Central Grill and Coffee House

Great stop when passing through town. Christmas huevos rancheros are awesome. I prefer fried tortilla underneath, but I wouldn’t hesitate to order the same thing next time I’m in town.

This place is pretty good.
Food is reasonably priced and has decent flavor.
Huevos Rancheros with carne adovada, Grilled Cheese and Pancakes are the running favorites.

If I could give 10 stars, I would! We pulled up towing a travel trailer and couldn’t figure out where to park. We drove around a second time and the owner came outside to tell us we could park right in front. Staff was super friendly and the customer service was awesome! The owner brought us out free blueberry pancakes, green chili sauce, and marinated pork — just for us to try! Seriously, he was so awesome. If you’re passing through ABQ, definitely stop here!

I can’t say enough good things about this place. Came here based on its excellent reviews, and wasn’t disappointed at all. Hand down the best food and customer service ever. The owner George goes out of his way to make sure each and every customer in the restaurant is happy and satisfied. If I could give 10 stars for customer service, I totally would. Also they have the best blueberry waffles in the world. They are so light and fluffy with a little crisp. Definitely a must have!

I’ve been a to this little gem many times now. When I try and think of a great place to treat myself or out of town guests to breakfast, this place always makes it on the list. It’s not far from my house. and it’s reasonably priced. The coffee is good and strong. with free refills. You may not be able to find a seat in the weekends. The patio seating is ideal. The highlights as far as food are: all of the baked goods, the croque madam, the chiquiles, and my personal fave the huevos rancheros. I get it with red or Christmas. The chile is awesome with the red having a hot bite to it. I’ve never been for lunch as this is one of my go to breakfast places. but I’m sure it’s just as good. I think one of the coolest things about this place is that the owner has always been there when I’ve stopped by. He’s checking on his customers and you can tell he is passionate about the place.

Great spot! Reminded me of the diners in Southern California, but a bit more upscale and with a New Mexican flare! Chilequiles were different than what I’m used to (Texas), but in a good way! It’s also fast if you don’t have a long time to wait!

Order at the counter and take your number to an open seat/​table!
Great menu selection. Great coffee (they brew Seattle’s Best). Absolutely love the atmosphere. I ordered the Croque Madame with eggs over medium and a plain pancake on the side (because yes).
Outdoor patio tables do have umbrellas on most. Small amount of «counter» seating inside; inside tables are majority 2-​seaters with a few 4-​tops.
Stumbled upon this place (thanks Unilocal!And people weren’t kidding about your GPS being confused) and am so happy I came here!

The quick of it. Hot delicious, inventive food, good service, nice clean establishment, fair prices and a fantastic patio to enjoy with our wonderful weather. Been there twice both experiences were great. Looking forward to my next. Only you can decided if it’s for you or not but i say it’s definitely worth the try!

This place is awesome!!! I was driving through from California, on my way to Texas. I found this spot from reviews. I’m so glad I went; fellow « Unilocalers» NEVER lead me astray .
The food was delicious! I ordered American Breakfast; they allowed me to sub my toast for a slice of French toast. The BEST decision ever!
George, the owner, came to our table and introduced himself, and gave us the back story of the homie restaurant. He recognized that we were «out-​of-​towners». He brought us over some sides of slow cooked chili sauces and some baked carne asada, cheesy goodness! Yum!
If nothing else, check this place out to visit with George. His hospitable personality puts this place far above the rest.

What a cool diner. I’m not sure if it’s been featured but this place can be on the show «Diners & Dives» of course it would be the former. As we were touring the cool historical part of Albuquerque on Easter we were getting hungry. I was desperate for some good coffee. I noticed across the street a cool 50’s style diner, I checked Unilocal & Bam! A winner. They had excellent coffee, a fantastic menu, a super cool vibe, beyond any place in California I’ve experienced. The employees seem genuinely happy to be working there. I ordered a chorizo egg burrito, it was drenched in red sauce. Warning it was spicy but no mention of how spicy on the menu. In California we are spoiled if something is spicy there is usually a little chili pepper image next to it. In New Mexico restaurants there is usually a choice of red or green sauce, so be forewarned. My burrito was good but I wish the chorizo was incorporated into the scrambled eggs, not just sautéed on its own. It took awhile for our food to arrive. The waitress made some excuse but we were hungry & we weren’t buying it, we needed to head out to Santa Fe. I will add the employees keep the coffee coming & there are free refills. In conclusion no waiter service, you order at the counter then the grub is brought out, so with that employees should pay attention to the customers that look hungry & do not have food in front of them.

