Taco Sal Restaurant

We came in here STARVING as part of our Breaking Bad tour. I inhaled the chips and salsa immediately. The salsa had a fresh, little kick to it but the chips were meh.
Service was kinda slow but really friendly. I devoured the crunchy taco and enchilada (with red sauce) plate. My boyfriend really liked his enchiladas as well.
This is a no-​frills, hole-​in-​the-​wall kinda place.

Went with my daughter on a Saturday for lunch. We were greeted with a smile and told to sit anywhere. Drink orders came quickly. The chips and salsa came, salsa watery with a little bite afterwards. My daughter ordered the open face burger and I ordered the tostada compuesta with chicken, no beans, Christmas chile. The burger looked like a grey frozen patty that was topped with green chile, lettuce & tomatoes. The onion rings also frozen but tasted good. I liked my tostada, it had fresh tasting shredded chicken, a nice amount of cheese, mild but tasty Christmas, lettuce & tomatoes. It was so full that I had to resort to a fork & knife as the tortilla broke under the weight. My daughter was very disappointed with her burger & only ate half but I would order the tostada again. My daughter about died when I called our waiter «adorbs». Not to his face of course.

ordered nachos. w that canned nacho sauce. no jalapenos… just gross!..
.would be better at 7−11…couldnt eat them then remade them w (maybe)actual shredded cheese… wasnt melted cooked or NADA! the cooks there dont care but the wait staff was nice… the beef tastes like it would be from a burro. oh well they can dump on out w that kind of quality… Much better places to eat… but grab a picture cause noone even eats there anymore

Taco Sal has new owners since I was last there just a few weeks ago. The red chile sauce tastes different (the waitress says a number of customers have asked for the old recipe to return) and how they can make refried beans taste bad is beyond me.

Go for the Breaking Bad photo op… the food is horrible.

Big time disappointment. Born and raised in ABQ (37+ years) and can’t count how many times I’ve passed by Taco Sal over the years and finally tried it. Based on other posts, it sounds like I missed the glory days of this ABQ landmark because it was substandard at best. The service and food were simply unacceptable and I’m one to always give the benefit of the doubt. Stick to the positive Unilocal ratings before spending your money here.

Like another reviewer, I really, really wanted to say a bunch of good stuff about Taco Sal. It’s been in ABQ forever and seems to be an institution, but I don’t know why. The staff is courteous and friendly, and the food selection looks good. But that’s where it falls apart.
We started with the chips, salsa and queso. The queso is not authentic at all and had very little flavor. It looked like Velveeta chemical cheese with some green chilies in it. The salsa was flavorful but had no heat. Refried beans were good. Chips seem homemade and we’re good but lacked salt. Spanish rice was flavorful but over cooked. Chicken in the enchiladas was tender and flavorful. Green chile sauce was terribly bland, nearly flavorless, and had zero heat at all.
In a city with so many awesome Mexican food options, Taco Sal will, unfortunately, we way down my list.

