to buck the national trend of bad bowling alley food–or at least the Lucky 66 Bowling Alley on Fourth Street has.  The Lucky 66 (then known as Sun Valley Bowl) was once the home of Sadie’s Dining Room, one of the Duke City area’s most popular dining destinations.  After Sadie’s split for more commodious confines, Dean’s Mexican Food moved in and fed Duke City bowlers and diners in the know for a few years.  When Dean’s departed, other victual vendors tried, but couldn’t pin down the secrets to success in serving food at a bowling alley Visitors to the historical Fourth Street bowling alley will notice colorful signage on the exterior north-facing wall of the yawning…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueClosed in 2016Gone But Not Forgotten

JR’s Bar-B-Que – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:09 PM

Ryan Scott, the affable host of the enlightening and entertaining Break the Chain radio program has rapidly become the voice for Albuquerque’s mom-and-pop restaurants.  When it comes to celebrating the Duke City’s independent eateries, he’s like E.F. Hutton in that when he speaks, people listen…literally.  The Break the Chain Web site receives more than 10,000 visits per week, many visitors stopping by to catch up on programs they may have missed or more likely, listening to those they enjoyed most a second (or tenth) time. While Ryan is unabashed in his promotion of New Mexico’s non-chain restaurants, he will admit to being a snob about only one type of food.  That’s barbecue.  Ryan won’t hesitate to tell you he hasn’t found barbecue greatness anywhere in New Mexico.  He’s found good barbecue (his favorite being Josh’s in Santa Fe), but he’ll tell you if you want great barbecue, you’ve got to visit our neighbor to the east.  He should know.  His beautiful better half Kimber is from the Houston area where Ryan lived for a few years. Ryan has major street cred when it comes to barbecue.  He smokes his own meats at home–as in low and slow over fruit woods,…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2020Gone But Not ForgottenKoreanRating: Excellent

Fu Yuang – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:12 PM

“I’ve eaten a river of liver and an ocean of fish! I’ve eaten so much fish, I’m ready to grow gills! I’ve eaten so much liver, I can only make love if I’m smothered in bacon and onions” ~ Hawkeye Pierce MASH 4077, Korea FROM THE FU YUANG FACEBOOK PAGE: Our Dear Fu Yuang friends, we closed the doors for business on Saturday, November 21st, 2020. 😢 Mia is no longer able to meet the physical demands of operating the restaurant. We tried to sell the restaurant to many prospective buyers, with no luck due to COVID-19. We want to thank everyone for their kindness, dedication, & support over the past 26 1/2 years. We will truly miss you all. Thanks for all the memories we have made together at Fu Yuang! For eleven years, televisions across the fruited plain were tuned in to CBS where the antics of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) enthralled audiences with a unique blend of crude hilarity and heartfelt humanity.  Set in South Korea during the Korean War, the series centered around a group of resilient doctors, nurses and support staff in an isolated hospital compound which saw more than its share…

AlbuquerqueAmericanItalianNew Mexican

Johnny’s Homemade – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:14 PM

In the 1930s, Harland Sanders, the owner of a small service station in Corbin, Kentucky began an improbable journey that eventually led to the forging of a worldwide culinary empire.  In the living quarters of that service station, Sanders fed hungry travelers on his own six-seat dining  table.  Word of his culinary prowess spread and to accommodate throngs of hungry travelers stopping by solely for his food, he had to move his kitchen operation across the street to a motel and restaurant with a seating capacity of 142. The most popular item on his menu was fried chicken, made from a closely guarded secret recipe combining eleven herbs and spices and prepared in a pressure cooker. The fried chicken was so good that in 1935 the governor of Kentucky named Sanders a Kentucky Colonel.  With an unwavering belief in the quality of his fried chicken, the Colonel devoted himself to franchising his chicken business, traveling across the country by car and selling franchises to restaurant owners.  By 1964, Colonel Sanders had more than 600 franchised outlets across America for his chicken.  Today more than one billion “finger lickin’ good” Kentucky Fried Chicken dinners are served every year in more than 80…

Fine DiningNew MexicoRating: OutstandingSanta Fe

Geronimo – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:06 AM

Consistency over time, excellence every time–that’s what sets apart the one or two restaurants all the cognoscenti herald as the very best. These few truly extraordinary restaurants don’t so much raise the bar or reinvent themselves continuously as they do maintain the rarefied levels which earned them the distinction of being singled out in the first place.  Almost without exception, the Santa Fe restaurant most consider the best restaurant in a city of great restaurants is Geronimo.  It’s been that way for years.  If you’ve ever dined at Geronimo, your next visit isn’t likely to provide any revelatory surprises unless it’s being surprised at how the restaurant has managed to maintain its exceptional standards over the years.  It’s as flawless today as it was when we last visited in 2005 and as wonderful as it was when we first visited in 2003.  Approaching two decades as the finest in fine dining establishments, Geronimo has, over the years, survived the onslaught of very stiff competition from a number of pretty new faces, including several trumpeted as potentially Santa Fe’s best. Not for the fierce Apache warrior is Santa Fe’s premier dining destination named, but for Geronimo Lopez, a more humble and…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2012Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexican

