jacala

a family favorite. i have been going tojacalafor about 35 years or as long as i can remember. the food here is really good and i can't recall a bad experience here ever.

cheese enchiladas and puffy tacos-yum!. i've been going tojacalafor 30 years. i always get the #3. take the extras home and eat it later. i love their cheese enchiladas, puffy tacos and rice. i do think the beans could be better. still good though. they make their salsa and flour tortillas fresh. i buy their salsa in heb too. while i love their food i do agree that sometimes their wait staff give bad service. they are friendly, just not always on their toes. i've learned which waiters to ask for. however, most of the time they do well. the food is good and not bland. i've eaten at a lot of mexican restaurants since this is my favorite type of food and i still lovejacalathe best. i do wish they would bring back the fountain on the patio. it was beautiful.

this is the second time i've ordered food to go and gotten the wrong order.jacalais out of the way and not worth the time to go back if they mess up. buyer beware! check your food before you leave. the service is hit or miss.

excellent traditional tex-mex at a great price; waiters are very attentive and the owners are always on site to make sure that every customer is satisfied. this is the true home of the original "puffy taco".... this is a true hidden gem in the san antonio restaurant world. i've eaten atjacalamany times over the last forty-five years and never had a disappointing experience. they have a very unique, flavorful salsa that can only be experienced at their establishment... every local citizen or visitor to the city should try this great restaurant! enjoy!

my first time to san antonio and we were looking for a great mexican restaurant. someone sawjacalaonline and it was famous or something. but i had a bad feeling early on, the salsa was bland and tasted like old tomatoes, v8 has more spice. i ordered the famous puffy tacos which were tiny, cold, soggy, and bland. i asked for some tomatillo salsa which normally is spicier but to no avail all the sauce were pitiful. i read on here that many old time customers said it has lost its former glory, this seems true. i am sure there is good mexican food in san antonio just not at jacala's. use peppers yo!

yummie food. i can’t help but read some of the reviews on this restaurant calledjacalamexican restaurant since 1949. so the wife and i went down there to eat 28 minute drive there and we were looking forward to the food. we rather go to an ok looking place and have a delicious meal then go to a beautiful place and have an ok dinner that may be way over priced. the older staff that has been working there for 40 plus years shows us how well they take care of their employees and that’s the kind of place we like to support even if we live near 1604 and 281 outside the loop. i take my clients there all the time along with family that comes into town! i have seen rich people to hard working class of people that eat there and it’s a very mix bag of people but that shows me how wonderful the food is to eat. i strongly recommend this restaurant if you like something different and off the beaten path and none commercial

good food, bad tea. i've been eating atjacalamy entire life. in my opinion, they have some of the best mexican food in san antonio and by far some of the best guacamole i've had. but, on my last visit, i was highly disappointed in the tea. i'm a tea drinker and when the tea sucks, it ruins the meal. it tasted old, and coming from a back ground in the restaurant industry, that means the containers weren't cleaned properly or the the tea had been sitting their for hours. we came in about an hour before closing, but that's no excuse for old tea. (it only costs $2 to make the whole batch!)

a co-worker mentioned several times over the past couple years how much she enjoyed “chili gravy”. now, that’s a combination of two of my favorite words, so i of course asked what it was, and was informed it was kind of a heavy chili con carne. well, i’m in san antonio, so i have to try chili gravy. i did a little research, and found thatjacalahas the finest in the city (note this is not a universal sentiment, but there was a lot of commentary about jacala, and it was close to the hotel). started off with salsa and chili con queso. the salsa was thin and had decent spice heat. the queso wasn’t very spicy, and seemed to be velveeta. the tea was good and refilled often. i got the mexican meal (i think it was #24), which is three cheese enchaladas and a puffy beef taco, with beans (i have seen references to “puffy tacos” on marquees all over town). i upgraded the enchaladas to chicken enchaladas for $0.20 each. the puffy taco was a smallish tortilla that has been cooked up to be sort of

i likejacalabut.... i've been a regular atjacalafor many years now and enjoy the food (another #801 please). that being said, there's just no excuse in san antonio to have such horrible tortillas. the corn tortillas are store-bought (isn't there an ordinanace against that?) and the flour tortillas are marginal at best. one last gripe would be the iced tea, which is always watered-down. other than that, the food is good and the waiters are always friendly.

downhill. i have been going tojacalasince i was born, they are our neighborhood family restaurant and whenever my brothers come home for a visit that's the first place they want to go. however, they no longer taste the same, the sisters that run the restaurant are rude and snobby and are fake and unapologetic when stuff comes up. they must heat everything up in the microwave because it is usually cold when it comes to the table with hot plates. we went on thanksgiving weekend and got moldy corn tortillas and when i showed the owner, she said the sysco had delivered them moldy corn tortillas. first of all, authentic? you get your tortillas from sysco? bahahahahaha. second of all, you don't check your food before it's served? when i questioned her, she said that she advised the staff to check them and some must have been overlooked. sure, okay, it can happen but when the next warmer was brought to us, guess what? yep more moldy tortillas. when i showed her again, she offered me a free margarita. seriously? we were a table of 15. in my opinion, she should have comp'd at least one of the meals, taken off a % or something. but, i wasn't looking for anything free, so, no biggie. the service has gone extremely downhill and the restaurant is so disappointing now. i keep going back expecting great food and am disappointed more than i am happy. the jacalitos are about the only thing i will even order anymore and my family insists on visiting the restaurant for every occassion. someone else's review says something about being a shadow of it's former self, or something like that....and too bad to say, it's very true. i used to rant and rave about jacala...now i would advise anyone to stay away ....go to los barrios or one of the other local favorites and save yourself some time and frustration.

a shadow of its former greatness. i grew up in the neighborhood [la]jacalais located in and recall many dining experiences there with my parents when i was a child. it was pretty much our default neighborhood establishment and i really, really enjoyed my usuals there, the puffy tacos or the carne guisada. in fact, i still view that carne guisada as the standard bearer for all other carne guisadas i eat and find few people or places can measure up.

recently i've gone back tojacalaand noticed something disturbing -- the food quality seems to have gone noticeably downhill. gone are the perfectly light, flavorful, and crispy puffy tacos -- now they're rather soft, soggy, and bland. the carne guisada doesn't quite have the zestiness i remember, and the enchiladas are rather greasy, bland, and unsubstantial. and the tortillas? you can purchase better at heb or walmart. pretty much the only thing that's remained as delicious as it always was are the chips they serve you as an amuse bouche.

the service is middling; it'd probably be best not to dine there when many diners are going to be eating there. they should think about investing in larger glasses to serve their iced tea in so you don't have to waste a lot of time (and see the grease congealing on your rapidly cooling food) tracking down a server to refill your iced tea. they should work on the acoustics so that it isn't so echoey and doesn't drown out conversations so easily. but mor eimportantly, they should work on the food and get it back up to the levels of quality it held some twenty years ago.

jacala san antonios best. best kept secret in san antonio-
rich, consistent , great waiters, great value,
family operated , and always there.
luckly refered here by a friend in 1987,
now have friends that when they come to
sa,jacalais a must stop.