1209 E. Seventh St., 479-0097
M-Th 11am-10pm, Fri 11am-11pm; Sat 9am-11pm, Sun til 10pm
As Austin’s restaurant scene expands to include more interior and coastal
Mexican options, our stomachs remember our regional roots. On any given Friday
night, we still crave TexMex — cheese enchiladas floating in spicy sauce with
rice and beans (preferably refried), all chased by a good margarita or cold
beer. Nothing else will do. So if you haven’t already, head east, all
folks…
If you’re lucky, you’ll land at Nuevo Leon Restaurant, Austin’s perfect
all-around TexMex utility joint. Nuevo Leon is a simple, family-run Mexican
restaurant located on the near-Eastside. They serve no-hype TexMex cuisine —
variations on the taco/enchilada/tamale trinity — in a bustling room the color
of bubblegum. Most high-traffic nights find all the tables filled with regulars
in spirited conversation or intense, muted feeding frenzies. Mama Rachel
Davila, her family, and their insanely attentive staff never miss a beat in
encouraging both.
Put simply, Nuevo Leon excels by paying attention to basics that other places
treat as afterthoughts. When you hit your table, so do baskets of hot, light
tortilla chips and bowls of salsa spiked with garlic. Both the baskets and
bowls get refilled at the moment you swear you couldn’t eat any more —
but you do anyway. Though you won’t find any breathtakingly exotic
entr�es on the menu, you won’t be disappointed by quality, taste, or
portion size. The various plates offer all possible combinations of uniformly
tasty TexMex dinner components (guacamole salad, enchiladas, chicken or beef
tacos, chalupas, tamales, rice, beans, etc.). Choose your favorite combination
and you can’t lose. It’s like the lottery in reverse.
Though it’s a little late for this summer, you should know that they
serve a perfect stock frozen margarita, the only cure for late-season heat
waves. A Nuevo Leon frozen perfectly balances the crucial elements of a
margarita — sweet, tart, and strong — without any hints of alligator-green
coloring or cheap booze afterburn. Their large frozen is Texas heaven in
slurpee form, and gets my vote for the best stock margarita in town, even
during a cold snap.
— Paul M. Johnson
This article appears in October 27 • 1995 and October 27 • 1995 (Cover).