Wranglers
July 6th, 2006 by eleet34
319 5th St SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
842-1600
(map) | ~MENU~
I recently went on a search downtown for out-of-the-way restaurants that were well known to the local business class such as PNM and MFA employees. One caught my attention and it was a restaurant on the corner of 5th and lead called Wranglers.
On the outside you would never give it more than two looks as it is a very modest restaurant that doesn’t call much attention by appearence or reputation. However, inside you will find an American/New Mexican menu that is well prepared. I have gone there a couple of times now and have had the chicken salad sandwich with fries, chopped salad, and fried catfish sandwich with fruit. All of which were in the $6 price range and very good. the food is modest but they do a good job in this restaurant. They have fairly priced entrees and offer a great assortment of lunches for the business class on the go or the general public searching for that small town restaurant atmosphere in the downtown area.
I wish I could say the service was as good as the food, but it isn’t. The service is consistently average in this restaurant and you sometimes run the risk of experienceing really bad service here. In my experience the servers are very nice, but dont know or care much about time. In my second visit I was ready to walk out because it took so long to get my drink and entree out to me. The waitress was sweet but she could not multi-task at all. I would think that a restaurant who’s business is primarily derived from the workers of surrounding business, that they would respect the lunch hour limitations. I can just hope I caught them on bad occations because I feel it is not a bad restaurant at all.
Like I said before, the ambiance is very modest and subtle. Wranglers tries for a western appeal but like some other good restaurants, you are not going to this one to lose yourself in the atmosphere. There are a few signs, pictures, lasso’s, and longhorns on the wall to remind you of the old west, but honestly, its the good food that will bring me back again. So if you are ever in the downtown area and dont feel like visiting the usual reputable spots, try this out of the way restaurant and you might be pleasantly suprised by its food.
Taste:
[rate 7]
Service:
[rate 4]
Ambiance:
[rate 5]
Overall Reader Rating
[ratings]
Revisited 7/12:
It seemed that as I went to this restaurant throughout a few months the food was changing and the lunch crowd was dwingling, so I asked around. This restaurant is in the process of new ownership/management, which is why the food quality has lost some appeal, the waitstaff is lacking, and the business lunchers are going off to the downtown strip. I talked to some local business people and they all feel like it isn’t the same anymore. The good news is that this is a good opportunity for the new management to turn it around and make the changes needed to bring the customers back again.
