Sunday, June 27, 2004

Albuquerque

Chowhound's Southwest Message Board: Re(1): Best breakfast in ABQ?

Also ...

I like Los Cuates in Lomas for carne adovada and Taco Sals, on the corner of Eubank and Menal, for a sopapilla binge--the best in town. Good huevos rancheros, with fried potatoes, and good red chili.

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Los Cuates ("the twins"- Los Cuartos means "the rooms" in Spanish)in ABQ, used to be better. The owner passed away more than a year ago and I understand the restaurant is now owned by Little Anita's...which is a death knell IMHO. When it was in its prime, I found Los Cuates' food very similar to Tomasita's!

See a recommendation somewhere below for a restaurant in ABQ call Los Amigos...apparently owned by former cooks at Los Cuates. The thread was about restaurants close to I-40.

My favorite items at Mucho Gusto are the stuffed chicken breast with a chipotle cream sauce, and the chile relleno in a tomato-cinnamon sauce. I do miss the Old Mexico Grill.


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It's "Dos Amigos," Desert Rat, but that is the place where a number of Los Cuates employees went after they jumped ship when Frank Barela died and the family sold Los Cuates to the Little Anita's people. This sale was with the caveat that the recipes could not change - I don't know that they have, actually . . . LC is still good, but nothing like in its heyday about 15 years ago. Like anywhere, they have their days, good and bad. The place is certainly cleaner than it was a few years ago. It is not as consistently wonderful as it was in days of yore, alas.

Anyway, Dos Amigos is on 4th just S of I-40, on the W side of the street. It's good as well, but - again - not quite up to the LC of the old days.

You know where I actually had a good NM meal recently? Sadie's, of all places. The bowl of red that I had was quite good (although the amount of ground beef inside was a joke) and the carne adovada was excellent.

Mary & Tito's Tavern - yum, now that's some good carne adovada . . . that's 4th St in ABQ just N of Menaul on the W side.

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Hi there -

Maybe try El Charritos on Central. Just take I25 down from Santa Fe to Central Ave. Go West through downtown and over the Rio Grande. El Charritos is a couple of stoplights past the Rio Grande on the right side.

Try the carne adovada plate!

El Charritos
4703 Central Ave NW
(505) 836-2464

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Well, I've been here in Albuquerque for 4 months now and have chowed all over the place. So far, my favorite place for New Mexican grub is:

El Charrito Restaurant
4703 CENTRAL AVE NW
(Central west of the Rio Grande)

Has anyone else been there?

The guy that owns Old Town Bikes recommended it several months ago and I haven't found a better place yet! It's clean, nice atmosphere (check out the paintings of Taos Pueblo done by some local painter, a retired police officer, I think), and consistently good food. We've had non-stop visitors here this summer and every time we've taken them to El Charrito.

Here's what I recommend:

- Skip the chips and appetizers.
- Try the carne adovado plate (the most lean and tender I've had!)
- Try the tamales.
- Try the chile relleno.
- Pour honey all over those sopapillas and enjoy!

Let me know what you think. And if you know of a better place, let me know so I can stop going to the same place every weekend after a long hike in the mountains :-)

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