Restaurants in Leon Valley

With the historic town of Summerville as its backdrop, Firewater Grille situates fresh, local products at the core of its menu. Chef Perry Stone and his staff join forces to craft classic American dishes, most recently adding a steak and seafood spread that includes grilled T-bones and Dr. Pepper BBQ baby-back ribs. Throughout the week, diners can combine bites with specials and live entertainment, such as karaoke and acoustic music. Comedians seize the spotlight during free standup performances on the weekends, and on weekdays, happy-hour discounts melt stress into puddles that can be collected, frozen, and launched at an overbearing boss's car.

Mesón European Dining combines authentic flavors from across the Atlantic and won a San Antonio Express Reader’s Choice award for doing it well. The eatery's chefs fuse Spanish and Italian culinary designs to complement its specialty in French fare, splashing cuts of chicken, steak, seafood, and pasta in epicurean sauces. Tableside preparations of coffee and banana flambé serve as beguiling, appropriate restaurant performances, unlike poorly memorized monologues from the third act of the Friends series finale. Drinks pour forth from the full bar, and the Mesón team particularly takes pride in hospitably hosting celebrations. A separate private room accommodates formal congregations for candlelit meals, set upon elegant table linens offset by understated centerpieces.

The barbecuing buffs at Backyard Grill Burgers and Takos sear juicy morsels of beef bound for the menu's build-your-own or specialty burgers and behemoth tacos. Grill masters transform the classic American hamburger with eclectic toppings including chipotle, pineapple, ham, and jalapeños, and cooks can even crown eager beef patties with onion rings, signaling that the once-lonesome handhelds are newly engaged. Backyard Grill Burgers and Takos also loads colossal, oversized tortillas with upscale stuffings such as sizzling sirloin or rib-eye steak.

Matamoros Restaurante Y Cantina's team of chefs gathers local ingredients and sprinkles pinches of custom-blended spices into a simmering sauce to create carne guisada, spinach and mushrooms tucked inside vegetarian enchiladas, and enchiladas verdes' tangy tomatillo salsa. Servers fill frosty glasses with top-shelf margaritas made from Grand Marnier, lime juice, and premium tequilas, and perk up tired palates with brews from Starbucks beans. Melodies and beats from live music and DJ sets fill the air Thursday–Saturday nights, and four sports-tuned television screens broadcast daily games. The restaurant’s large picture window fills the spacious private dining room with views of sunlight and of the future, illuminating red cloth napkins and chairs for up to 120 guests.

According to lore in restaurateur Alfonso Salazar's ancestral hometown of San Pedro, Mexico, women with particularly uncouth language—majaderas—were always the finest cooks with the most flavorful recipes. Today, in honor of the sassy women's unmatched culinary skills, the Salazar family crafts a colorful menu that unites traditional Mexican recipes with distinctive tastes of Texas. Spicy ceviche joins trios of tacos stuffed with chili-adobo-marinated chicken breast, tilapia, rib-eye steak, or brisket, and bowls of soup invite strips of tortilla to belly-flop in rich, flavorful broth. Beyond the main dining room, where a lacquered wooden-beam ceiling and colorful pendant lamps illuminate a honeycombed wall panel, a lounge thrums with live music and dancing on weekend nights and karaoke renditions of popular sea shanties on Thursdays.

At Just Wing It, platters are piled high with steaming-hot chicken wings bathed in a choice of eight different sauces, ranging from sweet honey barbecue to savory garlic parmesan. Sizzling bacon cheeseburgers and spicy philly cheesesteaks ally with fried pickles and onion rings, and weekly All You Can Eat Fish Fridays replenish plates with boundless servings of seafood. A kids’ menu of chicken strips and burgers accommodates child diners or garden gnomes in convincing onesies.