Roswell, New Mexico

November 17, 2015 12:51 PM

Going to Roswell for a day or so and looking to eat some good local Food. Never been to NM before and I want something that NM is known for. Recommendations?
posted by flipmiester99 to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

It's been ages since I've been to NM so I don't have specific recommendations for restaurants, but you will want to try their dishes involving fry bread and chile sauce (especially Hatch chiles, though those are increasingly available outside of NM).
posted by joan_holloway at 12:53 PM on November 17, 2015

You want green Chile cheeseburgers, Carne avodada, blue corn waffles and enchiladas( not served at the same time ;-) ), chile on your main course Christmas style (both green and red)....
posted by brujita at 1:17 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

You know you're at an old-fashioned Southwest restaurant when they give you a free plate of freshly-fried sopaipillas at the end of your meal. It's a very lightly sweetened pastry served with honey for drizzling.
posted by ostro at 1:26 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

This type of food is called "Sonoran." Highlights are green chile everything and blue corn everything, especially posole and enchiladas. Also, Santa Fe Brewing makes excellent beer. I love the Happy Camper IPA.
posted by Brittanie at 1:44 PM on November 17, 2015

New Mexico has a whole slew of excellent local breweries that I haven't seen available in other states. So if that's your thing, go wild.
posted by cmoj at 2:48 PM on November 17, 2015

Definitely get some green chile cheeseburgers and green chili. Those are the real flagship New Mexico foods. (Green chiles are just the roasted chile peppers, which is usually what you'll get on a green chile cheeseburger. Green chili is a stew, usually with pork, and that's what you'll get if you get green chili in a bowl or something smothered with green chili. Green chili stew is green chili with potatoes in it.)

Also keep an eye out for a panaderia for Mexican style baked goods and eat as many as you can while you're there. Every small town in New Mexico seems to have at least one really good panaderia.

It's been probably 20 years since I've been to Roswell, but IIRC, Martin's Capitol Cafe was good. (It's been long enough that I didn't remember the name, but a Google search turned that up, and I THINK that's the place I was thinking of. Either way, the reviews do look good.)
posted by ernielundquist at 2:59 PM on November 17, 2015

When you're in Roswell, stop at Allsup's convenience store (no really) and have a chimichanga. YOU'RE WELCOME IN ADVANCE. Also, if it's still around, the nuthin fancy cafe was always decent. Finally, yes, hit up the mexican restaurants. Get a combo meal and try the chile rellenos and tamales and sopapillas with honey. street cred: i grew up in Roswell.
posted by TestamentToGrace at 3:24 PM on November 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yeah, green chile, green chile, green chile.

Or red. Take that sopapilla, put some honey on it, then drag it thru the red chile sauce on your plate. GUH. SO. GOOD.
posted by mon-ma-tron at 5:28 PM on November 17, 2015

Green chile, yo.

And it's the season for pumpkin rolls.
posted by ellenaim at 7:18 PM on November 17, 2015

I was in Roswell a couple of years ago and went to Martin's Capitol Cafe. The Yelp reviews were very good -- best in a several mile radius -- but my wife and I didn't care for it. We're used to Texas Tex-Mex, though, so that may be a factor. Breakfast at Cowboy Cafe was good.
posted by bradf at 6:29 AM on November 18, 2015