Fairgrounds Albuquerque Restaurants
Albuquerque - Fairgrounds
ABC Cake Shop
Mon-Sat: 7am-6pm
Sun: 9am-3pm (hours can change without notice)
A whole room at this shop is dedicated to displaying wedding cakes, its forté. Kids' cakes can be adorned with anything from Shrek to Kermit the Frog. Basic sheet cakes can be ordered to serve anywhere from 15 to 96 guests. Choose from cakes like marble, German chocolate or carrot; fillings like Bavarian cream, blueberry or chocolate fudge; and icings including butter cream, chocolate chipped cream and cream cheese. Cakes aside, a wide selection of Danishes, like strawberry cheese, praline and apricot, are also very tempting. The cookie selection is worth testing, especially Chinese almond and lemon coconut.
 | | | |  | 3.58 rating (72 votes) |
Baggin’s Gourmet Sandwiches
Cuisine: Deli/Sandwiches
Baggin’s prepares satisfying hot and cold sandwiches at a decent price. The Sundown is a staple for chronic dine-’n’-drivers: basically a turkey dinner in sandwich form, complete with stuffing and cranberry sauce. Try it on toasted whole wheat or sourdough instead of the standard roll. This old-school sandwich emporium has been at the top of our BoBR categories for Best Sandwich and Best Soup many times over the years.
| | | | | 3.68 rating (79 votes) |
Blake’s Lotaburger
Mon-Thurs: 6am-9pm
Fri-Sat:6am-10pm
Sun: 7am-9pm (hours can change without notice)
Cuisine: American
A New Mexico tradition since 1952! For an award-winning (for both Best Burger and Best French Fries), quick burger or chili dog, fresh fries and fountain favorites that hit the spot for just a pocketful of change, it’s got to be Blake’s. Countless counters are scattered throughout the city, and each one is a model of efficiency and cleanliness. Why look any further?
| | | | | 2.63 rating (8 votes) |
Bombay Spice
10am-8pm 7 days a week (hours can change without notice)
A family-owned grocery with a mission “to get top class, quality ingredients from our motherland India” including spices, dals (various types of lentils, peas and beans), frozen food and snacks.
| | | | | No Votes Yet! |
Buffett’s Candies
Mon-Sat: 9am-6pm
Sun: 12:30-5pm (hours can change without notice)
As you’re already well aware, Buffett's Candies is home to the largest candy cane this side of the Mississippi. (Admit it, you’ve always wanted to pop in and see if it’s got melon-sized bonbons to boot.) All the candies are made fresh with real butter, cream and sugar, and if there is piñon in it, you can be sure it came from New Mexico. And what tastes more like love than chocolate and piñon?
| | | | | 3.42 rating (46 votes) |
Café Da Lat
Consistently one of the best Vietnamese joints in town. Da Lat does a magnificent breaded frog leg appetizer. The crispy golden legs are scrumptious dipped in Da Lat's salty, tangy nuoc cham sauce.
Full review: Creative food, pho sure ()
Full review: Café Da Lat’s wondrous soups outpace competition ()
| | | | | 3.1 rating (72 votes) |
Cesar's Mexican & Greek
While the food is hit or miss here, you can always count on some space for quiet contemplation whether you’re inside or at the drive-thru at 3pm or 3am. The Mexican food is slightly more consistent but the gyros plate is always good.
| | | | | 3.6 rating (10 votes) |
Chopstix
Tue-Thu: 11am-8pm
Fri-Sat: 11am-9pm
Sun: 11am-8pm
Mon: Closed (hours can change without notice)
Cuisine: Chinese
Chopstix is a real culinary adventure with authentic Beijing-style cuisine. You'll find dishes like sweet red bean-stuffed steamed buns, dan dan noodles, mustard green and dried bean curd, and cashew chicken. Amuse your server to no end by ordering the pickled green and pork noodles, a traditional dish that "only Chinese people like!" A few bucks gets you a huge bowl filled with a rich, porky broth, rice noodles, bok choy, tripe and irregular chunks of pork belly, striated with fat and muscle—not for the meek of pork, to be sure.
Full review: The fish soup is sssmmokin’ ()
Full review: And Chopstix Chinese Cuisine proves it ()
| | | | | 1.91 rating (36 votes) |
Christy Mae's
Cuisine: American
If your grandma's like ours, she's not one for fancy meals with odd ingredients or avant-garde decor. Instead, she'll be after good ingredients and impeccable service. That's where Christy Mae's comes in. Owned by the Tricarico family, recipes cooked from scratch, in-house baking, hearty soups and beautiful chicken pot pies promise to please your granny and anyone else looking for a down-home atmosphere and good portions at reasonable prices.
