Posts tagged nachos

Baileys on the Beach

Rating: 2

Cost: $6.25-9.25

Location: Albuquerque (Monte Vista and Gerard)

Customized: Yes, added Carne Adovada

Website

Just across from UNM, on Monte Vista lies a new restaurant called Baileys on the beach. This swanky eatery tries to recreate a beach like environment and offer a variety of sea food and pacific style cuisine. Although I was hesitant from the outer design of the place, I have to admit the inside looks rather fantastic. Their theme succeeds rather well and I feel as though it is the closest an Albuquerque restaurant has come to feeling like San Diego. The best part about visiting Baileys is the kind and knowledgeable staff. They want repeat customers, and they are working hard. The Menu is long and varied, and includes such items as Mahi Mahi Kabob, baked clams, and fish tacos. The food here is different, but In a really good way. It was only a matter of time before I ventured to try their Nacho stylings.

Baileys offers one form of Nacho: The Tsunami Nachos. These nachos are a body of chips covered in “Tsunami Queso”. This is covered with lettuce and tomatoes and comes with sides of guac, sour cream, and salsa. For a $3 additional charge you can add your choice of chicken, steak, carne adovada, or mahi mahi.

When the nachos arrive you will be greeted with an attractive arangement of colors and textures, but you will also notice that the nacho suffers from some serious drawbacks as well. For $9.25 this Nacho is small compared to other Nachos in the $10 price range. Many of the chips have little if any cheese on them at all. The lettuce and tomato portions are so small that they probobally shouldn’t have bothered puting them on the nacho. Most upsettingly, however, is that the carne adovada that I payed $3 extra for is in exremly short supply. I shared this nacho with my friends and found I only had a few bites of meat myself. What made this more sad is that the Meat was without a doubt, the best part of this nacho. The Carne Adovada was amazing! In fact, its some of the best I have had in years. It worked fantastically with the Nacho, atleast the small parts of the nacho that had it. The guacamole and sour cream and salsa were also tasty, and worked well with the nacho. As most of you know, I prefer shredded cheese on my Nacho, but I am always willing to give a fair shake to the liquid variety. The Tsunami Queso on the nachos is made from a double roasted green chile. Sadly, I didn’t really taste the chile in it to much. Rather, I only tasted a strong Velveta-esque flavor. Its unfortunate that these nachos weren’t much better, because Baileys has some amazing things on their menu. Their meat is amazing, and their burgers are fantastic. I highly recomend people try this place out, just not the Nachos. There other food is where its at. 

Serafin’s Chile Hut

Rating: 3

Cost: $5.25-5.75

Location: Albuquerque (Central and Solano)

Customized: Yes, added ground beef

Website

Located in the eastern area of Nob hill is a new little restaurant known as Serafins Chile Hut. This eatery is easy to find thanks to an attractive Zia sign angled over the edge of Central Ave. When you walk inside you will find a quaint little establishment with attractive wall paintings, nice tables, and an excellent ambiance. The menu is small, but well crafted, and includes the majority of New Mexican classics, all at fantastic prices. The staff is one of the nicest I have ever ran into, its obvious they love this restaurant. I myself have had several of their menu items, and I must say they are delicious, particularly the enchiladas and sopapillas. This is one of the most comfortable restaurants I have ever been in, and I plan on becoming a regular.

Serafins offers one form of nacho, which is a standard body of chips covered in liquid cheese and covered in pickled jalapenos. They were kind enough, upon my request to cover these nachos with a generous helping of their ground beef.

For the incredible price of $5.25 i was expecting a tiny snack sized Nacho, intended as a brief appetizer for their other dishes. However, when it came I was shocked at how massive this dish was. Although not the biggest, it is definitely amongst the larger Nachos I have had. I wasn’t sure if it was liquid or shredded cheese when I ordered, and I have to admit I was disappointed to find that it was the liquid variety. As you all know, I prefer shredded cheese a thousand times over. Apart from the ground beef I requested, this nacho looked like a Ballpark style nacho, which wasn’t surprising considering all the Time magazine’s featuring baseball covers adorning the back wall of the Hut. I also noticed that the jalapenos, which were thankfully pickled, were also diced, and spread more evenly amongst the nacho. I had never had diced jalapenos on a nacho before, only cut. I Have to admit I really enjoyed them. They allowed me to enjoy them without them overpowering each bite due to their minute size. The liquid cheese is better than most that I have had in my day, and it penetrated all the way to even the deepest of the chips. The chips themselves were of excellent quality, also better than most other places offer. The real strength lied in the meat. Serafins has some of the best ground beef I have had at a restaurant, and they complimented the nacho perfectly. It was fine and crumbly and spread across the entire nacho. In the end, the Nacho was balanced, layered well, and every chip had every topping on it. For those that don’t like complex nachos, this is the Nacho for you. As I said earlier, its a ballpark style nacho… but to be fair, I wish ballpark Nachos were as good as the one from Serafins. I really enjoyed this, and It stands as a great example of how to make a tasty straight forward Nacho. These are worth eating, but I must first recommend some of their other platters, like the combo plates or the enchiladas, because they will knock your socks off.

