Barbecue/Soul Food Albuquerque Restaurants
Albuquerque - Fairgrounds
Pepper’s Ole’ Fashion BBQ
Cuisine: Barbecue/Soul Food
Proprietor Daniel “Pepper” Morgan has an impressive résumé. More importantly, he learned to cook from his grandmother, who taught him the recipe for her barbecue sauce (tangy, smoky and practically drinkable) and passed on to him the soul of soul food. All of the barbecue at Pepper’s is spectacular. On the side, good luck choosing between collard greens with smoked turkey, garlicky mac ’n’ cheese, molten hot fried okra and sweet potato corn bread. Closed Mondays.
Full review: Barbecue for the soul ()
 | | |  | | 3.21 rating (58 votes) |
Stripes Biscuit Co.
Seven days a week, 7am-2pm (hours can change without notice)
Finally, I hit the Charlie, their biscuit French toast creation. It came with those crunchy papitas, honey butter, maple syrup and a very large sausage patty. I’ll say this about the sausage, and it’s not to be a negative; though it was homemade and well seasoned, I felt it was overcooked. I openly acknowledge that there are a number of factors why it was cooked to the well done standard, including health and safety issues, so if you’re like me and prefer a less well-cooked style, be sure to mention that when ordering. It tasted fantastic, and you could tell it was seasoned right before it was made, since the flavor was still in place when I bit into it. The French toast aspect left me torn, not because it tasted bad, but it was just so unexpected. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by light, fluffy brioche French toast, but with biscuit dough this was much heavier and thicker than you’d expect. Again, it wasn’t bad, but it’s certainly a big departure from what I usually expect in a French toast.
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Albuquerque - Far Northeast Heights
The County Line BBQ
Mon: Closed
Tue: 5pm- 9pm
Wed-Thu: 11:30am-2pm, 5pm-9pm
Fri:11:30am-9:30pm
Sat: 11:30am-9:30am
Sun: 11:30am-9pm (hours can change without notice)
$$$ • Vegetarian Available • Gluten-free available • Booze Served • Catering • Take Out / To-Go • Outdoor Patio
Everyone loves good, old-fashioned barbecue, and you’ll find heaps of it at the County Line. It has everything you could want: sweet corn on the cob, coleslaw, brown-sugar beans, you name it. Oh, and meat, meat, meat. The baby back ribs are especially good, as is the homemade hickory barbecue sauce. Wash it down with a pint and phenomenal city views, and you’ll be feeling right at home on the range.
| | | | | 4.18 rating (98 votes) |
Whole Hog Cafe
Sun - Tue 11:00am - 8:00pm
Wed - Sat 11:00am - 9:00pm (hours can change without notice)
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| | | | | 4.55 rating (20 votes) |
Albuquerque - I-25 Corridor
Nexus Brewery
Mon-Thu: 11am-9:30pm
Fri-Sat: 11am-10pm
Sun: 11am-8:30pm (hours can change without notice)
$$ • Booze Served • Wine Bar • Craft Beer • Growler refills • Take Out / To-Go • Live Music • Outdoor Patio • Wireless Internet • Dog-Friendly
This brewery has quite a following, both for the beer and as a “New Mexican soul food” gastropub. The menu offers specialties like New Orleans-style gumbo and the delicious marriage of chicken and waffles. It’s just the place to take your corn-bread-and-Frito-pie-craving friends while still getting your craft beer fix.
Read more: ABQ Beer Geek: Tractor taps Nob Hill, Nexus makes neighbors near I-25 (9/8/2011)
Read more: On the Hunt for Chicken and Waffles (2/20/2014)
| | | | | 4.08 rating (103 votes) |
Waffle Wich
This establishment does not yet have a description. Would you like to contribute one? Use the 'Any other notes' blank.
