Meals at Ho-Lo-Ma Chinese Restaurant are served with egg drop soup.
slices, marinated in soy and ginger and other spices, then grilled to medium well over a flame. They were amazingly good, surprisingly tender and suitable for sharing with a couple of other people. And, for a lighter appetite, they could make a great meal by themselves.
After so many great appetizers, I wasn’t sure the main course could raise the bar. But when a huge platter of beef and chicken showed up, I could tell I was in for a treat.
The sesame beef was delicious. The difference in quality between, say, the cut of meat served at a food court Chinese restaurant and that served at Ho-Lo-Ma is stunning — the latter’s is perfectly trimmed, lean, without any fat or gristle, and without having been frozen.
The flavor, too, is fantastic. Sweet and savory together mix in beef that is both crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. So, too, was the sweet-and-sour chicken, which came with about five big chunks of breaded chicken breast deep-fried to a golden brown.
Both the beef and chicken were phenomenal, classical Chinese dishes prepared expertly, with fresh ingredients and tons of flavor. The meal cost around $10, and it included egg drop soup, fried rice and an egg roll, and it required a to-go box for leftovers. Not a bad value.
The only criticism I could find, and a mild one at that, was that the fried rice was stickier and gummier than it should have been, but the flavor was good. Thankfully, another masterpiece of an egg roll was served on the side.
With fantastic service, clean restrooms, lots of parking, kid-friendly menu items, consistent hours, a central location and low prices, Ho-Lo-Ma is one of Albuquerque’s best values for Chinese food.
Overall, this is a sparkling little gem in the crown of Albuquerque cuisine; not quite a diamond, but it shines just the same.