There are a dozen places on Bishop Avenue selling tacos and margaritas on any given Saturday. Veracruz Cafe sells both, but that has never been the reason to go. The kitchen cooks from the Mexican state of Veracruz, the long Gulf Coast state that gave the restaurant its name, and the menu reads like it.
The restaurant describes its food as Mesoamerican, Mayan, Huasteco and Aztec. That is a big claim for a corner storefront at 408 N. Bishop Ave., but it tells you this is not a combination-plate operation. You can still get fajitas and nachos here. The good stuff is everywhere else on the menu.
Every enchilada in the house is rolled in a blue corn tortilla, and there are close to a dozen to choose from. The corn has a deeper, earthier flavor than the yellow tortillas most Dallas kitchens use, and it stands up to a heavy sauce. The enchiladas de mole Xiqueño come topped with the house mole and queso fresco. The Enchiladas Villa Rica are named for the first town the Spanish founded in Mexico, on the Veracruz coast, and get three sauces at once: mole, salsa verde and pipián, the pumpkin seed sauce that goes back long before the Spanish arrived.
If you only order one thing, make it the Xalapa-style chile relleno. Xalapa is the capital of Veracruz and the city the jalapeño is named for, and this relleno is built on jalapeños instead of the usual poblano. They are lightly breaded and layered with shredded beef, sour cream and queso fundido, then finished with pecans and raisins. It is sweet, rich and a little hot all at once, and nothing like the relleno on a Tex-Mex platter.
Veracruz is a port state, so seafood belongs here. Nico’s Snapper Veracruzana is a pan-seared red snapper fillet under salsa Veracruzana, the tomato, olive and caper sauce the region is known for. Montezuma’s Fish Tacos come on crispy blue corn shells with grilled white fish, cabbage, queso fresco and avocado. For the table, the queso fundido Tamiahua is named for a lagoon town on the northern Veracruz coast. A cactus salad helps cut through it.
On weekends, go for brunch. The tamales are made Veracruz style, wrapped in banana leaf instead of a corn husk, which gives the masa a softer texture and a faint grassy note you won’t get any other way.
The tequila list runs long. The spicy piña cocktail is a good change of pace from the house margarita.
Veracruz Cafe has been on Bishop Avenue for more than 15 years and has watched most of the neighborhood change around it. The dining room is small and gets loud when it fills, which it usually does on Friday and Saturday nights. Plan around the dinner rush, or come for a late lunch.
It also makes an easy night out in Oak Cliff. The Texas Theatre is a short walk away, and dinner before a movie there is about as good as an evening in the neighborhood gets.
The restaurant has since added locations in Cedar Hill, at 1427 N. Highway 67, and in Midlothian, at 151 Walton Way, Suite 110. The Bishop Arts original is still the one to visit first.
For more on where Mexican cooking in Dallas parts ways with Tex-Mex, see our guide to what Tex-Mex actually is and where to find the real thing.
Veracruz Cafe, 408 N. Bishop Ave., Suite 107, Dallas. Open daily at 11 a.m., until 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 214-948-4746.
