Don’t be fooled by the name. This place serves much more than just bread and pastries. Everything I value about a food-service establishment can be found at Eldorado Bakery. Fresh-made food, quality ingredients, and superb customer service. Walk in on a Sunday morning and you’ll see that half of Albuquerque thinks this is the best place to get menudo on the weekends. They also serve burritos and platters but the weekend gets packed and everyone orders menudo. The menudo itself is delicious but there is not a huge difference in flavor from other places with tasty menudo.
What makes this menudo wildly popular and special is the bread roll served with it. A crunchy-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside, handmade, fresh-baked white bread “bolillo” is what makes this menudo experience different from any other place in town. It is hard not to notice the steam emanating from the basket of rolls when it is brought to my table. The smell hits my face and my mouth instantly melts. I pick up a roll, tear it in half, and take a bite. Now I’m looking around seeing if everyone’s rolls look this good. They do. I’m sitting here wondering how it is possible for these rolls to be so heavenly. I notice a large adobe structure behind the pastry display. It turns out to be a huge adobe oven. It is probably the largest “horno” I’ve ever seen in person. The baker loads up 4 or 5 dough rolls onto a paddle and places them deep into the oven. On the way out, he pulls out a ready batch of 4 rolls and drops them in a large basket to cool down for a second. Less than a minute later, a server reaches in and grabs 2 or 3 still-hot rolls to bring to a table.
That means the rolls I’m eating were made no more than 5 minutes ago. No wonder they were the most delicious thing I ever tasted. I dip them in the menudo that I loaded up with lime, onion, chile pequin, and cilantro and “go to flavortown”. This is comfort food to the max and it hits all the right spots.
“Menudo para los crudos” is a popular expression which means “Menudo for the hung over” and I can easily see why because after only halfway through my small bowl I am sweating, my nose is running, and my sinuses are clearer than they ever have been. I finish up and sit there contemplating whether I should buy a chocolate donut. It doesn’t take me long to convince myself that I deserve a chocolate donut so I buy a chocolate donut. It’s huge and it’s delicious just as I expected. For only 75 cents? I think I’ll buy a few for my friends as well. The waitress brings me my ticket and I stand in line to go pay. The cashier is also the owner and has been incredibly nice and accommodating on each of my visits. He knows and treats his regulars well and refers to everyone who walks in the door as “cousin”. The total only came out to $7.95 and it’s the most delicious menudo meal I’ve ever had.
Eldorado Bakery is a beautiful family operation, and a prime example of what the American Dream is all about. The food is great, the service is great, and the prices are great. I’m happy that business is going so well for them and that all their hard work is paying off. 10 out of 10 I recommend putting Eldorado Bakery high on your list of favorite breakfast/lunch places to visit even if it’s only for a chocolate donut.