2025 Centurion Award winner
El Modelo Mexican Foods
Best New Mexican Takeout in Albuquerque · Albuquerque, NM
Best New Mexican Takeout in Albuquerque · Albuquerque, NM
El Modelo Mexican Foods has been making New Mexican staples by hand since 1929, and generations later it's still a takeout counter at heart. You pull a ticket, wait for your number, and carry off huge tamales, chile-smothered enchiladas, and stuffed sopaipillas to a picnic table or your car.
Everything is made fresh daily from locally bought ingredients, and the tamales in particular have made El Modelo an Albuquerque institution — the kind of place families order from by the dozen for holidays and Balloon Fiesta mornings.
Each Centurion Award is a dated record tied to one year’s evaluation — earned annually, never carried over. Open a year for the full citation and verification details.
Awards run one calendar year and renew only if the business clears the bar again. Selection is by published criteria, never for sale.
Visit El Modelo Mexican Foods
This page is the standing record for El Modelo Mexican Foods (2025). It was not bought, voted on, or sponsored — only winners are published, and an award that stops holding up is revoked, not quietly removed. For hours, bookings, and live reviews, go straight to the business itself.
If you’ve put in the years, you may already clear the bar. Evaluation is free, private, and never for sale.