El Remedio Mexican Kitchen & Bar 1 — Restaurant in San Antonio

I went to a birthday celebration in Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga specifically, at a restaurant called Mama Por Dios. The restaurant had selfie backgrounds, Instagram ready cocktails, some servers performing various chants, and a pretty intriguing menu. The site calls itself Nuevo Latino, and as Bad Bunny played in the background, a line of servers bringing an Ace of Spades bottles replete with fireworks came out with the cries of "Pari! Pari! Pari!" going hard as the table followed suit.

The concept and genre struck me as I have been to similar locations but couldn't pin the concept. I know it's odd to start a restaurant review mentioning another dining place 1200 miles away but I need to set the table so to speak as El Remedio has, in my opinión, created a new cuisine / genre / concept I would call the Nuevo Mexican American experience.

I've been to the food truck in the past where El Remedio was slinging it's high concept food truck sushi and it's excellent tacos. The birria has always been on point and as one of the first taco joints in San Antonio to get it right, it was only time until Joshua Palacios and his team would get a brick and mortar and hit their stride.

The restaurant on the Northside by Huebner and Fredericksburg near the USAA campus has been uniquely adorned with graffiti, murals, and colorful pieces of art. One thing the restaurant is, its loud. Loud in it's presentation, loud in the music that is constantly blaring, and loud in the ambiance as folks try to talk over the music. I am not complaining, and I'll explain why in a bit but you've been warned, as the first time I went, my homie just couldn't take it and we had to leave. I did manage to try to the shrimp empanadas and they were good but I knew I had to come back for a proper experience.

I brought my son and his girlfriend and they immediately were taken aback by the energy the place had at 9PM on a Thursday. Peso Pluma blared through the speakers, a 40th birthday celebration going crazy, and a rowdy (such a San Antonio word) group of folks watching the TNF Game on the screens were enjoying several drinks.

We ordered several plates. The birria pizza was filled to the brim with the famous birria meat; affixed between two large tortillas, the consommé that accompanied the pizza was rich and brothy, albeit a bit greasy, but definitely tasty.

As I delved into the quesobirria tacos I ordered, the champagne showers started up again and the wait staff formed a chorus line and led a fireworks laden Tomamas El Toro (not sure if that’s the bulls name but it should be) to the bday celebration. The Vegas style procession isn’t lost on me and fits right in, with the Ace of Spades replaced with a specialty cocktail flight.

I had a chamoy margarita that was good, strong, and kept me floaty. The drink was loaded with spicy chamoy and mango syrup and gives a good balance to a hefty drink.

The El Remedio Roll is a perfect testament to what’s going on here. My favorite sushi place Yellowfish Sushi masterfully blends the flavor profiles in Mexican sushi in what they call JapaMex. El Remedio is the natural progression to that where they go all in on the flavors, with beef, chicken, bacon, avocado, cream cheese, and mozzarella and is drizzled with tangy eel sauce. It’s not for the faint of heart and will challenge your concept of what is sushi but this is the point, to not just fuse the two but to come out with a wildly bold sushi roll.

As Rancho Hulmide bumped in the background, I could see everything come together. 2023 was a golden year for Mexican American fusion, where a genre of music brought together several generations of Mexican Americans into the fold. The generational exchange follows the cross cultural exchange as noticed by the cuisine. Lastly, the social / economic exchange of bringing a very Las Vegas style environment that may be prohibitive / intimidating to many, but giving it a puro vibe brings a unique experience to San Anto that we simply...

Wish I had better things to say about this place because my family and I had been excited to try it out for a while now, but since first getting there service was horrible and the hostess was very rude! I called a day in advance to try and get a table reserved for our party of 7 at 6 pm and was told we can only make reservations for parties 10 and up. But that they shouldn’t be packed around that time.. So we got there early and they told us it was a hour wait.because they have reservations coming on.. (There was plenty of seating) but it was fine we waited the hour. Once the hour was up- our waitress (very rudely) said “ I didn’t tell you a hour I told u a hour & a half. When we told her she was incorrect she then proceeded to tell my sister n law “ I’m not going to sit here and argue with you about the time mam” only when we requested to talk to the manager is when she sat us down quickly. Now onto the service. We sat down and no one took care of us until 20/30 mins and she wanted to take our drink and food order right away. Like if she was rushing. We were already frustrated having to deal with the bad hostess in the front so we just ordered and hoped the food was worth the bad service: our waitress had a issue with anything we requested like I noticed in the menu it said “ complimentary fruit with kids meal” My son asked for fruit and the waitress said “ no we are not doing that today” Well you should take it off the menu! My Sister n law asked if she can add beans in her burrito she said no. I asked for salsa verde and she said there was no more because they ran out but then we saw another table with salsa verde. My husband ordered shots and asked for an orange slice instead of lime and the waitress made an issue about that too! So instead We asked the bartender and he was happy to assist us. He was the only one that had great service. For the price we paid this place is over hyped, service was horrible and food was average. Won’t be returning Will never pay that much money for horrible...

I’m disappointed. I was super excited to eat here after hearing about how great the food and atmosphere was.

I came for the tacos and the birria ramen. They were out of the ramen, and I ended up ordering the El Remedio sushi roll and the carnita tacos. The roll was fantastic. The carnitas was not. The carnitas seemed like it was microwaved. It was dry, chewy and the corn tortillas were rubbery. You can pick any 25 other restaurants in SA that serve carnitas tacos and get MUCH better and for cheaper.

The margarita was on point and the service was excellent. The whole place is pretty cool and was a good vibe…until the band started playing. Then it became impossible for us to talk at the table and we were having to practically yell at each other while trying to have a drink and conversation. We left earlier than anticipated so that we could hear each other and have decent conversation. Just sayin - our bill would have been higher if we had stuck around to have more drinks. Everyone sitting around us was cringing at the music and it was obvious that people were unhappy that they couldn’t enjoy themselves because of the live band being so loud and in your face. The band was literally set up on the dining room floor next to tables.

The band was good. But we were there for food and drinks, not a shouting match. Had this been background music it would have been a more pleasurable environment. Instead, it was like a war zone that we had to fight our way through just to talk amongst ourselves. Literally no one in the entire dining room was kicking back watching and listening to the music. Every table was hunched over talking into each others ears, or screaming at each other so they could be heard across the table. This totally ruined it for me.

Tacos - a regrettable purchase Sushi - pretty darn good, considering it’s a Mexican food joint Service - amazing Margarita - I wish I had more of them Atmosphere before music - amazing Atmosphere during music - horrible Motivation to be a repeat...