Mangia Mondays:: Casa Rio, San Antonio

It's Mangia Mondays time again!  MM is the weekly blog hop I co-host with the wonderful Kristin of Delightfully Dowling, and we'd be delighted if you'd join us to talk food!

Between Christmas, New Years and our trip to Texas, I took an unexpected break from MM, but I'm back today to tell you about a Tex-Mex restaurant we really enjoyed in San Antonio:  Casa Rio.

I'm sure there are about a ga-jillion REAL Tex-Mex places to eat that are off the beaten track, and as far as all you Texans are concerned, my writing about Casa Rio probably equates to someone coming to Boston, eating at  Cheers and writing a blog post about how amazing the food was.  However, if you're staying in downtown San Antonio it's highly likely you're in the lovely Riverwalk area, since there are an estimated 70 hotels around there.

And if you're staying around the Riverwalk, chances are that you're going to find yourself out walking around exploring for hours on end, and the last thing you're going to want to do is jump in your rental car to go find an off-the-beaten-track authentic Tex-Mex place when your kids and husband start showing signs of that hideous hunger-induced-crankiness.  So you'll read a few menus as you walk about and then keep your fingers crossed that this will be a good choice because everyone's starvin like Marvin and since you're in the great big state of Texas for the first time you feel it would be just plain old wrong to get back on that plane and head home without a decent Tex-Mex meal.  And you will be oh so pleasantly surprised when the touristy restaurant in downtown San Antonio turns out to be quite delicious, to the point where you are eating way past the point of being completely stuffed, until you have to be rolled back to your hotel and swear all the while that you'll never have another bite to eat again, ever.

Oooh!  The children are so tortured when the parents make them actually walk around and see the sights of the city they're visiting.  They wanted to go to Ripley's Believe It Or Not and instead their mean parents took them to educational places like the Alamo.

Dare I say they had fun despite themselves while we worked up a ginormous appetite?  Funny how that happens, isn't it?

These rainbow umbrellas are all over postcards and pictures we saw everywhere of the Riverwalk and they turned out to belong to the very restaurant we ended up at for our Tex-Mex feast.

Side note:  did I mention that slipped and fell flat on my face, and my camera lense, on the first day of our San Antonio trip?  Please excuse these terrible photos; all I had was my 300mm sports lense and my phone and neither of them do this food any justice.  I'll keep the photos small out of respect for your delicate sensibilities…..just use your imagination.

First up, light, airy, un-salty chips and fresh salsa that was so good I could have drank it.

After a little refresher course about the differences between flautas, enchiladas and soft tacos, Mark and I both ordered the Green Chicken Enchiladas.  While, yes, refried beans do LOOK nasty, they taste so good, but I couldn't get my kids to go near them.  Hannah wouldn't even eat the side of her soft taco that was touching them, and she's my more adventurous eater.

I ate the refried beans to make myself feel better about the enchiladas smothered in cheese (which is a farce because the beans are cooked in bacon fat…..let's pretend that was a healthy part of this meal), but the real star of the show was the green (tomatillo) sauce.  Oh so good!

The kids had soft chicken tacos and cheese nachos.  Mark had what he called "the best margarita I've ever had".  Everyone was happy!

The most memorable part for the kids was touristy but great fun:  the mariachi band that came to the table.

Little does the band know know that their song is one of the things my kiddos will probably always remember about our visit to San Antonio.  They were so good!

If you're visiting this fair city anytime soon, I recommend Casa Rio for family friendliness and really good, authentic Mexican food.

Have you eaten anywhere really yummy lately?  Do you have a recipe to share?  Join Mangia Mondays by linking up a post (with a link back to SYL or Delightfully Dowling, thank you so very much!) or share in comments.  Thanks for stopping by today!