I wanted this to be better. I SO wanted to say good things… Alas…
We walked into the seemingly dormant restaurant at 1-​ish in the middle of a Tuesday lunch service to this rinky little place. The nice women behind the counter welcomed us promptly and told us to sit where we’d like (though they looked surprised that we came in).
The décor is seriously dated and tired looking with some anecdotal mexican-​style pottery hanging around the two dining rooms, and christ on crutches someone make their rental owner or whomever needs to be called… TURN ON THE A/​C!!! Management? Landlord? Anyone? Have mercy on the staff. I realize its not exactly Memorial day, but today was balls hot and there are no windows in the restaurant, only the front door and the back screen door tucked away by the restrooms. Though the back door was open, it helped very little.
Foodstuffs were adequate though I was thoroughly unimpressed. Large portions and excessive cheese can’t make up for the fact that I could’ve made it all at home, and probably better.
We started with a guacamole salad, at $ 6.95 was definitely not plain mashed raw avocado. They put salt in it. They served it with tortilla chips and some salsa that lingered from our table chips came in handy then, though the salsa itself was extremely thin and lacking in flavor.
I ordered beef stuffed sopapillas X-​mas style with rice and beans on the side. At first I was excited because the red chile I sampled seemed hearty and hot, but I quickly realized that it must’ve been the good bit that fell off the back of the mixing spoon or something. Green chile was ok, not hot. Had beef in it… almost redeeming. I found the sopapilla (or some other bread-​like sponge) at the bottom of a bite. I’m all for smothered food, but not unrecognizable food. The beans suffered some weird fate underneath a ½″ thick pile of melted cheddar jack next to yesterday’s tomato soup/​rice. $ 7.95. I enjoyed the lemonade.
My husband ordered a #4 combination platter with a taco, Chile Relleno, and could’ve been an enchilada, but we couldn’t find it under the cheese and mush. For a self declared «cheese narf», even my husband called it quits halfway though the relleno sighting too much cheese and inability to find «the body» of the chile. He enjoyed his soda. $ 9.95.
The kids apathetically chanted «tortilla» declaring their hunger pains in one word spurts of impulse, so we ordered them the kids menu bean burritos with one side (papitas) and you guessed it, lemonade!
Meal, $ 4.95, drink separate charge… but I didn’t pay attention.
The papitas worked for the boys, they ate a solid ¹⁄₈ of them. They picked the melted cheddar cheese off the burritos that were so full of beans it had to be cut up, as the tortilla has given up its will to hold it together.
Redeeming factor: We had the world’s coolest waitress. She was so awesome, we almost didn’t wince at the $ 45 bill for a meal we MAYBE ate ¼ of the food. She was kind, genuine, funny, efficient, didn’t get too chummy with me but knew my kids names by the time our meal was over, then asked us if they could have a lollipop which she magically lowered from the hidden (or maybe I’m blind) hot air balloon that drops from the corner by the front door at the employees convenience.
I don’t like giving bad reviews. Having said that, I can’t lie… we will not be returning to Taco Sal’s. Its a cute place with potential to be really cool, but no heart to drive the beat, I fear.

Once a NM tradition has become just another below average establishment. Just a few years ago I would eat here weekly. Since the new owners have changed it I can no longer get through a meal. The prices have gone up and the quality and taste have declined. Avoid the chicken as it’s dry. The service was ok. Honestly I think if Breaking Bad had not filmed here they would have already closed.

Bummed. Used to eat here seriously once a week, as I live right around the corner. I’ve been eating here for 33 years, now I haven’t been in months. The new owners really f’ed it up. Changed all the recipes, the chile, the menu, everything but location and décor. I’m genuinely sad I can’t eat here anymore. :(

It’s so sad! This restaurant used to be an institution in Albuquerque now it is a sad imitation of what it used to be. Sal would be devastated to see it in its current state.
It is probably the worst New Mexican food in Albuquerque. Stale, flavorless chips and salsa, beans from a can, bland, dry rice, super salty taco meat and over-​fried, burnt taco shells!
Needless to say, I won’t be going back.

I saw this place on Breaking Bad, and I thought, well all of the restaurants they have featured on the show are delicious so Taco Sal must be good too, and it surely was great! We ordered beef and chicken tacos, beans, papitas, chips and queso, and a rootbeer float! The tacos were very good! (I liked the chicken the best) The chips and salsa were awesome! The salsa was delicious and I was totally in love with it! As a side note mix the salsa in with the queso and it is awesome to put on the tacos or papitas! The sopapillas were perfect a great way to end the dinner. If you go, try the rootbeer float and you won’t be at all disappointed!
I will surely be back here!

