Gourmet

Artichoke Café

Artichoke Café

Any joint with the balls to call itself some­thing so brazenly New York bet­ter pony up where the food is con­cerned. An impres­sive and reg­u­larly updated menu. Gourmet clien­tèle; classy, com­plex grub; and the arti­choke apps are to-die-for. The cheese plat­ter, while pricey, is scrump­tious. Ter­rific wait ser­vice, as you’d expect. Albuquerque at its fine-dining-est.

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Casa de Benavidez

Casa de Benavidez

Where other high-end New Mex­i­can restau­rants might look mod­eled on a house, here you’re wait­ing to be seated in Paul and Rita’s old foyer–and eat­ing on their porch. It’s gourmet New Mex­i­can made with love–ain’t a lot of places can boast that com­bi­na­tion, and no other in Burque that we’re aware of.

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Farina Pizzeria

Farina Pizzeria

This is what pizza is like when real food­ies get in the kitchen. Opened in 2008 by one of Albuquerque’s most estab­lished fine-dining restau­rants, the Arti­choke Café, Farina has been packed to the walls since day one.

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Flying Star Café / Satellite Coffee

Flying Star Café / Satellite Coffee

Yes Till 11

A local busi­ness owner’s wet dream, the Star began as a far-flung satel­lite of Cal­i­for­nia ice cream chain The Dou­ble Rain­bow. Took a few years for the new name to catch on and old-time locals will still refer to them as “the Dou­ble Yuppy”, apro­pos of their growth model. It used to be the place you rec­om­mended every­one new in town go. Now, the Star’s the kind of place you take wealthy rel­a­tives ready to foot the bill.

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Gold St Caffé

Gold St Caffé

The epi­curean cen­ter of Gold Avenue (it’s a mys­tery why it’s called Gold St), and a stan­dard meet­ing place for count­less down­town pro­fes­sion­als. It’s frankly hard to imag­ine a meal there gone wrong.

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Holy Cow

Holy Cow

Potentially

After his first lonely year in a crappy two bed­room apart­ment on Mont­gomery, Don moved to Wal­ter, in Hun­ing High­lands, about two blocks from Cen­tral and two blocks from Bob’s Fish & Chips (which was aban­doned, and remained that way for the bet­ter part of 19 years). So when Holy Cow took over the spot on High Street and Cen­tral this year, Don knew he’d try it.

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Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

Your one-stop por­tal to the 20 pueb­los of New Mex­ico. Gas sta­tion (with tobacco and papers), his­tory, trav­el­ing exhibits, work by local artists, a high-end gift shop and wine-your-future-boss-here restau­rant all in a huge, recently remod­eled (and gor­geous) site.

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Contact for Prices

Jennifer James 101

One of the clos­est expe­ri­ences to New York fine din­ing Albu­querque offers, Jen­nifer James makes an impres­sive first date. While everything’s on the upper end of “pricey,” the qual­ity and por­tions are worth every penny.

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Jo's Place

Yes

Will this mad­ness end? Local genius Den­nis Apo­daca opened this place (named after Mom, who works there some­times) as the third in his dynasty of quirky family-run dives, all within a quarter-mile strip. (The oth­ers being the nationally-recognized Sophia’s Place and hidden-away Ezra’s Place.) Late breakfast, late lunch, espresso.

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Johndhi's BBQ

Johndhi's BBQ

One of the North Valley’s hid­den tesoros. They’re known for their sauce, and any of their slow-cooked meats is the per­fect com­ple­ment. In the warmer months, chill on the back patio with a pretty dang good request-taking gui­tar picker (he knows pre­cisely two Willie Nel­son songs).

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Mr. Powdrell's

Mr. Powdrell's

A leg­endary home­town busi­ness in El Duque. Though known for their cat­fish, the pork ribs are the best – and really, the whole menu is qual­ity. The atmos­phere… well, you’re eat­ing in a liv­ing room.

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Nob Hill Bar & Grill

Nob Hill Bar & Grill

F-Sa till 10:30

Atten­tion sin­gle guys with a mar­tini pref­er­ence and cou­ples pon­der­ing an anniver­sary date.

Both side­step­ping snob­bery and fill­ing ambi­tiously large shoes, they make some great gourmet Amer­i­can favorites.

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