Even though a third of May was devoted to my first-ever trip to London, I managed 39 San Antonio restaurant visits during the month in pursuit of Top 10 chicken tenders,Top 10 24-hour restaurants, explorations of the new Mexico Ceaty food hall on the River Walk and the Austin export Pinthouse Pizza, plus a few more stories yet to come. This is the best (and worst) of what May had to offer, including a Roadshow Bonus with a startling revelation about British food.
The best
Exploring the Mexico Ceaty food hall: I won’t apologize for my initial reaction to the name of star chef Jason Dady’s Mexico Ceaty. Trying to squeeze the word “eat” into “city” in the style of Little Eataly still sounds like accent cosplay in my ears. But a day spent eating street tacos, ceviche, pastries, coffee, fajitas and breakfast tacos in the sprawling village that took over the former Shops at Rivercenter food court in April rendered that objection a smaller cosmetic distraction to a much more expansive and gratifying experience.
The best of what I ate came from the sit-down restaurant Tres Arcos, with beef fajitas that haven’t forgotten the tenderizing, big-flavor impact of a proper marinade. Breakfast from the Dulce & Aroma counter reassured me that too much is never enough for the breakfast taco called the Joselito, a mash-up of chilaquiles, carne guisada and a classic bean-and-cheese. And I caught memories of the guisado stalls of Querétaro in Mexico and the ceviche carts of the Mexican coast at both the street taco and ceviche counters of this full-contact Mexican experience. 849 E. Commerce St. at the Shops at Rivercenter on the River Walk, 210-607-6000, mexicoceaty.com
Fried chicken at Mrs. Kitchen Soul Food Restaurant: Mrs. Kitchen is back. After a short-lived move to a generic North Side cookie cutter of a place that never felt like a good fit, this soul food survivor came back to the East Side in October. It’s trimmed down to the meat-and-sides basics: meatloaf, fried fish, smothered pork chops, yams, wings, greens, mac & cheese, Kool-Aid and the fried chicken that lured me to their old East Side spot years ago. A three-piece with two sides and cornbread is $14.50, a decent value for two full skin-on thighs and legs (four pieces on the day I was there, to make up for them being out of white meat). It’s crispy and salted, consistently crusted all over, with a rangy texture inside that feels as scrappy as the last couple of years for Mrs. K. 2351 E. Commerce St., Suite 105, 210-254-9200, mrskitchensoulfood.com
CHICKEN TENDERS:The Top 10
Geisha drip coffee at The Dispatch: The new coffee shop and counter-service cafe from Page Pressley and Dez Rodriguez gives an affordable peek into the high-stakes world of the Geisha line from Austin’s Proud Mary coffee roasters. Brewing from a Panama and Honduras blend of beans that costs more than I make an hour, they pour one of the most pedigreed cups of coffee in the city for $10, and that includes a refill. 755 E. Mulberry Ave., Suite 150, 210-215-7560, thedispatchtx.com
Chicken poblano enchiladas at Poblanos Mexican Restaurant: The 16-year-old family-owned cafe from Eric and Hector Valadez that relocated into this downtown sweet spot just three years ago somehow manages to charge close to mom-and-pop prices for Tex-Mex at an East Houston Street spot that once housed Bella on Houston. Their signature chicken poblano enchiladas draw their power from a silky green sauce that lends cream and mellow vegetal heat to chicken that would be juicy enough to carry the burden all on its own, no matter the sauce. 204 E. Houston St., 210-474-0190, poblanosonmain.com
Blackened snapper at Jazz TX: It’s one of San Antonio’s best-kept secrets: The city’s best jazz club is also one of its best restaurants and classic cocktail bars. Your ticket to the show gives you access to a menu that swings from steaks to seafood to pasta to tacos and back. Chef Jeff Schoch recently took over the small, fiercely efficient kitchen, and he’s pulling it off with style and grace, especially with a filet of blackened snapper served on sturdy polenta cakes with hollandaise and blistered tomatoes. Good food, a a proper old fashioned and another musical re-telling of Tom Waits’ “Picture in a Frame.” That’s a good night out. 312 Pearl Parkway at Pearl, Building 6, Suite 6001, 210-332-9386, jazztx.com
Cochinita pibil sope at Tlahco Mexican Kitchen: This is my favorite $5 bite in San Antonio right now, a handmade corn masa sope stacked with the low-and-slow twang of cochinita pibil, crowned with pickled pink onions and a habanero ring of fire. 6702 San Pedro Ave., 210-239-9457, tlahcokitchen.com
The worst
El Fantastico pizza at Pinthouse Pizza: The laid-back juicy crush of Electric Jellyfish IPA has been the gateway beer for the Austin-based Pinthouse experience when it started showing up in San Antonio tap rooms ahead of its full restaurant entry into the market in March. The “pizza” part of Pinthouse hits that soft spot between the dusty char of Neapolitan and the foldable, crusty what-are-you-lookin-at of New York style. Which is to say that its doughy dad-bod fluff will neither offend nor fascinate anyone. The straightforward cup-and-char of pepperoni brings salt and structure to a decent red-sauce pie. But an odd little interloper called El Fantastico is like corn-in-a-cup dressed up for Halloween, with Tajin-style dust and cilantro trying way too hard to sell the idea of corn, chorizo and Cotija cheese as things that belong on pizza in the first place. 5534 N. Loop 1604 West, 210-305-4300, pinthouse.com/pizza-san-antonio…