The Weekend Gourmet Dines Out...Featuring San Antonio's Anacacho Coffe & Cantina #WeekendGourmetDinesOut #culinarytravel #sanantoniodining #WeekendGourmetHitstheRoad

This Fall, The Weekend Gourmet spent a long weekend in San Antonio. While we were there, we tried out some tasty new-to-us additions to the city's thriving food scene. One of these culinary experiences was a fantastic dinner tasting at Anacacho Coffee & Cantina, located inside the historic St. Anthony Hotel in Downtown San Antonio. Anacacho features a dual culinary approach. During the morning hours, they feature a breakfast menu that's served with artisan coffee beverages made in partnership with local coffee roaster Pulp Coffee. Starting at 1100 AM, the All Day food and cantina menus take center stage...featuring creative mixology and delicious food items from Chef Leo Davila. Chef Davila is a James Beard Award semifinalist known for creating dishes that are layered and complex...but also fun and approachable.

When we arrived at The St. Anthony, we dropped our car with the valet and walked around to the hotel's side entrance, where Anacacho is located. The first thing we noticed was the space's rustic-chic decor...think leather and wood. The room features plenty of cozy alcoves to sit and enjoy cocktails paired with tasty bites. Speaking of cocktails...the ornate bar is definitely the decfocal point of the room. The atmosphere at Anacacho was very cozy and inviting!

We were seated and warmly welcomed by Chef Davila. Our first step was to choose a cocktail. Michael selected a cocktail from Anacacho's Craft Cocktails and Spirits menu. A talented mixologist created a custom cocktail for me that perfectly reflected my love of fruit-forward, bubbly drinks. Michael selected the Dust Cutter, made with Trombo Blanco tequila, Dos Hombres mezcal, prickly pear puree, lime, and Lady Bird club soda. It was tart and earthy, with a bit of fizz and a gorgeous fuschia color. My custom cocktail featured sweet-tart hibiscus and a bit of sparkling wine. It was fruity and refreshing, with a feminine hot pink hue. Our meal was off to a festive start! From there, Chef Davila selected a selection of Anacacho's Small Bites appetizers and Main Courses for us to try. Everything we tasted was delicious, creative, and full of the big flavors we love. First up were a pair of appetizers that paired perfectly with our cocktails.

Our appetizers were the Papas Bravas and Mexican Style Street Corn. The Papas Bravas potatoes were perfectly fried: crispy outside and fluffy inside. They were served with earthy miso aioli and a unique pickled herb oil. It was a simple dish that was perfectly prepared. We simply couldn't get enough of the crispy potato wedges dipped in the creamy aioli. We fought each other for the last wedge! For us, the true mark of a restaurant is how well they make simple recipes like this. The key to success is using the best quality ingredients and letting them shine. We loved how nicely the Papas Bravas paired with our cocktails. Finger foods like this and fun cocktails are a perfect way to kick off any date night...or end it with a nightcap!

The Mexican Style Street Corn was a modern interpretation of the classic street vendor food. This dish featured two ears of corn cut in quarters, making them easy to eat individually. The corn was topped with a drizzle of Green Goddess dressing, spicy oil, Texas pesto, roasted pecans, queso fresco, and a sprinkling of chile powder. This dish was an explosion of flavors: sweet, salty, earthy, and spicy. It was a bit messy to eat...but that's half of the fun...and precisely what napkins are designed for! From there, we switched to Main Course menu items -- including a refreshing fruit-forward salad, Chef Davila's modern takes on Tex-Mex classics, and a particularly mind-blowing Tex-Mex spin on a classic Asian noodle dish. Everything we sampled was creative, fun, and perfectly combined flavors and textures.

First up was the Asian Pear and Strawberry Salad. It featured locally sourced Mable & Debbie Farm Co. salad mix, honey ricotta, candied walnuts, queso fresco, and a homemade lemon vinaigrette. What a fabulous salad! It featured flavors and textures that worked so well together. The creamy and mildly sweet honey ricotta, salty queso fresco, sweetly crunchy candied walnuts, and tart lemon vinaigrette were perfectly matched with the fruit in the salad. This colorful salad was delicious as is. However, it can easily be made into an entree salad by adding grilled chicken or pork belly to the top. I'm a salad lover, and this is easily one of the most creative salads I've eaten this year.

Next up were a pair of Anacacho's artisan tacos: Chef Davila's iconic Big Red & Barbacoa
and Signature Pork Belly. Big Red & Barbacoa is a modern take on the quintessential San Antonio pairing. This interpretation features colorful Big Red-infused handmade heirloom corn tortillas, beef barbacoa, spicy arbol salsa, queso fresco, house-made pesto, and pickled watermelon rind. What a taco! The spicy salsa, salty cheese, and pesto flavored the unctuous beef without overpowering it. The Signature Pork Belly Taco was served on an heirloom corn tortilla, with strawberry jam, TX Chinese BBQ sauce, hot oil, Green Goddess drizzle, Asian slaw, and pickled watermelon rind. This taco was rich and slightly smoky...perfectly balanced with sweetness from the jam and BBQ sauce. Both of these tacos were fun...and yummy...to eat!

We were also served a trio of Mini Tostadas that began with a crunchy heirloom corn tortilla base. Each mini tostada was topped with a creamy black bean and nopalito (cactus) puree, Green Goddess dressing, hot oil, house-made chorizo sausage, fried papas (potatoes), Asian slaw, and house-pickled onions. The tostadas were accompanied by a simply dressed house salad. The mini tostadas were two-to-three bites big...a bit larger than a typical nacho. The combination of flavors and textures was amazing: creamy, crunchy, tangy, and spicy! We were starting to get very full by then...but Chef Davila had two more treats to end our tasting: another entree...and a very special not-on-the-menu-yet dessert!

He was especially proud of his Tex-Mex/Asian fusion Wok
Fried Lo Mein. It featured egg noodles, a veggie medley, TX Stir Fry Sauce, hot oil, sesame seeds, and the ingredient that takes this entree over the top: spicy house-made chorizo! The combination of the spicy Mexican sausage with traditional Asian sweet/umami flavors blew our minds! We were fortunate enough to be staying at a hotel with a mini refrigerator and microwave in the room. We wanted to enjoy EVERY bit of this dish, so we packed up the rest and took it with us! We refrigerated it overnight, then we bought a cooler and ice to transport it back to Houston for my mother-in-law to try as well. That's how amazing this dish was...definitely in our Top 10 Bites of 2025.

To wrap up this fantastic tasting, Chef Davila brought us a dessert that's not on the menu at Anacacho. It's actually a menu item he's planning to add to a new restaurant he's opening at the St. Anthony in the coming months. His decadent Churro Bread Pudding is out-of-this-world! Why is it that no matter how full you are...you always have just a little bit of room for something sweet?!??! Take a look at this dessert:

The Churro Bread Pudding featured house-made caramel, cinnamon sugar, and freshly whipped cream. It was playful...and a bit sinful. The perfect dish to end an amazing tasting.

Whether you're a San Antonio local...or have a weekend getaway planned in the coming months...a visit to Anacacho Coffee & Cantina is a must. The atmosphere is relaxing...and the cocktails and food are among the best we've ever eaten in San Antonio. Trust me...this is one destination you don't want to miss!

Disclosure: Anacacho Coffee & Cantina provided The Weekend Gourmet with a complimentary cocktail and dinner tasting to facilitate this article. As always, all opinions shared are solely my own.