The Top Three Green Chile Cheeseburgers in Albuquerque

Southwestern Burger from ABQ Brewpub

New Mexico's unofficial state food is the green chile cheeseburger. Any respectable burger joint tops its patties with the spicy, flavorful chiles. You'll even find the hot chiles in burgers at McDonald's.

There's actually a Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail that plots out all of the good places to grab the signature sandwich throughout the state, but we decided to blaze our epicurean trail in Albuquerque. Taking cues from the Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail and suggestions from locals, we hit up three restaurants in search of the best green chile cheeseburger.

· ABQ Brewpub
This towering concoction above, called a Southwestern burger, from the Uptown brewpub won the 2010 Governor's Green Chile Cheeseburger Challenge last month at the State Fair. Piled on top of the Angus patty are cheese, garlic mustard, bacon, green chile tempura and chipotle mayo. Cost: $12.

· Blake's Lotaburger
Some credit this New Mexico fast food chain for being the first to add chiles to cheeseburgers. At the generic, outdated restaurant, we went for the Lota Burger�a plain Angus patty�with cheese and chiles on a plain bun. Cost: $4.06.

· Frontier Burger
This Nob Hill staple is the go-to place for students from the University of New Mexico, which sits across the street. This joint has seen better days, but the crowd in there at 1 a.m. didn't seem to mind. We tried the Fiesta burger with green chiles, cheese and a sesame seed bun. Cost: $3.59.

Winner: The monstrous burger from ABQ looks way better than the other two, and we could just eat the tempura chile by itself. But all of the sauces and other ingredients masked the chile and beef flavors. And while the Fiesta burger was tasty, the Angus patty from Blake's pushed it ahead.

Do you agree with our green chile cheeseburger champion? Or do you have another contender?

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[Photos: Jennifer Kester]

Comments (2)

Return to » The Top Three Green Chile Cheeseburgers in Albuquerque

I have lived in Albuquerque for over 20 years, and I have to say that Blakes is a tradition. There are two other green chile cheeseburgers of which I am quite fond. Monroe's offers the "Double Zero" and Bob's Burgers has "The Ranchero" if you want a real sense of the GCCB then the triple crown goes IMHO to Bob's(hottest chile), Monroe's (freshest tasting) and Blake's (most authentic NM burger). Green chile ain't silly!

Yum. We'll have to add Monroe's and Bob's to our list the next time we are out there. Thanks for the recommendations, abqjim.

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