Casa Rio – San Antonio, TX

My mother recommended this Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, but she was pretty vague on the directions. We’re pretty sure we go the right one though. She gave us a description like this: it’s a 24-hour Mexican place with a bakery. Well, that narrows it down to about 3,145 places in San Antonio. We threw a couple names at her on the phone while walking downtown, and she thought Casa Rio was the one. It’s on the river walk, so we boated past it earlier and it looked busy, which is always a good sign, right?

We strolled in, past a stripper with enormously fake boobs, and got a table inside (we had spent enough time outside at that point). The inside was painted in bright white with colorful splashes of color and some outlandishloy colorful ponchos on the wall for decoration. DeliveryBoy thought it looked like the basement of a church, and he’s not far off I’m thinking. Wait, when was the last time *I* was in a church? Hahaha

The menu had a ton of different items on it, so I decided to do some sort of combo to make sure I tried as many as possible. I got the deluxe combo. It was a taco, a cheese (and onion) enchilada, a tamale, chili con carne, chili con queso, rice, beans, and guacamole salad. I thought that might be enough to tide me over… They brought us out some chips and salsa, which were very good. Not flashy or raving-style good, but simply delicious, and a little spicy – awesome! They only had Coke products, so I stuck with water. I’m sure I was dehydrated anyway, so it was probably better to do that.

With the entrees, we got a small plate of chips with melted cheese on it (that’s the chili con queso part of the meal), and a small guacamole salad. I ate the guac with the cheesy chips and it was really good. Excellent little appetizer type dish.


The food came out pretty quickly and looked very good. I knew I was in for a treat. The taco, while plain-ish was very tasty. The meat was good and everything tasted fresh. The cheese enchilada ended up having a lot of onions in it, but it was still super tasty. I just had to power through the crunching bits. The tamale was really flavorful, but was more dry than some tamale’s I’ve eaten – it was fantastic though. The chili con carne had awesome flavor and was great rolled up in the soft corn shells they brought to our table. All of the food was really fresh and tasted wonderful.

Coach was on his best behavior and picked very few things out of his plain soft tacos. He’s in the top 5 world’s pickiest eaters and amazes me almost every time I eat with him. But he’s gotten better about not ordering too specific of special orders and simply picking out what he doesn’t like and leaving a little “danger zone” pile on his plate when he’s finished. DeliveryBoy commended him on being a “big boy” and eating as much as he did.

At one point, a trumpet player strolled by our table and asked if we wanted a song. I totally blanked out on which Chuck Mangione song I would like to hear, so we decided to forego a song. Although, now that I’m writing this, I Can think of a hundred trumpet songs I could have asked him if he knew. 25 or 6 to 4, anything from Blues Brothers/Flash Gordon/Rocky, etc.

When we left, DeliveryBoy strolled us past the giant map of the United States in the downtown area. It’s a huge map on the plaza with each state represented in a different type of stone. Apparently, each state was sent a letter asking them to send a piece of stone to San Antonio – the stone was to be the type of stone in which the state capital building was constructed. All states complied, except Kansas. Kansas now appears on this giant map made out of concrete – apparently, you’re not supposed to mess with Texas. DeliveryBoy made us all stand on the place where we live (like R.E.M.) and Amanda Hugginkiss took our photo. What’s even more hilarious about that, is I have no idea where Minneapolis lies within the large state of Minnesota. I think I’m close though. I should probably look into that, huh? Just never thought about it before until put on the spot (literally).

Since Coach was a big boy and ate most of his food, we rewarded him with a snow cone from a street cart outside the Alamo. He’ a big fan of snow cones and had been talking about the non stop since we saw the carts earlier that day outside the Alamo. He is looking into buying a huge contained of the blueberry syrup to add to everything he makes at home. And he’s serious.

We came back home for a quick dip in the pool, until the storm clouds rolled in and it was officially warmer under the water than out of the water. Word on the street is that San Antonio is in phase two of drought emergency. No lawn watering allowed, no lawn fountains allowed, no free water on tables at restaurants, etc. But Coach has this amazing ability to bring terrible weather to any vacation spot he visits. Thankfully, he came through and provided some much-needed rain to the city of San Antonio. He’s a giver like that.

Top 5 things about Casa Rio
1. Deluxe combo is fantastic!
2. Quick and friendly service
3. Chili con queso brought out as an appetizer
4. Chips and salsa were pretty darn good
5. Coach was a big boy and ate most of his food

Bottom 5 things
1. Gerd loved Mexican food and would have loved this place. The more cheese the better in her book!
2. Couldn’t think of a trumpet song to request
3. I’m geographically challenged, and realize it too late many times
4. Coke products
5. I wish I had 32 stomachs so I could try one of everything…

http://www.casa-rio.com