Restaurant Reviews

Del Rio’s fine dining choices are expanding, but The Herald Restaurant, 321 S. Main St., is smoking the competition with a penchant for creative, new menu choices. Carnivores rejoice! The buffalo is great, more meats and spicy sauces are on the way, and dessert lovers will anticipate a new cheesecake, coming soon.

Waypoint Cantina & Southwest Grill offers a unique menu and a nearly limitless variety of tequilas and wines to an increasingly hard-to-please customer base. Not what’s expected by the “Oh-my-god-not-another-Mexican-restaurant” crowd, the ambience and creative variety on the menu are unmatched anywhere in or near Del Rio.

There’s change in the wind around Cripple Creek Restaurant, but it’s not expected to send even a ripple of difference in customer satisfaction, according to owner Armando Riojas, Aug. 23. The Riojas family has enjoyed more than a decade of fine dining service to thousands of customers, and achieved reputations for community service through civic leadership. They share their reflections on all that with LIVE! readers.

The U.S. Air Force brought Vic and Jitra Rubenacker to Del Rio, as it has so many others who chose to stay here after retirement. Jitra’s passion for cooking led them, inevitably, in the direction of opening a Thai restaurant, now one of the most popular dining destinations in Del Rio.

If fine dining is characterized as great food at reasonable prices, Caruso’s Ristorante Italiano is a long-awaited addition to the growing list of Del Rio eateries that meet diners’ approval. The Bullara family, experienced in restaurant management in Austin and California, opened in February in the embrace of Amistad Lake Resort, north of Del Rio, and, with fresh, flavorful menu items, the Bullara family hopes to attract many hungry customers.

It’s a chain, but a family operation nonetheless. With three locations between Del Rio and Uvalde, Don Marcelino’s restaurants are the most visible targets for locals and travelers hankering for some Tex-Mex fare. Don Marcelino’s #4 anchors the north side of town, and manager Norma Gonzalez keeps the spacious rooms seating a total of 170 diners clean and attractive.

Bodacious BBQ, well north of Del Rio at 10382 Highway 90 West, boasts some of the best Texas-style barbecue in the region, despite the Oklahoma roots of the Reott family, now comfortably settled and successfully serving a growing customer clientele among county residents, Del Rioans, Laughlin employees, truckers, bass fishermen and hungry tourists.

Mexican restaurants on the border are as common as pubs in Ireland, but a few stand out from the crowd.  The first in our series of eatery reviews shines a light on one that refuses to shine a light on itself, other than a word-of-mouth reputation that is well-earned and –deserved.