Los Cuates

Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas
Flavorful, drizzled in a green chilli sauce served with rice and beans. I recommend this dish.

I was back at the airport to send my best friend back home. She wanted sopas since that’s her favorite New Mexican treat. The sopas came out cold, hard, tough. Called the server to send them back for fresh hot sopas. What came back was nuked reheated sopapillas. Ridiculous and embarrassing to my out of state guest. Bad last impression on a New Mexican favorite. Note to Out of state peeps/​Yelpers: fresh hot sopapillas are fluffy, soft, and amazing with honey. Not tough, cold greasy chewy. Yuck.

We loved it! Great New Mexican food! Carne Adovada was yum! Green chile cheese enchiladas were yum too! Great with margaritas!

Unreal. I have been eating at Los Cuates since they were on lomas and they are awesome. This one at sun port is horrible. Asked 3 times for silverware. Food was not even to quality. Very disappointed.

I recently ate here for the Thanksgiving holiday with my parents right before I caught my flight. The overall experience was OK. Neither spectacular nor horrible.
I like that there is a place to sit down and eat before security: 1) price isn’t jacked up, 2) I can sit and eat with my family if we arrive early, or my flight is running late. This place is located right before security to the right after you reach the top of the escalators. Hard to miss since the seating is open to the airport walkway. I was actually surprised by just how large this restaurant is. Oh, and I really like the «sky lights».
The service was on par. You can always tell when a waiter/​waitress is new and that was the case with us. She didn’t bring us the wrong food fortunately, or mess up the order though. She was actually quit nice, but still getting used to the menu.
The food was average as well. I know others have complained about the chips being old, but that wasn’t the case for us. We actually really enjoyed the chips. The salsa is unique here, it’s almost like a salsa/​bbq sauce. It definitely has a bbq sauce consistency, and also that slight sweetness to it. So I definitely give them points on creativity. I order the combination plate (1 beef taco, cheese enchilada, pork tamale). I like the dish in its entirety (minus the taco because I didn’t get to try it, got stuffed). But in New Mexico it seems like the chile can make or break the dish. And for me the red chile was break. The chile is not bad, don’t get me wrong, but I just didn’t like the level of spiciness, or rather lack there of. This is a very familiar recipe of chile, as many Mexican restaurants in the area make it very similar to this. I’m just not a fan of this style of red chile.
We didn’t love the food here, but I’m sure we’ll be back.

Decent Mexican restaurant before you go through security. Salsa was bizarre. It was cloyingly sweet with a good bite. Wouldn’t get that again. Got a burrito which was pretty decent. Green chili was not memorable. Service was a bit quirky but fine.
Make sure you ask for fresh sopapillas. They might give you older ones if you don’t ask.

Yuck. The chips and red chili concoction were very salty and I couldn’t eat. The margaritas were bland. If a Mexican restaurant can’t get that right it’s just downhill from there. Inside security there is a small food court. Save your money and eat regular priced airport food instead of this overpriced let down.

Chips tasted salty & stale and came with some kind of weird bland chili dip instead of salsa. Margaritas were supposedly «famous», we thought they were terrible & sent them back. My carnitas tacos were good, my wife’s beef tacos were greasy. Service was so-​so.

Dave goes to New Mexico part 3.
So, here’s the schedule for the day: 7:30 — leave home for the short drive to John Wayne Airport; 8:55 — flight leaves for Phoenix; 11:10 — flight leaves Phoenix for Albuquerque; 1:00 (Mountain time) — arrive in Albuquerque; 4:00 — catch the bus to the railroad station for our train to Santa Fe. So, how do you kill about three hours at the Albuquerque airport?
Well, our first stop was Los Cuates to get some food and drink. This is a southwest /​Mexican themed restaurant (big surprise) inside the Albuquerque airport. For an airport restaurant is was not too bad.
I ordered carnitas with beans and rice. The food was decent and hit the spot. My boss and I also ordered margaritas. Service was very polite, quick, and attentive.
I would give Los Cuates a bump up to four stars, but it think the food was overpriced. Also, we were done eating and drinking so quickly, we still had another two hours to kill before the bus came. Sometimes, service can be a bit too efficient.

