★★★ (3 Stars)

Panchito's Downtown

Shhhh!
This is a review of the super secret Panchito’s underground, downtown location.  As a visitor to this website, you have this privileged information in your hands.

Top Secret
—–begin dossier—–
Most downtown employees and residents know of this location.  It took me about 8 months to realize this is the location they were muttering about under their breath.  It’s free of tourists and it’s cheaper than any Mexican restaurant on the Riverwalk.

Even walking by this location, it is difficult to distinguish it from other offices in the area.  One would presume there are only offices beyond the white door that leads in to the building in which the restaurant is located.  Even once inside the building, you have to traverse downward and into the underground to eat there.

This is no regular Panchito’s.  Their menu is different and you order at a station and pick it up when your number is called.  All along the wall, you will see their various lunch specials for the day, week, and month.  Legend has it they have a full-service area as well, but I have yet to see it.

It does get busy here at times.  As people in-the-know even visit this location on weekends!  And, you know downtown San Antonio restaurants aren’t big on weekends, unless they’re on the ‘walk.  But, the food is about the same as any other Mexican Cafe.  They use this awful American Cheese to fill their chili topped, Tex-Mex Enchiladas.  Their tacos are good and I’ve come to enjoy their Carne Asada Tortas, when they have them.  If you’re into this sort of thing, this secret location may be the thing for you.
—–end dossier—–

Shhhh!
Those who release this Top Secret information will be hunted!

★★★ (3 Stars)

I visited Aldaco’s for the first time after going to another restaurant that I found was closed.  I’d seen Aldaco’s advertising in various places and they seem to always be at local festivals with a booth set up.  So, I thought I’d give them a try.

It’s another Mexican restaurant in San Antonio.  Their lunch menu and lunch prices were decent.  I thought I’d give their ‘Loco Sampler’ plate a try to taste a couple of their items.  It had a crispy taco, an enchilada, a flauta, and the standard rice and charro beans.  I liked the enchilada at first, but it kept reminding me of enchiladas I’d find at a cafeteria.  Everything else on the plate was also good, but not quite enough to make me salivate over.

I don’t know if I’d go back for dinner because while the food was decent, I can’t see myself paying their dinner rates for mediocre food.  I might return for lunch one day if I’m on that side of downtown.

★ (1 Star)

The first time I tried to grab some food from Casa Rio, I was told abruptly that they don’t do take-out.  So, I moved on.

But, after watching the longest lines on the Riverwalk at Casa Rio this summer, I decided to check this place out this Fall despite their “no take-out” policy (see my initial review).

Plain and simply, while the service was good, the food was not.
The prices were decent, but there is much better food *anywhere* else.  And I do mean ANYWHERE else.

The only thing I would come here for is maybe a beer and some chips and salsa cause the salsa was fresh and probably some of the best on the Riverwalk.  But that’s it.  The tortillas reminded me of the cheap-o, factory, mass-produced, HEB ones.  . . . though the HEB brand does have some decent variety tortillas, if these were HEB ones, these were their lower quality ones.  You know, the ones that don’t cook right.

In any case, don’t get fooled by the long tourist lines.

★★★ (3 Stars)

Wow, why aren’t there many reviews for Diony’s online?

haha just kidding.

Cheap, good food, hole-in-the-wall; this sums it all up perfectly.  They have about 3 lunch specials daily all for around $5.  I decided to try their “three colors special” which included 2 enchiladas, carne guisada, rice, refried beans, lettuce & tomato, and 2 homemade tortillas.  It came with tea too and was only $5.49.

Cheap, Mexican goodness, downtown and only a few blocks from the Riverwalk.  Nice.

My only advice:
I wouldn’t take a first date there!   It REALLY is a hole-in-the-wall.  :)

★★★★★ (5 Stars)

A Quick Update

I’ve been here a few times since my pozole quest (see my previous review) and for other items on the menu. They haven’t gone wrong yet; therefore, I’m upgrading them rating to 5 stars.

★★★★ (4 Stars)

My search for pozole began and ended at Rosario’s.

