Comal 864 is the creation of Brownsville, Texas native Dayna Lee Márquez, who wanted to bring South Texas food to this region.  It started in July 2019 as a pop-up operation and in Nov. 2022  opened a storefront operation that also offers catering.  Chef Márquez was nominated in 2023 for a James Beard Best Chef Southeast Award.  The little house has parking on either side and picnic tables out front.  Inside a long counter with stools runs in front of the kitchen and order area and the rest is filled with tables and chairs.  You order at the counter and they’ll bring it to your table. Chef Márquez was in the kitchen and you could see her preparing plates along with her helpers.  For 2:00 in the afternoon, it was surprisingly busy but they are open all day.  The counter person was helpful in choosing what to order and the portions are very generous.  While the dishes may be novel to this area I found them very lacking in spice, but I admit I am surrounded by and love spicy Tex-Mex.   If I were closer I’d try the place again because the ‘bones’ of it were great but for me, the end result missed the mark.

Set-Up

 

Food

Chips could be ordered with mild or spicy sauce and you could get a combo that also included queso and guacamole.  We first got the regular sauce but found it had no flavor and got the spicy one but it didn’t have much either.  It was just a green tomatillo sauce.  The chips were crisp but lacked a deep corn flavor.  The guacamole was a wonderful simple mash of fresh avocado but the avocados used were too green to yield much flavor.  The queso dip was only seasoned with a few pieces of pimento and the texture was too thick.  It did have nice flavor though.

 

The burrito was wrapped with a 14″ flour tortilla and contained rice, beans, cheese, pico de gallo, hot sauce and your choice of protein.  We picked Al Pastor or pork.  It was huge and packed with ingredients however the rice was slightly undercooked and still had some crispness.  The pork bits were fabulous and the beans were well cooked and seasoned.  It was really a fork and knife option cause it was too big to get your mouth around.  The tortilla was soft and fresh and stayed nicely tucked on the end.

 

Birria Quesitacos were shredded marinated beef inside corn tortillas with melty cheese, onion and cilantro.  They came 3 to an order and were served with a cup of consommé to dip them in.   The meat was like shredded pot roast and as such a little dry but the corn shell was nicely thick with a slight crisp to the edges.  The shell made the dish, especially when dipped in the beef jus.   A squirt of lime helped accent the filling as did the cilantro and raw onion.