Two Fools Pt.2 

Rating: 4

Cost: ~ $8.75

Location: Albuquerque (NE Heights)

Customized: No

Website

This isn’t a double post, so don’t worry. I had already reviewed the Classic Nachos from Two Fools half a year back, but I had been intending on returning to sample their “Irish Nachos.” I recently had the pleasure of returning to this quaint little pub and discovering if their Other nachos could compete with their classic offering. For an Irish pub, they do a great job of maintaining Irish/British centric food on their menu, while also offering fusion cuisine and offbeat alternatives. 

Two fools offers two kinds of nachos. The first, which I reviewed in an earlier post are their Macho Nachos, which are a classic style dish. The Second is their Irish Nachos, which takes a far more unique approach. These nachos are comprised of a body of Potato chips, covered in Cottage Pie Beef and cheddar, with tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream on top. 

When these nachos first arrive, you are stricken by how different they look. They have a much darker color, due mostly to the cottage beef. Their size is great, it is comparable to their classic nachos. They are also layered well, another similarity with their other nachos. The tomato and lettuce on top are very appetizing, and the sour cream portion is good. The cheese was melted perfectly on the chips, so no complaints there. Not knowing what to expect, my first bite was admittedly weird. Although the cottage beef was delicious, I admit they offer a flavor I have never previously associated with being Nacho-ie. However, something weird happened, something that has never happened before. 4 or 5 chips in, I started to really like them. Usually I grow tired of a dish the more I eat, but this one grew on me at an astonishing rate. By the end of the nacho I was satisfied, and extremely pleased by this new found combination. The Cottage beef offered a hearty thick sauce to the dish, which countered the saltiness of the chips and cheese. Unlike most nachos, as the chips got soggy, they became more enjoyable, because of their similarity to soaking up stew with bread wedges. I recommend these nachos with a slight warning. I can see how some would hate it, but just give it a try and live a little. If you don’t like them after one chip, give it a few more, it might grab you too!

** Update. I recently (9/17/11) increased the score on these to 4. I have found that in the last few months I have craved these nachos on a weekly basis. I would argue that I crave these more than most other nacho’s that can be found. I felt upon further consideration that these definitely deserved a 4 rating, not the original 3 I gave it.

Buffalo Wild Wings

Rating: 2

Cost: ~ $7.99

Location: Albuquerque (Multiple)

Customized: Yes, added chicken

Website

Buffalo wild wings is a massive national chain of restaurants that cater to the Wing loving crowds. With a plethora of wing sauces, there are a lot of options when you come here, including Nachos. The sports bar atmosphere isn’t the most original idea, but they do it with a purpose. The nation wide digital pub quizzes are a nice touch, and I’ll admit their sauces are worth eating. As long as you can get one of the teenage waiter/waitresses to actually serve you, there are quite a lot of options on the menu. It has a very Chilies/Applebees vibe with a wing twist.

Buffalo Wild wings offers one form of Nachos called “Ultimate Nachos.” They are offered with chicken as an added cost of $1.  They are comprised of a bed of chips, Texas chili, pico de gallo, shredded lettuce, jalapenos, queso, and salsa.  Don’t forget the added chicken.

