Jinja Bar & Bistro

We decided to try another of the Jinja’s in town, so we went to this one on the West Side. At first we tried to sit outside, but the smell of cigar smoke from the nextdoor walk-​in humidor was overpowering and the table we were seated at rocked so badly even a quadruple folded napkin couldn’t fix it. We changed our minds and asked to be seated inside where we were taken to a booth by the windows where the view of Sandia Peak was fantastic. We both ended up having the same dishes we’d tried at the other Jinja (yeah, I know, try something different next time right?), Mongolian Beef and fried rice. I thought the fried rice was pretty good, I didn’t notice any difference from the other Jinja, but my wife, who liked the Mongolian Beef at the other location didn’t like it here. She thought the beef was stringy and not cooked well. Maybe it was just a poor cut of meat, but that says something about the preparation of the dish. Anyway, the service itself was friendly and attentive, the ambiance INSIDE is nice (don’t bother with the patio if you don’t like the smell of cigar smoke) and overall we enjoyed the evening even with the minor things mentioned above.

Ridiculously over priced. We arrived for lunch. No lunch menu. Choices are large $ 15 plus or small $ 13 plus. The appetizers start at $ 10. A side of steamed rice is $ 3. The food was over cooked and bland. Please stay away until prices are reasonable and food tasty. Thanks for reading. The Bike Chaplain

Consistently good service and the food is pretty good too. The Pad Thai is my favorite dish — it never disappoints. The tuna sushi salad is quite tasty also. For these two items on the menu I keep coming back, but not often enough to give this 5 stars.

This was my first time dining at Jinja. My friend recommended it. I was letting him know what I’ve never tried before. I’ve never had Pad Thai. He was excited for me to give it a try and gave me a very detailed explanation of what exactly Pad Thai was. It sounded great. When my food arrived I got all the components of Pad Thai, except it had giant, wet, chewy flat noodles, which I was informed by my friend was absolutely not how the dish is traditionally made. It was pretty much sitting in a broth. A very overly seasoned broth. It was pretty gross and wet. Other than that the staff was friendly and the building and atmosphere were awesome! If I ever go again I’m going to ask some questions about how things are prepared.

We just moved to the westside and had gone to Jinja on Paseo for years. This is much better, great views and our server, Ashley, was wonderful. We have our favorites and they didn’t disappoint.

I don’t know how anyone who’s a fan of Thai cuisine wouldn’t like this restaurant. Jinja serves up delicious Asian Fusion with a menu that came into being after the owner and chef traveled the world, honing in on their favorite dishes. My wife and I both loved our meal there.

Jinja Bar & Bistro, Albuquerque, NM. — This is our favorite restaurant ever. We have done a lot of traveling lately, and I’m so glad this is in the town we live so we can eat it all the time. The wings are to die for, seriously. That Mongolian sauce is plate licking’ good!!!
My husband had teriyaki beef skewers with the best teriyaki sauce I have ever had anywhere, and that’s really saying something because its beat out 5 star places on the coast. I had the ribs and they were super juicy and delicious. The ambiance is great too as other users have said. We sat in the bar area, and our waitress was great and kept us happy and full. We will come again and again for sure!

2^nd Attempt, not so good, pulled into parking lot, a Jinja employee takes the last parking space up front, so I had to park out back. Sat at bar and checked out the Wifi service, not working, yet again, order wings and tempura, shrimp was under-​cooked, they brought me another and said Sorry. Then I asked for my check, felt like I was held hostage for almost 20 minutes because their Credit Card machine was down, at least the bartender gave me another beer for my time. I use to like this place, will give them one more opportunity.
Not impressed!!!

Sad face :-(
I ordered the Orange beef which was chewy (not lean) and horribly cooked :-(
My daughter had the tuna, which she liked very much. It was definitely better than my dish!
My son had Kung pao chicken, which was ok…
At $ 20 plus per item, I had higher expectations.
Service was crappy too :-(

The Kung Pao Shrimp is the bomb! My mouth was exploding with flavor. Not one bite left. The soup says a cup, yet it’s really a bowl! Always great service and great ambiance. Love Love Love this place. Never had bad food here. Gene Wilder is one of the owners to. Yes!

So what’s with bringing the salad out with the entrée?!
Is this an Albuquerque restaurant thing? Anyway no big deal. Kind of an unusual fusion concept. Caesar salad with ginger and wontons… what! It was good and the size was huge. The seared tuna on top of spinach was good too. Definitely not frozen, seared to order (better be for $ 18) great friendly waitress. Views are really nice of the city & mountains. Would I return… too many more restaurants to check out next visit to ABQ. Sorry Jinja.

Went for happy hour. Great dark cozy atmosphere. Solid service. The BEST Avocado Tempura (who wudda thunk to fry avocado ;-)). Shrimp green curry and Singapore noodles both were good.

Dark, Romantic ambiance with consistently great food!
We love this place! The Bonsai Shrimp appetizer is a must! You’ll thank me for suggesting the Coconut Soup. It’s almost orgasmic. This time around we ordered the Thai Green Curry Shrimp, Teriyaki Beef, and Sweet & Sour Chicken. These dishes may seem like your typical fare at an Asian Restaurant, but Jinja steps it up a notch. It’s magical!
We ended dinner with the most delectable dessert — Macadamia Nut Tart with your choice of gelato (I chose pistachio & my husband chose salted caramel).
The only negative was the mojito which is usually perfect but was short on the simple syrup this time around. The house margarita was a bit on the sweet side. Perhaps, a new bartender? The Jinja Mule was fantastic.

