Picante Grill

Mex mex– trout, duck, lamb and goat dishes. This IS the place you are looking for. Their sig dish Chile en Nogada is as good as Morenos in Mexico City. Hand made flour and corn torts as well as margaritas. Wish i could give 6 stars

We have been going to Picante grill for over 10 years and unfortunately we will not be going there ever again.
It has been hit and miss before in the past, but the hits always made it worth going back to.
The duck tonight tasted over boiled, the tortillas were reheated (very brittle) and the guacamole was celebrating a birthday. I did not know there was a new manageress who was very unapologetic. The restaurant was nearly empty at 8 pm on a saturday night and it seems everybody in town knows this place no longer shines as it once did.

It’s just on the border of passable. I agree that it is getting past it’s sell date. The interior is showing significant age. Needs paint to lighten up the place. Booth chairs are showing slits in them. Just looks less than pristine.
The food is ok — the enchilada lunches are ok. The side beans are just a puddle of something. Silver ware was crusted with dried food and was replaced but without a ‘sorry’. Waiter had a touch of an attitude.
The menus are starting to look like a manuscript from the mummy’s tomb.
So it’s really a 2.5 star review. If it wasn’t a convenient lunch stop, I would move on — redo the place.

Well, it wasn’t terrible, just another has-​been elderly restaurant serving mediocre food and resting on apparent laurels of previous accolades. The building itself smells of mold or mildew, you know that «old» smell when you enter a place that’s been in business for ages and never really updated, remodeled or refinished. The place has that horror movie/​haunted house dim lighting, perhaps in part to conceal the shabby maintenance. Everything is dated. Everything could be cleaner, fresher, newer. The menus were crinkled, wrinkled, and sticky with petrified picante. The grout in the kitchen was discolored. The men’s room was frightening, not quite gas station frightening, but on the par with a few convenience stores; not only way dated but way dirty.
The service was OK, my tea glass and chip bowl never went empty. The picante was good (it had better be based on the name), and the chips were medium light and tasty. The corn tortillas were homemade, but too thick. My enchiladas were very strange and flavorless. The ranchera sauce had no sauce, just peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Thus, the enchiladas were too thick masa tortillas wrapped around a little bit of cheese and sprinkled with peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Odd. I did not like the rice. It was cooked perfectly, I just did not care for the seasoning. You might like it. The borracho beans were very good.
All in all, I’m not going back, unless again summoned by 85y/​o grandmother.

Authentic Mexican food! We’ve been eating here for 16 or so years. The food is always good and fresh. My husband loves their duck in the green pumpkin sauce. I love the caserola de Chipotle and the caserola de poblano. You can never go wrong with the enchiladas or fajitas. My son adores the Tomales on the kids menu too. Some of the waitstaff have been there over 10 years and always greet you with a big warm smile. I’ve hosted small functions in the party room for personal and business reasons and they always go above and beyond.

Chile en nogada — just do it. There’s no reason to order anything else! A poblano stuffed with spiced meat, nuts, and raisins; and topped with creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds. It’s almost Middle Eastern meets Mexican. I’ve not been impressed with other dishes here, the duck is dry and not tasty, just get the chile en nogada.

This is hands down the best Mexican food I’ve ever had. I have to admit that I’m from
Louisiana and I don’t eat much Mexican food but I wanted to give it a shot since I was in town. I came in right before the lunch crowd and Luis was very helpful. My food was fresh and my margarita was nice as well. I’d definitely recommend this restaurant.

I like going to this restaurant, I usually go once every 2 weeks. They have delicious Mexican food. Unfortunately, their customer service its bad. The owner changes her staff periodically, I wish she knew how to select better staff.

Came in for margarita’s for cinco de mayo… the bartender didn’t even have the machine on… the drink wasn’t anything to write home about but it was the only place around I could find.

This place has great food and great service. We live in Houston and wish we had a place that served food as good as this. It had the perfect mix between Tex-​Mex and traditional Mexican food. The restaurant was super clean and had room to accommodate our big group. Definitely would recommend this place.

