Tupinamba Cafe — Restaurant in Dallas

I had high hopes for my first visit to Tupinamba and saved it for a special occasion. Their reputation is distinguished in Dallas because of being a restaurant of the Dominguez family. For many years, Casa Dominguez was my favorite Mexican restaurant in Dallas… but it turns out that Casa Dominguez was owned by Pete Dominguez, and Tupinamba is owned by Eddie Dominguez. My dinner at Tupinamba proved their revelatory differences.

First red flag: on a Saturday night at 8pm, the restaurant was empty and smelled strongly of Lysol disinfectant, an appetite-disrupting smell that's reminiscent of gas-station restrooms. For this reason, it seems obvious why a restaurant management should NEVER allow staff to start mopping floors before official closing hour, no matter how lacking in customers they might be.

My friend and I got a nice booth by a window, the lights were pleasantly low, the place was quiet – so there were hopes for a good dinner despite the Lysol-infected ambiance. We are fans of Mexican food who believe that a restaurant's enchiladas and salsa are the litmus test of quality. So that's what we ordered.

One persuasive reason that I wanted to visit this restaurant was because I was aware that they leave a cruet of salsa on the table to refill your dipping bowl. This cruet turned out to be extremely small, hardly more than 2 ounces, and the salsa was utterly bland and featureless, with barely a hint of heat.

When the enchiladas were brought to the table, their chili con carne sauce was almost black in color from a too-heavy hand with the chili powder. Black enchiladas? There was no finesse at all in evidence. And my friend's plate had no rice or beans served with his enchiladas. When he asked about this, the waiter said that his order didn't include them. A second look at the menu showed that the "Comida" (dinner) section of enchilada dinner choices seemed to have a totally random assignment of rice and beans inclusions or exclusions. Why wouldn't each of these enchilada dinners include rice and beans?!

Service was perfunctory, not friendly. Our waiter only checked back with us once towards the end of our meal, and was nowhere in sight in this empty restaurant for the rest of the meal.

With so many other choices of Mexican food in Dallas, we will absolutely NOT be returning to the lackluster Tupinamba. Eddie Dominguez is obviously riding on the coattails of Pete Dominguez, who was an inspired restauranteur. Eddie and his staff are clearly bored and their food, likewise, is nothing more than a...

I will first start off with the fact that the restaurant is nice and clean. I will then get on with my review. My girlfriend and I went there around 9 P.M and we both were sitting in a booth for about 10 minutes until a server came to help us. The server named Juan was obviously in a bad mood. He didn’t want to help us and wouldn’t communicate at all or come see how we were doing After about 20 minutes with three different people coming to our table. We finally got our order with empty waters most of the meal of course. The chicken in the enchiladas was full of way to much pepper. Our queso is melted velveta with no vegetables or anything (Not queso). When we got done paying we noticed that Juan was the server on the check even though he wasn’t ever around or interested in helping us. The manager and a different server with a mustache was helping us the whole night and were helpful at the time. After we payed we felt that Juan didn’t deserve a tip. ( which I hate to do as I’ve run multiple restaurants and I know that’s how a living is made.) but when we left after no tip. WE WERE ALL THE WAY IN OUR CAR BACKING OUT IN THE PARKING LOT AND HEARD SOMEONE CALLING FOR US. It was Juan! Asking for his tip!! Couldn’t believe it as he went to the extreme to go out to our car and almost act us if he was going to try to fight. I was amazed. I immediately called for the manager and his name was Mauricio. He kept arguing with me over the phone and had the absolute worst attitude ever! He said that he wasn’t going to refund us anything because we ate our food? I’m sorry? Isn’t that why we went to a restaurant? To eat? The queso was full when we left. My girlfriends plate wasn’t even close to finished. After he kept interrupting me as I was talking I did tell him to please stop fuXXXXX interrupting me. (I was in the wrong then and I should have cussed) but He told me not to talk to him like that or else. I said what are you going to do? He said nothing over the phone but in person. He literally threatened me over the phone. I am hoping to get in contact with an owner soon because I do have the whole event on camera via cameras in my car and the whole phone conversation recorded on my phone. I will expose this restaurant with a very close friend that one of the anchors on WFAA. I’ve never experience anything as horrible and...

Best Tex-Mex in Dallas. We've been going to La Tupinamba for many years. They've consistently been the best Tex-Mex in Dallas.

The servers are always very friendly and knowledgeable at this family run establishment. I think most of them have worked there for years. Today was no exception. Always excellent service. The atmosphere is conducive to carrying on a conversation. And the decor is clean and contemporary.

The food is always exceptionally fresh and tasty, well beyond that of other Tex-Mex establishments. I've never ordered anything at La Tupinamba I wouldn't recommend. The Tupy tacos are exceptional and they're simply not available elsewhere and shouldn't be missed.

Like most restaurants, after patronizing them for years, I've gotten to know the menu well. Today I had a #1, which includes a Tupy taco, and many other Tex-Mex favorites. Rather than rice and beans I'll usually substitute for papas Mexicana (Mexican potato's) which are sliced newt potato's pan fried with jalapenos and onions...they're great and I'm not sure everyone knows about them because they don't come with every dish. This can be seen in the picture. They really go well with just about anything and are great on their own.

My wife ordered the grilled catfish she loved it. I've had it before and, although I usually go for something less healthy, its excellent.

I write plenty of reviews and I find it hard to put into words exactly how everything is this Tex-Mex restaurant is a step above every other Tex-Mex restaurant I've ever been to in Dallas, it just is. If you're in the area and have made it this far into this review, give a try. We drive past a dozen, or so, other Tex-Mex restaurants on the way to La Tupinamba and don't think twice about passing them by or the distance we travel because we know we're going to get the best Tex-Mex around. To everyone at La Tupinamba, thank you for the consistently outstanding food and service for all...