Albuquerque - Downtown
Artichoke Café
Lunch:
Mon-Fri: 11am-2:30pm
Dinner:
Sun-Thu: 5pm-9pm
Fri-Sat: 5pm-10pm
Happy Hour:
Mon-Fri: 3pm-6pm
Closed Sunday (hours can change without notice)
It just makes sense to order the steamed artichoke at the Artichoke Café. Slathered in lemon-caper oil and a raspberry vinaigrette, it makes a great starter before trying a heftier order of grilled curried chicken or sliced steak. Once your upscale lunch or dinner has concluded, adjourn to the sexy wine bar next door. The wine list is actually a bound leather tome featuring a massive assortment of wines. Prices start at a decent $28 or $30 a bottle and zoom into the upper stratospheres of frivolity. You can also order select vintages by the half-bottle or glass. You'll love the front-facing windows, curvy wooden bar and comfy seating.
Full review: Artichoke Cafe maintains excellence for 30 years ()
Alibi recommends: Any of their signature drinks will pair wonderfully with the menu. The raviolis are especially wonderful.
Vibe: High-end dining in a clean, classy locale
 | | |  | | 3.5 rating (92 votes) |
Albuquerque - Fairgrounds
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) |
Albuquerque - Far Northeast Heights
Pelican’s Restaurant
Mon-Thurs: 4pm-10pm
Fri-Sat: 4pm-11pm
Sun: 11am-10pm (hours can change without notice)
Meals Served: Dinner
Rough-hewn wood planks lead you into this nautically-themed steak and seafood restaurant, which doesn’t start seating for dinner until 5pm. Luckily, happy hour begins at 4pm. Have a Lady Godiva hot cocktail and a baker's dozen of topless oysters in the bar while you wait. Then dive into creamy clam chowder, butter-sweet Australian lobster tail and Ranchero center-cut top sirloin. There's plenty of key lime pie in the icebox and Phil Collins on the speakers.
Full review: Lips Ahoy! ()
| | | | | 4.03 rating (76 votes) |
Albuquerque - Nob Hill
Frenchish
Cuisine: French
Jennifer James goes casual-ish with this Nob Hill eatery that serves up everything from a heavenly seared foie gras on grilled bread pudding drizzled with bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup to a whimsical carrot dog. The wine selection is great and there are weekly off-menu specials like lamb and mocha baked Alaska.
Full review: Jennifer James goes casual-ish ()
| | | | | 4 rating (5 votes) |
Yanni's & Lemoni Lounge
Tues-Thurs: 11am-9:30pm
Fri-Sat: 11am-10:30pm
Sun-Mon: 11:30am-8:30pm (hours can change without notice)
$$$$ • Vegetarian Available • Gluten-free available • Booze Served • Full Bar • Wine Bar • Live Music
You love Yanni's. So do we. Their adjoined Lemoni Bar seats about 85 people and is open for lunch, dinner or just cocktails. Painted natural tones and accented with elegant lighting, the lounge provides a subtle contrast to the bright, light and airy dining rooms at Yanni's. It’s an ideal place for pre- or post-movie cocktails and snacks, or more substantial cuisine. Their green chile Bloody Mary will certainly boost your brunch.
Full review: Yanni’s Mediterranean Grill ()
| | | | | 3.83 rating (103 votes) |
Albuquerque - North Valley
St. James Tearoom
Tues-Wed: 11am,1:30pm,4 pm
Thurs-Sat: 11am, 1:30pm, 4pm, 6:30pm
Sun: 11am-1:30pm (hours can change without notice)
Meals Served: Lunch
Sure, you’ve had tea before, but have you ever really had tea before? You know, with quaint little scones and clotted cream? Do you even know what clotted cream is? Well, the ladies over at the St. James Tearoom sure do, and they’d love to inform and inspire you with the lost art of proper tea service—the proprietress, Mary Alice Higbie, is a certified tea consultant through the Protocol School of Washington in D.C. (we’re serious). The $44 full afternoon tea includes three pots of different premium loose teas and an elegant three-tiered serving tray that’s loaded with assorted savories and finger sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, homemade lemon curd and other sweets. For a $7 upgrade you can have a Royal Tea, which includes a glass of Gruet (call for reservations). The Tearoom’s Cherriwyn China Shop carries a lovely selection of tea accessories, too.
| | | | | 3.94 rating (59 votes) |
Vernon’s Speakeasy
Mon-Sun: 4:30pm-9:30pm
Fri-Sat Happy Hour: 9pm-11pm
Sunday Brunch: 10:30am-3pm (hours can change without notice)
$$$$ • Vegetarian Available • Booze Served • Full Bar • Wine • Live Music • Outdoor Patio • Smoking Permitted • Lounge
Vernon’s is a swanky underground spot for good eats and high times, delivered speakeasy-style. The dining room is walled with lustrous, ebony adobe, and the tables are clothed in crisp, black and white linens. By the glass or bottle, there’s plenty of quality hooch. The menu is classic steakhouse stuff with beef tournedos in a silky demi-glace, fresh fish and a damn fine veal Oscar. Check out the Black Diamond Lounge to take in the fancy cocktails and live music.