4 stars for the food, 5 stars for the service.
Hands down, the most genuine customer-​oriented restaurant in Albuquerque. Central Grill is a small, no-​nonsense diner with good food and great energy. There are a number of great places to grab breakfast and brunch in ABQ, but Central really is something unique.
The prices are very reasonable, the order up front at the cashier is my style of ordering, and the food is pure comfort — nothing terribly fancy, but all around solid options. HUGE fan of the cinnamon rolls!
Why does this establishment have 4.5 stars you ask, dear Unilocaler? It’s the service. The man who appears to be the manager (owner perhaps?) is just absolutely phenomenal. He walks around to the tables asking if people are SATISFIED. That’s the bottom line of ANY consumer based experience: are you SATISFIED?
I once came in here and they inadvertently messed up our order. The manager came over to my table and comp’d the entire meal. Want to know why I head back here time after time? Because of this type of business. That’s SERVICE.
Big shot out to the crew at Central Grill — see you soon.

So you are shopping in old Town, get hungry and may be you are a cool person looking for cool places to eat — what do you do? You walk (or drive, they do have private parking which is pretty nice in this part of town) to this awesome place!
We tried their soup, a skillet, a sandwich and all of them exceeded our expectations. Service was pretty quick too. It’s a diner and it looks like one — so please don’t expect a palace like ambience with a waiter in a suit and bow tie!
If you go to a place and the manager comes to you and asks if its your first time there, tells you that you should try their pancakes and then brings a blueberry pancake to your table just to try, would you not give the place an A for service?! Let me assure you, they get an A not only for that but for great tasting food as well!

As many of the reviewers here have mentioned, I would’ve also never have found this place if it weren’t for Unilocal.
Conveniently located on the corner of Rio Grande & Central/​Lomas, somehow Google Maps got their directions all wrong… but w/​the help of my eyesight, I was able to easily locate this place right across from Old Town-​ish w/​a merely simple U-​turn.
You would never know how great this place is until you try it – seriously, refer to the other Unilocal reviewers on this place & you’ll understand why.
The food is incredible — I got the Chicken Italiano w/​sweet potato fries & I wasn’t disappointed. The chicken on the sandwich wasn’t dry & it was juicy. To be honest, I’m not a big fan on sun dried tomatoes, but I’m pretty sure it was love at first taste because I loved it. The sweet potato fries are also pretty great — it’s worth giving this place a shot!
Also, their lattes are pretty freaking great too.
I look forward to coming back & trying other menu options.

Checking for Unilocal reviews in the area, I found this place. What kept me coming back was the food. Yep, I admit it, I had breakfast there two mornings and a lunch. All three times, I was served food that was fantastic. First, I started with a adovado breakfast burrito that turned out to be BIG, HOT (smothered in red sauce), and, in a word, deeeeeee lish ous! The second time, I took Dr. R. there for lunch after walking in the zoo. We both had burgers, I had the black and blue and he had the inside out. We shared the wonderful sweet potato fries. I came back for breakfast on the day after and ordered a jr. breakfast burrito, only slightly smaller than the adovado one, smothered in red sauce and filled with eggs, potatoes and sausage.
What keeps me coming back? It’s not a really fancy place, but it has friendly service and a working system of order, pay, get your number, find a seat, enjoy the meal and leave. The red sauce was very spicy (yeah!) and the burgers were really good (even if they did use premade patties).
If I lived in Albuquerque, they would soon know my name and wouldn’t have to ask me which sauce I wanted! It’s a good thing that we are separated by a vast part of the continent!
Thank you, Central Grill and Coffee House!

The Grill is just a little walk from Old Town. The staff were extremely nice and welcoming. The special for the day was fish tacos with a side salad. The tacos were ok but would have liked the fish seasoned a little more plus the fish was a bit greasy. The ABQ western sandwich was interesting with a burger, hot dog and bbq sauce. Although if you have a sandwich named after ABQ maybe having a little green chili would have been nice :)
The little walk from Old Town was worth it because the prices were reasonable and staff were excellent.