10:55 AM – I arrived at Rosario’s, via Via’s Blue Line Streetcar (http://viainfo.net/).  Rosario’s opens at 11AM and I was five minutes early.  The staff was getting ready, but no other patrons were there yet.  They let me sit around and wait until the restaurant was officially open.

11:00 AM – “Please follow me,” the hostess said.  I followed her to the table that had a menu sitting on it.  I noticed each table had a slender carafe of salsa waiting to be poured into a bowl.  The waiter came by with some chips and asked what I would like to drink.  I said, “iced tea.”  I was astonished to find that they did not ask me whether I wanted the tea sweetened or not.  But, I’m glad they didn’t because I’m growing tired of this question (See: Lula’s Mexican Cafe).

11:03 AM – I poured some salsa into the bowl.

11:04 AM – I dipped a chip in the salsa that I had just poured into the bowl.  The salsa was nice and spicy; spicier than most restaurants.  It was delicious.  But, I didn’t want to waste the space in my stomach as my long quest (2 whole weeks) for Pozole, in San Antonio, needed to be satisfied.

11:05 AM – The waiter came back with my tea and asked me the question I had been waiting to be asked, “What would you like to eat?”  I uttered, plain and simply, “I’ll have the large bowl of pozole.”  With a look of disdain the waiter asked, “Is there anything else you would like?”  I glanced back at him pondering his question.  Would this large bowl not be large enough?  Would I eat quickly through it and then have to order something else?  Within what seemed like eternity, but was actually only seconds, I let the waiter know that I would not be needing anything else.  I told myself to stay focused on this quest for pozole even as the menu yelled out to me, “Order the Nachos!”

11:08 AM  - “Your order will be out in a few more minutes,” the waiter said as he replenished my tea.

11:15 AM – After a few minutes of watching people file into the restaurant and ordering everything except pozole on the menu, the waiter came waltzing my way with a gigantic bowl of pozole and a couple of tortillas.  As he walked away, I couldn’t help but wonder where the garnishes upon garnishes, promised by the menu, were.  Things weren’t right.  No.

11:17 AM – I flagged down the waiter and asked him to please oblige my request for the few garnishes I would actually have used: onions, and lime wedges.  In a blink, he was able to fulfill this request which allowed me to continue on my quest.

11:19 AM – I dumped the raw onions into the red bath of hominy, pork, and red chile.  I squeezed off a few shots of lime juice into this mixture, grabbed a spoon and sloshed it in.  My mouth watered as I raised the spoon and took a bite.  Fantastic.

11:34 AM – Everything between the first bite and when I got the check, got hazy.  I noticed the gigantic bowl of pozole was empty and my stomach no longer growled.  This bowl was plenty and probably enough for two people.  It was exactly what I was looking for.  The service was great and the pozole bar-none.  My quest, of two whole weeks, had finally ended.

——————– ——-
Seriously, if you’re looking for Pozole check Rosario’s out.  I didn’t indulge in anything else, but I know I’ll be back soon and will definitely try more of the menu out.  Their prices were really good too.

★★★ (3 Stars)

MK Davis is a great restaurant to go unwind at after work.  It’s near the downtown area and gets packed during lunch and dinner hours, so do expect that.

They’ve got some really good nachos and gigantic beers at excellent prices.  They don’t have a huge selection of beers to choose from, but with these prices, who cares!

Their food consists of primarily Mexican dishes such as enchiladas, tacos, and those that include steak among others.  The food is decent and again, the price is right.

The service is good especially considering that the place is always packed.  It’s just a good, dim-lit, relaxing, but kind-of-loud, down-home, beer-drinking, food-gobbling, glutton’s kind of place.  :)

This place IS San Antonio.
3.5 stars.

★★★★ (4 Stars)

Lula’s!  The first time I saw Lula’s I got it confused with Lulu’s.  I was new to town and eventually tried Lulu’s before trying Lula’s.  Although completely different types of restaurants, I’d take Lula’s over Lulu’s any time.

