Los Equipales

Albuquerque has no shortage of Mexican restaurants, but this year I noticed one that I have never been to, Los Equipales on Silver west of San Mateo. I noticed this restaurant while I was at my younger cousin's football game. I asked my family about it and none of them had been there. So I looked it up online and found a fair amount of good reviews about this place. The building is a former bank with a wall around it. This is not a great location, but this business has been open since 2005 so they must be doing something right. Los Equipales specializes in Mexican seafood. I took my friend Rudy who is very familiar with Latin American culture says that this place feels very Mexican so I am excited to see if their food matches the atmosphere. We are seated promptly and there are not a lot of patrons in this well decorated restaurant. It has a patio feel but it was indoor.

We began the meal sopes, pictured on the left, which as a meat topped cake of some sort and the complimentary veggies with sauce combo. The sauce I would say is similar to ranch dressing. My friend from California was looking for sopes, but we were unfamiliar with what she was asking for. These little cakes came topped with meat, veggies, and what seemed like a cheese sauce. This was new to us because we are familiar with sophapillas but not too familiar with the Mexican sopes. This dish was really good the cake was nice and light in texture and the toppings were flavorful and so plentiful that they would fall off the cake when squeezed.

For my main course, a friend and I each ordered the Arroz Marinero, pictured below and to the right, which was a rice dish with a seafood medley of shrimp, oysters, scallops, clams, calamari, and squid. The portion was pretty good sized. My other friends had the Robalo Borracho that was a piece of marinaded fish and my other friend the shrimp enchiladas. I tried the shrimp enchiladas, pictured below to the right, and that was a great dish too. It was shrimp served in a rolled corn tortilla.

I am not too good at make decisions at times and this was one of those times. I really enjoy Mexican desserts and if the delicious meal was any indication of what the dessert was like we were in for a treat. So we ordered the Arroz con leche, the flan, and the pastel de tres leches. These were all great.

Overall I would give Los Equipales a rating of three and a half stars out of five. They could improve in atmosphere, but the food is really great.

http://www.losequipales.com