Read more: The Dish: Do I Really Love Anything? (9/5/2019)
| | | | | 3.46 rating (13 votes) |
Cielito Lindo
Cielito Lindo is named for a love song that is considered to be the unofficial national anthem of Mexico. While it may not be completely authentic Mexican seafood, it is terribly wonderful and a popular hidden gem with in-the-know locals. We recommend the medium oysters, they’re delectable.
| | | | | 3.86 rating (7 votes) |
The Cooperage
Mon-Fri: 11am-2:30pm, 5pm-10pm
Sat: noon-2:30pm, 5pm-10pm
Sun: noon-9pm (hours can change without notice)
The Cooperage is old-school Albuquerque, right down to the dusty light fixtures. The barrel-shaped steakhouse has been a standby for 30 years thanks to its mile-long complimentary salad and soup bar, aged steaks (at a place like this, prime rib is king) and a big dance floor that’s always packed on the weekends.
| | | | | 3.31 rating (100 votes) |
The Crown Room
Located at the end of a long corridor in the Downs Casino, the Crown Room’s very existence is something of a surprise. Even more surprising is just how elegant the cozy dining room is. The chaos of the casino outside the door quickly fades away as you dive into cuts of steak that rival the finest in town. Sure, it’ll set you back a few bucks, but the experience is not to be missed.
| | | | | 2.5 rating (2 votes) |
Fareast Fuzion
Mon-Thurs: 11am-9pm
Fri: 11am-10pm
Sat: noon-10pm
Sun: noon-8pm (hours can change without notice)
You may remember Bangkok Asian Fusion, which used to occupy this place. Now there’s a grand, shiny sushi bar with a huge fish tank behind it that lays out generous portions of great sushi. A plate of sashimi, densely and artfully arranged, turns the table into a school of piranhas. Each variety of fish is carefully garnished with complementary flavors, with the squid tossed in wasabi tobiko being particularly memorable. The seafood salad has so many chunks of raw fish among the greens that you can’t stick your chopsticks in without getting any.
Full review: Fresh food—and a lot of it—at Fareast Fuzion ()
| | | | | 4.18 rating (17 votes) |
Frank’s Famous Chicken and Waffles
Cuisine: American
You know what’s good here? The chicken. Also, the waffles. Ex-Lobo basketball player Frank Willis’ food has proven to be a staple in the Burque foodie scene. Willis and family know their way around a kitchen and serve up some great soul food, from the titular combo platter to cheese grits and beef hotlinks.
Read more: The Dish: Do I Really Love Anything? (9/5/2019)
Read more: The Rise of Fall Spice (9/26/2019)
Read more: On the Hunt for Chicken and Waffles (2/20/2014)
| | | | | 4.75 rating (4 votes) |
Gen Kai
Mon: 11am-7:30pm
Tue: Closed
Wed-Sat: 11am-7:30pm
Sun: noon-6:30pm (hours can change without notice)
Rising up from the asphalt sea of the Talin Market parking lot, Gen Kai is a Japanese restaurant that offers an oasis from the heat and chaos of the International District. Sushi is on hand, naturally, and salt-brothed ramen, but the real star here are the donburi bowls. Our favorite is the oyako don, in which dashi-soaked rice is topped with a fried combination of chicken and egg with two forms of onion: bulb and green.
| | | | | 4.5 rating (4 votes) |
Helen’s Bakery
You could miss the decayed pink, green and purple cross that adorns Helen’s Bakery just north of Lomas in the blink of an eye but there you’ll find rows of Mexican pastries, cookies and rolls tucked away inside glass cases or cooling on a big metal rack up front. If you don’t speak Spanish, here’s how it all works: Walk up to the register, grab a pair of tongs and a cafeteria tray and load up on sweet treats. A little café serves savory Mexican snacks like tacos and chicharrones by the pound. As for meals, try the menudo.
| | | | | 3.16 rating (97 votes) |
Kap’s Coffee Shop and Diner
This venerable Route 66 diner has been kicking around various locations on Central for about 40 years now. True, after an extensive remodel, the interior isn’t quite period accurate for the Mother Road’s golden age, but the decor straddles the line between kitschy and classy quite nicely. The menu remains decidedly old-school with the requisite hot cakes and huevos rancheros, and so do the prices.
Full review: March goes all Jethro on y’all at Kap’s Coffee Shop ()
| | | | | 5 rating (3 votes) |
La Michoacana de Paquime
Cuisine: Ice Cream/Smoothies/Gelato/Fro-Yo
This paleteria sells all kinds of freshly made cold treats like mango and hot-cold-sweet-salty-sour chile paletas (popsicles), strawberries with cream and nonalcoholic piña coladas. Of course, you can still satisfy your sweet tooth at the original La Michoancana, which is just south of Isleta and Rio Bravo. Either way, it’s worth the drive.
Full review: The art and science of beating the heat, from the Far Northeast Heights to the South Valley, Philly to Michoacán ()
| | | | | 4.07 rating (15 votes) |
Le Bistro
Mon-Sun 9am-9pm (hours can change without notice)
This Vietnamese joint is a triple threat of sit-down restaurant, a take-out spot and a bubble tea cafe. Their menu is huge and friendly to all sorts of dietary restrictions, and the food is super tasty. Some say that Le Bistro has the best pho in town. We say you should probably go and try it, just to see if what they say is true.
| | | | | No Votes Yet! |
Pho Linh Vietnamese Grill
10am-9pm Tuesday-Sunday (hours can change without notice)
One of the few places in this city where you can get seven kinds of beef in one sitting. Or if you aren’t in a beefy mooood, try another authentic Vietnamese dish from the huge menu, like fresh spring rolls, wonton egg noodle soup or cashew tofu. Pair it up with a fresh coconut milk shake and you’ve got yourself a meal. This is a great hidden jewel of a date spot, so show your significant other that you’ve got class—and lemongrass (try some wrapped around the beef ball appetizer).
Full review: Seven meaty courses at Pho Linh ()
Read more: Dining Out: A Beginner’s Guide to Veg-Life (1/21/2016)
| | | | | 2.8 rating (56 votes) |