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Albuquerque - Midtown
Rudy’s “Country Store” and Bar-B-Q
Cuisine: Barbecue/Soul Food
The pulled pork at Rudy’s makes us drool like dogs under the dinner table. Heaped between two slices of pillowy white bread and kissed with sauce, the beef and pork ribs are absolute hog heaven. Rudy’s dining room takes “spartan” to a new level, but as the weather improves, so does our opinion of sitting out on their covered patio. Don’t forget to try the breakfast tacos with your choice of Rudy’s justifiably famous meats.
| | | | | 4.39 rating (28 votes) |
Albuquerque - Nob Hill
Bistronomy B2B
Mon and Tue 4pm-9pm
Wed 12pm-9pm
Thur-Sat 12pm-9:30pm (hours can change without notice)
$$ • Vegetarian Available • Booze Served • Full Bar • Craft Beer • Wine • Take Out / To-Go • Wireless Internet
This small restaurant has a straightforward goal: to serve the best damn local-beef hamburgers and microbrewed beers around. With eight burgers to choose from—including the delectable Nawlins with bleu cheese—and 33 local beers on tap, the joint should be a beacon for anyone with a carnivorous appetite while a selection of meatless burgers and impressive salads should satisfy vegetarians.
Read more: Burque Burger Week: All the Best Burgers in Albuquerque (5/23/2019)
Full review: B2B Bistronomy arrives in Nob Hill ()
| | | | | 3.67 rating (80 votes) |
Albuquerque - North Valley
Down N Dirty Seafood Boil
Mon-Fri 11am-9pm
Sat noon-9pm
Sun noon-8pm (hours can change without notice)
Coastal ex-pats thank God for small mercies like Down N Dirty Seafood Boil. Nothing instantly siphons the sea inland like sticking some steamy crustaceans in your face. And nowhere can you stick steamy crustaceans in your face with such abandon as at Down N Dirty, where the seafood is ordered by the pound and eating it is a question of no-frills efficiency. You’ll leave feeling like you just returned from a seaside vacation.
Full review: Down N Dirty Seafood Boil ()
Full review: Southern themed restaurant isn't hogwash ()
| | | | | 4.33 rating (18 votes) |
Mr. Powdrell’s Barbeque House
Tues-Thurs 11am-8:30pm
Fri-Sat 11am-9:30pm
Sun 11am-8pm
Closed Mondays (hours can change without notice)
Cuisine: Barbecue/Soul Food
Thick slices of beef, tender barbecued chicken and unbeatable cornmeal-dusted catfish are just a few of the items that make this a premier restaurant to blow your diet sky-high. But what really pushes this place over the edge are the fantastic side dishes like addictive fried okra, smoky, salty greens and tender black-eyed peas, which are prepared with the same reverence and care as the main attractions. We forbid you from leaving without first ordering a slice of superb sweet potato pie or a piping-hot bowl of cherry cobbler à la mode. Aw, what the hell—just get both and die happy. If you’re in a hurry, you can order to-go items from a side pickup area.
| | | | | 4.26 rating (33 votes) |
Albuquerque - Northeast Heights
Bacon Jam
Bacon Jam Restaurant is known for its all-day breakfast concept with beautiful comfy interior. Bacon Jam welcomes early risers and adventurous brunch and lunch goers.
| | | | | No Votes Yet! |
Firebird Nashville Hot Chicken
The collard greens ($3) were fantastic. With small chunks of pork within it, cooked down to perfection, they were full of sweetness and fatty goodness and didn’t last long in front of me. I jumped into the waffle, which was also great. A crispy exterior with a little fluffiness inside, drenched in butter and maple syrup by my own hand, I picked away at the majority of it that hadn’t touched the really cluckin’ hot chicken. I followed up with the mild sauce piece and devoured it faster than I’d like to admit. The chicken is super juicy, the skin is crispy and crunchy, and the mild sauce helped bring out some of the best flavors in the chicken, without detracting a thing. Full disclosure: I went back and ordered another piece of the mild because it was that good.
