Tex-Mex 101
Nachos, tomatillo sauce, chile con queso—will the real Mexican food please stand up? A crash course in Texans’ favorite fusion fare.
Executive editor Patricia Sharpe grew up in Austin and holds a master’s degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin. After working as a teacher (in English and Spanish) and at the Texas Historical Commission (writing historical markers), she joined the staff of Texas Monthly in 1974. Initially, she edited the magazine’s cultural and restaurant listings and wrote a consumer feature called Touts. She eventually focused exclusively on food. Her humorous story “War Fare,” an account of living for 48 hours on military MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), was included in the anthology Best Food Writing 2002. Many of her stories appear in the 2008 UT Press collection Texas Monthly on Food. Her story about being a restaurant critic, titled “Confessions of a ‘Skinny Bitch,’ ” won a James Beard Foundation award for magazine food writing in 2006.
Sharpe has contributed to Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Saveur, and the New York Times. She writes a regular restaurant column, Pat’s Pick, for Texas Monthly.
Nachos, tomatillo sauce, chile con queso—will the real Mexican food please stand up? A crash course in Texans’ favorite fusion fare.
Over the past thirty years, I’ve edited or written more than 28,000 restaurant reviews for this magazine. That’s a lot of crème brûlée under the bridge, folks. So what’s my life been like, exactly? And how have I stayed this thin? Good questions.
Thirty years ago, Texans who equated fine dining with chicken cordon bleu and trout meunière suddenly found themselves eating barbecued Gulf shrimp and goat cheese quesadillas. An oral history of the Southwestern cuisine revolution.
Its name a mash-up of “Mex” and “ATX,” Mexta has big plans for Austin’s food scene.
The sole medalist is the owner of Ana Liz Taqueria, in the Rio Grande Valley, who took home the prize for Best Chef: Texas.
Kirthan and Kripa Shenoy honor Houston's famous internationalism in the best kind of way.
The wood blewit has a lovely lavender hue and, oddly enough, is said to smell like frozen orange juice. It also tastes great in a breakfast taco.
Our twenty-third edition of Where to Eat Now finds that dining out can be loud, pricey—and as worthwhile as ever.
Overwhelmed by motherhood and running her restaurant, Épicerie, chef Sarah McIntosh sparked a friendship with Aaron and Stacy Franklin, leading to the creation of one of the tastiest pastries in town.
As told to Patricia Sharpe
Brownsville, Lockhart, Marfa, Mission, and Seguin have all secured representation on the coveted list, often known as the Oscars of the restaurant industry.
At Via Triozzi, you can taste Leigh Hutchinson's two decades of single-minded dedication in every dish.
The world’s smallest owl is a swift, acrobatic hunter whose victims never hear it coming.
Austin-based Raphael Brion has been practicing for this gig much of his adult life. And he’s an equal fan of breakfast tacos and crêpes flambé.
The historic Hyde Park neighborhood may have lost its post office, but it gained a stylish French bistro and a new Tiny Grocer.
In a Houston restaurant named for his great-grandmother, Mississippi-born chef Lucas McKinney is having a whole lot of fun with a menu that ranges from gumbo and po'boys to chicken on a stick and moon pies.
‘Food & Wine,’ ‘Bon Appétit,’ the 'New York Times,' and ‘Southern Living’ recognized spots in Austin, Houston, and Lexington as the best of the best when it comes to dining.
Prolific Fort Worth restaurateur Felipe Armenta and celebrity chef Graham Elliot have opened Le Margot, a French restaurant as exuberant as they are.
A fancy Spanish-made stove fuels an inspired menu of steaks and seafood, along with some glorious masa dishes.
Brothers Emil, Axel, and Alec Oliva have opened one of the Alamo City’s most compelling new restaurants.
The highlight of the event was Benchawan Jabthong Painter, of Houston Thai restaurant Street to Kitchen, winning Best Chef: Texas, but no other Texas finalists made it to the podium.