For all the fixings that came with it, $8 seemed like a pretty good deal. When they came the nachos were a respectable size, and quite attractive. The Pico gave it a nice color variation. First bite, however, told a different story indeed. Although the chips were standard fare, the rest of the ingredients were sub par. The chicken was flavorless and cold and the jalapenos were mild (at a place famous for hot sauce). The pico, which is always welcome on a nacho was equally bland, and almost unnoticeable. The liquid cheese queso had an overpowering flavor that lingered on the tongue, and made other flavors undiscernable. The worst addition, however, was the Texas style chili. This chili was below average, and was impossible to escape, is it was the most prevalent topping. This was a pretty lame nacho, the kind i’m sure you would get in areas where Mexican food means “Taco Bell”. Despite its low price, I would recommend avoiding it. Just get the wings, its what they are famous for, and they do alright with them.

Old Chicago Pizza

Rating: 5

Cost: ~ $7

Location: Everywhere (Chain)

Customized: No

Website

As a rule, I’m not fond of chain restaurants. They usually sacrifice unique and diverse food offerings for plain, more generally accessible items. For the price, I prefer local and small chain restaurants because they know their customer bases tastes far better. If there was ever an exception to this strongly held belief it is in Old Chicago. Pizza, pasta, burgers, and countless draft beers, Old Chicago offers competitive pricing and an extremely appealing menu. On a recent trip to visit good friends in Boulder, I didn’t hesitate to push for a visit to Old Chicago. While thumbing through the menu I was pleasantly shocked to discover that they offered not 1, but 2 kinds of nachos. Even more pleasing, was that one was called “Italian Nachos”. 

Unlike the previously reviewed Gumba Nachos from Marios Pizzeria, which used tortilla chips and beans, These Italian themed nachos take the concept of nachos, but integrate them with purely italian themed ingrediants. The Old Chicago Nachos are comprized soley of Italian pasta chips (fried pasta, instead of tortillas)toped with Mozzarella, pepperonis, Italian sausages and pepperoncinis. This is served with a side of their house pizza sauce.

When this intriguing nacho arrived, I took note that the plate size was great, and the pile height was good. The visual impact was the most obvious, since it has completely different ingredients, however it was still extremely appetizing. The first bite let me know that these nachos were amazing. The pasta chips are fantastic, and the toppings complement each other as they would on a deep dish pizza. The pizza sauce dipping allowed for a great variety in the flavor. My favorite moment was without a doubt the pepperoncinis. The meat was high quality, and the cheese was melted to perfection. Verifying these opinions was my good friend, who shares my Italian heritagey wonderment, and both our girlfriends, who don’t have a cultural predisposition. If your looking for ballpark nachos, these will not be for you. However, if you are into unique cuisine fusion and love all kinds of nachos, I can’t recommend this tasty appetizer enough!

Make sure to checkout My Fellow W.O.P’s own review blog, the WingNut

El Patio

Rating: 1

Cost: ~ $5

Location: Albuquerque (Harvard and Silver)

Customized: No

Website

El Patio is a bizarre looking hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant right next to the University of New Mexico. Next to its more contemporary looking neighbors, its easy to overlook El Patio and its bright blue fence. The menu is interesting, and the atmosphere screams college dive. They are known for their fish tacos, which I will say I enjoy (as far as Albuquerque fish taco’s are concerned). There prices are relatively cheap, but I must warn all of you, they don’t take credit card. This is quite stupid to do in a University area, and I personally find it unacceptable. We found no signs warning us of this, and even though they do offer an ATM in the back, it has heavy service charges. This alone will keep most people from coming here. No one wants to pull out a $20 to pay for a $5 meal.

El Patio offers one form of nachos on the menu. It is a basic nacho, consisting of a bed of chips, covered in refried beans, grated cheddar, lettuce, tomatoes, and a side of salsa and sour cream. There is no meat offered.

When the nachos arrived I was disappointed at how flat they were. There just weren’t that many chips on the plate. The lettuce and tomatoes are attractive, but the Sour cream is clotted looking. I also noticed that the chips were burnt black. After my first bite it became apparent that the chips were way to heavy on the presence of beans. They overpowered the other flavors of the nacho. It is hard to tell whether the cheese was any good because there wasn’t much of it, and its flavors were more mild. The chips tasted burnt and stale, and the sour cream was pretty sub par. The only saving grace of this nacho was the salsa, which I found tasty and rewarding. I only wish I had ordered chips and salsa instead. This nacho was disappointing in its size, presentation, and quality. Avoid the nachos here, and because of the cash only policy, I would recommend avoiding the place entirely.

