(From June 2011) Lawyers, law enforcement officials, and regular folks make up the crowd at Al Fresco’s, conveniently located near the Hidalgo County Courthouse. The modest setting (folding chairs and year-round Christmas lights) hardly prepares you for the delicious food. Everyone loves to nibble on the sweet jalapeño cornbread, made fresh daily, and the most popular entrée has to be the pork chops, tender beauties topped with tomato, spinach, and a light garlic-lemon sauce. We enjoyed the spinach tortilla taco, a special featuring grilled fish, poblano chiles, avocado, and a drizzle of lemon-cilantro ranch. Nice selection of salads and sandwiches too.

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(From September 2010) This is a chain? It feels, acts, and tastes like a hometown cafe run by the neighborhood’s favorite abuela. An extensive menu has something for everyone: shredded beef enchiladas smothered in rich red chile sauce, chiles rellenos bursting with queso fresco, overstuffed burritos, and spicy menudo. The shrimp burrito, with rice, coleslaw, and tangy sauce, is excellent, and the traditional tortas satisfy with a variety of fillings, our favorite being the tender carnitas. ¡Muy sabroso!

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(From March 2011) You can feel the electricity when you walk in—groovy house music, chic people, sleek decor. But serious thought and technique also go into executive chef James Canter’s menu, setting the bar for fine dining in McAllen. We especially enjoyed our starter of quinoa tabouleh, a delicate, nutty mix accented with chopped red onion, olive oil, and lemon juice. And we loved the pan-seared halibut, which was incredibly fresh, with a light smoky flavor. This spring Alhambra will unveil a menu that adds previous hit specials to the current offerings. We can’t wait! Bar.

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Photograph by Ivan Pugh

(From August 2011)

We have British friends who can’t get enough of the exotic, to them, offerings at this place. Gumbo is a great way to begin; put your money on the alligator-and-crawfish version. Then there’s the alligator-and-chicken jambalaya, with its tasso ham, tomatoes, bell peppers, and onion, all meant to be washed down with homemade root beer. The best of all possible worlds comes last: We love pecans, we love sweet potatoes—so what could be more heavenly than a pie combining both. Live music Fri & Sat. Beer & wine. 

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(From June 2011) Goodbye, Cuba Libre. Hello, Alma. Chef Mi-chael Brown (formerly with Red O, in Los An-geles, whose menu was designed by Mexican food guru Rick Bayless) has hit the ground running with fare that eschews Tex-Mex for interior specialties. That’s why you’ll find attention paid to salads, like the ensalada del chef, Boston lettuce and avocado in a light cilantro vinaigrette. Meats are a strong point, especially the cochinita pibil: pork shank marinated with achiote and orange juice and slow-baked to perfection. The lamb shank—rubbed with pasilla chile—melds beau-tifully with the light char from the grill. Although extremely underdone chicken in a lackluster Oaxacan mole needed a makeover, we forgot all about it upon the arrival of the goat cheese cheesecake with a bright, aro-matic hoja santa sauce. Bar.

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(From May 2011)

The red-and-white tablecloths, murals of country scenes, and friendly servers at Apple Tree make for a cozy, farm-house atmosphere. The tortilla soup, brimming with vegetables and chicken, is light but filling, especially paired with half a sandwich. Apple Tree blends tangy mayonnaise, pickles, and pineapple into its chicken salad and serves it on thick-sliced fresh bread. There’s also an assortment of Mexican dishes, including an enormous burrito, stuffed with beef and beans and topped with creamy enchilada sauce. Breakfast is good too, particularly the baked goods: The pretty Bavarian cream turnover was our favorite—flaky and just rich enough.

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(From September 2010) Crystal chandeliers, plenty of natural light, and an indoor reflecting pool draw you past the awesome wine cellar into the dining room. Taking advantage of a menu that goes way beyond steaks, we enjoyed a delicious salad of baby greens, candied pistachios, Oregon blue cheese, and Michigan cherries, followed by awesome bacon-wrapped scallops served with lemon butter sauce. A jalapeño-and-onion-crusted bass filet with a tequila–red chile cream sauce was a creative treatment (and not lethally hot). The boozy hot fudge sundae was good but handicapped by a second-rate brownie. Bar.

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(From November 2010) We blinked and almost missed this tiny spot, where traditional Thai and Japanese hibachi offerings are generous and always tasty. They excel at soups here, like the tom yum, with its layers of tart lime, lemongrass, cooling mint, and fiery chiles, and noodle soups that mingle peanuts, bean sprouts, and cilantro. A humble mix of chicken and vegetables is elevated with coconut milk and a striking green curry. Thai iced coffee nicely complements the spicy fare.

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(From November 2010) Remember Maggie’s? Now in the same (but heavily remodeled) space is Barbaresco, offering an interesting melange of Italian, Mexican, and American cuisines. A bit unsteady at first, the kitchen seems to have righted itself, and we enjoyed the likes of conspicuously fresh carpaccio with shaved Parmesan and a balsamic drizzle, sautéed shrimp with an appealing lemon sauce, and a lightly sautéed tuna steak with a sweet-tart citrus sauce. A side dish of scalloped potatoes, with just a hint of poblano pepper, proved the most memorable of the evening’s flavors. The extensively carved, heavy wood decor (imported from Venezuela), together with a nearly kitschy mural of a violinist, gives the dining room its own unique atmosphere. Bar.

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(From January 2011) Popular with locals and fishermen bringing in their catch from the Laguna Madre, this small bar serves up daily lunch specials made from scratch, ranging from smothered steak to spaghetti and meatballs. We went with the soup of the day, chicken tortilla with a tangy, cilantro-infused broth and big chunks of chicken, and one of their much-talked-about pizzas; its sourdough crust was crispy, with a light layer of slightly sweet tomato sauce, and piled high with our favorite toppings. Bar.

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