The Tiger’s Tummy review of Alamo Café: The tortilla factory

Taken By John Newman

Alamo café occupies a dear place in my heart, having been born in San Antonio some of my earliest memories were getting out of preschool Friday night driving with my parents to Alamo café and immediately demanding that we go to McDonalds or Luby’s. Over time my six year old pallet developed an appreciation of Tex-Mex fare, and as I returned to San Antonio for college I decided to see if my parents were right all along.

This being my first review its necessary to outline exactly how I plan on evaluating the venues I visit. I grade each place on a scale of one to ten tiger paws.  One being a blight to all mankind’s collective palettes, and ten being a miracle. I assign three points for the quality of the food, two for the service, two for the overall ambiance of the establishment,  two for the value (it is college after all), and one point for the distance from trinity university.

Alamo café located of the bitters road off 281N just past the airport, at first glance seems unassuming. An odd modern recreation of the adobe exterior of the Alamo San Antonio mission of the “remember the Alamo” fame. However, any fears one might have as you walk in the door are immediately aleved as you're greeted with friendly service and the warm enticing aroma of freshly made tortillas.

Photo by John Newman

Alamo café is undeniably beautiful. The entrance way ceiling is painted to resemble a blue sky, while a babbling brook runs the length of the restaurants main floor. Sitting in Alamo café feels like you’re eating in a well air conditioned courtyard.  No matter rain or shine it is always sunny in doors. I give Alamo café two out of two tiger paws for ambiance. Admittedly, though the restaurant could have been housed in a shack, and I still would have given it full marks for ambiance as long as they maintain that fresh tortilla smell.

As the meal went on, I was impressed with the speed and cheeriness of the waiters and waitresses. It seemed to be a highly motivated happy workforce, so full marks on service.  

Taken by John

While I award Alamo Café full marks for food, I would like to point out that there is no defining factor to the café's fare, all the food is similar to all the other restaurants dit dotting San Antonio. You have fajitas, tortillas, queso, panchos, and Chille reanos served with rice and refried beans. I gave the restaurant two and a half out of three Tigerpaws for food because while the food isn’t original it’s damn good. San Antonio is covered in these places for a good reason. What sets Alamo C apart from the pack is the price at which you get that classic tex-mex.  

The river walk has excellent ambience but it’s nearly impossible to visit without making a significant dent in ones bank account. Alamo Café is the clear cure to this problem, amazing tex-mex, a great restaurant, great service, an overall wonderful experience.

In conclusion my only gripe is the distance; it is far beyond walking distance to visit Alamo Cafe you must have a car therefore I cannot award the distance point.

Overall I give Alamo café 8.5 tigerpaws out of 10.

Alamo cafe pics by John Newman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.