Mi Tierra Café

I went to check out Mi Tierra Cafe on a recommendation for the best Mexican food in San Antonio. The restaurant is in Market Square, just a little over a half mile from the Riverwalk that tourists such as myself usually flock to for a myriad of restaurants and bars. During the evening, there are few things that give away what to expect inside. None of the patrons were out basking in the 104 degree Texas heat. I couldn’t imagine why.

Once inside, your eyes are assaulted by brilliantly colored pinata and lights dangling from the ceiling. Loud mariachis strum their guitars and shake their maracas, and an enormous display of baked puffs (not the Pauly Shore type) stretches across in front of you. The wait staff is dressed in brightly colored traditional Mexican garb, further driving home the violation of your eyes with everything presented in extra hi-def technicolor Mexicaness.

You adjust to it all fairly quickly, don’t worry.

I was whisked away to a booth, and took a few moments to take in everything from the menu. Six pages of food and drinks, everything from margaritas to meaty plates to 24 hour breakfast options like Huervos Rancheros. I can dig it. I asked for the Queso Flameado and the Michoacan, and spent several minutes fending off the “preview” struma-strum-strums of the roving gang of mariachis.

Shake shake shake. One mariachi attempted to attempt the start of a song. I shook my head, and he quickly scampered away, with even his maracas sulking. Shake.

Mi Tierra gives you a free dish of piping hot tortilla chips, and a nice, moderately spicy yet cool salsa, compliments of the house. If this was going to be a cheat meal from my normal diet, I was going to go all out. I shoved one chip after another into my maw, drinking down the salsa in a single gulp.

Ok it didn’t quite go down like that, but the salsa here is definitely good.

The queso flameado arrive in short time. Not exactly traditional Mexican fare in my opinion, leaning a bit more towards american tastes, this is a giant, piping hot cast-iron plate of cheese, with just a little bit of chopped chorizo to give it a nice smoky flavor. I sampled it with both the corn and flour tortillas, and naturally, the flour ones tasted much, much better. There has to be a better “it’s so addictive” type of analogy for things than crack. Why does everything have to be as good as crack? Are we a society hell bent on making crack the gold standard?

Anyways. Fresh flour tortillas. Crack. You know the drill.

The Michoacan is a plate of carnitas de puerco, or a baked pork tips marinated in orange and spices. It comes with the traditional accoutrements, guacamole, spanish rice, beans, and a tomato and onion salad. These carnitas aren’t your typical pulled pork variety, but rather, large chunks of Porky the Pig. The pork was a bit dry for my tastes and cut with large cuts of fat, which made me wonder if they preparation could have used a little bit of tweaking. Chunks of fat would usually indicate a moist and tender meat, especially with pork.

I’d hate to think that this is the best authentic Mexican food in San Antonio, but I might have just ordered the wrong main dish here. An excellent restaurant would have every dish prepared to absolute perfection, so I could see myself coming back to Mi Tierra to try something else to give it another chance. The service here is more than accomodating, with my waitress coming by every few minutes to top off my glass of water.

You didn’t forget about the bakery in the front, did you? Neither did I. I opted to try one of the various empanadas in front, finally settling on the apple empanada after a long deliberation between those and the mango ones. A perfect dessert after a heavy meal, and something to take back to your hotel room for another day of eating. They also have cookies, cupcakes, pies, candied yams, and macadamia brittle for you to try. Even if you miss the opportunity to have dinner here, there’s always a chance to get in with the bakery and grab something to go.

See Mi Tierra Cafe on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Queso Afficianados
• Birthday Parties
• Soccer Moms w/ a Van Full of Kids in Tow
• Watching Futball at the Bar

Not Recommended For:

• Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters
• Black Tie Night Out
• Your First Real Meal After Spending A Week at Burning Man