May Hong

This is my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Albuquerque.  But first, some background and disclaimer.  I used to live in Albuquerque and May Hong opened up shortly after I moved there.  We started eating there the first week they opened, and for about a year, we were regulars and ate there once a week.  It was also some of my first Vietnamese food.

The place is small, with about 10 booths around the outside walls and 8 tables in the center.  The booths are the originals from 1999, and are starting to show their age.  They have some kind of Vietnamese pop/rock playing in the background.

They have really good soups here, so Frank got some kind of chicken soup.  It comes with noodles and a side of sprouts and greens (cilantro, etc.) to put in it.  The serving is huge - it was great!

I got the vermicellli (bun) with grilled pork and shrimp.  In the past, this came on a platter with the vermicelli in woven mats and large pieces of lettuce, and you would make lettuce wraps out of everything.  This time, it came in a large bowl, with loose noodles and the lettuce and cucumbers were all chopped up.  You also get a side of fish sauce.  [When I was in Houston, the Vietnamese restaurants I ate at there all used bowls, too.]   It tasted great!

We also got an appetizer of spring rolls.  These are the noodles and grilled pork and shrimp and mint rolled up in the clearish wrap.  And the fish sauce was a bit spicy too, and delicious.

They have ice tea, but it's Jasmine tea with a slice of  lime.  It was okay.

So, how do they rank now, compared to 1999?  If I hadn't been there before, I would say it was really very good Vietnamese food.  But since I have been there, I compare it to how it used to be.  The food still tastes really good, but the quality has gone down slightly, possibly because of the recession.  That said, I'd still give them at least 4 stars now.  They're much better than any Vietnamese place I've eaten at in Northwest Arkansas.  So, 4 to 4-1/2 stars.  Oh, and did I mention our bill?  Total cost $23!!!

Twisters

This is an Albuquerque chain, and we always go to the one on Juan Tabo, near the interstate.  If you've never had a New Mexico breakfast burrito, then you've really never had a breakfast burrito.  Twisters offers a huge variety, with different meats and chiles.  My personal favorite is a relatively new creation, the El Nino breakfast burrito for kids.  Every time we visit Albuquerque, we buy a huge pile of breakfast burritos for our drive home (it's about 12-13 hours) and that's literally all we eat on our drive home.

So, the El Nino.  Supposedly this is a child-sized burrito, but it's much bigger than anything you get from your regular fast food places.  If I'm hungry, I can just eat 2 of them.  The ingredients are Carne Adovada and fried potatoes.  Carne Adovada is pork that is slow roasted/stewed in New Mexico red chile sauce.  Combine that with fried potatoes in a burrito and you have heaven!  I swear, Carne Adovada is addictive!  The last time we were in Albuquerque, I had El Ninos for 7 out of the 8 days we were there!  That's how good they are! 

The El Ninos cost about $2 each.  The regular breakfast burritos on the menu run more like $4.50 each.  Before you freak out about the price, remember, these are not the little skimpy fast food burritos you are used to.  These are real breakfast burritos that are designed to fill you up.  So you get plenty of food for your money.

I also like to get my green chile chicken chimichangas here too.  They are really big and very tasty!

I haven't eaten inside in years, usually we just go to the drive-through.  The service is generally fast and friendly.  And they now carry sweet tea too!  So I'm going to give them 4-1/2 stars.

Los Cuates

Unfortunately, this restaurant is in Albuquerque, not NWA.  I've labeled this restaurant as New Mexican, not Mexican, because there is a difference.  That difference is Chile!

We went to the restaurant on Menaul Blvd, for a late lunch.  They have a number of lunch specials, but these specials make you choose between rice or beans; you don't get both.  So I opted for a regular entree and got one of my favorites:  a green chile chicken chimichanga.

Everyone probably knows what a chimichanga is by now - a fried flour burrito.  Well, when you're in New Mexico, you also get a choice of chile to put on your order - red or green or both.  If I remember correctly, it's the same chile pepper, but the green chile is green because it's harvested early.  The red chile is after the green has ripened.  There's a huge chile industry in New Mexico and these chiles are NOT the same as you get elsewhere in the US, like in California.  If someone tells you they're the same, they're wrong.

Anyway, back to the food.  They brought out the ubiquitous salsa and chips, but their salsa was so hot I couldn't eat much.  The ice tea was okay.

The chimichanga was amazing!  It was huge, and the chicken wasn't dry but nice and moist.  The green chile was a bit mild, but that's fine because it tasted great!  Mine came with a side of guacamole, which was also good.  The beans and rice were your basic beans and rice.

Frank got a burrito that consisted of ground beef and fried potatoes.  He said it was well seasoned and since it was the lunch special, larger than he was expecting.

Overall, I liked the place.  The only problem was that the service was really slow.  But very friendly!  But the food was good enough for 4 stars.


[I don't think I have photos for this one.]

Duffer's Cafe

This is a small restaurant in a strip mall in Bella Vista.  I went there for an early lunch one day, and returned with my husband to get his impressions too.  They're open from 6 am -  3 pm.

It has a good atmosphere.  There are tables scattered throughout the place, with a few nooks and crannies if you want to be more isolated.  The menu is hanging in large print on the back wall, and there are daily specials too.  You order towards the back right of the restaurant, and pay when you order.  They give you a cafeteria tray and a flag with a number on it.  Then you get your own drinks and silverware and grab a seat.  Put the flag in the holder on the table so they can find you.  They also have pastries in a case by the cash register.  And there are coffee pots on the left side of the restaurant, so you don't have to walk across the room when you need a refill.

Frank got a half-Reuben with a side of potato soup.  He said the Reuben had lots of dressing, but it was a decent dressing.  And he really liked the potato soup.

I had a small fried chicken tender salad.  It came with mushrooms, craisins, coated walnuts, and 2 small slices of cheese.  The tenders were okay, but the coating wasn't my favorite.  We also got a small piece of cranberry bread and orange bread.  I think they came with my salad.  The cranberry bread was pretty good, but the orange bread was a little generic.

Overall, I liked the place.  It's a small, local business and the food is decent to good.  Four stars.
[If I find the photos I took, I'll post them later.]

I'm still here . . .

I've been to a few places I haven't reviewed yet, because I just started up my Who Knew? NWA site.  Stay tuned for Duffer's Cafe in Bella Vista and Hibachi Grill in Rogers.