Federicos — Restaurant in Albuquerque

UPDATED REVIEW It is sad to see how quickly a promising restaurant can go downhill. When this location first opened, I was thrilled. The food was fresh and delicious. The shredded beef was tasty, succulent, and redolent with the taste of slow-roasted shredded roast beef. The fresh salad ingredients and pico de gallo positively sang with flavor.

I told everyone about this restaurant and talked it up. I wanted this restaurant to succeed because they were so close to my apartment and their food was so good.

My original review said that it was like visiting Grandma's house. Little more than a month later, and it is more like visiting your college buddy who still has not learned how to cook and can't afford the proper ingredients.

On Sunday, I ordered a shredded beef chimichanga. At first, it LOOKED alright, but when I cut into it, the center was full of a mass of wet, gray, tasteless slop with some onion bits in it. Water poured out of the Chimichanga. I looked at the bottom of the chimi and it was soggy, of course.

The pico was barely perceptible. I suspected they may have changed their recipes. STILL, I had been so impressed by the first few meals I had purchased here, that I decided to cut them some slack. It had been on the early side for the lunch rush, so I excused the bad meal. After all, what is one bad meal after several that were so good?

Today, I ordered the taco plate, which ALSO was supposed to have shredded beef in it. I told the gal at the window what a terrible experience I'd had on Sunday. She brightly told me that they add "just a tiny bit of water" to the beef to "make it cook faster." When I told her it tasted awful, she appeared to be angry - but perhaps she was embarrassed. She didn't apologize, but I noticed afterwards that she'd given me a discount on my meal.

As I was talking to the woman at the window, I happened to glimpse behind her a group of workers standing around and chatting. I saw one of them shake his/her hair out and run his/her hands through it. No one was wearing hair nets or masks or food prep gloves.

Unfortunately, when I got home with my meal, I discovered that the "shredded beef" in the tacos was the same gray, wet slop I'd been given in Sunday's chimichanga. The bottom of each taco was sopping wet. When I picked up the taco and turned to put it in my mouth, water came pouring out of it.

I opened the taco. All that was inside it was that gray slop with some congealed yellow cheese on it and some PLAIN shredded iceberg lettuce. No more pico. NOTHING with any flavor in it!

Next to the terrible tacos, the beans and rice had no flavor either.

I will never go there again, and I'll warn all the people to whom I previously raved about this new restaurant. It's sad, really. They had a chance to be really great. Instead, they decided to...

Food here is good. Quite good, with big portion sizes. They have a good variety, and they are good about special orders. The carne asada was a little tough, but still pretty good — no significant complaints about the food itself. The service is a little lacking in that the staff doesn't seem in any hurry to actually wait on customers, but they are polite and helpful enough once they get around to it.

However, there's no escaping that they are more or less a more expensive clone of Filiberto's just down the road. Pretty much the same food, same taste, same sizes, and same quality — but often for more money. Federico's has some good deals — but even their breakfast burrito deal is a dollar more expensive than the same deal at Filiberto's. The prices are still okay, but definitely not the most competitive.

Federico's is worth it for a few dishes, or if you just happen to be closer to it and don't have a way to get down to Filiberto's other than your own two feet. Otherwise, save yourself a couple bucks and head just down the road to get mostly the same food, comparable service, and a somewhat less cramped dining area.

Also, obligatory penalty for no...

so I went there thinking i was going to get good food. reviews look great. I went there and got the 2 enchiladas. now I'm sorry I didn't take a picture but I was very disappointed. they advertise two rolled enchiladas with chilly covered on top next to beans and rice. instead I got what looked like a flat tortilla that was wet with little chilly and almost no guts. got the beans and rice. but I don't even think I got 2 enchiladas. it looked like one. the inside was tortilla, almost no chicken and cheese. the flavor was literally wet tortilla with a hint of chicken mixed with cheese. would not recommend unless your ok with this possibility.

now other than the food itself they took about 10 min to get the food made which was great. if made right then and there. my problem is actually with the speaker. instead of talking to you they say in a low voice "hello?" I had to say 3 times I cant hear you just for them...