Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
Due to a mix of geographic isolation and Hispanic heritage, the food is a redolent, sumptuous mix of north Mexican cooking and Southern home cooking, giving area dishes a very rich, heavy and spicy character. Sometimes the menus are in Spanish.
Tex-Mex, Mexican, and Southern cooking are what this region does best. In general, steer away from East Asian; stick with items like country-fried steaks, barbecue, and Mexican dishes like burritos, asado (a tangy dish, often pork, cooked in oil and ground-up chiles), chiles rellenos (raw green chiles that are stuffed with meat, cheeses, and spices and then baked; can be hot or mild), and barbacoa (slow-cooked beef seasoned with tangy marinade). (Note that some barbacoa is actually from the head of the cow [called barbacoa de cabeza].)
A favorite of many West Texans spending the day in Alpine, Reata ("rope" in Spanish) feels both welcoming and upscale, with big, wooden tables and a pleasant rancher/cowboy vibe. It's a "howdy"-type place with prompt, down-home service and a menu that emphasizes creative Southwestern and Tex-Mex fare, such as tortilla soup, calf fries with cream gravy, and beef tamales with pecan mash, plus generously portioned steaks from a legendary ranch in the nearby Davis Mountains. There's a long, fabulous dessert list.
They don't call this place "Big Texan" for nothing: if you can eat four-and-a-half pounds of steak plus a shrimp cocktail, baked beans, a salad, and a roll with butter, before the clock ticks off an hour—while everyone, including a web cam, is watching—your dinner is on the house. Since 1960, when Bob Lee opened the restaurant and motel along Route 66 near the Amarillo stockyards, diners and drinkers of all varieties have poured in. Now positioned on the busier Interstate 40, Big Texan is still pulling in busloads of business with an on-site brewery (try the nutty, maple-sweet Pecan Porter) with all-day service and a menu that includes a full-monty selection of beef plus a smattering of chicken, seafood, and pork options—and for "real" Texans, mountain oysters.
Keep your eyes peeled for this converted aluminum trailer on the west side of downtown that serves up Mediterranean-inspired specialties like the Marfalafel: a large flour tortilla brimming with falafel, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, and tahini and harissa sauces. Devotees also swear by the pimento cheese made from a combination of cheddar and Havarti cheeses blended with pepperoncini, horseradish, parsley, and dill. Save room for the double-chocolate-espresso cookies.
Set in a sleekly industrial warehouse-style building on the east edge of downtown Marfa, Pizza Foundation appeals to families with its casual atmosphere and the quality thin-crust pizza the native Rhode Island owners turn out. They close for the evening when they run out of pizza, so you call ahead before you go.
Eat like a pioneer at this landmark restaurant, once housed inside the livestock-auction building at the Amarillo stockyards. Now, you can belly up next to the local cowhands who still stand in line in the diner-style downtown location to eat lightly breaded chicken-fried steak with white cream gravy made famous by the late Mom Roberts. While the menu selections may be heavy on the calories, the bill will be light on your wallet. If you can, save room for homemade cobbler for dessert. Kids under 12 can choose from the "Lil' Buckaroo's Menu." Call ahead to see whether fajitas are on the menu.
