looking for good mexican food
 

I will be in Dallas May 2nd to 4th for a sales meeting. Looking for a good mexican joint that 9 of us can go and enjoy good food, beer and time. Willing to drive up to 20 miles or so. No chain restaurants please. Will be staying at Adolphus. Thanks.

If you don't get the responses you're looking for, I'd suggest reposting with Dallas in the title.

One of the best places for good Mexican food and fun in the DFW area is Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth. Unfortunately, that is well over 20 miles from downtown Dallas.

My second recommendation would be Mariano's, which is the restaurant run by the man who invented the frozen margarita machine. We always have a good time there and we love the food! It is at 6300 Skillman near the intersection of Abrams Road in NE Dallas.

For more reviews, check out www.guidelive.com

Christie gave you some good advice... not by suggesting you have to go to Fort Worth to eat mexican food, but by steering you to the GuideLive website. There must be 1,000 mexican restaurants in the Dallas metropolitan area, and the website can give you lists by location and price.

Bear in mind that in a city the size of Dallas, there are many different kinds of mexican food, just as in New York there are many kinds of Italian. Mexico has as much regional variation as you could imagine... Mexico City cuisine is currently popular in Dallas...

If you go from the Adolphus hotel to the West End, you'll find a couple of casual Mexican Places... it's an easy walk from the Adolphus... or you can walk up to Pacific Avenue and catch a DART train at the Akard Street station.

Back in January my Dallas friends took me to Los Amigos Mexican Restaurant and Taqueria, Harry Hines Blvd.As nearly always, I was staying at the Anatole and we up I-35E,exit @Mockingbird, to Harry Hines, about 15 minutes or less.Very excellent and authentic, as most taquerias are.

Mercado Juarez off of Northwest Highway. Very good chips and salsa, plus it's a large place. Beware, it's very crowded during lunch time. Get there before 11:30.

Mercado Juarez is Tex-Mex at its WORST... :-P

I lived in Dallas for five years and just posted on a thread a couple of days ago regarding the best restaurants in cities...hands down my favorite place for Mexican in Dallas (I pine for it weekly) is Mi Cocina. They have killer margaritas, great food, and an upscale but relaxed atmosphere. They have a location in Highland Park Village on Preston which is sort of "the flagship" and I frequented the Kingsley/Skillman intersection location as it was in my neighborhood. Please give it a try so I can live vicariously through you!! Closer to your hotel is Gloria's, technically the cuisine of El Salvador, but has some real unique entrees as well, and a delicious bean dip served alongside the customary salsa and chips at the table. It is at the intersection of Lemmon and Inwood, if I remember correctly, but a phone book or a visit to the concierge should nail it down. Dallas is a great place for tex mex, so happy eating!

Yuk... Mercado Juarez is awful.
My favorite place is Tacos Y Salsa in Sachse but if in Dallas I love Desperado's on Greenville, not too far from downtown.
Monica Aca Alla is AWESOME too... and even closer, in the deep Ellum area just east of the hotel.

Haha, this has been a fun thread. So far, most of the places I've heard here I hate, although I have heard others say that they like them.

Monica's is definitely good, as is Glorias, but I wouldn't go there if you were looking for true mexican and/or tex-mex.

Here are a couple non-chain places that I got to often and are close(I'm sure others hate them):

Sol's Taco Lounge - deep ellum area

Chuy's (sort of a chain, but not like crappy Don Pablos or something): knox/henderson area

Mattito's: very good - nice area, somewhat upscale, but still laid back

Mariano's is not bad, but they are a little overpriced.

Hope that helps.

Oh, one more: Luna de Noche. There are several locations, with the most accessible one from downtown being their new location in North Park Mall, and the second being the one at 75 and Forest Lane. It's a local favorite for many good reasons! Excellent margaritas and imaginative food.

I happen to like Mercado Juarez, but it is awfully far to go from downtown. Is Monica's still open? I thought she moved to Addison.