Hurricanes Restaurant

Rating: 3

Cost: ~ $7

Location: Albuquerque (Lomas & Washington)

Customized: No

Urban Spoon Entry

Hurricane’s Restaurant is a retro style hole in the wall located on the outskirts of the Nob Hill area. At all times of day it seems to have a fair number of customers dining inside. The interior feels like any diner that is trying to recreate the 50’s style (and only come off as being cheesy). The wait staff is responsive and the food is always cooked very quickly. Their food is classic New Mexican fair with a special consideration paid towards breakfast dishes.

Hurricanes offers two nachos, a small appetizer, and a full meal helping called Nachos Grande. The Nachos Grande is comprised of a body of chips covered in ground beef, beans, green chili sauce, shredded cheese, Lettuce, Tomatoes, and Sour cream w/ guac. Despite the smaller nacho containing Jalapenos, they are strangely absent on the large Nacho.

The first thing you will notice when you receive these nachos is that they are very large. For $7, the serving size is better than most restaurants. All of the toppings are what I like to see on my Nachos, except for the strangely absent Jalapenos. The first few bites are fantastic. Each chip is covered in toppings and is extremely flavorful. I have to say I am always pleased to find green chilie on Nachos in New Mexico. All of the toppings are good, but not fantastic. I can’t think of anything in particular that stood out as being phenomenal. Don’t get me wrong though, they are all very much worth eating. My main complaint with these nachos has to do with the liquidity of the toppings. Though each chip is covered with toppings, the lower chips are completely soaked. After a few minutes these nachos will require a fork for consumption because the chips have liquefied. As I have mentioned before, layering nachos is a complex problem. Although most tend to have too many chips and few toppings, Hurricanes nachos are quite the opposite. I enjoyed these nachos, but I’d prefer it if I didn’t need a fork to eat most of them.

El Pinto

Rating: 4

Cost: $10.49-12.98

Location: Albuquerque

Customized:Yes (Added Beef +$2.49)

Website

This is considered by many to be the finest Nacho money can buy. Lets Find out!

Love it or hate it, El Pinto is the premier destination for tourists looking for New Mexican food. It is one of the largest restaurants in Albuquerque, and has gained a national reputation for quality. There are some haters for sure, but El Pinto is one of the defacto experiences of visiting Albuquerque (much like the Frontier, but for different reasons). The location is far off the beaten path, but once you see the grounds you know why. El Pinto is a massive restaurant, and one of the most gorgeously decorated. Its patio area is larger than most other entire food establishments. Their menu is standard New Mexico fare, able to accommodate most appetites. Their prices, considering the look and feel are quite cheap. Their salsa is delicious, and can be found at most local grocery stores. I rarely eat their due to its location, and the fact that there are several other similar restaurants that I prefer. However, after I learned that the Wall Street Journal dubbed El pintos Nachos the best Nachos in America, I was offended that no one consulted me. I felt it was my duty to investigate the matter.

Now titled “One of the best nachos in America” (humility greatly appreciated), El Pintos Nachos are comprised of a body of chips covered in a mix of cheddar and monterey jack, beans, guacamole, sour cream, green chile, and fresh cut jalapenos. This nacho is large, and is meant to serve four as an appetizer.

I’ll admit, when these Nachos arrived I was extremely happy with the size. Although not the largest I had seen (a ridiculous feat to achieve) it was very appropriate for the price. The nacho was attractive, full of color, and every chip seemed to be swimming in a plethora of toppings. I was admittedly put off by the small portions of sour cream and guacamole considering that this was meant for four people. I was also not crazy about the raw jalapenos, but at least I knew what I was getting into because they were very clear on the menu (take note other restaurants that use raw). After my first bite I knew this was a damn fine nacho. A veritable mix of flavors, each chip seemed to contain most, if not all of the toppings of the nacho. I can’t tell you how important not having plain dry chips is! Although sad at the small portion of sour cream and guacamole, they were at least very high quality, some of the best guac I’ve had. The meat was well spiced and flavorful, the cheese was melted to perfection, and the green chile was top notch. They weren’t lying about their portions though, I couldn’t even finish a third of this bad boy before I was stuffed. Although I wouldn’t consider this the best Nacho I ever ate, it is definitely a high roller. I think that their should be more topping options and larger portions of sour cream/guacamole. I also think that the type of Jalapeno should be optional. I definitely recommend this nacho! It would be a great meal for 2-3 people to share!