The best way to describe this place is «Day-​Old Los Cuates.» The salsa was still amazing but the chips tasted old and a little chewy, as though they’d been refried. Had the chicken enchilada and tamale here too — same thing. Good, but everything just kind of tasted a day old.
To be fair, this is probably the best food for the price and quality you can get at an airport (they charge the same as usual so total was less than $ 9), but compared to other restaurants it’s just ok.

Our order too forever. Grossly understaffed. Food was cold. Won’t be back.

I will NEVER understand why people like this place. It is some of the worst food I have ever had. Period. Pre-​masticated at best. It’s a shame that a lot of visitors from out of town get taken here. This is NOT a good example of our unique regional cuisine. It is a great example of poorly executed Tex Mex type «food».

I like Los Cuates (the one in the SE), and the airport one is good, but doesn’t seem quite as good as the SE one. Convenient location though, on your way to or from ABQ.

Came in to grab lunch before flying home. The restaurant wasn’t particularly busy an yet it took over 10 minutes before our waitress showed up to take our drink order. We sat around for another 20 minutes waiting for our food to come out of the kitchen. The waitress came by to tell us the kitchen was slammed (with an empty restaurant??) and our food would be out shortly. The food came out and was pretty much inedible. My burger was an overcooked frozen patty that I doubt was ¹⁄₃ lb as advertised and my fiancé’s tamales were probably from the freezer and reheated and her rice was undercooked.
We complained to the waitress that the food was terrible and she made good on it and we didn’t have to pay. She said they had just come out with a new menu and weren’t trained on it (I didn’t realize burgers and frozen food needed training). Maybe things will improve once the kitchen gets comfortable. For now, avoid Los Cuates.

Ordered the #15 beef and potato burrito. The «beef» might as well have been canned dog food! It was terrible. The Huevos Rancheros was barely ok, would not order it again. On the flip side, the service was good.

Disappointed that the airport food and experience did not live up to the main restaurant on Lomas blvd. I ordered the potatoe and beef burrito Christmas style and the potatoes were overdone. The Chile portions were minimal… barely covered the burritto. The famous salsa was served cold… I recall this being served warm at the main location. The chips were a bit stale. It is a shame that the franchisor of this location is operating at a lower standard.

The general idea of eating @ an airport is compromise because we are in too big a rush to enjoy the meal. This place is the exception to that concept (I say concept, because someone who is wiser than I am understands that there is no rule anyplace that demands that airport-​based restaurants need to be dreadful!). I had one of the best meals ever @ this place. My sea bass was cooked to perfection & brilliantly served, showing every bite to full advantage on the Fiesta Ware look-​alike china. The service was every bit as fine as the food. And this truly excellent meal did not require any modified loan! The price was quite within reason. If I had enough money to live beyond my means, I would go to Albuquerque just to eat here! The décor was a loving tribute to the cultural traditions of New Mexico, done respectfully, and the devotional art used throughout was chose with an unerring eye. This place made it all come together, food, service, décor — @ a price that did not gouge the this last minute diner’s overextended budget. Would gladly eat here again.

Food was excellent!
I had a cup of the green chile stew. Was nice and spicy. Came with a large fresh tortilla as well. I also had the shredded chicken green chile chimi. I took a shot at trying the green chile beer and it was great paired with the chimi. Will definately eat here again given the oppurtuninty.

When the Garduno’s airport location closed, I was told a few different rumors about which restaurant would take its place… I was really glad to see it was Los Cuates, my favorite restaurant in Albuquerque.
Now one can enjoy all the fantastic flavors of Carne Adovada, Green Chile Stew, Blue Corn Enchiladas and Sopapillas without leaving the airport or before they leave New Mexico. I enjoyed a nice plate of Carne Adovada Blue Corn Enchiladas… just as good as their other locations.
This location opens earlier than the other locations (7am, I believe) so one can enjoy a nice New Mexican meal early in the morning.