AlbuquerqueNew MexicoRating: ExcellentThai

Thai Boran – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:34 AM

Many of us with a puerile sense of humor can probably recall giggling like silly school kids the first time we visited a Thai restaurant and perused a menu. We went straight into the gutter the first time we came across such foods as phat prik and fuktong curry. Even after learning that “phat prik” is actually a stir-fried chili dish and “fuktong curry” is a pumpkin curry, the sophomoric among us couldn’t order these dishes with a straight face. It gets even worse when we actually learned how to pronounce the names of Thai dishes. Not even Bob Newhart could order “cow pod guy” (chicken fried rice) or “cow pod moo” (pork fried rice) with his usual deadpan delivery. That’s probably why so many of us will place our order by number instead of endeavoring to pronounce words we find a bit salacious or humorous. Let’s face it, denizens of the fruited plain tend to find the names of some Thai dishes humorous because the way they’re spelled or pronounced is similar to English sexual references or swear words. Perhaps that’s why Thai restaurateurs tend to use clever word play, typically puns, to name their eateries. Instead of christening…

AlbuquerqueAsianChineseNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSeafood

East Ocean Chinese & Seafood – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:01 PM

In 2022, Freddie Wong posted a TikTok video that went viral on several social media platforms. In the video, Wong, purports to find the most “authentic” Chinese food by utilizing restaurant review website Yelp in a unique way.  “The easiest way to find authentic Chinese food, assuming you’re living in a major metropolitan area, is to go on Yelp and to look for restaurants with three-and-a-half stars,” declared Wong in his TikTok video, which garnered an astonishing 7.2 million views in only two days. “Exactly three and a half, not three, not four. Three-and-a-half stars is a sweet spot for authentic Chinese food.” Again, the assumption is based on living in a major metropolitan area where there are a preponderance of “authentic” Chinese restaurants.  In cities such as Albuquerque, few restaurants even offer a traditional Chinese menu (if you ask for it).  Among those is East Ocean which coincidentally or not is rated  exactly three-and-a-half stars on Yelp.  A Duke City mainstay for more than thirty years, East Ocean has a huge following that includes  George Thorning, my friend and colleague at the University of New Mexico.   Though he did experience a bit of consternation when the restaurant changed…

AlbuquerqueBakeryCoffeeNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSandwichVietnamese

Banh Me & You – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:47 AM

According to The Tanner Food Group, a a food consultancy focused on international trade, industry preparedness and regulatory activities, there are now nearly 8,000 Vietnamese restaurants stateside.  Food Scientist Michael Murdy, founder of robustkitchen.com attributes the  popularity of Vietnamese food to the “wide range of flavors and textures associated,” specifying that “the combination of sour, sweet, savory, and spicy flavors, as well as the use of fresh herbs and vegetables, makes Vietnamese food particularly attractive to people.” From among the nearly 8,000 Vietnamese restaurants on this side of the pond, it’s a good bet many of their menus are graced with banh mi, the sandwich melding French and Vietnamese flavors and techniques.  I first encountered the banh mi during one of many trips to the Santa Clara-San Jose area courtesy of Intel.  With a significant Vietnamese population, the area was teeming with restaurants, most generally serving pho and other wondrous delights from Vietnam.  At the time (mid 1990s), the San Jose area was starting to see Vietnamese bakeries opening up mostly in areas frequented by Asian populations.  Among them was Lee’s Sandwiches, maybe the first to showcase the banh mi. Lee’s Sandwiches has suffixed its corporate name with “International” and…

AlbuquerquePizzaRating: Very GoodSaladSandwich

Dion’s Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:35 PM

Toga! Toga! Toga! Ever since the misfit Delta Tau Chi fraternity threw the most debaucherous toga party ever in the 1978 “teensploitation” comedy Animal House, the toga party has been ingrained in the college party culture. The genesis of the toga party goes back much, much further than Animal House. Toga parties, in fact, precede collegiate life in the fruited plain by many hundred years. The first toga party was actually organized in ancient Greece in honor of the Greek god Dionysus, the deity of the grape harvest, wine-making and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theater and religious ecstasy (that’s quite a job description, even for a god). Dionysus literally had a cult following of men and women who worshiped him. Together this vagabond group became some of history’s first true party animals, holding orgiastic celebrations where they danced to frenzied music and behaved like crazed San Diego State basketball fans. It was during this revelry that Dionysus invented both the toga party and the first drinking games. You might not know it but the Dion’s Pizza franchise that has become ubiquitous in the Duke City area, is actually named for that rapscallion god Dionysus (albeit a shortened version of…

