3 Best Restaurants in Albuquerque, New Mexico

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The Duke City has long been a place for hearty home-style cooking in big portions, and to this day it's easy to find great steak-and-chops houses, retro diners, and authentic New Mexican restaurants. The trick is finding them amid Albuquerque's miles of chain options and legions of dives, but if you look, you'll be rewarded with innovative food, and generally at prices much lower than in Santa Fe or other major Southwestern cities.

In Nob Hill, Downtown, and Old Town many notable new restaurants have opened, offering swank decor and complex and artful variations on modern Southwest, Mediterranean, Asian, and other globally inspired cuisine. A significant Vietnamese population has made that cuisine a star, but Indian, Japanese, Thai, and South American traditions all have a presence, making this New Mexico's best destination for ethnic fare.

Bosque Baking Company

$

Beautiful loaves—Old World Rye, South Valley Sourdough, Sunflower Seed Multigrain, and Rustic Baguettes—beckon at the open-kitchen storefront location of Bosque Baking. Tucked away in an historic neighborhood on the western edge of Downtown, it’s helmed by Jim Mecca, the best bread baker in town. While he also keeps a stand at the Corrales Market (on Sunday), visitors come here for great bread, empanadas (both savory and sweet), apricot scones, and perhaps a Ginger Molasses or Red Chile Chocolate Pecan cookie; in winter he’s been known to whip up batches of sublime soups as well.

Burque Bakehouse

$ | EDo

A smart little walk-up with a few outdoor counter-style stools to perch on (and enough parking to tailgate, as many do), Burque Bakehouse made its name at the local growers’ markets and now focuses on this standalone shop just a few blocks south of Central Avenue in the heart of EDo. The changing menu of freshly baked breads and pastries is scooped up fast—they might shut early when the day’s goods are gone.

Golden Crown Panaderia

$

Tucked between Old Town and the Wells Park neighborhood, this aromatic, down-home-style bakery opens early but is especially well known for two things: its hearty green-chile bread and its hand-tossed (thin-crust) pizzas made with blue corn, peasant, or green-chile dough. You can also order hot cocoa, cappuccino, an award-winning local IPA or lager (or wine), some biscochitos (the official state cookie), fruit-filled empanadas, sandwiches, and a popular coffee milkshake. Take out or dine in (perhaps on the pet-friendly patio).

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