best Tex Mex in DC

[Anonymous]

Lived in texas a long time and I agree there is just no good tex=mex.

There's okay to good food that close to that style -- but close just doesn't cut it.

So I had to learn to make tortilla soup at home

[Anonymous]

There is a place by the name of El Tio in Falls Church that I find to be really good and fairly priced

[Anonymous]

Cactuc Cantina is has the worst food- they give you lots of it, but it's all crap.Even Haydee's in Mt.Pleasant has better food though they are from Salvador.
I'd go to Lauriol Plaza or Casa Oaxaca.

[Anonymous]

Mixtec is pretty good. Lauriol Plaza is horrible - are you people serious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite is cactus cantina... but it's not near the metro at all.

I never understtod the popularity of Catus Cantina. I think the food is very mediocre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH is from Texas. He has yet to find anything comparable to home.

Also a Texan, and I second his opinion. I've tried most of those mentioned here.

Common red flags: yellow cheese, ground beef, flour tortillas, peas in the rice…and don't get me started on the tamales that are way too sweet. I think most of the "Tex Mex" places around here are run by folks from Central and South America. I'm sure they have fine cuisine where they're from, but it's not Tex-Mex.

You are correct. Cactus Cantina and Lauriol Plaza are both owned by Luis Reyes, a Salvadoran.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cactuc Cantina is has the worst food- they give you lots of it, but it's all crap.Even Haydee's in Mt.Pleasant has better food though they are from Salvador.
I'd go to Lauriol Plaza or Casa Oaxaca.

You do know that Cactus Cantina and Lauriol Plaza are the same.

[Anonymous]

I hate the food at Lauriol Plaza. Used to like Haydee's when I lived in Columbia Heights. Now we go to Austin Grill or a place out in Alexandria called Los Toltecos when we are desperate.

Overall: Haven't found any Tex-Mex in this area that seems even as good as the stuff I grew up eating in New England.

Why is the Tex Mex out here so bad?

[Anonymous]

Taqueria Nacional at 14th and T is good. Mex, not Tex-Mex--but good tacos.

[Anonymous]

Went to Mi Ccocina last night for 1st time. Mediocre to bad food and service. We will not return.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Texan and while I agree that nothing comes close to what I can find at home, the best option here is Cactus Cantina with Uncle Julio's/Rio Grand coming in second. Austin Grill is just gross. Rosa Mexicana is good, but it's not Tex-Mex. Mi Cocina is very mediocre.

[Anonymous]

Interesting thoughts on Tex Mex

RW: When you get to Mexico, you start looking for this real Mexican cuisine that everybody is talking about. You find Nescafe coffee for breakfast and Bimbo sweet rolls instead of the egg tacos you're used to. You realize that what we call authentic Mexican food is really a couple of cherry-picked dishes from some great cuisines that are spread all over the country.

Tex-Mex is a Texas version of Mexican food and it's a commercial cuisine for the most part. It mostly exists in restaurants, but it was adapted from Tejano home cooking. The Spanish pulled out of Texas in the late 1700s and left behind Spanish-speaking mission Indians who became known as the Tejanos. They came from Native American stock and they were really not Mexicans; they had never lived in Mexico. They had been acculturated by the Spanish missionaries here in Texas.

Tex-Mex cuisine is descended from their tradition, and also from a lot of Canary Islanders who were brought to San Antonio by the Spanish to try to expand the colonization of Texas. The Canary Islanders brought with them a Berber flavor signature -- Moroccan food. There was a lot of cumin, garlic and chili, and those flavors, which are really dominant in chili con carne, became the flavor signature of Tex-Mex. It's very different from Mexican food. Diana Kennedy is prone to say that Tex-Mex includes way too much cumin. But if you compare it to Arab food, you suddenly understand where that flavor signature comes from.

http://www.splendidtable.org/story/if-it-isnt-really-mexican-food-what-is-tex-mex

[Anonymous]

If you want straight up Mexican, Guajillo in Courthouse is delicious.

[Anonymous]

I will give a shout out to the "gas station taco bar" just off Sam Eig Hwy near Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will give a shout out to the "gas station taco bar" just off Sam Eig Hwy near Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg.

It is more Mexican, than Tex-Mex though. Excellent food.