Boquillas Restaurant Bar

Goat tacos are excellent. Cheese enchiladas and chicken tamales were okay. Sotol and margaritas are amazing. Ask for the spicy salsa and get the chips!

Four years and the Rio Grande crossing closed for two of those due to the pandemic, yet the Boquillas Cafe is still going strong and the food was excellent. High time for an update to one of my favorite little spots in a location so remote it 's an outlier as a food destination. Impossible to check into on Yelp. I know, because I 've been to this town three times now. The power grid is run off of a solar panel farm on the edge of town. Sorry, the restaurants don 't provide a login for you. Nope, no espresso joints either. Welcome to another time. Boo-hoo, we 'll all be OK. Known locally as far as I 'm aware and deemed by some locals I 've met as the poor restaurant, while Jose Falcon 's across the street is the rich restaurant, both are good enough, but I prefer this one. And while, yes, the food isn 't the greatest, YOU start a restaurant that 's over 70 miles from the nearest grocery store on the US side, and an 8-10 hour drive over a desert trail on the Mexican side. Whatever is available came from a dam long way and at a great effort. Sadly--of note--on my phone I carried a picture and video of an local elderly musician in a wheelchair who busked on the dirt street next to the restaurant. Several people I showed the picture to came nearly to tears. Joaquín was his name, and they were surprised to see his likeness once again. No mas, they told me and shook their heads lovingly. He passed during the pandemic. One musician I showed the picture to simply patted his own heart, shook his head and said nothing. But the food: three in our party had chicken filled tamales with rice and beans while I opted for asada tacos in what were clearly hand crafted tortillas made on the premises. So, a bit stiffer, but delicious and came with a fiery hot sauce that was bliss. Cold Negra Modelo beers with their Mexican labels looked unfamiliar but tasted the same as their US version but went fine with our lunch. On the way back to the Boquillas International Ferry ... a guy in an aluminum rowboat, one in our party rode a donkey while we walked. All in all, a brilliant day in the warm Fall sunshine in a place most people will never get to, and that 's part of what makes this tiny hamlet of 100 or so people so special with the families selling their homemade crafts on the street. Long live Boquillas Cafe. If you come: passport required. $5 US charge for the boat ride which is good for round trip. 3/4 mile to town: you can ride a horse for $10-15 round trip, a donkey or in someone 's pickup. Once in town you must visit the Mexican park office and pay a $3 park fee since the town is inside their version of Big Bend National Park. Two restaurants already mentioned, two small grocery/convenience stores, both will expect and prefer US dollars. Jose Falcon 's has a gift shop and I believe they will accept credit cards. There is a small bar I 've never seen anyone in and a small church worth visiting. Families sell hand crafted gifts on the street and small children will approach you in small groups sometimes to try to sell you hand woven bracelets but are polite and don 't hound you. The main street is all dirt and the town is but 100 yards long with a couple of short side streets. Come for the food and the wares people are selling, it 's the way they earn their living.

One might think it is odd to give a five star rating to a cafe on a dirt street in a poor Mexico town just across the Rio Grande. But they already had 4 1/2 stars and I do not want my rating to bring them down. The food was quite good and unlike most American-Mexican restaurants the portions were not overboard. Three possible plates were offered and my wife had the cheese enchiladas with rice and a flat tortilla with refried beans spread on top. I had the mini-tacos, ground beef with lettuce inside crispy flour tortillas. We both enjoyed our lunches. A National Park ranger told us before we went over that the two restaurants in town were owned by the same person and had the same menu. But Jose Falcon's across the street was undergoing renovations while we were there. They were enclosing their outer walls with windows, no doubt to add air conditioning. In November, though, we were comfortable in the shaded outdoor patio of our cafe with air temps probably in the high 80's.and being in the open air we were able to enjoy the antics of the town's dog population and the children trying to hawk trinkets. The manager/waiter spoke excellent English and was very attentive. The Carta Blanca beer was cold. It was a good day.

Unofficially the better spot to eat in boquillas. Drinks were good, goat tacos were also interesting. Food: 5 Service: 4 Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5