{"id":269,"date":"2019-05-24T15:41:52","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T21:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=269"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:36:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:36:00","slug":"el-pinto-albuquerque-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=269","title":{"rendered":"El Pinto – Albuquerque, New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
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El Pinto, One of New Mexico’s Most Celebrated Restaurants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the years, perhaps no restaurant across the Land of Enchantment has garnered as much recognition from the national media as has El Pinto.\u00a0 Rather than recap all its accolades across the years, let’s focus on just one year: 2015. \u00a0 For almost any other restaurant in New Mexico (or anywhere else for that matter), 2015 would be considered a banner year, an auspicious annum, the type of year for which every restaurateur aspires. For Albuquerque’s El Pinto, however, 2015 could be considered just another year in which praise and recognition–local and national–seem to be heaped on in abundance. It’s probably safe to say El Pinto is the most heralded and acclaimed dining establishment in the Land of Enchantment. Terms such as “institution,” “paragon” and “iconic” have been used to describe the sprawling restaurant at the terminus of 4th Street. El Pinto, in fact, started 2015 off by being declared New Mexico’s “most iconic restaurant<\/a><\/strong>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

That distinction was accorded by Thrillist<\/a><\/strong>, an online presence “obsessed with everything that\u2019s worth caring about in food, drink.” Thrillist is unabashed about its love of El Pinto, also naming it one of the “best Mexican restaurants in America<\/a><\/strong>.” 2015 also saw filming begin for a potential reality show featuring the restaurant and its energetic owners, the \u201ciconic\u201d Thomas twins who want the reality show to \u201cbe a platform for the “authentic portrayal of the restaurant, the Albuquerque community and New Mexico\u2019s food and culture.\u201d El Pinto was also in the national spotlight in September when the FYI Network aired a program called “Big Kitchens.” In an episode entitled “Massive New Mexican,” the program noted that El Pinto’s “massive kitchen can feed up to three thousand people a night\u201d and anointed El Pinto as “the most popular chile restaurant in America.” The program followed twin brothers John and Jim Thomas as they lead their kitchen team as they prepare three tons of food every night.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Indoor Waterfall Near the Entrance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

El Pinto’s fame has long extended far beyond the Land of Enchantment and its credibility as a purveyor of New Mexico chile is well-established. It’s the site at which the competing teams squaring off in the New Mexico Bowl<\/a><\/strong> hold a chile cooking competition. It’s a wonderful venue for such events, not only because of its capacious space, but its expertise in the hospitality arena. Frankly no one does it better. El Pinto has also long been a favorite host of corporate team-building, both formal and informal. Large tables of nattily attired corporate executives entertaining their clients at El Pinto is commonplace.<\/span><\/p>\n

El Pinto also seems to be the de facto restaurant of choice for New Mexican and Mexican food related television programming. <\/span>In a 2006 Food Network program called “The Secret Life of Fiery Foods<\/em>,” host Jim O’Connor noted El Pinto as “a restaurant famous for its fiery foods<\/em>” as he reveled in sampling various dishes with New Mexico’s Dave DeWitt<\/a><\/strong>, publisher of Fiery Foods<\/a><\/strong> magazine and renown chile expert. More recently, in 2010 “everyman” host Bobby Bognar and a History Channel crew visited El Pinto to film an episode on Mexican food for the cable network’s Food Tech<\/a><\/strong> show. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The Bar and Lounge Area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In February, 2006, The Wall Street Journal<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong> embarked on a quest for the perfect nachos. Taking recommendations from several highly credentialed chefs and other chile cognoscenti, the Journal<\/em> visited restaurants anointed by those sages and compiled an exclusive list showcasing the fifteen best nachos<\/strong><\/em> in America. El Pinto’s nachos were among them. The Journal<\/em> described El Pinto’s nachos as “built like lasagna, one layer at a time, so no chip is cheeseless: first chips, then cheese (Cheddar and Monterrey Jack), until there’s a pyramid topped with sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, chicken (or beef or pork) and green chili sauce<\/em>.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Alas, no “good deed” goes unpunished. El Pinto and its celebrated nachos became fodder for the Albuquerque Journal<\/em><\/a><\/strong>‘s brilliant (sadly now retired) columnist Leslie Linthicum<\/a><\/strong> when she compiled her hilarious “Cowchip Awards” for 2006. The Cowchip Awards, a compilation of the foibles and foul-ups which make the news during the course of a year, tend to skew heavily toward politicians and criminals (not necessarily mutually exclusive). El Pinto’s transgression was touting its nachos (as the menu still does as of October, 2015) as the best in America because they were listed first among the honorees. It turns out the nachos were listed in alphabetical order. As Leslie noted it “pays to start with an “E<\/em>.””<\/span><\/p>\n