I’ll preface my review by saying the Hispanic family members at the table did not enjoy their meal, offering comments like «bland» and complaining that everything touched each other.
However, I’m inclined to disagree. I thought the food I ordered, which was some twist on fajitas but it was on a skewer stick (I can’t recall the name of the dish) was delicious. I also liked the rice, and the chips and salsa. I think the issue for everyone else was that they like tex-​mex, but I’m from Southern California and enjoy more Spanish food.
Complaints are very slow, though friendly, service.
Rating system:
5 stars = I’ll drive across town specifically for this, and rave to all my friends about it!
4 stars = Would recommend visiting.
3 stars = Average, acceptable, positive.
2 stars = You might be able to drag me in.
1 star = I will not be returning.

1. Food is pretty good
2. Extremely slow service. As in people step in wait for a few minutes then start to ask if they’re open or if anybody is working
3. Three tables in the restaurant with one waiter and it took us 15 min to order. Then another 30 min before we received the meal.
4. If we were less honest this would be the ideal dine and dash spot because it was like pulling teeth to get our check

Great Place to eat awesome customer service, I been here plenty on times and there is always consistency with the food, I love this place and the original mexican food and not tex-​mex like most of the places here in San Antonio. I definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for great mexican food.

Family gathered with reservations ahead of time October 2 nd for nephews birthday party, some arrived 30 minutes early were seated but no waiter or waitress ever came, once we were all there still no service, sadly we never got to try the food. Was are first and last visit because we called another place and left.

I’ve been going to this restaurant since 2006 and it’s fantastic! Gonzalo is a great owner and he always have treated me and family well when we do visit. I appreciate the fact that his hostess always remembers us. It’s kinda corny but it makes us feel welcomed. I love the Mexican Coca-​Colas «MEDIO LITRO!» lol. The fajitas are our favorite along with the casserole poblano. You have to try those out!

Very good food, and a good value, too. Polo al picante was excellent. Polo al cilantro was also very good. Portions were enough to be filling, and some could split it into two meals.
Atmosphere was appropriate; hard to say «authentic» but as would be expected for a non-​commercial chain. Would definitely recommend!

Eh it was ok, i had high hopes especially since i heard rave review from my friend on facebook. my mole my was dry. my husband enchiladas were not appetizing either. Maybe it was a bad day. Will not be going back.

This place is close to my house and for some unknown reason I’ve kind of ignored it. My mistake.
Quick and dirty:
Good limey margarita — not too overloaded with sweet & sour mix.
Really good huitlacoche quesadillas — rich, earthy, heady fungus in healthy portions, served with sour cream and guacamole.
Average/​passable enchiladas rojas (TexMex cheese enchiladas).
Terrific enchiladas Mexicanas (traditional queso fresco enchiladas in a guajillo sauce).
The chile en nogada is amazing. Picadillo with a good clove-​y, rich seasoning, almonds and plump raisins in a mild roasted poblano drizzled with crema agria and garnished with pomegranate seeds. Far and away the best thing I’ve had there in my 4 visits so far.
Interesting (and good) botana — queso en dos salsas — a broiled round of queso panela with poblano cream and tomatillo/​cilantro sauce.
Salsa roja smooth, pureed. Reminds me of Fonda San Miguel in Austin.
Lots of other stuff looks good.
Atmosphere not the best. Can be dark and seem a bit disheveled at times. Never very crowded when I’ve been there. Servers are pleasant and nice, but can be slower than the crowd (or lack of) merits at times.
Bottom line, the real Mexican food is better than the TexMex. B+ overall.

Salsa came in a bottle, that’s the best part of this place.
You don’t have to ask the waiter, can I have more salsa, please?, salsa bottle was quite a good size. Chips in Texas were all good, not grease or thick like in LA.
Other that that food was an ok level, not much of Tex-​Mex, more like Tex, I would say.
Not much of picante was in the food.sadly.
Beef fajita I had was less than an ok. Beef smelled the beef. I don’t like that!
I like well marinated beef on my fajita.
Coffee came in a stainless insulated cup and saucer! That’s kinda cute.

chile en negado
was fantastic. and so was the flan

Holy Guacamole, Batman!
A delicious meal for less than $ 10 is what you’ll find here. Every Tuesday you can get a plentiful fajita plate with borracho beans, pico and delicious guac for $ 6.
I’m on a vegetarian kick, so I had the cacerolas with poblano ($ 7.30 w/​water), which is like semi-​fried cheesy tortilla soup sans broth. Oh so delicious! A small salad was paired with the entrée which included a house balsamic peppery vinaigrette.
Come here often, but be weary of the local lunch crowd, this place fills up before 12 pm.