Full review: Dine well and speakeasy ()
| | | | | 3.26 rating (121 votes) |
Albuquerque - Old Town
Antiquity Restaurant
Sun-Thurs: 5-9pm
Fri-Sat: 5-10pm (hours can change without notice)
This creeking wooden-floored and quaint restaurant is located in Old Town and is one of the few places in the city unafraid of serving a very rare steak. The all around energy is charming and old timy, and their menu is thoughtful and satisfying. Save your money and treat yo self.
| | | | | 4.09 rating (61 votes) |
High Noon Restaurant & Saloon
Sun 12pm-9pm
Mon-Sat 11am-9:30pm (hours can change without notice)
$$$$ • Vegetarian Available • Booze Served • Catering • Take Out / To-Go • Live Music • Wireless Internet • Lounge
This Old Town favorite offers something to suit most appetites, from green chile cheeseburgers to rock shrimp pappardelle, and it’s all served up in the adobe warmth of a 200-year-old hacienda. Don’t skip the drinks: They offer several excellent Margaritas to slake your thirst.
Full review: High Noon Restaurant and Saloon ()
| | | | | 3.31 rating (81 votes) |
Level 5
If you want to impress someone from out of town, take them to Level 5. This rooftop restaurant and bar atop Hotel Chaco boasts panoramic views of the Sandias and a cocktail menu for folks who expect stellar mixed drinks. Want to know what venison carpaccio tastes like? Or a $48 steak? Make a reservation at Level 5.
Full review: Level 5 has sublime food in posh setting ()
| | | | | No Votes Yet! |
Restaurant Antiquity
It’s a classy kind of joint, this Antiquity; tablecloths, waiters with bow ties and fancified French food (including seafood) that will push you toward ecstasy even as it drains your pocketbook. But it’s unmistakably Albuquerque too. For one thing it’s in an ancient Old Town hacienda, the kind with an uneven floor, two-foot-thick walls at every doorway and rooms that ramble back farther than you would ever guess from the outside. For another, the blue-jeaned may mix freely with the formally attired in that wonderful New Mexican way that so annoys the Easterners among us.
Full review: Hide from the world at Antiquity ()
Alibi recommends: The tenderloin au poivre and whatever’s on special.
Vibe: Romantic, cozy and candlelit. Really an escape from the rest of the world.
| | | | | 3.3 rating (56 votes) |
Albuquerque - Sandia Pueblo
Bien Shur
The nickel slots are bright, noisy: Bien Shur is subdued, quiet, tasteful. The dining room is classy and beautiful but still comfortable, leaving diners to contemplate the wonderful contemporary cuisine and stunning views of the city and Sandia mountains. After your meal, you can head back downstairs into the casino scuffle for some live jazz in the Tlur P’a Lounge and a hand of video poker.
Full review: Not so sure ()
Read more: Bar Review: A Sandia Staycation (2/22/2018)
| | | | | 3.1 rating (67 votes) |
Albuquerque - University
Ranchers Club
Ranchers Club is arguably the city’s fanciest restaurant, where fine steaks and seafood are king. Certainly, it has the dining room with the most formal service—tuxedos and golden-domed plates and all—but with live music and expertly crafted cocktails, the resplendent bar is also worth your time. This is the place we like to go for really special occasions—like when someone else is paying or when we want to break a hunger strike.
| | | | | 3.15 rating (68 votes) |
Albuquerque - Westside
Pelican’s Restaurant
Mon-Thurs: 5-10:30pm
Fri-Sat: 5-11:30pm
Sun: 11am-10pm
*Bar opens every day at 4pm (hours can change without notice)
Rough-hewn wood planks lead you into this nautically themed steak and seafood restaurant, which doesn’t start seating for dinner until 5pm. Luckily, happy hour begins at 4pm. Have a Lady Godiva hot cocktail and a baker's dozen of topless oysters in the bar while you wait. Then dive into creamy clam chowder, butter-sweet Australian lobster tail and Ranchero center-cut top sirloin. There's plenty of key lime pie in the icebox and Phil Collins on the speakers.
| | | | | 2.17 rating (69 votes) |
