jacala

top 5 mexicanrestaurantin san antonio. just kinda stumbled on to this place and they do mexican food right! they get it. from the chips and salsa to what i had, chicken flautas was fresh like homemade. will be coming back at night to try their world class margaritas next! arestaurantthats family owned since 1949, jalcala will sure satisfy your hunger for authentic tex-mex food.

thisrestaurantis over 65 years old, and looks like it. it does has atmosphere nice patio dining in a convenient midtown location. the salsa was watery and tasteless with a very slight tang. the food was good, but expensive for what it was. when walking out, we always ask ourselves, "will be ever come back here again?" well, only in a pinch, if most of the other mexican restaurants in san antonio are closed. believe me, there are lots of restaurants we try that we would never go back under any circumstances.

there's always the next time. an overwhelming desire for tex-mex possessed my wife and i today after all the ham and turkey we have had over the holidays even though we did enjoy some very good tamales as well. arriving at the restaurant, we walked past the kitchen with the ever present spanish music blaring through the screen doors and the now vacant patio, up the stairs and through the front door where we were greeted with the pungent aroma of comino and of fresh corn masa cooking. can you say "starving"! we sat down, were handed menus, and were all set to order our favorites.

uh-oh! the menus were new since last we ate there which is usually cause for concern. after reviewing the menu pages we found our favorites at what appeared to be the same price as before. the only thing we noticed were some new plate combinations with quantities for the large appetite like three cheese enchiladas and two puffy tacos with rice and beans. as hungry as we were, i came close to ordering it.

chips and some great salsa devoured, cheesy enchiladas with meat gravy and tasty puffy tacos decimated, rice and beans inhaled, our hunger for tex-mex was finally satiated. feeling well satisfied we paid our bill and noticed a sign next to the register, "tamales - $10.99 doz." in all of the many years i have been coming here i don't think i have ever had one of their tamales. and if they make them here, they have got to be good! unfortunately, our freezer already contained several dozen, but there's always next time.


-----07 dec, 2012-----

one of the best . . . .. this is one of those places that someone tells you about because it is not on a main traffic artery nor is it in some shopping center or well to do neighborhood. once i found out about the place, i have been going ever since (and that has been over 20 years ago).

if you are looking for the taste of oaxaca, or the flavors of michoacan, or can't eat tex-mex food unless it tastes and is made exactly the way your mamacita makes or serves food, please save everyone the grief of reading your sarcastic review and go somewhere else. there are throngs of us that are not disuaded from calling thisrestaurantone of the best for the food it serves. yes gringos love the place but are outnumbered 3 to 1 by hispanic diners.

sorry that a few of you folks have had bad experiences. i have known the sisters that own the place to be usually nothing but accommodating and the same is to be said for their excellent wait staff. you don't stay in business for decades if you are not doing something right!! as you will find common, even the best restaurants have their off days. i have had a couple of experiences with cold enchiladas here myself.

however, when they are on (which is most of the time), the cheese enchiladas with chili con carne are one of the best in the city for tex-mex renditions. the crispy and puffy tacos are usually very good as well (grease-a-phobes need not try the puffies). the salsa casera with chips is good; good enough that you will find the salsa in the grocery store. bean and cheese nachos are prepared individually and are flavorful as well. rice and beans are good, but unremarkable for the most part as is commonly the case.

overall, this is one of my go-to places for tex-mex and near the top of my list for same. if you find that this is not the case for you, i'm sorry, but am glad that the crowd of diners will be decreased by your number.

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 antoniorestaurantworld. i've eaten at jacala many 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!

yummie food. i can’t help but read some of the reviews on thisrestaurantcalled jacala mexicanrestaurantsince 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 thisrestaurantif you like something different and off the beaten path and none commercial

good food, bad tea. i've been eating at jacala my 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 therestaurantindustry, 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!)

downhill. i have been going to jacala since i was born, they are our neighborhood familyrestaurantand 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 therestaurantare 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 therestaurantis 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 therestaurantfor 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.

bad customer service-over charged. we decided to have our wedding reception at this place even though the female owners were very rude, snobby and un-accommodating!! one of them instructed the hostess to keep our $50 dep because our reception turned out to be private, which was very untrue as there were customers sitting at the bar in our area that were not part of our party and customers walking through..to me that is not private and no-where on the contract did it state that they have a room charge and it states that no rooms are private!! well i had to wait until monday to get an answer and receive my deposit back, then they over-charged us by $122 and the other owner kept giving me the run-around and stated that i had to wait until the following tuesday to get it straightened out, mind you all this time, we never received an apology from either of the owners!my husband called, as i was upset, and told them that were were not waiting another week to get this matter resolved, they finally decided the following day that they were going to give us only $38 back!!i was frustrated and so was my husband and tired of the rudeness, and the run-around and the excuses, then i had to pick up this measly $38 and my $50 dep, still no apology from the owner and she made it seem like we should be thankful we got $38!! i left a review on another site and i guess the owner read it, and proceeded to call me this morning, called me and my husband liars and told me to never step foot in herrestaurantagain!!rude rude rude, then hung up on me twice and would not let me speak. i will never and advised all of my guests and their family and friends to never step foot into this place again, i know i never will!!