Help me with Abq restaurants...

We are headed to Abq this Saturday to try out the free Railrunner for us Santa Fe residents before we have to start paying (boy am I cheap these days, lol)! We arrive in the morning, heading over to the Abq Art/History Museum to see Jamestown, Quebec and Santa Fe exhibit and maybe the Rattlesnake Museum if I can get the guys to go there, lol!!!

Looking for a cheap lunch that is good. Not Little Anita%26#39;s though, we eat there all the time and want to try something else. I%26#39;m looking for something in Old Town or in Downtown near the train station. We leave at 4:30 so we have plenty of time!!!

Thanks

Help me with Abq restaurants...

My favorite place in Old Town is Church Street Cafe. Good food at a reasonable price. The New Mexican food is a little touristy, but the atmosphere in the old building is great. Right behind the church. High Noon has good New Mexican cooking; don%26#39;t know much about their steaks, they used to be quite good, but this was some years ago. If you are taking a cab around, go to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center at 12th and Menaul. They have recently rebuilt the whole place; great atmosphere and the food is a little pricey but quite good. Should be dancers on the weekend.

Help me with Abq restaurants...

Have fun CA!

My two rec%26#39;s downtown would be:

Lindy%26#39;s Coffee Shop, 500 Central SW, (around Central/5th St....five short blocks west of Train Station). This place a is more authentic Route 66 diner than the ';66 Diner.'; Good burgers and sandwiches. Nothing fancy. Cheap lunch, LOL.

Gold Street Cafe, 218 Gold Ave. SW (2 blocks west of train station, one block south to Gold, around 2nd St. %26amp; Gold.) I read some reviews here on T/A, and they seemed upbeat for the breakfast, and mixed for lunch. I%26#39;ve only had breakfast there myself... twice...very good, but can%26#39;t comment on the lunches.

I think it would be a little too far to walk from Old Town, but you have to try the Golden Crown Panaderia (bakery), 1103 Mountain Road on some trip to Albuquerque. Their green chile bread is to die for, and arguably the best biscochitos in Albuquerque. They also have sandwiches (on fresh baked bread), and recently added pizza to their menu!

Church Street is good for NM food, I also really like La Crepe Michel for something a little different. East of the station at 600 Central SE is The Grove, they are good too. Another favorite is Barelas at 4th and Bridge.

You folks rock!! Thanks for the ideas. We are going to play tourist for a few hours and enjoy!!

Looking forward to hearing your review on where you ate lunch so have an idea where to eat when we come out in a couple of weeks.

Enjoy your day and the train.

I%26#39;m a fan of the greasy spoon, and I like the Romero Street Ice Cream Shop green chile cheeseburger. I order it plain: just cheese and chile. It%26#39;s really drippy and messy--just how I like it!

The shop is near the basket shop: south west corner of the plaza.

We had a great trip to Abq on the Railrunner. Got right on the 766 Rapid Ride bus to Old Town just across from the Railrunner station. Walked around Old Town a bit, lots of inexpensive touristy shops as well as some nice galleries. Agape Pottery is one of our favorites (or was when we had money to buy pottery, lol).

Ended up having lunch at Church St Cafe and were fairly disappointed! The chips and salsa were great, salsa had just a touch of heat to it. Our entrees were so-so. No heat to either the red or green chile, or in the chile rellano, which was covered in a thick, corn dog like batter. The beef tamale was good and the chicken enchilada was tasty but very salty. I guess us Santa Fean%26#39;s like our food much hotter!! LOL!

Decent place to dine if you don%26#39;t like spicy food. The couple (from out of town) sitting across from us raved about the food to the waiter, and others in the room.

Service was excellent and the atmosphere was like cozy NM house!

Next time... we will try the Romero St Ice Cream Shop which we found after lunch, lol!

Also there were quite a few lunch type places on Central right near the train station, probably we%26#39;ll try one of those in the future too.