Restaurants in San Marcos

The customizable menu at the northwest San Antonio salad supplier allows you to design a personalized crunchy creation to satisfy your noshing needs. All of Salad Creations’ fresh ingredients are delivered by a fleet of benevolent produce-gathering bluebirds almost every day, and are thrown together to order by the skillful salad sorcerers under your masterful direction. Choose a junior creation (starting at $4.99) and top your fresh lettuce mix with up to four “throw ins,” or quell insatiable salad cravings with a full creation (starting at $7.49) for unlimited access to all of the salad emporium’s offerings, excluding proteins ($2.50 and up). Color a fresh spinach mix with black olives, red onions, and green bell peppers, or gussy up a bowl of chopped romaine with artichoke hearts, chickpeas, and sunflower seeds. For a protein-packed salad, add a sprinkling of barbecue chicken ($2.50) or wild Alaskan salmon ($3.50), and top off your crunchy concoction with one of more than 15 varieties of dressings, most of which are exclusive Salad Creations creations.

In 2006, New Orleans native Bernard McGraw stood in an airport with a decision to make—what city to call home. Then-Mayor Phil Hardberger professed on a nearby television that Hurricane Katrina victims were welcome in San Antonio. McGraw had lost virtually everything in the storm, but not his passion for Cajun cooking. So he boarded the plane in search of a new kitchen and a new path. Mcgraw’s story, originally run by the Southside Reporter, has a happy ending.

Bernard now runs his own restaurant out of Baptist University of the Americas. In addition to providing food service to the student body, teachers, and feral university mascots, he has eight tables set aside for his own New Orleans–style Cajun and creole cuisine. Homestyle sides of collard greens and mac ‘n’ cheese give the assist to spicy gumbo, golden fried catfish, and stuffed po’ boys. Diners can also enjoy a live jazz band on Thursdays and indulge in such housemade desserts as apple pie, sweet-potato pie, and pictures of pi cut from discarded textbooks.

A potpourri of flower arrangements and interior decorations elicit cheery exclamations, which drift to the ears of patrons crowded before The Owl's Nest’s café-style lunch fare. Customers gather personalized bouquets or test out sweet-scented jar candles by burning floppy discs from estranged computers in them beneath the cubist spread of the shop’s array of frames. Against the baritone burble of cauldrons of soup, custom T-shirts definitively end debates about who is the greatest grandpa. Boutique apparel from designers such as Bella Taylor informs the world of the wearer's fashion sense, and ornaments and home accents from lines such as Willow Tree beg to add endearing flourishes to domiciles.

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.

At Texas Seafood Grill, stoves crackle beneath pots and pans of hearty seafood dinners, toeing the lines of myriad styles of cuisine. The chefs pair fried catfish, oysters, and scallops with salads, fries, and baked potatoes, and grill up steaks and call upon Cajun recipes to simmer crayfish étouffée and seafood gumbos. The versatile chefs extend their culinary expertise to whip up a range of Vietnamese seafood specialties, ranging from fried rice to vermicelli dishes. In the restaurant's comfortable lounge area, patrons sip beer, wine, and cocktails as they gaze at an array of TVs to cheer on their favorite team or full-contact-tiddlywinks player.

The brainchild of three siblings, The Sultan Cafe maintains a resoundingly low-key vibe. Inside, clusters of overstuffed chairs surround small tables piled with Mediterranean-influenced appetizers and meals, and the sweet aroma of hookah hangs in the air. The Sultan Cafe also plays host to a variety of special events, including DJs on Thursday nights, college and military promotions, and prizes for the most convincing impersonations of the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland.