Reviews for El Modelo Mexican Foods in Albuquerque, NM
So Much History! Giant portions - we could have shared the Mexican Plate between the 2 of us. Caution- HOTTER than Tex-Mex!
While El Modelo is still very good and its prices are still pretty fair I have noticed a slight downgrade in quality and service... every time I've been there since the start of the pandemic. Main thing is how long it takes to get your order now, it alwaystakes at least 20 minutes for me to get 1 small item because of how they do pick up orders now. No way to avoid long waits bycalling in ahead either because you have to be in one of their numbered parking spots for them to take your order. Waiting thatlong always makes it taste worse because the meat dries out and grease or cheese will all collect on the same part of the foodas it sits there waiting to be taken to your car. The portions seem to be a little smaller too but I could be wrong about that.Also prices have slightly increased but that's common for the majority of places now. Overall El Modelo is still pretty goodwith fair prices but it used to be great all around and unfortunately hasn't been up to its previous standards the last fewtimes I visited. Read more
Their tamales and ribs are amazing! A favorite of locals. The place is small and almost everyone orders take out. There is a... seating area outside. Expect a line during lunchtime. Good staff. Orders are always accurate and packaged with care. Read more
Unfortunately, this is one of our favorite New Mexican restaurants in Albuquerque, and they are no longer allowing customers to... come into their restaurant space to order food. Their space is a take-out one, and the line usually moves along quite rapidly inspite of the high volume of customers. Now they only allow customers to CALL IN FROM THEIR CARS in the parking lot to order.People who posted good reviews in the last year must have been lucky to have someone answer the phone to put in their order. Ithink they only have one phone line, and it is always busy. We've tried to drive up several times and have only had the phoneanswered once in the last year. Then it took 1/2 hour to bring out the food. When you try to order on line, it has beenrepeatedly a busy signal every time lately.......Sadly, we won't be going back to El Modelo any time soon. They could at leastpost this information on their website so people aren't so angry and disappointed Read more
It's always a great time eating at the El Modelo restaurant. This cuisine has been served since 1929 with this new upgraded... future building towering over the old traditional style Adobe restaurant that started this great classic traditional Mexicanfood. Read more
Great food! Recommend the Mexican Plate if you have trouble to decide. Big portion can easily feed two people, stop by every... time if you pass Albuquerque! The desert comes with honey, which also tasty just eat it along ! The ribs and enchiladas arealso great! Phone in to order make sure you tell them your parking spot number, then they deliver to your car. Super easy! Read more
We had the green chile meat burrito, tacos, a tostada, a stuffed sopaipilla, and red meat tamales. All tasted fine, though not... the spectacular flavor we were told they have. Friendly staff. No dine out; must pre-order by phone and receive in the parkinglot. Read more
?Time is money? I want to love this place so much, but they have no sense of organization, customer service, or service... industry etiquette. Three times now, they?ve either not put our order in, forgotten items, or made the order incorrectly and theorders we?ve placed aren?t large or complicated. The kids working the registers don?t seem to have a system or flow to theirwork, which allows the lobby to pile up and customers to wait for much longer than needed often rushing to the registers to askabout their order sitting on the shelf behind them. Kudos to the workers slinging tamales on the back, but if you learned tofunction like a team maybe they wouldn?t have to work as crazy. Great location, quaint store front and building, decent food.So hooray for that. Read more