Purty Darn Good!
Mar 26th, 2007 by Don Ray
Apparently like several other people I made my way up to Volcan yesterday with the sole purpose of eating at the Republic of Texas Café. I am only going to post one photo since I had others on my original post about the restaurant.
Having lived in Texas for the majority of my life, I like TexMex and have my favorite restaurants (mostly in Dallas). Among my favorite restaurants in Dallas are the Dominguez family restaurants, the Mario’s restaurants and Ojeda’s restaurants. Each of these restaurants has specialties I go for. So these were my reference I used on yesterday’s comparison.
Before leaping into my evaluation, I think it is worth while pointing out that this restaurant has only been open about two weeks. I also know that this type of food is very foreign to Panama. Panama has some Mexican, but this is the first TexMex I have seen. Therefore expecting perfect is unreasonable.
I tried a margarita and others had piña coladas. In Dallas I would have had a frozen margarita and this one is on the rocks. None the less, I rate it a 10 and those drinking the coladas also rated them as 10s. I didn’t taste the coladas, so I will take their word for it.
I ordered bean and cheese nachos to come before my meal and they never showed up. I think my Spanish must have failed me and the waitress thought I was asking what they were. Not a problem. We had more than we could eat.
The chips and salsa were made at the restaurant and I thought both were good. Some like the salsa extremely hot and others less hot. This was mild, but very flavorful.
I ordered the San Antonio so I could try as many things as possible. I like the refried beans. They were very close to what I like. The crispy taco was also very close, as was the enchilada. The Mexican rice was ok, but on the blah side.
Both of the chalupas were good. I especially enjoyed the chili con queso. Everyone said they liked what they ordered. I am a little more critical of TexMex and think there is still room for improvement. But on the whole, it was Purty Darn Good!
I thought the price to value was very good if I ignore the price of the gasoline to drive up to Volcan. However being able to see all that gorgeous scenery on the drive has to be worth something.
Oh, the chicken fried steak hasn’t made a showing yet, so at least one more trip will be called for.
I am from Texas too. I like Tex-Mex too. I liked the Ninfa’s chain from Houston and several in North Ft. Worth near the Stockyards. I am glad this one has opened.
PS I am a chicken fried steak guy.
Cheers..John
I have eaten at Ninfa’s in Dallas and probably the same restaurants as you in Ft. Worth.
What I would like to see is a Red or Sunny Bryan’s barbecue, but if they were here, why would I ever need to go back to Texas.
I use to go to a restaurant in the Stockyards which served mountain oysters which I like alot. Texas has beef BBQ which I like but I am a fan of pork BBQ too. What I really miss is catfish.
Yep, you can beat some good old fried catfish.
There are plenty of mountain oysters sold here in the grocery stores, if you are willing to cook your own!
I don’t mind cooking. I’ll be on the outlook.
Maybe you already know about the seafood restaurant called Cedimar. It is located in Pedregal about a mile to a mile & a half on the left after you pass the airport. I just discovered it last night. Most items are in the $5 to $5.50 range. I have an order of ceviche and a platter of garlic shrimp. It was very good.
El Rey always has a large amount of mountain oysters.
I haven’t see the Cedimar. I have eaten several times at the Marina, but even that has been a few years back. I will put the Cedimar on my “places to try” list.
I just spent the last week in Dallas on a consulting assignment. Had Tex Mex food at least once a day (can’t get too much Mexican food). My favorite was Mattito’s. But as much as I like Tex Mex, I prefer New Mexican (flat (not rolled) blue corn enchilada stack with fried egg on top, Navajo tacos, posole, NO Spanish rice, etc.) But I know enough not to push the subject with so many Texans around…
Too bad I didn’t know you were going. I would have recommended some places.
I will be going again every month for awhile - I am doing a lot of environmental IT work for a mid-stream oil & gas company. I will be in the uptown area & North. So I am open to all recommendations. BTW I had dinner one night at Snuffers (burger joint) and had to use Drano to unclog the arteries…
As we live in the Coronado area, I won’t be getting to the RTC in Volcan until the next time we take a trip in that direction - but we definitely have it on our list.
TexMex, like many types of food, is a personal choice sort of thing. I will send you some of my favorites via email.
UPDATE- I sent an email and it was returned. “This user doesn’t have a yahoo.com account “
Don,
I have corrected my email address on your website. I am slightly mystified why it was wrong as you have sent me email before & Firefox maintains this fill in boxes. Anyway, it is fernybeach @ yahoo.com
The email is on the way. You will see the address that was wrong.
[...] is my previous post on the [...]
[...] guess I need to post a final notice that The Republic of Texas Cafe has closed. This has to be the shortest restaurant life I have seen since I have lived in [...]