Elegance is on the menu at this Italian venture from Blaine Staniford and Adam Jones—as is a ricotta-filled, beurre blanc–lavished “serpent.”
Tom and Lisa Perini have won awards, traveled the world, and cooked for heads of state. But nothing means more than the old hay barn where it all began.
At the Lymbar, legendary Houston restaurateurs David and Michael Cordúa serve Truffle Twinkies and potato “bouquets” alongside the churrasco and empanadas that made the family famous.
The white tablecloth may be all washed up, but the dining is as fine as ever.
The days when Mexican food on this side of the border was all about crispy tacos and yellow cheese are long behind us, thanks to innovative chefs and cultural shifts.
A writer remembers how a chance conversation at a food festival led to her classic 2014 oral history on Southwestern cuisine.
The latest from Regino Rojas is fun and festive, but the food’s not fooling around.
Vibrant, jewel-toned murals set the scene for masterful Japanese-Peruvian cuisine at Masaru Fukuda’s Pacha Nikkei.
Don’t let the chef’s soda-jerk hat fool you. Herein you’ll find royal osetra caviar, escargots in butter-filled shells, and a modern-day version of Spudnuts.
Austin’s famously touristy avenue welcomes a new steakhouse with a celebratory spirit.
Patricia Sharpe recalls the smoked meats and mileage that went into Texas Monthly’s first-ever Top 50 barbecue list in May 1997.
If you were charmed by Juan Ramón Cárdenas in ‘The Taco Chronicles,’ you’ll want to make your way to Don Artemio.
Throughout her fifty-year career, the English-born cook influenced—and even advised—chefs of some of Texas’s best Mexican restaurants.
Named for the ancient symbol used to ward off danger, the Houston restaurant fuses traditional and modern Israeli cuisine to miraculous effect.
And the two-time James Beard Award winner has brought the same dynamic Southern fare that made the Grey, in Savannah, a destination restaurant.
After a diversity scandal in 2020, the Oscars of the restaurant industry upgraded its standards. A bar in Houston, a taqueria in Austin, and Texas Monthly taco editor José Ralat are among the first winners under the new system.
With 15,000 square feet, three private dining rooms, and one tequila sommelier, this Dallas restaurant is as lavish as it gets.
“We are just scratching the surface of what we can learn about Texas food,” says Wild Oats chef Nick Fine.
Texas Monthly remembers Jim Darilek, an early art director who helped give the magazine its characteristic look and swagger.
The enterprising duo behind Black Cur honors their late dog with truly sublime dishes.
A popular columnist embeds herself inside the exclusive world of girls’ summer camps.
Restaurants are still struggling, yet new places keep stepping up to the plate. Here are our favorite dishes from the most impressive rookie establishments.
Patio dining has become a necessity during the pandemic. Here are some of the best places to get your alfresco on.
Despite everything, new restaurants are still opening. Here are a few we’re looking forward to this year.
Austin restaurant Birdie’s has perfected the art of serving $32 steaks to patrons who wait in line to order.
The menu at Roots Southern Table in Farmers Branch offers gumbo, fried chicken, and riffs on Italian rice balls and West African street food.
At his latest restaurant, Texas’s most celebrated Mexican chef teams up with close relations to revisit the street food of his youth.
This exceptional Mexican restaurant has expanded into a larger space without shrinking any of its ambitions.
With delta infections surging and local governments unable to enforce mask regulations, restaurant personnel have become reluctant de facto enforcers.
Over a career spanning three decades, Griffith chronicled the evolution of Texas from a culinary backwater to a major player on the national scene.
Rarely does a museum’s restaurant rival its galleries, but this addition to Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts is poised to take its place among the masters.
The magazine honors Fermín Núñez, the chef behind Austin’s Suerte, for the second time.
And he got there with help from family, some encouragement from Anthony Bourdain, and a fortuitous ride on the New York subway.