When I went into Jinja, I was not sure what to expect. I was anticipating it to be the kind of place where you have somebody cook at your table. This turned out to be more of place that serves Pad Thai etc at a place that looks like a fancy steak house. Our server, Royanne, was excellent at suggesting what plates to order. We could not finish it but brought it back as leftovers. The drink selection as far as beer goes was NOT for the beer drinker. But the lines appeared to be clean and the beer was not dirty tasting. This place is apparently a MOJITO place. I will go back and try those. The views are good as well from Jinja! Incidentally, Gene Hackman owns part of this restaurant or at least DID at one point.

It was alright.
The drinks were fanTAStic. Really good.
The food was… alright? It was ok. I wouldn’t be mad about going back the next time I visit ABQ, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. And the service was pretty slow. But as long as we had drinks, we weren’t too mad about it. We weren’t in a rush or that might have been an issue.
Overall, not a great experience, but not a bad one either.

Food and drinks here are delicious. The menu had a good selection of different options. The service was a little slow but very friendly. It was a busy night so the wait time for a table was not a surprise but faster than estimated. Overall a great experience

I really want to like this place. It’s not far from home, it has a pretty chill atmosphere, and the drinks are pretty cool and good.
The food is just not doing it for me though. It’s not that it’s bad food by any means, it’s just that it’s pretty underwhelming for me. Pad Thai, Mongolian beef, orange peel chicken are all fine, but just missing something IMO.
Service is very good, atmosphere is cool, view is killer if you’re by the windows, I’d probably come again if I really didn’t feel like crossing the river for dinner.

Cute bar – bit of glare with the evening sun BUT what a view of the mountains. Love the music (very NY) and the bartenders Jason and Angela smile and are so nice. Best I’ve encountered in Albuquerque.
What would give this place 5 stars? A date for me… everyone here is a couple. Add this to your date night list!

At the invitation of the manager, I returned to Jinja this weekend with my husband to try some of their other dishes. Full disclosure — they gave us a big discount. I thought that was not only a generous move, but a smart one. Clearly, this is a restaurant that is responsive to criticism and wants to please their customers — and that is exactly the kind of place you want to go to. I don’t want to eat at a restaurant that doesn’t care, that sweeps comments about food and service aside. I want to go to a place where they care what I think and are invested in my good experience. Kudos to Jinja for going the extra mile.
Just stepping in the door I was reminded why I like this place so much. The décor is dark, warm, and inviting, with pillows in the spacious booths, and lots of room around the square bar. I hear that there is a great view in the dining room, but I haven’t seen it — that’s how much I like sitting in the bar. Every time I am here there are people around the bar who clearly just met, but who are engaged in conversation. It’s a friendly place where you can go in and be sure to feel welcome.
The drink menu is outstanding. You can get a flight of Taos bourbon, dozens of different fruity cocktails, lots of old school mixed drinks that you don’t find anywhere else. I hate being that person who always orders the same thing, but you can’t find a sidecar at most bars and its my all time favorite drink. The husband started with a Pain Killer, a smooth fruity drink that had pineapple and other great flavors. He followed it with an Old Fashioned, made with 15 year old Taos Lightening rye. That might be my new second favorite drink.
For appetizers I ordered the citrus tempera fried avocado and he had the Malay coconut soup. Not a tom ka gai, but a tom yum, and it was pretty darn good. Lots of heat, fresh vegetables swimming around in the coconut, and bits of chicken. There was no fifth star on this soup, it was good but not stunning and I wouldn’t go here just to have this, but we ate every bite. The tempura avocado was sinfully good — you’d think anything fried would be good, but you’d be wrong! I’ve had lots of fried vegetables, even avocado, that turned out horrid — but no, this was fabulous, light and crunchy tempura with creamy avocado inside. The citrus part was a sauce that tasted like orange and cilantro and I was tempted to clean the little dish it came in. Wonderful appetizer, good job.
For mains he had the pad thai and I had the hoisin bbq ribs. We are going to be a tough audience if you are claiming to serve Thai food. I went to the cooking school at the Blue Elephant in Thailand, for crying out loud. This pad thai didn’t impress. It was bland, the noodles were too wide, the undercurrent of dried shrimp and all the little spices that make pad thai dance in your mouth were missing. There was not even a hint of heat. The chunk of chicken tasted very strongly of soy, and the shrimps were unremarkable. He ate about a quarter of it then couldn’t go on. The hoisin bbq ribs were served with a cucumber/​vinegar salad that was right on the money, and some tempura onion rings that were light and perfect. The ribs themselves didn’t suit my taste. I found the sauce fine, they were cooked properly, but there was an underlying flavor in the meat that struck me as off. We didn’t finish this dish, either.
I stand my original review of Jinja, that it is a great bar and place to hang out, but for me at least, the food isn’t compelling. I looked around the restaurant and saw plenty of people clearly enjoying their meals, so maybe it’s a matter of preference. You should definitely go to Jinja and decide for yourself. They go the extra mile to try to please their customers and deserve a chance to make you happy.

Happiness is:
Never-​ending bowl of edamame-​$ 4 during happiness hour
Happiness hour specials in bar area only,
Shrimp chips with siracha,
Yummy potstickers,
Seared ahi tuna,
Cheap Sapporo,
Half-​price apps & drinks in the bar, 2 – 7 M-​F & ALL day Sunday,
Never-​ending bowl of edamame,
Huge wooden bar,
Servers with varying degrees of attentiveness,
Cozy atmosphere, pillows in the booths,
Never ending bowl of edamame,
Two locations in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe,
Please consider opening a location in Austin.