4 Aces Grill – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno7:54 PM

As a proud native New Mexican, my chest still swells with pride whenever I travel outside the Land of Enchantment (even to Texas, Arizona and Colorado) and espy a vehicle displaying the license plate of the great state of New Mexico.  I’m not the only one.  While stopping for gas in Iowa a few years ago, a couple from Roswell noticed our license plate and excitedly came over to find out where in New Mexico we were from.  We wound up having lunch together, all the while discussing the great state in which we all live in. For citizens of the fruited plain not fortunate enough to live in New Mexico, seeing our state’s license plate within their borders evokes curiosity, especially if they’re attentive enough to notice that it reads “New Mexico U.S.A.”  As the “One of Our Fifty is Missing” column in New Mexico Magazine has demonstrated for more than a quarter of a century, many of our fellow American citizens and ill-informed bureaucrats don’t even realize that New Mexico is part of the United States.  When the unwashed and uninformed masses aren’t wondering if we’re carrying our passports as we cross their borders, they’re  curious about the…

AlbuquerqueBuffetClosed in 2013Gone But Not ForgottenIndian

India Palace – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:59 AM

When many of us think of romantic destinations to visit or in which to honeymoon, our choices probably mirror closely those of US News & World Report which listed among their 22 best honeymoon destinations such exotic locations as Kauai, Maui, Florence, Crete, Santorini and even Las Vegas, Nevada.  The authors apparently didn’t think enchantment is synonymous with romance or wedded  bliss because no New Mexico locations made the list,  Surprisingly, neither did any destination in India.  Not everyone equates India with romance, but its ancient legends, history and monuments are rich with tales of profound love.  One of the world’s most far-famed love offerings is the opulent and ethereal Taj Mahal, built by a grieving emperor in memory of his dearly beloved wife and queen.  India also gave the world the Kama Sutra, an ancient Hindu text widely recognized as a definitive guide to the nature of love and the pleasure-oriented aspects of human life.  Hindus understood the importance of fore foreplay, paying significant attention to light, music, touch, smell, drink and food before moving on to carnal pleasures. Sensual, tactile, pleasurable–those adjectives are probably used more frequently to describe the practices of the Kama Sutra, it wouldn’t be…

AmericanClosed in 2025Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011

Greenside Cafe – Cedar Crest, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:52 AM

In order to provide quality services, municipalities everywhere, but especially in growing urban areas, rely heavily on gross receipts taxes from sources such as hotels and restaurants.  Cedar Crest, New Mexico, is no different from other cities in that it would like not only for its citizenry to spend as much disposable income as possible within the village, it courts an external revenue stream from visitors. From 1961 through 1999–one of Cedar Crest’s most reliable sources of gross receipts revenue was the legendary Bella Vista Restaurant, a sprawling wooden edifice which during its halcyon days accommodated 1,200 dining patrons and served an unlimited number of all-you-can-eat platters of fried chicken and fish.  When the Bella Vista launched during the onset of the Kennedy administration, Cedar Crest had very few amenities. The Bella Vista helped changed that.  For nearly four decades, cavalcades of motorists made their way to the backside of the Sandias to fill their bellies without emptying their wallets.  Many would stay. The Bella Vista was a landmark, a true dining destination, which on weekends courted so many visitors that two-hour waits for tables on weekends were the norm.  In 1999, the Bernalillo County Fire Department shuttered the restaurant’s doors…

AlbuquerqueMediterraneanRating: Very Good

Sahara Middle Eastern Eatery – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:35 PM

History has shown that cultures which thrived and advanced most rapidly are those which settled in arable areas rife with  natural resources.  The “Cradle of Civilization” where many of the earliest human civilizations evolved is in a seemingly unlikely region of the Middle East in which most of the land is too dry for farming.  In this largely desolate region lies a narrow strip of land known as  the “Fertile Crescent” because of its fecund soil and life-giving waters.  The Fertile Crescent lies in the ancient area stretching in an arc from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates, an area the Greeks of Biblical times called Mesopotamia which means “between the rivers.”  This historical region, which includes some of the very best farmlands in the world, includes parts of or the entirety of the modern day nations of Iraq, Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.  The Bible–from Genesis to the Gospels–overflows with references to the foods of the time as grown in this region. In Biblical times the most common and important foods were bread (the staff of life), olive oil (used instead of butter), milk and cheese from flocks of goats and sheep, vegetables (the most common of which…

AlbuquerqueRating: ExcellentSteak

Vernon’s Speakeasy – Los Ranchos De Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:19 AM

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution ushered in the era of Prohibition in the United States, an era was to last from 1920 through 1933.  Only liquors used for religious purposes were excluded.  Because alcohol was declared illegal by the Congress, bootleggers and distributors of illicit alcohol thrived.  There was no shortage of enthusiastic scofflaws willing to run afoul of the law in order to enjoy intoxicating beverages.  One of the most popular milieus in which alcohol was served was the speakeasy. A speakeasy was generally either a restaurant or a bar to which patrons gained admission by knocking on a door and uttering a secret password.  Once inside, patrons were treated very well in a swanky ambiance that may have included elaborate floor shows, fine dining and live entertainment.  Speakeasies flourished throughout the United States. Vernon’s Speakeasy (formerly known as Vernon’s Hidden Valley Steakhouse), no longer one of the Albuquerque area’s best kept secrets, celebrates…