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Golden Pride BBQ, Chicken & Ribs
Yes, Golden Pride is technically a fried chicken joint, but it also serves fantastic barbecue and the best damn portable burritos in town. Drive through and order a flock of wings, a rack of ribs and a passel of No. 9 breakfast burritos (with bacon!). It’s all good with beer, by the way.
| | | | | 3.31 rating (32 votes) |
Albuquerque - Old Town
Ponderosa Brewing Company
Another brewery jostles for recognition in the crowded Albuquerque market place. This one, an expansion of a Portland, Ore. outfit, offers a tastefully appointed and classy dining area and a menu of pub-inspired gastro-delights like fish and chips, burgers and the like. As far as beer is concerned, check out the oatmeal stout or the Ghost Train IPA.
| | | | | 3.6 rating (5 votes) |
Albuquerque - Southeast
Golden Pride BBQ, Chicken & Ribs
M-Fri: 6am-10pm
Sat: 6:30am-10pm
Sun: 7am-10pm (hours can change without notice)
Yes, Golden Pride is technically a fried chicken joint, but it also serves fantastic barbecue and the best damn portable burritos in town. Drive through and order a flock of wings, a rack of ribs and a passel of No. 9 breakfast burritos (with bacon!). It’s all good with beer, by the way.
| | | | | 2.77 rating (14 votes) |
Mr. Powdrell’s Barbeque House
Cuisine: Barbecue/Soul Food
Back in business after a fire shuttered this location for a few years! Thick slices of beef, barbecued chicken sandwiches and unbeatable cornmeal-dusted catfish are just a few of the items that make this a premier restaurant to blow your diet sky-high. But what really pushes this place over the edge are the fantastic side dishes like their addictive fried okra, smoky, salty greens and tender black-eyed peas, which are prepared with the same reverence and care as the main attractions. We forbid you from leaving without first ordering a slice of their superb sweet potato pie or a piping hot bowl of cherry cobbler à la mode. Aw, what the hell—just get both and die happy.
| | | | | 3.67 rating (9 votes) |
Albuquerque - University
Golden Pride BBQ, Chicken & Ribs
Yes, Golden Pride is technically a fried chicken joint, but it also serves fantastic barbecue and the best damn portable burritos in town. Drive through and order a flock of wings, a rack of ribs and a passel of No. 9 breakfast burritos (with bacon!).
| | | | | 3.18 rating (11 votes) |
Quarters BBQ
You’ll probably have to battle full parking lots and at least a moderate wait, but these delays, annoying as they may be, are one of the best “reviews” a restaurant could hope for. Inside, the dim lighting and rustic décor easily fade away when an enormous pile of tender, saucy meat appears before you. The almost heat-free sauce is tangy and sweet but mellow enough to go down nice and easy without a pucker. Friends of the sausage will love the hot links: well-spiced and smoky dogs with a delightful snap. Not to mention the huge bar takes care of all your beer and cocktail needs.
| | | | | 3.88 rating (29 votes) |
Albuquerque - Uptown
S-A BBQ
Sun-Thu: 11am-10pm
Fri-Sat: 11am-Midnight (hours can change without notice)
Cuisine: Barbecue/Soul Food
The last thing I tried was the Smoked Out Spud ($7.99). A good baked potato cannot ever be beaten, and this was no exception. It was very soft by the time it came to me, giving me no issue in eating it. The potato almost fell apart in your mouth because it was so well cooked yet it wasn’t mushy or bad. Just delightful to eat. You can pick your meat (or not), with pork and chicken being free, or brisket and hot links being $1 extra. The whole of it is then covered with a generous helping of butter, cheese, chives, a red chile crema and your choice of BBQ sauce. This was hands down one of the best things I’ve eaten in a long time. The hot links on top with the toppings and the sauce made the whole meal so good, I nearly ended up shoveling it into my mouth because I couldn’t stop myself from going for the next bite before I was done with the current one.
Full review: S-A BBQ brings the smoke to Green Jeans ()
Alibi recommends: Smoked Out Spud
Vibe: Quick and delicious BBQ
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Albuquerque - Westside
Golden Pride BBQ, Chicken & Ribs
Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm
Sun: 7am-10pm (hours can change without notice)
Yes, Golden Pride is technically a fried chicken joint, but it also serves fantastic barbecue and the best damn portable burritos in town. Drive through and order a flock of wings, a rack of ribs and a passel of No. 9 breakfast burritos (with bacon!). It’s all good with beer, by the way.
| | | | | 3 rating (29 votes) |
