Nash, No TexMex in El Paso can compare to Roscoe's. Great burger, but your clothes will smell like grease when you leave.
Before it closed Hamburger Inn was the best hamburger/hotdog place - ever. They made the real ‘smash’ burger before it was a thing and they did the Mexican hotdog, spliced on a hamburger bun with beans, pickle and green chile, powerful stuff.
Twisted Root (a handful of DFW locations) makes a good burger, and oooooooooohhhhhhhh those fries... Back to the original post--Whataburger stores are less consistent than they used to be.
Chop, Whataburger has changed vendors at some locations - Switching from Sysco to McLane. They have become totally inconsistent and unreliable. On a related note, I received an email survey from Whataburger HQ two weeks ago. Questions about "social responsibility". Questions like which chain is more receptive to LGBTQ (?) needs and wants. My response was less than cordial, but assured them I would start asking all their employees their race, heritage, and sexual proclivities before placing my order.
HIC, You won't be upset by too much seasoning. They have become about as bland as you can find. They are focusing on fru-fru burgers - stuff like avocado green chili cheese burgers. For several years I have had their sausage & biscuit for breakfast. Since turning it over to McLane, sausage is fairly tasteless and biscuit is more crumbs than biscuit. I do find it humorous that they have built a new "customer service call center" in Atlanta - closest Whataburger is Tallahassee and none of people have ever been to much less eaten a Whataburger. Next step has to be call center to Manila.
Many years ago I flew back home with my pregnant wife. Upon getting our rental my wife was craving some good Mexican or Tex/Mex. We found this place near Vanderbilt that was very highly rated. We got seated and I started watching food coming to tables and got a little worried....it just didn't seem right. When it came time to order we settled on fajitas because it's hard to mess that up. So I ordered beef and knew instantly we were in trouble when the waitress asked how I'd like them cooked. I said excuse me? She again asked how I wanted them cooked so I simply said like fajitas. I will never eat Mexican in Nashville again. It was chewy and awful.
Vol. The #1 rule of dining is that when you cross the Red, the Sabine, or the Rio Grande, you never eat BBQ or Mexican. I did find one exception - a Mexican restaurant on Wilshire at either 9th or 10th in The People's Republic of Santa Monica. About a decade ago I was in DC to get a company authenticated. There is a chain of TexMex called "Austin Cafe" - very highly rated and owned by two guys from Austin. I went over there and ordered the "Beef Enchilada Plate" but asked that they cut the onions. The waiter came back to my table and said that the enchiladas were made at their commissary, frozen, and shipped to the restaurant, so there was no way to cut the onions. I asked for my check.
Great advice Sabre! Teach your children well! The Mexican place on Wilshire is at 10th and Wilshire (El Cholo). Very good, but Horchata at 8th and Montana is a slightly better one and it includes a bakery.
Learned this lesson the (very) hard way. I found a Mexican place in Park City, Utah. Ordered chicken mole enchiladas. Had the absolute worst case of food poisoning I have ever experienced. And I am not talking about just the squirts - add nausea, fever, extreme muscle aches and cramping to the mix. I had to delay my flight home by an extra day because there was absolutely no way I could drive the rental car from the hotel to the airport. Even the next day I was barely functional, and probably shouldn't have driven.
In 1991 I took a 9-day solo trip through Germany and Switzerland. On my last day, in Frankfurt, I was mostly out of cash so I went looking for a restaurant that took AMEX. I found a “Mexican” food place there, and you can guess how that went. The spanish rice was some kind of pilaf with an odd euro-salsa concoction poured over it. There was a burrito-like thing somewhere in there and maybe some beans. At least I didn’t get sick, I’ll just say much that for it.
Some 25 years ago or so I was traveling with a rep in Ark and he wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant he liked in Little Rock. The sauce on my enchiladas was black, like licorice black. Managed two bites and ended up eating the salad - hard to mess up a Mexican shredded lettuce and chopped tomato salad. Rice was of the variety Dion mentioned so didn’t eat that. Never forget that meal, can’t remember the place but never forget the meal.
In the 80s and early 90s, there was a very good Tex-Mex place in Hong Kong - but it went the way of the Union Jack.
Nash, Again, the number one rule of eating when traveling - when you cross the Red, Sabine, or Rio Grande (going West), do not eat Mexican food or BBQ.
Strangely enough Nashville area has gotten some good Mexican places. In this case as a general rule the smaller the better.
About 20 years ago we flew to Nashville and my wife was pregnant. She was unfortunately craving Mexican food so we found what seemed like the most authentic place we could find which was really close to Vanderbilt. After being seated we were looking at the plates coming out and that worried us because they just didn't look like what we were used to here in Austin. We decided on fajitas because how do you mess up fajitas. Well, the server came and I ordered beef fajitas and she asked how I wanted them cooked. I was startled, looked at my wife, looked back at the server and said "like fajitas?" That was some of the toughest and chewy fajitas I've ever had.
Vol, I few years ago, I had to make an emergency trip to DC to get a company authenticated. I asked multiple people about a Mexican food restaurant. and multiple told me "Austin Cafe" was the best in DC and had multiple locations. I settled in a booth at one just off "M". I ordered the "special" which included two beef enchiladas, beans, rice, & crispy beef taco. I asked for no onions on my enchiladas. I was just past my second sip of Michelob when the waiter returned and said, "sir, our enchiladas are made at a commissary, frozen and sent over to be heated here with the onions already mixed in. Can I get you something else?" I told him, "yes, a check for the beer"
and now one on The Strip in Las Vegas Whataburger opens two-story restaurant on Las Vegas Strip (ksat.com)
Good ones do require some technique with rolling that hot fresh tortilla. And whether red or green you best have fresh chile.
