The Armadillo

I wrote this a few years back, but wanted to let you know this place is no longer in business. It’s now a Chinese or seafood place (perhaps both, it’s a little confusing from the signage)

Sad news… this Armadillo location and the one in Westminster closed their doors. — July 27, 2008
The Armadillo was the first place that my husband and I ate when we came to Denver and on Valentine’s Day no less so I have a special place for this place for that reason first. Second, I grew up in New Mexico and am somewhat of a Mexican food snob, only liking ‘New Mexican Mexican food’. That is to say no enchiladas that taste like Old El Paso frozen food with gobs of processed cheese and generic enchilada sauce. I really only like good green/​red chile sauce. Armadillos does a very good job on their green chile sauce and their Chicken Stuffed Sopapilla smothered in green sauce with a side of sour cream is very good.
The reason I am giving this location such a low score is that in the last year or so they have started to go downhill on the cleanliness of the location. We have sat in booths that didn’t look like they have been cleaned, the floor is full of crumbs and the serving dishes have been dirty and had to be returned.
We also tried the Sunday Buffet this weekend (we like to be punished, really) and were very disappointed. The buffet has 3 areas: breakfast, Mexican entrees and dessert. The breakfast area was pretty bad. They had pancakes that were so hard that you had to use a knife to cut them and syrup was cold. There is a Walmart waffle maker where the customer could make a waffle but the puny little waffle maker is no match for the 10 year olds that want to use it, not to mention there was no Spray oil so it was a sticky disaster. They had biscuits and gravy, the biscuits looked like they came out of a bag. The ham was over cooked, sausage swimming in a pool of grease and the bacon was gone the entire time we were there. The bright spot here was the migas. It was prepared in a casserole style and very tasty. There was also breakfast burritos that were smothered in green chile that were a little soggy but tasted good. The entrée part of the buffet was much better than the breakfast. There was a taco bar, tamales and carnitas. I tried a taste of the carnitas which were very good but did not sample the rest of the entrees. My insides were not ready for full-​on mexican food at 10am :). Finally, the dessert area. Let’s just say that the highlight of the desserts was the cheesy chocolate fountain (once again, the kind you get at Walmart) with bananas, marshmallows and strawberries for dunking. All the remaining items on the table looked like they were cooked by a novice. All in all, I did not think it was worth the $ 10/​per adult.
In summary, if you stick with the things they do well (stuffed sopapillas, enchiladas with green chile) this is a good place to grab a bite.