El Pinto

We've been celebrating Christmas Eve with our family at El Pinto for years and we cherish this special restaurant. The atmosphere is unique and charming. The restaurant is large and the perfect venue for large gatherings. The service has always been wonderful, especially for larger parties. The food is delicious and I love everything from the chips and salsa too the enchiladas and sopaipillas. This is a great restaurant for eating good food and making memories!

Visiting from Texas while contemplating moving to Santa Fe area and stumbled upon this gem of a place! There was snow on the ground and we had our dogs so we were looking for a place to get food that had a patio with heaters. Not only did they have heaters and a fireplace but the little patio area was enclosed and super cozy. The minute we walked in with our dogs all the staff and even the owner was super friendly and came to pet them and say hi. The server immediately brought them a water bowl and then the owner even brought them 2 bowls of cooked chicken! The dogs were in heaven :) Our server was super polite and knowledgeable and recommended some margaritas which were fantastic. Chips and salsa were on point with their in-house salsa you can buy in the little store up front. Food was amazing! I ordered the enchilada combo with both red and green sauce and my husband ordered the chicken enchiladas with green sauce. Portions are huge so we had plenty to take home. Our bellies were full and so were the dogs. We left feeling very fortunate that we found this place. Will definitely be returning whenever we can.

Came to ---- all the way from a very comfortable and intimate AirBnB, on good word from a local friend that its one of the best places in ABQ for authentic Mexican, and some signature New Mexico specialties,such as the reknowned crispy and spicy delicacy known as "Green Chili" (they eat it straight up, and also put it on literally everything, including Pizza) Well, as dehydrated and hungry as I was from the weekend activities....turns out that this massive and almost resort like venue is indeed a nice place to not only eat and drink, but to take in some interesting southwest vistas and also people watch, apparently with its massive size and numerous sections, its a popular place for birthdays and parties, etc etc (saw some interesting hats and boots for sure) Mainly though, this particular meal was made enjoyable and even special by the friendly and knowledgeable young staff; I swear not a single one of them was over 25. Special shoutout to our fabulous and slightly neo-Goth server, Esmeralda (I hope she actually spells it this way). She was easily the star of the show, and if you ever have the pleasure you'll know why....thanks for the pictures, and move to LA already! Our only "thing" (not really a complaint at all, because it adds to the story) was the mini side quest that we eventually left our table to go on was the very convoluded and watered down "Jameson soda bitters" that was questionable both times...but we just chalked it up to the youth of the bartender (who actually could have been Esmeralda's twin 😅, never actually spoke to her, but she knows who she is). Anyways, legend has it that they're still working on the recipe til this day, but all in all, I'd say that experience wise, our visit and meal at El Pinto was indeed "The whole Enchilada" I'll be back for sure if I make it back to ABQ. 🤘🏽😋🥃🌮

Chips were great and the Salsa was to die for. Had the stuffed sopapillas along with the Chilè rellenos. If you want to know it was Christmas style on both plates. Entrees come with a sopapilla but I feel like it was prepped about an hour ago. I will definitely return for some piping hot sopapillas.