Albuquerque is a city with lots of great food. And when you live in New Mexico, getting a frequent dose of red or green chile in daily meals is not just a habit, but also a necessity- an addiction.

I am not a high-end diner, for the most part, but I do like good tasting and good quality local fare. There are people here in Albuquerque with much better tastes than I have. But when I find a restaurant I enjoy, I can and will find a way to eat there frequently.

I love my tacos. I also love a good salad, and some good Pad Thai. So, while there are certainly more cultured lists out there of the best Albuquerque cuisine you should try, well, here’s my list of my favorite and most-visited local restaurants here in town. These are literally the places I am mostly made of.

Blake’s Lotaburger

Founded back in the day as a basic burger chain in New Mexico, when the cheeseburger met green chile, a leap was taken in the evolution of fine fast food. And while Blake’s began as a burger and shake joint, it now has, in my opinion, for their sizes and prices- despite the stores’ often slow service- the best breakfast burritos around. Locals know. Well, many do. Some poo poo the chain of late about quality and such, but I don’t get it. A #2 Christmas or #1 Red is always great to get your day on its way. I am pretty sure I have single-handedly funded the existence of one of these locations over the years.

Dion’s

My early memories of this great New Mexico pizza chain come from when I was a high schooler, when the first location of this pizza powerhouse was fortuitously parked in a small space in a strip mall across the street from my school. A slice of cheese pizza and a coke for, like, $1.25 was a killer lunch back then, which I was happy to enjoy once and a while as a treat off of campus.

Dion’s today is now all over New Mexico and in Texas and Colorado, and they are still a go-to place for a delicious pie, subs, or even salads. My favorite Dion’s meal is a half chef salad with Blue Cheese dressing, and a slice with pepperoni, Italian sausage, and green chili on top. Washing that down with lemonade is the best. But now that I am older, quite often, I am delighted to just wolf down the tasty half chef.

La Salita

Somewhat a sentimental favorite, and still a favorite destination for New Mexican food, my father first started taking our family to the restaurant’s first location back when I was a teenager. At that time, he and his workmates ate together their weekly for lunches. Today, they take my nephews there for meals, and get no complaints from the fellas. La Salita is just a good family-owned place to enjoy New Mexican flavors.

I learned about the wonder of green chile at this restaurant first, and for years, the green chile beef enchilada plate was all I needed to eat here. Their taco plates are equally good, each brought with refried beans and Spanish rice. This restaurant was our family go to for years, before we decided it was okay to branch out a bit more with our New Mexican tastes. It remains a favorite for pure New Mexican food today.

Papa Felipe’s

This joint became our other go-to New Mexican restaurant in more recent years, as I and my folks enjoyed getting out together for some spicy foods somewhere in the Northeast Heights in Albuquerque. One day, we decided to try it- years after we had tried it in the past, and left that experience unmoved- and discovered another New Mexican food place we could really enjoy visiting over and over again. And we do. Tacos and enchiladas, please. That’s all I need. Oh, and also that delicious basket of chips with the bowl of salsa I will always finish before I get my meal.

Basil Leaf

I’ve never known myself as a big Asian food connoisseur, but I will say, I appreciate the healthy and tasty ingredients that go into quality meals at a good Japanese or Chinese restaurant, and stumbling upon the excellent food at the Thai- and Vietnamese-focused Basil Leaf restaurant here in town won me over easily years ago. When I want a good hearty, healthy meal that is big on vegetables and flavor, I will find myself headed to Basil Leaf, along with many other folks. At one time, this restaurant was lodged between two other tenants in a short storefront. Today, the restaurant practically occupies the entire building now. And it is usually busy when it is open.

China Luck

Sitting on the end of a strip mall off of Paseo And San Pedro, at times this restaurant appears to lack customers- but it has been around for quite a while, and it has always been a favorite place for me to go and get plain old Chinese food. It is a quiet place, and has often been my retreat or my destination for a quiet celebration or a period of reflection while sipping on hot tea and eating an order of Moo Goo Gai Pan. I’ve always enjoyed its food, and its provision of a little sanctuary from life when I have taken the time to eat there.

The Frontier

Man. This sprawling window into Albuquerque life is also a giant megaplex-of-a-home to some amazing burgers, excellent breakfast dishes, its famous fresh tortillas and miraculous sweet rolls, and to my favorite meal there- the Frontier burrito. This restaurant is an Albuquerque institution, full of character and characters, across from the University of New Mexico off of historic Central Boulevard. While a student at UNM, I studied quite a few hours here, and returned after my school years for so many friends and family visits, Lobo sports pre- and post-games, Saturday morning breakfast escapes, evening reading sessions, and just stopping in once in a while to enjoy that green chile smothered burrito with a big soda.