Instead of enjoying retirement, Anita and Octavio Avila opened a restaurant featuring family favorites in 1986.  They have added new items as well as expanding their selection of beers since that time.  They are at 4714 Maple Avenue in Dallas, near where “Little Mexico” still holds many locations but neighborhood change has brought a more diverse population to the area. Located in a little house they have 2 main dining rooms, one much small than the other.  Along the walls they utilize bench seating to work in the maximum number of tables.  There is a mix of 2 and 4 top tables and they seemed to turn over quickly, as lunch sometimes has a short wait.  They do have an adjacent parking lot as well as a few spaces in front.  They have only had this location but now a sign on the table refers to a second location in the planning for Casa Linda in East Dallas.  The menu has lots of options but I generally go here for the tasty Tex-Mex food and the fairly spicy salsa on the table.  Service is friendly and efficient and they have lunch specials which are delivered fast enough to be able to fit a meal here on a lunch hour.  They do have lunch specials but nothing on the menu is over $20.

 

As usual for a Mexican restaurant chips and salsa arrive at the table promptly and the chips are crisp, warm and not greasy.  They do have some corn flavor which will disappear when dipped in the spicy salsa.  The salsa comes in a jar that is to be poured into small individual dishes that are provided for each person at the table.

 

Our first visit we tried a special on the table sign, El Gordo Burrito which is a large flour tortilla stuffed with rice, beans, shredded cheese, guacamole and your choice of shredded chicken or ground beef and then it is topped with queso and served with a side of pico de gallo.  We chose the shredded chicken and it’s huge and extremely well stuffed.  The queso was good and you could either enjoy it with the pico de gallo or mix it with salsa.  Also on the side was lettuce, tomato and sour cream.  This could easily feed two and while it was very tasty I found myself tiring of having one big thing.  It was really good, I just wanted some variety on the plate rather than having everything mixed together in one huge tortilla.

 

The next visit we sampled some of the lunch specials.  The #1 was two cheese enchiladas topped with chili served alongside rice and beans.  The beans are a really smooth and creamy variety and pretty good; the rice was so-so but good to mix in extra sauce with.  The enchiladas were filled with cheese and then topped with more cheese and chili sauce.  They were quite satisfying and good.  Nothing novel, just good solid Tex-Mex food.

 

 

The #3 was One bean chalupa topped with lettuce, tomato, cheese, one guacamole chalupa and one queso chalupa.  The queso chalupa was more of a cup shaped tortilla and so you could dip into the queso, eat alone or spread it on the other chalupas.  It was smooth and cheesy and I liked the way it soaked into the crisp chalupa holding it.  The guacamole was a generous portion with good flavor.  It was topped with a bit of pico but it was really tasty just eaten on the crisp tortilla.  The bean chalupa was nice but I would have liked more bean on it.  It was topped with lettuce, tomato and grated cheese.  A tasty plate of food.