La Margarita Mexican Restaurant & Oyster Bar — Restaurant in San Antonio

On April 10th, at 3:30 p.m. We visited La Margarita from Austin, about an hour and a half away. Over the years the restaurant seems to be declining. We were there to buy sweetbread from the bakery, specifically sweet potato empanadas and cuernos, which is a very crumbly, very sweet croissant with sugar sprinkles. These are very popular and they had none. I expect it to return to Austin with two big bags of sweet bread for everybody but walked away with two conchas and a chocolate chip cookie. When I got home and ate my concha it was not the same. Sometime within the last two or three years they have changed the recipe and it was awful. It wasn't spoiled it tasted different. Conchas everywhere taste the same, but these did not. I was very disappointed. I made a life-hearted joke about the selection being so small and the server was not at all amused. Maybe I should have gotten angry and complained and that would have gotten her attention. Then we moved to the end of the line and waited to pay for my order. There was one cashier and she was the cashier for the entire restaurant. The waiters were in line to pay her as well as the people coming from the line of the bakery. This woman did not have a moment to breathe. The whole staff seemed very unhappy and overworked. I would hate to see it when tourist season is in full swing. There were already a lot of people in the marketplace and this was a weekday. Do not come here unless you have a lot of time to spend and you are in a terrific mood and don't really care who is unhappy to serve you. Austin has plenty of great places that sell sweetbread, the old fashioned way. The main reason we went to San Antonio was to eat on the Riverwalk and those people had a sour attitude also. I'm becoming more and more interested in a...

(Updated review from 24 July 2025)

We decided to try La Margarita again with out-of-town friends after several years since the last visit and had a good overall experience. We had good, efficient (though not overly friendly) service from our older waiter, very good margaritas that did not seem like they were from a machine this time (thank you), and good overall food. This restaurant is targeted at the San Antonio visitors crowd, but it is a fun place. We'll probably come again in the future for another round.

(Original review from 3 years ago) We were disappointed with our recent dinner experience here. The meals themselves were okay, but generic, with no real character or great flavor. The service was okay, but nothing special. It's pretty much a touristy place, so guess that is why it does well.

The "top shelf" frozen margaritas we got, however, were truly some of the worst we've had anywhere. The ice was grainy and not blended enough, the taste was truly un-margarita-like, and they were super-salty (not the rim, but in the marg itself). They truly tasted like the worst machine-made margarita you can think of, but worse. Have no idea how they were made like that, but we should have rejected them. For a place with margarita in its name we expected better.

The meal and drinks were also expensive, especially for what we got. Add in an 18% automatic gratuity because we had a group of 6 (Which I totally missed on the bill, as it was dusk outside where we were and I was in the middle of a conversation as I paid, so ended up double-tipping...my fault, but still...). All in all, not a good experience and...

My family & I went to enjoy dinner after UTSA graduation. We had a reservation at 7:30 for 25 of us. We got sat a couple minutes before our reservations time. Our server was great! Food took a bit of time but we were understanding as there were other big parties & the restaurant was pretty full. All was good, we enjoyed our drinks & food. As we finished up eating & were just talking my husband, my uncle, & myself witness a huge RAT run across the floor(coming from the direction of the kitchen area) to a spot right next to the front door where there was a hole in the wall. I felt sick to my stomach after witnessing that, I stopped a waitress walking by & told her what we saw & she said she would get the manager. Our server came to the table & I let him know what was going on & he was very apologetic & got the manager. As I approached the manager about the situation she seemed shocked. Initially she had no words for me. I told her I know it wasn't personal her fault but that it was disgusting & the least she could do was offer me & my family an apology. She said she was sorry & embarrassed, but only after the fact that I basically had to ask for an apology. She basically said the rat was due to near by construction, in turn I said so you're confirming what we saw was correct, yall do have rats running around? She said yes. Finally she ended up offering something to my family member who paid the bill. I'm not sure what she offered but I felt the situation could have been handled wayyyy better.My family & I won't...