Monroe's Restaurant

Monroe's Restaurant sits at 1025 4th St NW in the Downtown and Old Town corridor of Albuquerque, New Mexico, minutes from the historic plaza and the Rail Yards. This family-owned New Mexican restaurant has been feeding the metro since 1962, when it began as a small drive-in near Old Town. Today it is a downtown gathering place whose kitchen is said to move more than 150,000 pounds of green chile a year, and it remains one of the most trusted names in the city's chile culture.

What makes Monroe's special is the food and the family story behind it. The Famous Green Chile Cheeseburger pairs a hand-formed beef patty with a generous blanket of roasted green chile, and it has earned a devoted following across the city. The menu also features carne adovada, Miguel's Stew, enchiladas on blue corn tortillas served flat, posole, tamales, and sopaipillas, alongside a large vegetarian selection and chile and red chile honey sold under the Miguel's label. Miguel Diaz, a native of Puerto Rico raised in New York, has owned the restaurant since 1979, moving it from a refurbished gas station on Lomas to its current 4th Street home.

Anyone who loves New Mexican comfort food will feel at home at Monroe's, from UNM students and downtown workers stopping in for lunch to families settling in for a relaxed dinner. It is also a natural stop for house hunters touring adobe homes and lofts in the Downtown and Old Town area, a comfortable place to refuel and talk neighborhoods between showings.

Monroe's fits this community because it has grown up alongside it. It has kept serving through a move, a changing downtown, and more than six decades of Albuquerque's evolution, and it remains family-owned and locally proud. For anyone weighing a move to Albuquerque, a meal at Monroe's is a genuine taste of the city's chile culture and its friendly, hard-working spirit.