An Average Joe in San Antonio

One day while I was ramblin’ around town, I stumbled upon Ruthie’s.  This was one of those days where I was just driving around town on back roads to get to a place instead of staying on the major thoroughfares.  I saw this huge yellow building with a sign that beckoned me to “Eat Here.”  Since I had just eaten, I filed this stop away in my mind as a place to return.

"Eat Here"? Why yes, I think I will.

Fast forward to where I had to be at a going away party for a friend at the Lion and the Rose on Blanco.  I hadn’t eaten all day and I was like, bam, Ruthie’s.  I made my way to the yellow building to see what they were all about.

Strangely enough, this was about 4:00PM, but for whatever reason I had a hankering for some breakfast (if you have followed the blog you know that sometimes I want some odd food combinations…).  I asked the waitress if they still served breakfast and she said that they did so I was pretty pumped.  I was looking at some of the plates but just felt like some tacos.  I ended up ordering the chilaquile taco to satisfy my breakfast urge and the supreme taco to see what they were all about.  Total for both tacos was only like $4 in spite of the fact that the supreme taco had sour cream and guacamole.

The food was out shortly (have to admit, I was surprised they could turn a breakfast order that fast at 4:00PM!) and the plate was enormous!  I just couldn’t believe how much food they were able to cram on these tacos!

The chilaquile taco was dang good; it wasn’t like the chilaquiles that I order at Lula’s or Thousand Oaks.  It has a really rich almost buttery flavor to it.  I asked for some of the green sauce and that spice went really well with taco.  I knew I was going to get full and not touch the other taco if I didn’t put the chilaquile one down at the halfway mark, but I kept coming back to it as it was that addictive!

NOTE: that is not a little plate, those tacos are just that huge.

The supreme taco certainly lived up to the name.  In addition to being huge, it had all that add on stuff like sour cream and guacamole that most places will charge you a buck fifty (I’m talking to you Chipotle!), or almost as much as the whole taco costs at Ruthie’s!  It was pretty good itself, but I have to admit, I didn’t really eat a whole lot of it so that I could go back to the other taco…

I should say that I went in starving; I hadn’t eaten all day and devoured the chips and salsa quick (the waitress asked if she could bring me more, and I told her “No” so I could save room for the tacos), but I could only clear out probably 2/3 of these two tacos!

A final note should be made on the tortillas; they were some of the thickest I have come across in San Antonio (no, I have not been to Blanco Cafe, it’s on the list (I know, I know…))), and man, they were pretty good!

If you are on a budget or have lots of mouths to feed, drop by Ruthie’s and just order one taco, that is all you are going to need!

Value: 10/10 (Two giant tacos for $4 and I couldn’t even eat both of them, amazing! Plus get guacamole and sour cream without paying extra on the supreme taco)
Atmosphere: 8/10 (hole in wall but clean; go to the section further away from the door for better A/C)
Service: 9/10 (no frills but really nice)
Salsa: 9/10 (good tasting, would have liked the green to be a little hotter)
Taste: 10/10 (chilaquile taco was more addicting than fantasy football)
View Larger Map

Well, I can’t believe that this blog has been going on for a year now; I never really had a proper celebration for it. What started out as something as just to let my family and friends know where to eat in San Antonio has actually started getting a small amount of following on the web.

Thanks to the folks over at BMPR, I realized that if I am doing something, I might as well try to do it right. At one of their meetings the let me know about the different tools available to bloggers (such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pages, ways for search engines to see your site, etc) and I took some small steps to see what they were all about.

First, after installing an analytics package, I was interested to see that a decent amount of people happen on this site on a quasi regular basis. These analytics have been interesting to watch (especially for a math/science guy like myself) and I decided to try to have a standard heading to get into search engines. You might have noticed a switch where it states “Review of [restaurant] Restaurant in San Antonio, TX” on every post. I think that this has helped me improve where I wind up on search engine results instead of having willy nilly titles every post.

The statistics showed that I have very few repeat customers, so today I decided to try to address that issue. I created a Facebook page so that you can become a fan and get a post any time I make one. I think that more people use Facebook than RSS feeds, so I thought this might help people know when I have made updates and they can check it out if it was a restaurant they were interested in.

I also put a link on each post that you can “Share on Facebook,” so if you see a particular review you like, or if it is a restaurant that is one of your favorites in San Antonio, be sure to click it and let your friends know! I think that the other opportunity that the Facebook page can afford me is the ability for people to easily make suggestions on where I should go to next or what interesting things I should try in the city.

Lastly, if you have an iPhone, you will be happy to know that I installed an update where the site will have a mobile version while you are on the go. If you are like me, however, and like seeing the full site, all you have to do is go to the bottom of the page and press the button to give you the full site! Anyway, it might make it easier for some people to read while you are out and about.

I have really enjoyed getting to explore the city and write about my experiences this past year and some odd. Hopefully the pain of having to get through my colloquial way of writing and grammar mistakes has been worth it by getting to eat at some restaurants you might not have known about.

Thanks for reading!

-An Average Joe