From downtown I'd go to Chuy's or Uncle Julio's...both have a fun atmosphere.

I can't stand Mi Cocina.

I'll second Uncle Julio's. Of course I've not been to any other Mexican restaurant in Dallas (I haven't been there that often) but I have been to Uncle Julio's several times with co-workers when in town and we all enjoyed it. Loved the carne asada, the camarones that were grilled and wrapped in bacon..I can't remember the name of the dish...great guacomole etc etc. It's towards Love Field isn't it?

Mi Cocina was THE place to go when I lived there in 1997. There was a place I liked better, but for the life of me, I can only picture it in my head...can't recal the name or location...I think it was on upper Greeville, but not sure! It had a long narrow patio outside, limited parking and was always packed inside...we loved going there for happy hour. Good luck...all I know is that I don't recall ever having a bad meal in Dallas - that place knows how to eat!

Mexican Inn is a local restaurant which has branched out of Fort Worth. There is a new one on the way to the DFW airport from FW. I can highly recommend the top shelf margaritas and their hot "fritos" they make instead of tortilla chips - Wow!

http://www.mexicaninncafe.com/bedford_ap_frwy.htm

The other place that I like is a Dallas fav called Chuys - get their Texan Margarita. Their sauces are really good and it is a yuppy crowd.

Monica's is still open in Deep Ellum, they just added a location in Addison.

Omahamama, are you thinking of Ozona? Or perhaps Mariano's (used to be upper Greenville). Ozona is pretty bland, but the patio is nice & they have $2 margs on Mondays.

I know that the OP is here in Dallas right now, so this won't be relevant to him, but I wonder if Monica's is still open in Addison. We subsribe to a listing of all lawsuits filed in Dallas County and look what was filed against Monica's yesterday: "Lease action where the defendants have failed to pay over $971,000 in rent towards their Belt Line Rd. restaurant space."

Yeah...I thought I heard that Monica's in Addison closed a month ago.

BTW - I like Matt's in Lakewood - the Chili Relleno is killer.

I loved The Taco Diner. Im from the midwest and the Mexican food is mediocre at best, so I thought it was great!! don't let the name fool you!!!

Have FuN!!

ChristieP, interesting you mentioned Mariano's as this was also recommended to me by a couple of others not on this board. Are you (or anyone else on here for that matter) also familiar with Avila's on Maple? That was one other recommendation and it was also listed on the guidelive.com site.

We're headed down there from Tulsa this weekend with the teenagers to see the Sox and eat some good food.

Thanks!

Ddubya, if you're coming down for the Sox, there is a Mariano's near the Ballpark in Arlington. Close enough to go to Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth for the absolute best (about 20 minutes on FW Northside). In Dallas, second the vote for Matt's (El Rancho) and Uncle Julio's (one of those in FW also).

I'm not familiar with that place on Maple, but that is a neighborhood that's well-known for authentic Mexican food!

I also love Joe T. Garcia's - worth the drive.

I took my team to Avila's for dinner and was really disappointed. I have had mush better meals at many Dallas Mexican places and was honestly a little embarrassed that I selected the place.
I'm known as a big 'foodie' to coworkers and took a leap of faith that this place would be a great authentic example and I suppose it was... but not in a particularly good way. Nothing specific made it bad, it was just nothing special. It was like 1000 other small places in Dallas.

Well, we ended up eating at Avila's and I'd say overall it was average at best. Certainly not what it's purported to be from the guidelive and other rec I received outside this forum. A couple of dishes we had were a little above average and a couple were a little below. I'll be back down in a couple of weeks so Joe T's, here I come. The good news is we had some great family time and the Sox won.

ddubya... I have had many such experiences with GuideLive. So many that I no longer use it as anything more than a basic directory.

There are always lines at Joe T's so we try to go before 6 (they don't take reservations) and it's usually not too long. Also, they are cash only.

Los Lupes in Irving on airport freeway is excellent.