Ho-Lo-Ma serves a wide variety of tasty dishes at budget-friendly prices
Ho-Lo-Ma serves wide variety of tasty dishes at budget-friendly prices
You may have forgotten about Ho-Lo Ma Chinese Restaurant, with some of the best Chinese cuisine in Albuquerque hiding in plain sight on Menaul east of Wyoming, but it’s time to get reacquainted.
This under-the-radar little eatery, in a nondescript building devoid of windows, is easy to miss, but the food it serves is worth remembering.
Inside, Ho-Lo-Ma isn’t much different from most other Chinese restaurants: Decorative fans and scroll paintings line the walls, statues of Buddha mingle with Christmas lights, and Kikkoman bottles sit atop each table. A giant octagonal skylight brings in some welcome natural light, and each table is meticulously set.
But this restaurant stands out when the food starts to arrive. The menu has all the usual suspects — many familiar items served in the traditional way — so being overwhelmed is normal.
On a recent visit, I decided to try a variety of flavors and let my waitress select most of them.
Arriving first was a bowl of steaming egg drop soup, savory but with a distinct earthy flavor. It was delicious, but not rich or complex, just a simple soup to break in your taste buds.
Next came an egg roll, easily the best I’ve ever had, perfectly deep fried so that the inside was moist and tender, and the outside was a crispy dark brown.
These egg rolls alone are worth a trip to Ho-Lo-Ma. They’re slightly sweet and only a buck, and they are absolutely unforgettable. Few egg rolls in Albuquerque prepared by budget-friendly Chinese restaurants could compare.
Arriving next were Beef Cho-Chos ($5.95), or teriyaki beef skewers. Ho-Lo-Ma’s are hand-trimmed flank steak cut into thin