Esmeralda's Restaurant

Esmeralda's is the best Mexican food I've had in San Antonio. The staff has been great every time too!I moved to San Antonio a few years back. Coming out of San Diego I've been looking for flavors to satisfy my cravings. Nothing has hit the spot until Esmeralda's. That's not to say they serve San Diego style Mexican food. This is still Texan through and through. It's just that everything they put on a plate pops. I've been here roughly a dozen times now and I'm confident you can order anything on the menu and be satisfied. The very first thing I got were stock standard beef tacos. The least fancy thing I could think of. And they were FULL of flavor. I've since ordered at least 6 different things (although I do keep craving their al pastor) and everything has been that same experience of fantastic flavors. But it's not just the meals. Even their queso is better. If you go to a restaurant I've noticed the queso is more of a velveeta dip. At Esmeralda's you can tell no velveeta was involved. It's even got a tiny amount of spice. I could drink gallons of the stuff it's so good. Go to Esmeralda's. Order literally anything on the menu. Leave feeling satisfied. This place is the best!

astonishing!! you can tell the food is authentic. come here & you won't be disappointed. trust.i would always come for breakfast because it would be so convenient for my family and i. additionally, they have a drive thru & overall it's so perfect.their menu is large & at time can be overwhelming; however, if you just pick anything from their menu that you may like, you'll be addicted to this place. my favorites from this place are: barbacoa taco & caldo de res, and the birria tacos!! most importantly, this place isn't stingy, without even asking they give me so much sauce / onions and cilantro. places like this are rare, so i deeply appreciate it. 5 stars.

Food and service were excellent!Neat and clean. First time to try this place but will be back.

Esmeralda's has become a routine breakfast spot I go to and I love it! They never disappoint when I'm hungry or if i'm wanting some good tacos. The cool thing about this place is that you can get breakfast tacos whenever you want with a very small fee after breakfast hours. The service here is always super efficient and the workers are always nice at the window.Definitely check this place out if you want amazing breakfast tacos or are in the mood for tasty mexican food! They won't disappoint.

Solid meal while traveling. For the price ($18 without tip), it was unbeatable for a whole meal, drink, and dessert.I got:Cheese enchilada plate: 4.5/5 delicious. The enchiladas were perfect. It comes with green and red salsa. The red salsa compliments the cheese enchiladas better but that green salsa is amazing! It also came with a side of rice, beans, and flour tortillas. The tortillas were great, but the rice and beans kind of tasted tomatoey and possible store bought?Horchata: 2/5 Drinkable but tastes like the powder mix kind.Chocoflan: 2/5 Very sweet. Tastes like American birthday cake with some pudding on top, not a fan.

We enjoyed our stop here! Looked up a place in the area and picked this one. The tortilla chips were ok, not the best. I ordered a ground beef chimichanga which I loved!! I try them every Mexican restaurant and these had "non greasy" tasty ground beef with extras. Loved the light crispy tortilla shell too! Came with melted cheese on it, lettuce, tomato and sour cream with a side of guacamole! Also rice and beans. I loved mine; could only eat half. My husband a beef taco and cheese enchilada lunch. He liked it but no onions in the enchiladas which he likes. Service was fine. Not a huge place. Nice outside seating also... may have been nice! A toddler had his iPad loud with "wheels on the bus" playing as another customer was on speaker phone, then others talking made it a bit crazy for a while. We would go back if we were in the San Antonio area. Not far from 410/281

We had never been here before and decided to give it a try. The building itself is unassuming but don't let that fool you - the food is great!Our server promptly took our drink order and brought us chips, queso and salsa. The salsa was very good - a good flavor and a little heat. The queso was nice - most places don't usually bring it - nothing good or bad about the queso.I had the Mexican plate which cameWith enchiladas (cheese), a crispy taco, beans and rice. The flavor of the meat in the taco was very good. The enchiladas had a good flavor to them as well. The refried beans were very tasty - they had flavor and were clearly homemade! The rice . . . was rice, not bad at all, nothing remarkable - but then that's the case with most Mexican rice. The tortillas were a great texture - not too thick or thin.My wife had the Gordita plate with two pastor gorditas, rice and beans. I've gotta say - my food was good but next time I'm ordering the gorditas - the meat was very flavorful, and the Gordita shell was prepared perfectly. The staff was very friendly and appropriately attentive. We will definitely be coming back! Had we not found them on Yelp we'd never have known about them - glad we found them!

It was a little confusing when we went in: whether we should order like fast food at the front counter or from table, but we were asked to sit and they brought us menus. The food was really good, but the service was a little slow; although, they were kinda busy. Overall, great hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant with great food and a lot of character.

I was offered and chose carnitas as an option for tacos. After discovering and remove a pile of fat and skin from one taco(see photo), when asked if everything was alright, I pointed to the pile and asked if that was normal for carnitas, I was told I should have ordered, "just meat." I suggested maybe I should have told ... no explanation nor move to correct the problem was offered.

Breakfast is really good there have a variety of selections for breakfast, lunch and dinner?Atmospheres at Esmeralda's is pleasant I recommend the Shrimp SoupHuevos a la Mexicana Champurado