Indian Pueblo Kitchen — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Follow IG: The Rideshare Foodie for more Taste of the States!!!

The highlight of my foodie road trip was right here with Marine Veteran and Executive Chef Davita Becenti and her awesome crew of hardworking and friendly staff. My waitress was Shannon who was very attentive and knowledgeable off the menu. The food is traditional Pueblo meals made to order with fresh ingredients and great flavors that will give you an experience of the Southwest.

Great portion sizes and I actually glanced at the salt and pepper shakers amazed that I didn't need to use them on any dish I ordered. I had the blue corn Griddlecakes (live blue corn) which were three southern sized cakes with those buttery crispy edges topped with fresh berries and a bit of powdered sugar served with maple syrup (ask for it heated up) next was both the Blue corn Onion Rings that come out hot and fried golden and has a but of sweet to the blue corn.

Fried Kool-Aid Pickles (tropical flavor) were pretty decent the dill a bit salty but after dipping inside the green chile ranch that it's served with made for a better taste all around. The prime rib frybread dip is a definite and the main reason I was there. Chopped prime rib made the native way and super tender and moist with green chile and grilled onions served on a nice fluffy fry bread with a red chile au Jus to dip or pour inside. I rolled mine up like a burrito and went to work, you should too. This is definitely a place you want to stop in and have a meal while learning about the native American culture. In town for a conference or business trips or even events, this is surely a spot to eat if you want to experience the local eats.

IG: The Rideshare Foodie for more Taste...

I do not usually leave reviews unless a place is exceptionally great or terrible. This is the latter. What a mess this place was. Terrible service. Server wanted to wait until our entire party was present to bring any drinks, then only brought drinks for part of the table and skipped drink orders for the other half. Made no sense - maybe it was the mandatory 20% built-in tip that sucked out her incentive to even take our food order or ask how it was (for the record, we are good tippers, having been servers ourselves). Had she asked (or even come back at all after dropping off food including a few wrong orders), we would have told her it was not good. Some of our group really enjoyed the soups. So that was good at least. But the buffalo burger was coated in sticky sweet jelly sauce to the point of inedible. The trout was overcooked and placed atop a skimpy pile of sweet potatoes and bland spinach with some sort of pink decorative sauce with no flavor. Very poor quality for $30 dish! Very very poor service for a place that serves $30 dishes. I get better service at the local gas station! Poor kitchen management ran out of 4 dishes (including all but one of the appetizer selections) AND tortillas before 8 p.m. on a Friday night (but maybe half of the tables were full at any time, if that many). My group had been very excited about supporting this restaurant and enjoying what we had to learn from it. The only bright spot was the bartender was rockin' it and made some very yummy drinks. He came to our table and actually spoke to us with recommendations and checked back on how we enjoyed the drinks. People were at the bar having a great time and enjoying...

Really neat spot with a great patio; sometimes featuring live entertainment.

But let's talk breakfast! I've heard the breakfast here is pretty great, if not inspired. Their coffee roast tastes pretty burnt (darkest roast), but I fault Starbucks beans for that. I had to cut the small cup of coffee with lots of half-and-half.

I went in thinking of getting something distinctly Southwest, such as Huevos Rancheros. But the beautiful and seemingly well portioned picture of the Blue Corn Chicken a d Waffles seemed very inspired: red chile mini waffles (2) topped with a generous large chicken breast, lightly breaded in blue corn, divided in to two pieces. These are further topped with a piñon butter. Lastly, a large ramekin of green chilie maple syrup.

In the end, this 'inspired' dish was too over the top. It probably could have used regular maple syrup or perhaps regular waffles--or perhaps regular butter? The medley of complex flavors seemed to be nearly contradictory in nature leaving one to wonder what they were eating. You couldn't recognize a singular flavor or flavor profile, losing the trees somewhere in the forest of this dish. I was left a bit underwhelmed and took half the meal to-go.

Lastly, the service: quite friendly, but slow. Despite only 4 tables being served, the entrees took quite a while to arrive. We were told it was due the syrup's preparation time. Again, perhaps just regular maple syrup would have done this dish (and particularly the red chile waffles) more justice.

I'll look forward to the huevos...