After finding a table to sit at, they don’t seat you here, they brought out some chips and salsa.  Every decent Mexican restaurant starts with the chips and salsa.  Yeah, some on the Riverwalk charge for them, which is ridiculous, but Lula’s doesn’t.  I knew the food would be good with the first salsa-loaded-chip.  The salsa was spicy and the chip crunchy!  Just the way this combination was meant to be.

After perusing the menu, and noticing that the prices of all the plates stood at around $6 or less, I decided to go with the chicken flautas.  The server asked if I wanted flour or corn tortillas; in which I responded, corn.  And, I ordered a regular iced tea.

——–insert babbling rant here——–
It seems every place in San Antonio has sweetened tea.  I’m not used to that; and when I order a “regular” iced tea people tend to ask, “yeah, but do you want it sweetened or not?”  My question is: Isn’t regular tea unsweetened to begin with?  Weird.  I think I read somewhere that sweetened tea is a southern thing.
——–end rant——–

The chicken flautas were really good.  Not to take anything away from Lula’s but, there’s really not much to flautas to begin with.  It was served with rice and beans and had a dollop of sour cream and a decent-sized serving of guacamole.  The corn tortillas that came with it were homemade and were delicious.

Lula’s is located downtown and you wouldn’t know it, but they’re sort of on the Riverwalk.  In fact, the back of their building faces the Riverwalk, so I guess technically, they are *on* the Riverwalk. . . but not really since they are on street level and don’t have a Riverwalk entrance.  It seems to get busy at lunch-time (Open for Breakfast and Lunch Only).  All of their tables were taken and as I walked out I noticed that there was a line out the door.

Remember, this isn’t Lulu’s.  You want the one with the “A” at the end: Lula’s!

★★ (2 Stars)

Bleh!  I was hoping for some good breakfast tacos this morning so I thought I’d try out Blanco Cafe.  I decided I’d grab a bean and chorizo taco and a barbacoa taco to-go.

First I ate the chorizo and bean taco and it was fairly good, yet messy. Then I got to the barbacoa taco which was horrible.  It seemed like they used week-old barbacoa which left a bad lingering taste.

I wouldn’t order their barbacoa, ever, without first asking if its fresh or figuring out when they sell the most of it.  In any case, they had some interesting, and cheap, lunch plates I’ll have to try in the future.  I’ll give them a second chance soon and update this review.

Edit 06/08/08: I tried them again recently and decided I’d give them one more star.  I ordered the exact same thing as I had previously just to make sure it wasn’t just a bad day.  I asked if the barbacoa was fresh and the waitress said yes.  The barbacoa was decent this time, but they put a big chunk of burned barbacoa in it too, which was not good.  Certainly not worth 3 stars.  I’ll edit this again when I try their lunch.

★★★ (3 Stars)

Warning: Chipotle May Become Addictive

Their food is pretty damn good.  Let’s face it, it’s probably too many calories, too much fat, but how could anyone resist the chipotle marinaded EVERYTHING on their menu?  Chipotle marinaded carnitas (pork), chicken, steak, and barbacoa (though this isn’t the barbacoa I’m accustomed to).  They’ll put this meat in a bowl, in a giant burrito flour tortilla, in 3 little flour tortillas, or 4 crispy corn tortilla shells!  You can then choose to add their cilantro-lime rice, black or pinto beans, salsa, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce.  They’ll even make these meals meatless if you want!

Their service is always the same, quick and polite.  And, if you ask for guacamole, they will always tell you it’s an extra $1.40 before placing it in your burrito, on your tacos, in your burrito bowl, etc.  I could go in every single day and they’ll still tell me the guacamole is an extra $1.40.   “Guacamole is $1.40 extra, is that okay?”  Of course it’s okay!  It says it’s $1.40 on the menu. 

My regular order:  A Burrito with pinto beans, chicken, hot salsa, guacamole, cheese, a Negra Modelo Beer,  and a Bag of Chips.  All for around $12, which isn’t bad considering the beer.  Oh!  And it’s a must to grab a bottle of the Chipotle Tabasco to dribble on your chips.

By the way, it’s not owned by McDonald’s anymore.  And when it was, it was only by way of majority of their stock.