Restaurant reccos in Albuquerque

My daughter and I will be in Albuquerque next week (5th-8th) for the Region 5 Dressage Championships. Most of the time at these shows we are quite busy (she competes, I pay) so we end up eating at favorites just to get fueled up. However, I would like to be able to go out to a nice dinner at least once this trip. Who knows, it may be a celebratory occasion!

So what's good in Albuquerque? Good food where we don't have to dress fancy? We'll be at the Fairgrounds and are staying near the airport.

Doug

We ate at Gruet Steakhouse (of Gruet wine fame) our last visit to Abq and really liked it. It wasn't jeans casual, but neither was it dinner jacket fancy if that helps. The food was excellent. It's on Central, and probably 4 miles or so from the fairgrounds. Atlhough it's a steakhouse, they also had fish and other choices. We had the shrimp appetizer and shared a steak and left happy

There's also a decent Thai place near the fairgrounds, but the name escapes me at the moment...Larry Greenly, who posts frequently on the food forum, would know. If he doesn't see this (don't know how much he checks anything but the food side of the house), drop him a message through this forum.

The Frontier, across from UNM on Central, is a decent greasy-spoon kinda place for breakfast and their cinnamon rolls were good, by the way. You can always look on Chowhound.com for ideas on where to eat, too.

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Thanks Niki - I kinda knew about Gruet from visiting the winery website, but had the impression it was quite fancy. However, since we hope to be celebrating Saturday night, it would be a good place to dine and I know the Blanc de Noir is quite decent! I just have to convince my daughter to wear something besides jeans or riding breeches.

If you go, be sure to try a glass of their syrah. It was really good and is only available locally. We liked it enough to bring home a couple of bottles from their winery. Have fun!

Well, we went to Gruet Steakhouse-tonight. It was a mixed bag, ok food, good wine, mediocre service. I really expected better for the prices and the name.

The service issue was our waiter as we observed others who were quite good, providing discreet but frequent attention to their tables. He wasn't quite bad enough to warrant a complaint, but close.

The food was ok - my daughter and I agreed that we'd had better filets for less $$$ (even at the ubiquitous Black Angus) On the other hand, my stuffed tenderloin was quite tasty, as were the lobster whipped potatoes.

The Syrah was very nice, not a lot of oak and not a fruit bomb and matched up rather nicely with the tenderloin.

I doubt we'll ever go back - it just wasn't that compelling.

Doug, sorry it wasn't as good of an experience for you as it was for us. I very rarely ever eat in steakhouses, and to me the food was very good, but I only have a small sample to compare against. Glad you liked the wine, although we opened a bottle of the syrah on Saturday night that we brought home in March, and it must have been going through secondary fermentation or something, as it was kind of fizzy and not pleasant

Well, I guess it's just as well I didn't have time to go to the winery to buy some 'fizzy' syrah!

I should note that I've been fortunate to eat at some very nice places when I travel to Minneapolis. I'm probably spoiled when it comes to well prepared quality beef.