ArizonaRating: N/R (Not Rated)SeafoodSushiUnited States

Bluewater Grill – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:24 AM

Rodney Dangerfield, the legendary king of “no respect” comedy, had some hilarious and classic one-liners about seafood and fish.  For example, he lamented that “Some seafood restaurants lack originality and have the same signs. These signs often say, ‘The fish you eat today slept last night in some bay.’ When ordering fish, the only concern is how it is prepared. Where the fish slept or who it slept with makes no difference. A fish might taste better if it was morally bad.” Long-suffering readers have endured ad-nauseum missives about me having grown up in land-locked New Mexico before advances in transportation and refrigeration made fresh seafood available to the masses.  We didn’t even have Rodney Dangerfield’s “morally bad” fish.  For me and my siblings, “seafood” was Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks and Gorton’s breaded shrimp.  Sure, my dad and Grandpa Max introduced me and my brothers to Northern New Mexican rivers teeming with German brown trout, cutthroat trout and rainbow trout, but that hardly qualifies as “seafood.”  Worse, the one of us who caught the least amount of fish had to clean everyone else’s fish.  Almost invariably that was me. Obviously, the Duke City and landlocked New Mexico are at a disadvantage…

ArizonaBurgersRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Original Hamburger Works – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno9:31 AM

“When in Phoenix, do as Phoenicians do.”  If that means staying in air conditioned confines during the summer, we’re doing it.  If that means sticking with local culinary fare, not so much.  Blame that on “Only in Arizona,” a travel and lifestyle publication from the good folks who bring us “Only In Your State.”  A recent edition of Only in Arizona celebrated a “Phoenix Burger Joint” that “Has Cooked Over Real Mesquite for 40 Years.”  As if mesquite grilled burgers aren’t enticing enough, the article boldly declared “The green chile cheeseburger, with jalapeño cheese and a grilled green chile on top, is the one that converts first-timers into regulars.   Hmm, a green chile cheeseburger in Arizona that might actually be pretty good; it just hasn’t been my experience. Admittedly, I’ve only had fewer than a handful of green chile cheeseburgers in the Grand Canyon State.  Any memorability they have can be attributed to how mediocre (or worse) they’ve been.  Arizona would never be able to entice savvy staycators and Hatch familiar visitors to the “Arizona Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail.”  That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try.  They might first want to spend some time on New Mexico’s trail to see how…

ArizonaPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Bill’s Pizza – Prescott, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:02 AM

According to the city’s Chamber of Commerce, “Prescott, Arizona is a highly popular and nationally recognized retirement destination. Known as “Everybody’s Hometown,” it appeals to active adults and seniors looking for natural beauty, a relaxed lifestyle, and a strong sense of community.”  Prescott isn’t only popular among retirement-age personnel.  Many of my former colleagues at Intel Corporation in Chandler and Ocotillo (Phoenix suburbs) bought second homes in the Prescott area, not necessarily for retirement but to have an relatively nearby escape destination that is somewhat cooler than The Valley of the Sun’s triple-digit summer temperatures. Prescott was founded in 1864 to serve as the original capital of the newly established Arizona Territory. Today, it offers a unique blend of historic charm and modern convenience. While it is famous for its preserved 19th-century architecture, Western heritage, and walkable downtown—like the historic Whiskey Row and Courthouse Square—it serves as a thoroughly modern regional hub for central Arizona. Prescott is also known as “Arizona’s Christmas City.” The town, particularly the historic downtown and Courthouse Plaza, comes alive with over a million LED lights, a large gingerbread village, and a month-long celebration featuring parades, live music, and a unique New Year’s Eve event. The…

ArizonaCoffeeRating: OutstandingUnited States

Late For The Train – Flagstaff, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“The powers of a man’s mind are directly proportioned to the quantity of coffee he drinks.” ~Sir James Mackintosh Dr. Steve Spence, my friend and former colleague at the University of New Mexico, probably drank more coffee than anyone I’ve ever known.  Walk by his office at any time of day and you’ll hear the melodic, soothing sounds of his electric coffee grinder pulverizing roasted coffee beans into freshly ground coffee ready to be enjoyed.   He grinds fresh before every brew and believes pre-ground (bagged) coffee is an instrument of torture.   Unlike the rest of us who drink barrelfuls of coffee, he does not show or seem to feel outward worry, anger, or excitement. His calm, almost Vulcan-like demeanor exemplifies a composed, steady, and tranquil outward appearance, even in high-pressure or unusual situations.  His calmness belies the stereotypical high-strung, high-stress stereotype associated with javaphile junkies. Admittedly I’m is a relative neophyte to the lure of the coffee sirens (and I’m not nearly as sedate as Dr. Spence). Only in the past fifteen years or so have I rekindled my appreciation and love for the nuanced depth of flavors conferred by this stimulating and satisfying elixir. Few things in life have…