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El Pinto’s famous nachos, some of the very best in America according to the Wall Street Journal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

6 April 2007<\/strong>: Not mentioned in the Journal’s<\/em> review is the sheer physical magnitude of the nachos<\/em><\/strong>. The nachos are served in a platter big enough for the Thanksgiving turkey and they’re stacked mountain high: tostadas topped with Cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheese, pinto beans, guacamole, sour cream, El Pinto’s green chile and fresh-cut jalapenos (you can also add beef, chicken or pork for a fee). According to the menu, the nacho platter serves four, but even four Lobo football players might cry “no mas” after lustily consuming their fill. Perhaps the only thing at El Pinto’s nearly as sizable as the nachos is the restaurant itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not only is El Pinto arguably New Mexico’s most famous restaurant, it’s the body-building behemoth in a sandbox of 98-pound weaklings–easily the<\/em> most commodious restaurants in New Mexico with seating for over 1,000 diners in several dining rooms as well as an expansive hacienda-style patio area for seasonal dining. With all the ground they have to cover, rarely do the strolling mariachis ever make it to the same dining room twice an evening (especially if the tipping at one dining room is generous). Despite its expanse, the restaurant operates with seemingly synchronized efficiency, the wait staff well practiced in serving large crowds. Long waits are virtually non-existent.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Chips and Salsa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nestled among centuries-old cottonwood trees, El Pinto also has one of the most attractive restaurant settings in the state. The rambling walled garden is shaded by stately trees and trumpet vines and is adorned with roses. Murmurations<\/span><\/a> of intrepid starlings take refuge among the trees but as soon as a patio table is vacated, they leave their lofty perches and scavenge for left-overs. Once sated, they slake their thirsts out of the continuously recirculating multi-level fountains. It’s feathered entertainment while you dine. (Just in case the environmental department reads this, we’re not talking Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds<\/em> here, just a few starlings.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The restaurant’s interior is also impressive with waterfalls cascading down impressive rockscapes, rivulets creating a relaxing cadence. The lounge and the restaurant’s garden room are akin to an oasis in the desert with lush foliage and hanging plants helping to create a relaxing verdant milieu. Traditional trappings abound in nearly every corner and walls are adorned with beautiful art pieces. Framed photographs of the glitterati who have dined at El Pinto can be seen on walls throughout the restaurant, in many cases glad-handing with the restaurant’s affable owners (local celebrities themselves).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fiesta Appetizer Platter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

