Sunny Side Up

\ Oct 09, 2014

7 min read

Best Huevos Rancheros

New Mexican restaurants live or die by their huevos rancheros. It’s the bellwether for the rest of the menu. The Range Café knows how to cook up a winner with a huge helping of huevos rancheros that includes blue corn tortillas and white cheddar cheese. The menu also offers a slow-roasted carne adovada version for an added touch of luxury.

2) Frontier Restaurant

3) Garcia’s

Best Breakfast Burritos

There’s a reason these guys win year after year. The people at Frontier and Golden Pride know that fresh tortillas are the cornerstone of a quality breakfast burrito. Scrambled eggs, hash browns, green chile and cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla make for a handheld item Burqueños can’t resist. Bacon lovers know to make it a Golden Pride #9.

2) Blake’s Lotaburger

3) Twisters

Best Pancakes

Forget puny little silver dollar pancakes. The Range Café serves up hot cakes as big as your head, and even a short stack will fill up a hungry diner. We can’t speak for everyone, but we’d like to think that the blue corn cakes with toasted piñon nuts tipped the odds in this classy diner’s favor. But all we know for sure is the readers have spoken, and they say The Range has the best hot cakes in town.

2) The Grove Café & Market / Weck’s

3) Frontier Restaurant

Best Waffles

Tia B’s La Waffleria burst onto the scene earlier this year, and we’ve got a feeling that our Best Waffle category will never be the same. An offshoot of Tia Betty Blue’s on San Mateo, the Waffleria focuses on one thing and one thing only: waffles. Whether you choose sweet waffles topped with fresh fruit or savory waffles smothered in carne adovada, you’re in for a treat. The blue corn waffles are especially delightful and gluten free.

2) Nexus Brewery

3) Frank’s Famous Chicken & Waffles

Best Eggs

The staple of any good breakfast, the mighty egg can make or break your morning. Voters agree that The Egg & I does justice to its namesake, as well it should. Scrambled, over easy, over medium, sunny side up, this café has got it covered. Albuquerque has some other good eggs in the basket, including runners-up Mannies and The Grove.

2) Mannies Family Restaurant

3) The Grove Café & Market

Best Bacon

How does one restaurant take home the prize for best bacon year after year in Albuquerque? Well, it has to put its own spin on the meaty treat, preferably with some chile. And that’s exactly how Gold Street Caffé, with its red chile-glazed bacon, has managed to hold our pork-loving attention for over a decade.

2) The Range Café

3) Café Lush

Best Healthy Breakfast

Egg white frittata with seasonal vegetables, arugula salad and Pecorino cheese. Housemade granola and organic yogurt. It’s easy to eat a healthier breakfast when The Grove offers such delectable options on its menu. Of course our first runner-up Flying Star Café is an old standby for health-conscious morning options; while new-to-the-scene The Shop has already captured our readers’ attention with its good-for-you offerings.

2) Flying Star Café

3) The Shop

Best Cuppacoffee

Where would Albuquerque be without coffee? Let’s face it—we’d come to a complete standstill. Luckily, the Duke City is home to a good number of local coffee shops out of which voters have decided Michael Thomas Coffee Roasters is the best. In fact, they love them enough that MTC has recently opened a second location in Nob Hill to keep us powering through the day.

2) Satellite Coffee / Flying Star Café

3) Zendo

Best Brunch

If you have any doubts that Albuquerque thinks The Grove has the best brunch, just pay a visit on the weekends when the line stretches out the doors. It’s okay, though. We’ll happily wait for our croque-madame and spot on the patio. The baristas’ exquisite latte art alone is worth a visit.

2) Slate Street Café

3) Farm & Table / The Shop

Best Biscuits And Gravy

Once again, Weck’s delivers with a belly-bustin’ lineup of plump biscuits swimming in made-from-scratch gravy. The meal is big enough to satisfy any appetite, even without the two eggs and optional ham, bacon, sausage or turkey sausage.

2) Mannies Family Restaurant

3) Duke City Donuts / The Range Café

Best Chicken Fried Steak

When Alibi readers want their steak country style, battered and fried and so big it hangs off the edge of the plate, they head up to the North Valley where Murphy’s Mule Barn has a table waiting for them.

2) Vic’s Daily Café

3) Weck’s

Best Hashbrowns / Home Fries

You’ll find yourself saying “Come to papa” when you order taters at Weck’s. Its Bowl O’ Papas comes piled high with hashbrowns, cheese and an egg, and can also be done up with options like carnitas and carne adovada. Or order it “sloppy” with a heart-stopping (or artery clogging) trinity of gravy, sausage and bacon.

2) Frontier Restaurant

3) Shade Tree Customs & Café

Best Breakfast For Dinner

Breakfast for dinner doesn’t mean settling for cold cereal in front of the TV—as nice as that is sometimes. Voters say the huevos con queso from The Range Café is the best choice for enjoying a morning meal in the evening. The crunchy English muffin, meaty Canadian bacon, fluffy poached egg and delectable cheese sauce make for one of the best bites when balanced delicately on your fork all at once.