AlbuquerqueItalianNew MexicoPizzaRating: Excellent

Luigi’s Ristorante & Pizzeria – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:40 AM

Luigi’s is the eponymous brainchild of Luigi Napolitano whose very last name translates to citizen of Naples, the city from which his mother Tina emigrated more than four decades ago. Tina is the bread-baking, pasta-making dynamo in the kitchen and is also responsible for many of the restaurant’s homey touches.  Tina painstakingly hand-sewed the delicate lace covering over each lamp (below) as well as the curtains over each booth.  Other homey touches include viney plants hanging from pillars throughout the restaurant and a framed picture of the Mona Lisa hanging above the buffet. Tina, a spry octogenarian, is one of the sweetest, kindest restaurateurs you could ever hope to meet.  She’s cut down the hours she works and sometimes the volume of guests prevents her from leaving the kitchen to meet them, but if she makes her way to your table, you’re in for a treat.  Tina is not only the restaurant’s best ambassador, she’s a wonderful ambassador for her homeland,  She doesn’t return to Naples as often as she’d like, but her fondest wish is that everyone has the opportunity to visit Lo Stivale.  She escorted me to a map on the wall and pointed out Naples then regaled…

MexicanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentRio RanchoTacos

Las Villas Taqueria – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Upon learning that a new Mexican restaurant named “Las Villas Taqueria” would be launching in Rio Rancho, the bilingual lexicologist in me didn’t immediately ponder the menu.  Instead, my ruminations were of the translation of “Las Villas,” a Spanish term with several meanings depending on context.  I pondered whethr the restaurant was named for  small towns or settlements or for  luxurious country homes, both translations of the term “las villas.”  Then again, “Villas” is a common Spanish surname.  After a superb meal with my dear friend Bill Resnik, I came to the conclusion that “Las Villas” is actually a diminutive form of “las maravillas,” or “the wonders.”  That’s wonder as in “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration caused by something beautiful or unexpected.”  I had not expected for Las Villas to be quite as good as it was. Las Villas had its grand opening on 11 October 2025. It occupies the very high turnover space which most recently housed Whiptail and before that Banana Leaf.   Visionaries (residents of Rio Rancho) have long surmised that one of the reasons tenants don’t last long at the space is because there is no direct entrance or egress.  in fact, if you didn’t…

MediterraneanNew MexicoRating: Very GoodRio Rancho

Al-quds Mediterranean Grill II – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The penultimate day of the 2023 International Balloon Fiesta will be memorable for many reasons.  Foremost may be the 2023 annular eclipse whose path took it directly above the Balloon Fiesta Park, host of the world’s largest ballooning event.  That day will be imprinted on our minds for another reason–our inaugural visit to Al-quds Mediterranean Grill in Rio Rancho.   The second instantiation of perhaps Albuquerque’s most popular Middle Eastern restaurant is located on The Village on Rio Rancho, a timeworn shopping center that flourished in the early 1990s when Intel’s Fab 4 was fully operational. Neither owner Mohammad Abdeljalil or his son were in Rio Rancho during our inaugural visit.  Our server assured us that the menu at the original Al-qud’s is available.  That means Al-qud’s II assumed only the spot which previously housed Jerusalem: Taste of the Holy Land.  In all other respects it’s the Al-qud’s we’ve known and loved since discovering the original in November, 2018 when it was situated on the south side of San Pedro.  In subsequent visits, we were greeted by and well taken care of by Mohammed’s eldest son whose wife bakes all the magnificent pastries on display in a glass case. Al-Qud,…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyItalianPizzaRating: Very Good