El Pinto was launched by Hatch, New Mexico natives Jack and Consuelo Thomas in 1962 using recipes perfected by Connie’s grandmother Josephina Chavez-Griggs. The Griggs restaurant legacy spans much of the Rio Grande corridor with family members owning or having owned and operated restaurants in El Paso<\/a><\/strong> and the Las Cruces area (including the world-famous La Posta de Mesilla)<\/a><\/strong>. In 1989, twin brothers John and Jim Thomas bought El Pinto from their parents, expanding it as their customer base grew.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, El Pinto’s customer base includes both political dignitaries (including “Dubya,” Sarah Palin and Barack Obama) and Hollywood glitterati (including Pamela Anderson and Mel Gibson), but it’s the local patrons who remain steadfastly loyal. Serving more than a quarter of a million diners a year, El Pinto’s kitchen is 5,000 square-feet of grills and kitchen space with a staff of a hundred preparing one ton of food a night. When they want to impress out-of-town guests, locals invariably bring them to El Pinto and wow them with the ambiance. Locals also know that anything more piquant than Chef Boyardee sauce is beyond the heat tolerance of most out-of-towners and El Pinto’s serves chile some locals consider “anglicized,” meaning it doesn’t pack enough heat to intimidate true New Mexicans. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Green Chile Queso Burger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Food Tech program highlighted the painstaking process of making and bottling salsa, showcasing El Pinto’s famous brand. The restaurant’s salsa, while <\/span>not the most piquant salsa in town, is among the Duke City’s most flavorful and best of all, it’s available at just about every grocery store in the Albuquerque area. During ESPN Sports Center’s “50 States in 50 Days<\/em>” visit to El Pinto in August, 2005, anchor extraordinaire Linda Cohn called El Pinto’s salsa “the best in the nation<\/em>.” That salsa, and in fact, several items on the El Pinto menu, are held in especially high esteem by readers of Albuquerque The Magazine<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. In its September, 2012 edition, Albuquerque The Magazine named the salsa at El Pinto the eighth best in Albuquerque from among 130 salsas sampled throughout the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its annual “best of the city” awards issues over the years, the magazine’s readers have told us the city’s best green chile and guacamole emanate from El Pinto. The green chile is a “heritage crop version of an archived seed.” El Pinto handles that chile from “farm to plate,” going through a whopping 300-400 tons of chile per year (or about 4,000 cases a day). The guacamole is made from California-grown Haas avocados at their prime of buttery ripeness. It’s a simple guacamole crafted with salt, fresh onion, and the restaurant’s salsa.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Carne Adovada Plate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Albuquerque The Magazine<\/em> readers have selected El Pinto as the Duke City’s very best New Mexican restaurant on several occasions. It’s also earned accolades for the restaurant’s chips and salsa, red chile, tacos, sopaipillas and wait staff. Not surprisingly, El Pinto has consistently also been voted Albuquerque’s best restaurant for patio dining. No slouch in the adult beverages department, its margaritas are perennial candidates for best of the city honors. Lots of love is also imparted to El Pinto by readers of The Alibi<\/a><\/em><\/strong> during that publication’s “best of” edition. The Alibi<\/em>‘s readers give El Pinto the nod in the categories of “best place to take out-of-town guests,” “best atmosphere,” and “best outdoor dining, but the restaurant is usually only bridesmaid in a few categories actually related to food.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the feedback section for this review attests, readers of Gil’s Thrilling (And Filling) Blog seem to have a different opinion of El Pinto than the teeming masses who congregate frequently at the “peoples’ choice” restaurant. Years have proven my readers to be a discerning lot not prone to hyperbole (mine or anyone else’s) or popular opinion. My own opinion of El Pinto is in the camp of those discriminating dissenters who read my reviews. Multitudinous visits over the years haven’t won me over. Despite the festive and fun atmosphere, for me it’s all about the food and that’s where El Pinto doesn’t quite measure up to so many other New Mexican favorites.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sopaipillas with Real Honey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Attribute some of that to me being a purist weaned on chile piquant enough to put whiskers on a toddler’s face. I have tremendous respect for the meticulous attention to detail paid by El Pinto to its time-honored and traditional heritage and I marvel at the efficiency of its operation, but have been, time after time, underwhelmed by the restaurant’s culinary offerings–and it’s not just the piquancy factor. During a recent visit, a corporate event, an otherwise potentially very good green chile was plated with boiled tomatoes that wholly detracted from the chile’s native sweetness.
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Most Recent Visit: 25 May 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Red chile ribs are considered El Pinto’s signature dish on the strength of selling more than 25,000 plates (40,000 pounds of pork) of them per year. Five-hundred buckets of marinade per year are extracted from chile every year just for these succulent pork ribs. The ribs are seared to impart a smoky flavor, seasoned lightly then smothered in the red chile marinade and cooked in an oven for about six hours. Dave DeWitt calls them “the best ribs in the world!” while founding Friends of Gil (FOG) member Bob of the Village of Los Ranchos (BOTVOLR) is campaigning to become their official publicist (check out his comments below).\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

