Background

I found it useful to give ratings to restaurants even before I had any idea of sharing the information with others, and this list is the one I made of Mexican restaurants in El Paso around the year 1985.

This list includes all Mexican Restaurants I could find from the telephone directory. I know that it does not include all the restaurants that actually existed.

The restaurants I visited and rated are in bold.

There are some restaurants I had visited in earlier years, but this was meant to be a "fresh list" with up-to-date ratings for all restaurants.

Rating System

Ratings are included for restaurants I visited:

Additional Comments

I have found Mexican restaurants in El Paso to have a surprisingly long operating life compared to other cities. Nevertheless, there seem to be only a small percentage of restaurants from 1985 that are still open.

Some of the restaurants with good ratings are still among my favorites, including Carlos and Mickey's, Casa Jurado, Forti's, G&R, Jalisco Cafe, Kiki's, La Casita, and Moe's.

Riviera on Doniphan was one of my favorite restaurants in 1985, but I thought it went downhill when it changed ownership.

La Hacienda closed, but its recipes are now served at Amigos Restaurant.

Griggs closed, but its recipes are now served at Peppe's in Canutillo.

Del Camino was one of the city's very best restaurants in the 1970's, but I did not eat there in the period around 1985, and I believe it was on somewhat of a downhill slide.

Pancho's on Alameda Ave. was quite good (and I believe had closed by 1985), but the one on McRae tasted much like all the other Pancho's throughout Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and other states (in other words, like chain restaurant Mexican food).

There are some restaurants that I know existed in 1985, but they did not make it to this list either because I did not recognize them as being Mexican restaurants or because they were not listed in the phone book (one example is L&J which later became one of my favorite restaurants).