This place is very «Albuquerque», it’s been around since the 60’s and it shows but don’t be scared off. I love this place, I’ve had the chalupas and fajitas here. Lot’s of options for different sauces and salsas, quick and very affordable. Maybe the foods not as good as some of the higher end joints but for what you pay for it’s great and a great alternative to the other places in same price point. They have different specials every (I’ve only tried a couple).

We ate here on Jan 22. Had a stuffed sopapilla that was excellent. Hadn’t eaten here in 10 years but it’s still pretty good. Lots of food on the plate.

Small local place. Awesome tamales!!! I am new to Unilocal but my favorite reviews are when I get to write about good tamales. These were pretty awesome!

This restaurant has been here a long time and I cant remember how many times I have ate here, but its my go to place for tacos when im waiting on my truck to get washed. there tacos are so good, they mix there taco meat with potatoes and have great taste, salsa also good. Only wish .They still had beer, but there ice tea was great and big glass. great family owned restaurant and there very nice.

With the reputation this place has of being part of the old guard of New Mexican eateries in ABQ, frankly I expected some red and green smothered excellence from them. What I got was pretty run of the mill foodwise. I’d rate it somewhere around 3 and a half stars, if that were an option.
The enchiladas had some tasty chicken in them with just the right amount of cheese on top and they didn’t disintegrate under the green chile like they do at a lot of places. That papitas served on the side were nicely crispy and well-​salted, in addition to being adorably teeny. On the other hand, the sopa seca wasn’t exactly seca, as the rice in it was really wet and mushy. And the green chile… well, I’ll get to that in a moment. The stuffed sopapillas were pretty damn good, even though I mistakenly ordered one with ground beef (I assumed ‘beef’ meant machaca beef). The ground beef one was crappy. Don’t get that. But the carne adovada filled sopapilla was pretty tasty. Nice, thick, chewy sopapilla with plenty of tender pork inside and just a little cheese on top. Both items were clearly prepared fresh and came in decently sizable portions.
Really, the worst thing about the experience was the chile. The red was more sweet than spicy with too much flour to have a real strong flavor. It tasted too much like roux. The green was weak. It had that Hatch flavor all right, but it had no heat whatsoever. The waiter brought me some of the so-​called hot green chile, but I think this was a part of some ill-​devised prank because it was certainly not hot. Still, it’s about average in terms of quality. I recommend green over red at this one, and I almost never do that.
Normally, I would say skip this place because there are many better NM restaurants in town. I would say the chile is too weak to warrant eating there. But in this case, I would still probably recommend it to people less particular about the chile than me. This is because the wait staff is stellar, all the employees are very friendly and actually appreciate me spending my dosh there, and I can tell the cook it all fresh and to order. That goes a long way. If I return it’s because of how they run the place.

Only place in town that has 3 kinds of chile: red, green and hot green
get something ala carte with hot green and you can’t go wrong (usually beef stuffed sopapilla)
price has gone up while portions remain the same (true all over, unfortunately)

This was my fiancé’s favorite place to eat whilst growing up. He introduced it to me when we first started dating and sadly I have seen the prices climb and the food quality diminish over the last eight years. For example my fiancé’s favorite dish not only went up in price but also had the two sides that it used to come with taken away as well.
It makes me more sad then angry that I can only give three stars when this used to be one of our favorite places in town.

I was recently visiting Albuquerque and someone suggested that I visit Taco Sal to experience authentic New Mexican food. I was not disappointed!
We were greeted as we entered as if we were regulars. The place has a very welcoming atmosphere. Our waitress was very friendly and even offered suggestions from the menu. We had our two small children with us and she brought them stickers and they got suckers on the way out.
The most important thing: the food! AMAZING! Everything is prepared in-​house and was wonderful. I had the green chile enchiladas and have wanted to go back for more every day since. To top it off, the meal came with two sopaipillas that were light and fluffy and totally delicious.
To put our visit in perspective, we visited one other restaurant that claimed to serve «authentic New Mexican food» and there was no comparison. Hands down Taco Sal is where it’s at.