For years Bob has begged, threatened, cajoled, chided, implored, beseeched, exhorted, supplicated and basically tried everything but bribery to get me to order the “best ribs since the one Eve came from.” I should have heeded his advice much earlier. Taking a safe approach in the event we didn\u2019t like them, we ordered the Fiesta Appetizer Plate in which splayed out on a hefty platter were six of these succulent ribs , creamy guacamole and thick chile con queso. After quickly dispatching of the ribs, we determined we should have ordered the entr\u00e9e-sized portion. These ribs are worthy of many of the accolades bestowed upon them over the years. They\u2019re nearly fall-off-the-bone tender with just enough \u201cgive\u201d to let us know they\u2019re extricated from the oven at the precise moment when they\u2019re perfectly done. They\u2019re meaty to a generous amount and they\u2019re lip-smacking good with a nice piquant bite and great flavor. If you lament all the times you\u2019ve had chile con queso in which the \u201cchile\u201d part is a misnomer, you\u2019ll appreciate that El Pinto\u2019s con queso uses a chile that bites back. <\/span><\/p>\n

My favorite entree on El Pinto’s menu is the green chile queso burger<\/em><\/strong>. When I order green chile cheeseburgers instead of New Mexican food at a New Mexican restaurant, it’s not necessarily an indication that the green chile cheeseburger is that<\/em> good. More than likely, it’s an indication that I’m tired of being disappointed by more conventional New Mexican entrees. In the case of the green chile queso burger, it actually is pretty good–a charbroiled eight-ounce ground chuck patty smothered with blended queso, “hot” green chile, sweet onion pickled relish, bibbed lettuce and tomato served with a wheat or white bun.<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s not to like about that burger? Well, if you’re prone to Felix Unger standards of cleanliness, you might not like the fact that this is a messy burger with the unctuous, oozing queso dripping copiously onto your hands. Otherwise, it’s quite good. The charbroiled beef, prepared at medium-well unless otherwise requested, is excellent and the marriage of green chile and sweet onion pickled relish establishes a unique flavor profile that accentuates both the sweetness and the piquancy (slight, despite the menu’s claim that “hot” chile is used on this burger) of the chile. This is a burger I’ll order again…and again.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

You can find carne adovada at just about every New Mexican restaurant in New Mexico.\u00a0 This moist, delicious Land of Enchantment staple is my Kim’s favorite.\u00a0 She has a very high opinion of El Pinto’s carne adovada plate<\/strong><\/em> (flour tortilla topped with deliciously hot and spicy lean pork marinated in red chile served with pinto beans and rice) which she always orders with a fried egg (over easy) on top.\u00a0 Indeed, this is a very good carne adovada, tender tendrils of chile-marinated pork that melt in your mouth.\u00a0 In lieu of rice, she always asks for calabasitas (when available).<\/span><\/p>\n

Previous Visits<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Levante<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

18 October 2015<\/strong>: Then there’s the dessert tray which includes flan, an empanada with ice cream and other sweet tooth treats sure to please anyone. The restaurant’s most popular dessert is a post-prandial offering called the Levante<\/em><\/strong> (homemade biscochitos soaked in Patron XO Cafe, Kahlua brandy and coffee layered with mascarpone cheese, a light whipped cream and topped with shaved chocolate spiked with red chile). It’s essentially a New Mexican tiramisu. El Pinto sells more than 10,000 Levantes per year, a number made doubly impressive considering each sweet slab serves two to four people. My verdict–cloying, rich and in need of more emboldening chile.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its annual Food & Wine issue for 2012, Albuquerque The Magazine<\/a><\/strong> awarded El Pinto a Hot Plate Award signifying the selection of its blue corn blueberry pancakes as one of the “most interesting, special and tasty dishes around.” Considering the thousands of potential selections, to be singled out is quite an honor. Alas, the blue corn blueberry pancakes are available for less than four hours a week (10:30AM to 2PM on Sunday). If something sweet won’t sate you on a Sunday morning, the brunch menu has a number of items with a more piquant flavor profile.<\/span><\/p>\n

18 October 2015<\/strong>: Among the more interesting is a green chile sausage croissant<\/em><\/strong>, a lightly-browned croissant served with homemade green chile sausage, fresh scrambled organic Taos eggs and spicy ghost pepper Jack cheese served with papitas. On paper there are two potentially incendiary ingredients on this dish–the green chile sausage and the ghost pepper Jack cheese, but because the cheese is melted on the sausage, we suspect the intense heat comes from the cheese. When it comes to Scoville units, ghost peppers have among the most potent piquancy of any pepper in the world. Because it’s not polite to use a fire extinguisher, those of us with delicate constitutions will have to hope the slightly sweet croissant and savory scrambled eggs can quell the heat enough for us to finish this entree. <\/span><\/p>\n