The Frontier

Rating: 2

Cost: $6.39

Location: Albuquerque UNM area

Customized:No

Website

Look how Tiny This little Nacho is…. Are they Serious?!?

If you are a College student in Albuquerque, you have eaten at The Frontier. A long standing staple of the UNM diet, the Frontier is famous far and wide. The menu is as diverse as any respectable New Mexican restaurant, containing burgers, enchiladas, and omelets. One of its most appealing aspects is that it is open late, but not like a drive through. It actually has places to sit inside after midnight! I enjoy Frontier food for what it is: quick and cheap college grub. Its rather delicious, and well priced. When I learned that they had Nachos, it was a quick decision to go and give them a try!

The Frontier offers a single Nacho on their menu available in two sizes: half and full. These Nachos are a bed of chips with Chicken, Beans, Cheese, Jalapenos, lettuce and Tomatoes. I obviously ordered the largest Nacho they offered.

As if the picture didn’t already demonstrate, The nacho offered by the Frontier is very small. It is the smallest nacho I have reviewed to date, and even though the price is also less than most of the other Nachos I have reviewed, it is not comparably less. My first impression of this nacho was one of disappointment. It’s minute size was emphasized by the fact that most of the visible chips had absolutely no toppings on them. This nacho also had two other major disadvantages. First, even though I enjoy chicken nachos, I prefer Beef. Frontier not offering a beef nacho alternative is rather laughable. The second issue was the presence of raw jalapenos. Although a major debate amongst nacho eaters, I still prefer pickled to raw. It’s easy to see that the Frontier’s nachos were not off to a good start. But, being an optimist I pressed on. When I was able to find a chip with toppings I was treated to a rather pleasant taste experience. This is mostly due to the fact that the Frontier’s chicken is phenomenal. The other toppings were standard fair, no complaints. The chicken though, really made those few bites pop. Too bad most of the chips were as dry and Barron as the new Mexico wilderness. Were it not for the chicken, I would consider this an abysmal nacho. Perhaps mine was just made badly, but I don’t like spending roughly $7 for a midget sized portion of chips, a few of which happen to have toppings on them. I know the frontier can do better than this… Stick with their enchiladas, cause it has their awesome chicken, as well as a million other good things!  

Mario’s Pizza

Rating: 3

Cost: ~ $7

Location: Albuquerque (Multiple)

Customized: No

Website

Behold, an Italian Nacho?!?!

I was probably as surprised as you when I found out that an Italian restaurant offered a form of Nachos. Being Italian myself, I was ecstatic to sample these unique forms of my favorite food. Marios is a long standing pizza shop that has recently opened multiple locations. Though not for everyone, Marios offers a rather large array of menu items at decent prices. It has some pretty devout supporters, but most people agree that Mario’s appeal isn’t in any particular item, but rather in its variety. The San Pedro location is a quaint little mom and pop shop that always seems to have a fair number of customers. The staff is attentive and friendly, but the food often takes quite a while to arrive. It is also common for the food to arrive in separate segments.

Unlike most italian restaurants, Marios actually offers a form of nacho that they have affectionately dubbed the Goumba Nacho. This nacho is comprised of a bed of tortilla chips covered in a green Chile cream sauce, roasted peppers, various cheeses, jalapenos, lettuce, and tomatoes.

I truly applaud their attempt to diversify by not only carrying nachos, but giving them a unique twist. The nachos are a decent size, easily filling a single consumer, or providing adequate snacks for 4 people. They are also a rather attractive nacho; the peppers and cream sauce give it a unique look. The green chili cream sauce is rather amazing, and provides a definitive identity to this Nacho. The roasted peppers prove to be a valuable asset in this dish, but I will admit I think they would be out of place without the cream sauce. The other toppings are standard fair. The Jalapenos served on my nacho were rather stale and dry. I’m not sure if they use a weird brand of if the jalapenos had gone off. Either way it stood as a pretty detrimental aspect, since I consider jalapenos pivotal. The unique flavors made this nacho stand out, and I highly recommend them to anyone. However, due to this unique nature, it is also a Nacho that requires a specific mood and can’t always be enjoyed. I would also like to point out that there is no meat within this Nacho. I would have gladly payed additional for some chicken, which is weird cause I always choose beef. The peppers and sauce within the nacho are begging for a chicken addition. The stale jalapenos definitely hurt the Nachos since they are such a fundamental element.