El Palenque Mexican Restaurant & Cantina, Spring

If you visited the kitchen at El Palenque Mexican Restaurant & Cantina any day over the last three decades, you would have seen the same thing: cooks making guacamole, flour tortillas, and salsa from scratch so that they're as fresh as possible. The rest of the menu is just as reliable, since it consists of fajitas, enchiladas, and other Mexican favorites prepared according to recipes by Mama Serna, mother of the Serna brothers who founded the restaurant in 1987. Notable dishes include fried tilapia tacos, grilled quail, and the Hugo's Special—skirt steak served with sauteed jumbo shrimp.