Il Vicino – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:54 AM

Undoubtedly the most oft-quoted line on Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” is “good fences make good neighbors.” Frost, a four-time Pulitzer Prize award winning American poet certainly didn’t have Il Vicino (“the neighbor”) in mind when he penned his prose. Fortunately fences are no obstacle to patrons of this popular contemporary Italian trattoria. A well-regarded neighborhood eatery with three Albuquerque locations, Il Vicino is probably best known for its wood-oven pizza and award-winning brewery with popular micro-brewed ales but it offers much more than that. Known in some circles for prized beers, Il Vicino has a private wine label designed to complement its menu. Victuals include salads, panini and piadine-style sandwiches and baked lasagna, too. Il Vicino has long been a fixture in Albuquerque’s Nob Hill area (3403 Central Avenue, S.E.) with a second location in the far Northeast Heights (11225 Montgomery Boulevard, N.E.). In November, 2009, a third Il Vicino was launched in the burgeoning Northwest side (10701 Coors Blvd, N.W.). You’re never too far away from Il Vicino.  Every year, Pizza Monthly, a highly respected trade publication, mails out surveys to independent pizzerias across the nation. Using their responses, they compile a “Hot 100 list” — a ranking…

AlbuquerqueAsianChineseJapaneseKoreanNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSushi

East Asian Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Perhaps more than anyone I’ve ever met, my Singaporean friend Ming Lee (God rest his beautiful soul) regarded people by the content of their character, not by physical characteristics.  So, it surprised me to hear him joke “we all look alike.”  It was an unsolicited admission that even he couldn’t always discern the cultural genesis of Asian people he met.  He also joked “at least I can always tell where an Asian restaurant’s food comes from.”  Ming was a bona fide gastronome who introduced me to the cuisine of Singapore and Malaysia.  Like me, he disliked restaurants in which overt homogenization of Asian food was apparent.  Sure, different culinary cultures across Southeast Asia have borrowed from one another over the millenia, but most adapt to cultural tastes rather than copy exactly. Ming was wary of Asian restaurants that purported to serve the cuisine of more than one Southeast Asian nation.  To him, the concepts of global cuisine and multicultural restaurants “dumbed down” what is best about each culinary culture.  We disagreed on the concept of fusion cuisine, the blending of elements from different cultures, creating new dishes that offer several cultures on a plate.  I like the concept when executed…

AlbuquerqueBar & GrillDog FriendlyMexicanNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Tacos

Calavida Cantina – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

At Calavida Cantina, you’re invited to “party like the dead.”  If you haven’t partied like the dead, you’re probably not well acquainted with the Mexican tradition of “El Dia De Los Muertos,” the Day of the Dead.  During this Mexican holiday, the profusion of skeletons of all sizes performing day-to-day activities signifies the return to this world of the dead who remain who they were when they lived, doing what they did.  For example, skeletal figures depicted on the artwork at Calavida Continue would have been party animals when they graced this earthly plane.  Therefore in death, they remain party animals–eating, drinking and being merry.   At Calavida, the party animals of a past life mingle with party animals of today in a milieu that’s the antithesis of a morgue or mortuary. When we first espied the Calavida Cantina, I worried my Spanish vocabulary was diminishing with age (I’m 39) and lack of practice.  It was a relief to learn that Calavida isn’t an actual word, but a portmanteau blending calavera (skull) with vida (life), “a nod to the Día de los Muertos belief that joy and remembrance can—and should—coexist.” Calavida “toasts to the past, celebrates the present, and crafts liquid stories for the…

AlbuquerqueAsianChineseNew MexicoRating: Excellent

Red Chilli House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Red “Chilli” House…doesn’t “Chilli” read like a misspelled word that knocked a spelling bee contestant out of the competition?  Or like someone added one too many letter “l’s” to the already misspelled word “chili?”  Actually, that spelling (which some of us purists consider Texan) is by design.   The delightful Chinese restaurant sporting that appellation–which opened its doors in June, 2024–wouldn’t change it.  Among other things, it illustrates just how important Capsicum is in some provinces of China, particularly Sichuan and Hunan. Capsicum, as most New Mexicans know, is the genus to which all chili (chile in New Mexico) peppers and bell peppers belong. The fruit of the capsicum plant contains a chemical called capsaicin, the active ingredient that gives chile its piquancy.  Historians widely agree that capsicum was unknown outside the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas before 1490s.  That’s when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and brought this red-fruited plant along with other food plants, such as maize, beans and squash, from the New World to the Old. When introduced to China in the 16th Century, chile peppers were called “barbarian peppers” on account of their foreign origin.  Eventually the province of Sichuan developed a profound…