ArizonaRating: ExcellentSouthwesternUnited States

The Turquoise Room – Winslow, Arizona

Gil Garduno4:39 AM

The concept of “fast food” had a far different connotation during the Southwest’s Frontier days than it does today. This is especially true if one traveled via railroad through hundreds of miles of desolate, open country. In the more densely populated and genteel east there were often several cities between most destinations. This allowed for frequent rest and refreshment stops. Passengers rode in relative comfort in Pullman cars with dining cars. In the wide open west, only twenty minutes were allowed during each of the infrequent stops. Further, the food was as miserable as the travel conditions. According to Keith L. Bryant’s History of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, “meat was greasy and usually fried, beans were canned, bacon rancid and coffee was fresh once a week.” No doubt it was gastronomic distress that prompted the following ditty documented on the book Hear the Lonesome Whistle Blow by Dee Brown: “The tea tasted as though it was made from the leaves of sagebrush. The biscuit was made without soda, but with plenty of alkali, harmonizing with the great quantity of alkali dust we had already swallowed.” One man, an English emigrant named Fred Harvey was determined to change…

2023 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueBurgersNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Patty Man – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“Hotter than a sizzling flat-top, More powerful than a wood-fired grill, Able to stack towering flavors in a single bite… Look, up at the Sawmill! It’s a James Beard semifinalist It’s the king of the grill… It’s The Patty Man!“ Chef Sean “The Patty Man” Sinclair is a self-effacing guy, more like mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent than his “man of steel” alter ego.  You won’t see Chef Sinclair run into a phone booth to don his apron and toque nor will gawking crowds point toward him and utter “Look!  In the kitchen, it’s a cook.  It’s a chef.  It’s Sean Sinclair.”   Despite having been a semifinalist in the James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef – Southwest” honors for 2025, he’s chosen a path that’s not as likely to garner such recognition as his previous stint as the executive chef at Level 5 at Albuquerque’s Hotel Chaco in Albuquerque Despite having served as a sous chef at the world-renowned, multiple-time three-Michelin starred restaurant The Inn at Little Washington, Chef Sinclair has left the more glamorous world of fine-dining to focus on more humble culinary ventures. In October 2025 and transitioned from executive chef at Level 5 to pursue entrepreneurial ventures with Heritage…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicoPizza

Tony’s Pizzeria – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Why is it so hard to convince others to change their minds and hearts? That’s a question philosophers, psychologists and even curious hoi polloi like me have pondered over for millennia. Perhaps never has that question been brought to the fore as during recent political events. Sadly, the question takes on even more of a personal bent when you believe someone else’s views betray something inherently rotten about their character—or when someone else believes the same about yours. Rightly or wrongly, we’re wired to believe people’s views are barometers of their moral conscience. Psychologists have long posited the existence of a confirmation bias which is a tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing views and to avoid information that disconfirms them.  Confirmation bias has exploded with the advent of social media.  Specific algorithms present information that appeals to our tastes.  Finding that information confirms our beliefs and rewards our dopamine receptors.  Studies have also shown that  when presented with information we don’t like or with which we disagree, our brains literally shut off and ignore it.  That accounts for the reason we as humans tend to “hang out” with people who are like us and believe the same…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfast BurritosNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Albuquerque City Limits – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:32 PM

“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…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastBreakfast BurritosMexicanNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

La Sierra New Mexican Restaurant – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“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…

AlbuquerqueIndianMiddle EasternNew Mexico

Spicy Junction – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

While perusing the menu at Spicy Junction, you might hearken back to The Dream, the very eclectic restaurant owned and operated by Pakistan emigrant Babu Bhatt in an uproariously funny episode of Seinfeld. As Jerry Seinfeld observed about The Dream’s menu, “he’s serving Mexican, Italian, Chinese. He’s all over the place.” Spicy Junction’s menu is similarly diverse, a melange of Indian, Venezuelan, Middle Eastern, Indo-Chinese and even pizza and burgers splayed temptingly onto three individual menus. That the menu is so “all over the place” makes great sense in that the chef worked as a chef at the location’s previous tenant, El Chamo Arabe. In 2023, El Chamo Arabe introduced Duke City diners to a melange of Venezuelan and Mediterranean foods all in one menu.  While El Chamo Arabe now operates at Rio Rancho’s The Block (7805 Enchanted Hills Blvd.), its former chef and his bride took over the Menaul space.  They’re both Indian, but rather than serve Indian food exclusively, they decided to retain the existing menu and have added pizza.  If it sounds like an adventure in cuisine types you may not have thought go so well together, you’ll be more than pleasantly surprised at just how diverse…

AlbuquerqueDiners Drive-Ins and DivesFood Network Eats New MexicoNew MexicoPolishRating: Outstanding

Red Rock Deli – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:32 PM

America may be a multicultural melting pot, but thriving within its most populous metropolises are ethnic neighborhoods–pockets of diversity residing in two worlds, retaining many of the cultural and culinary traditions of their motherland while integrating into and pursuing the American dream. Cities such as Chicago have long realized that these ethnic enclaves offer a treasure trove of cultural and culinary experiences. Most of these neighborhoods welcome culinary tourism–the opportunity to showcase the cuisine of their homelands. One such example is the city of Chicago which boasts of the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw (as many as 183,000 by some estimates) in the world. Storefronts and restaurants in “Little Poland” on Chicago’s far Northwest side are bedecked in the white and red flag of Poland. Eateries offer everything from pierogies to kielbasa. Every Labor Day weekend Chicago celebrates its Polish heritage at the Taste of Polonia festival where Polish cuisine and culture are showcased. Obviously Albuquerque doesn’t have the population to support a “Chinatown” or a “Little Poland,” but the Duke City does offer multicultural dining diversity. Although several of the city’s ethnic restaurants are clustered throughout the International District, many others are strewn throughout the metropolitan area where…