18 October 2015<\/strong>: Skillet dishes have been a de rigueur brunch offering since at least the 1970s. El Pinto’s brunch menu offers its own take on this popular dish, a carne asada skillet<\/em><\/strong> plate (papitas, peppers and onions with sliced, marinated and grilled strip steak served with red or green chile and two Taos Farms all-natural free-range eggs any style) with a flour tortilla on the side. By and large, my Kim whose carnivorous inclinations far surpass mine, enjoyed the carne asada save for prominent fatty ends. The peppers and onions are grilled nicely and the papitas border on the “almost too salty” quality that defines the best papitas. <\/span><\/p>\n

El Pinto is on the New Mexico Tourism Department’s “Culinary Treasures Trail<\/em><\/a><\/strong>,” an initiative which honors those rare and precious family-owned-and-operated gems operating continuously since at least December 31st, 1969. As with all the restaurants on the list, El Pinto is an independent mom-and-pop restaurant which has stood the test of time to become beloved institutions in their neighborhoods and beyond. In El Pinto’s case, that’s far beyond!<\/span><\/p>\n

El Pinto<\/strong>
\n10500 4th Street, N.W.
\nAlbuquerque, New Mexico<\/strong>
\n(505) 898-1771
\nWeb Site<\/a> <\/strong> |Facebook Page<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

LATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 25 May 2019
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 14
\nRATING<\/strong>: Good<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 good food, decent service, and a clean environment; provides a satisfactory, dependable, and standard experience
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Green Chile Queso Burger, Nachos, Salsa & Chips, Sopaipillas, Levante<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the years, perhaps no restaurant across the Land of Enchantment has garnered as much recognition from the national media as has El Pinto.\u00a0 Rather than recap all its accolades across the years, let’s focus on just one year: 2015. \u00a0 For almost any other restaurant in New Mexico (or anywhere else for that matter), 2015 would be considered a banner year, an auspicious annum, the type of year for which every restaurateur aspires. For Albuquerque’s El Pinto, however, 2015 could be considered just another year in which praise and recognition–local and national–seem to be heaped on in abundance. It’s probably safe to say El Pinto is the most heralded and acclaimed dining establishment in the Land of Enchantment. Terms…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[440,703,544,112,581,5632,546,609],"tags":[690],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albuquerque","category-dog-friendly","category-food-network-eats-new-mexico","category-new-mexican","category-new-mexico-culinary-treasures","category-good","category-the-secret-life-of","category-travel-channel-eats-new-mexico","tag-top-5"],"yoast_head":"\nEl Pinto - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=269\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"El Pinto - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the years, perhaps no restaurant across the Land of Enchantment has garnered as much recognition from the national media as has El Pinto.\u00a0 Rather than recap all its accolades across the years, let’s focus on just one year: 2015. \u00a0 For almost any other restaurant in New Mexico (or anywhere else for that matter), 2015 would be considered a banner year, an auspicious annum, the type of year for which every restaurateur aspires. For Albuquerque’s El Pinto, however, 2015 could be considered just another year in which praise and recognition–local and national–seem to be heaped on in abundance. It’s probably safe to say El Pinto is the most heralded and acclaimed dining establishment in the Land of Enchantment. 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Please take a few minutes to tell me what you think. Whether you agree or disagree with me, I'd love to hear about it.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/%20\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/nmgastronome\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/nmgastronome\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"El Pinto - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=269","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"El Pinto - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog","og_description":"Over the years, perhaps no restaurant across the Land of Enchantment has garnered as much recognition from the national media as has El Pinto.\u00a0 Rather than recap all its accolades across the years, let’s focus on just one year: 2015. \u00a0 For almost any other restaurant in New Mexico (or anywhere else for that matter), 2015 would be considered a banner year, an auspicious annum, the type of year for which every restaurateur aspires. 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