First time here and it didn’t disappoint! Went with the American breakfast… Scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns. Finally, a diner that uses REAL eggs!!! They were fluffy and delicious. We also got a sticky bun, because why wouldn’t you. They threw it in the microwave and heated it up for us, and we demolished the caramely, cream cheese icingy goodness in seconds. ONLY semi complaint is that my bad towns could have been crispier… But that is an easy request to make. Great coffee and great prices. Can’t wait to try lunch sometime!!!

Central Grill and Coffee House is an adorable little restaurant right on the outskirts of old town. I get really really excited when people are willing to «revamp» old areas of ‘Burque and make them hip and new again. That’s exactly what Central Grill and Coffee House did.
This place is cute and small which might mean that you have to wait for a table or vulture over people until you can take their seats, but they also have a drivethru if you’re not up for the task of being in a crowded diner, so that’s a plus. I ordered the huevos and my SO ordered the croquet madam.
I got a little antsy waiting for our food to arrive because it took around 40 minutes, which I found odd since they do have a drive thru? Do you wait that long when you use the drive thru? I don’t know. However, the man that brought it out was kind of adorable. He called our number and we raised our hands and then he made a «last call for number 20» joke, which I responded by probably making the most pathetic, confused, hungry face I have ever made in my life, and he laughed and apologized for making jokes when I was so hangry. It was busy though so I can understand their wait.
The food was excellent. I had watched people around me eat cinnamon rolls which looked fabulous and next time I will certainly get one. The huevos had great flavor, great texture, and the refried beans on the side were fa-​fa-​fabulous. It was all around just the perfect size and perfect tasting New Mexican dish. Everything I saw other people eating just looked beyond perfect and I can’t wait to go back and try new things on their menu.

UPDATE: I went back on a relatively quiet Wednesday morning. Food was p. damn good. Only gripe is they’re still pretty slow but it was worth the wait. This probably won’t be a go-​to place for me for a couple reasons not related to previous experience but I’ll come back. I’d definitely recommend this place if it ain’t busy and you have some time. One of the better breakfasts you can find around here IMO, especially for the price.
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To start, this is a rating of my first experience at this place. It in many ways, couldn’t have been worse. I’ll eventually adjust the rating of this place when I try it again, the reason being the manager/​owner. He couldn’t have been nicer, comped our check and was sincerely apologetic so they’ll get another shot… also their food was really good despite the hiccups eating here.
The bad: I don’t like eating at places with open seating because, like today a group of us waited forever to order, froze our asses off outside, then waited over an hour for our food. It was a sunday and it was busy but not ridiculous and they just could not get their shit together in the kitchen, in the dining room, or on the freezing ass patio.
Some polite suggestions: Devise some sort of reasonable seating system OR get propane heaters for your patio, this ain’t 1943, the technology exists. Also, nix the drive thru for Sunday breakfast. It’s gonna be a shit show automatically and with a kitchen that’s ill trained for a rush there’s no need to divert their limited attention from the dining room crowd.
Again, the food was pretty good. The prices weren’t bad either and the manager/​owner ate shit and comped several checks for disgruntled customers so respect to that guy. Next time I try this place it’ll be a weekday when business is slow and give a less angry review.

Bella B. was holding a fundraiser for a friend in need of an organ transplant in cooperation with the owners. That’s way cool of you all. The place was packed, we had to park next door. You line up, order, get a number and wait as people deliver your dish. On this day I experienced the breakfast burrito smothered in red and green with sausage. The price is right, the portions generous and the service stellar. I hadn’t been here before and almost never write a review based on one visit but in this case I made and exception. Maybe it was the company I was with or the vibe of the place. If you’re reading this and thinking of a bite I doubt you’ll go wrong.
EDIT: The next morning we pan heated our take home part of our burritos, they reheated well and tasted delicious. If you think you would take home part of your meal ask for extra (or a side of) red/​green. Either way it was a great find.

Chiliqueles for days! The tortilla chips used in the dish are stupid good and the green chili is tangy yet spicy.
They have a nice patio area with umbrellas and though it gets crowded, it doesn’t feel busy.
Service is a bit slow though. Good food makes up for it