Since we’ve presented our list of the city’s best new restaurants. We took a break in 2020 as the industry worked to survive COVID-related shutdowns and challenges, and in 2021 opted for a roundup of San Antonio’s top 30 restaurants—a celebration of long-time favorites and newcomers that not only made it through the pandemic but also…
CIA Instructor Sofía Sada brings San Antonio to ‘Iron Chef Mexico’
Add Iron Chef: Mexico to your Netflix playlist, if you haven’t already, and keep an eye out for San Antonio’s own Sofía Sada. Sada, a chef-instructor at the Culinary Institute of America campus at Pearl, worked with Iron Chef Gabriela Ruiz, who was named Best Chef in Mexico in 2019. Read more here
Allora’s Success is All in the Details
In dining, as in life, mastering the details propels good into the realm of sublime. For Robbie Nowlin, a focus on the fine points goes back to the earliest days of his working life. In his first job at 14, he remembers helping his mom at an Olive Garden, sometimes making bowls of the chain’s famed…
A Tribute to Diana Kennedy
How a demanding Englishwoman inspired me to become a better Mexican As tributes come in for author and noted culinary authority Diana Kennedy and her efforts to publicize and preserve traditional regional Mexican cuisine, I remember her as someone whose work changed my life. Read more here
A Father’s Barbecue Legacy
The more I appreciated mood barbecue as I grew older, the more I appreciated my father. He would smoke beef ribs every once in a while when I was growing up. While my mom and I went to Mass on a Sunday morning, he’d start the offset smoker. I could see the smoke in the backyard by…
The San Antonio Barbecue Bucket List
Today, San Antonio displays the best range of barbecue in the city’s history—and it’s truly exciting to experience. Meats by the pound and classic two- and three-meat platters are in good hands, while the bucket-list-worthy options also include inventive sandwiches, tacos and unusual combinations, like brisket with green curry, pork sausage made with Oaxaca cheese and…
The Six Best Barbecue Restaurants in San Antonio
Whether you seek brisket, ribs or creative sides, these eateries are must-tries for any foodie
The San Antonio Guide to Takeout Food
When the pandemic kept all of us from dining out, restaurants changed their menus and business models, and many of us ordered out to support our favorite places or to get a break from cooking. But as we continued carrying out and ordering delivery long after dining rooms had reopened, many of us also discovered that…
Tips for Ordering Takeout Food
How to make the most of your next to-go order
Bar Loretta Draws on Generations of Creativity
When Roger Herr left San Antonio in the mid-1990s, the city’s dining scene offered far fewer creative, upscale dining options than exist now. A place like Bar Loretta would have seemed an odd fit then, and this city’s diners might not have taken to its relaxed yet refined take on modern Texas cuisine. As it was, Herr and…