Restaurants in Socorro

First serving up traditional Mexican eats in 1952, Avila’s Mexican Food has been supervised and staffed by four generations of Avilas intent on preserving their family’s recipes for delicious enchiladas, chicken mole, and their famous chili con queso. Most dishes start off with a flour tortilla base, which can then be outfitted with a choice of meat, toppings, and spicy drizzlings of mole, guacamole, or red or green chili sauce. Each dinner plate comes with two sugarcoated sopaipillas, which take the sting out of spicy dishes, much like a lickable epi-pen. The shop’s waiters serve traditional Mexican breakfast all day long, allowing leniency for late wakers and patrons whose roosters are stuck flashing 12:00.:m]]

The menu at Amore Ristorante Pizzeria raises the quintessential dilemma of Italian cuisine: pizza or pasta? Those opting for pies can slice up crusts laden with gourmet toppings such as prosciutto and brie or pesto and feta. Alternatively, plates of pasta entice diners to spear forkfuls of tortellini and ham or fettuccine alfredo bulked up with chicken or salmon. After dinner, tiramisu and spumoni sweeten meals better than a lazy susan carved out of chocolate.

The scent of grilling lamb, beef, and chicken filters throughout the dining room of Nour Mediterranean Cafe, hinting at marinades, garlic, and herbs. Other Mediterranean staples shine, from the olive oil sprinkled across the pita bread to the yogurt sauce and hummus that drape gyros. The chefs also twist together stuffed grape leaves, roast eggplants for baba ghanouj, and dice herbs for tabbouleh. Baklava bakes to an even gold in the kitchen, and cups of turkish coffee keep patrons awake through slideshows from a boss’s vacation at the mattress store.

Buffalo roam across sprawling flatlands as Hereford cattle munch mountain grasses on The Bowen Ranch, the working farmstead that houses The Edge of Texas Steakhouse and Saloon. In addition to lending the horizon a bucolic vibe, these herds suggest just how fresh a steak can be. Nearby, inside the train depot-turned-restaurant, guests can shake hands with a real cowboy before slicing into grilled-to-order beef and bison. This wrangler is Jim Bowen, founder of the eatery and leader of the Bowen clan that’s owned the ranch since the 1800s, when cattle landed in Texas by leaping over Saturn’s moons. The menu also brims with chuck-wagon classics such as barbecued brisket and Tex-Mex fare such as tortilla soup and chicken fajitas.