The Best Mexican Restaurants in Lufkin, Texas

Cafe Del Rio is the one Lufkin Mexican restaurant that operates at scale without feeling like a chain. KTRE covered its move off First Street after 23 years in the city, a move that took it from roughly 300 seats to around 500, and it now runs three locations across East Texas and Mesquite. It is the only entry here that can seat a party of twenty on a Friday and still turn the table.

The detail that matters is the tortillas, which its own kitchen presses throughout the day rather than once in the morning. Beyond that, the enchiladas are built to order with a choice of queso, Tex-Mex chili or sour cream sauce, and the shrimp brochette, jumbo shrimp stuffed with Monterey Jack and jalapeno and wrapped in bacon, is the plate regulars bring visitors for. The restaurant says it has been voted Best of Lufkin every year since 2005, which is its own claim rather than one we could verify.

Nothing else in Lufkin is this close to the source. La Unica has been on North Raguet since 1978 and it still runs as a working tortilleria, so the tortillas on your plate and the ones in the bag you carry out are the same tortillas. You can eat in off a short menu of tacos, burritos and plates, or buy by the dozen on the way through.

Visit Lufkin, the city's own tourism office, puts it on the official self-guided Flavor Crawl as the dinner stop, and names the fajitadilla, a grilled quesadilla with cheese, beans and fajita beef or chicken, as the thing to order. The Lufkin Daily News has written the place up as much on the community it keeps as on the food. Prices are the lowest of anything ranked here.

Herraduras has been the default sit-down Mexican restaurant on the west side of Lufkin since the mid 2010s, and the Lufkin Daily News has reviewed it. The room is built around the fajita platters, which arrive smoking, and reviewers come back to the same two words, tender and smoky. Portions are large even by East Texas standards.

It is a fuller operation than its neighbours, with fiesta platters, a bar menu and happy hour, catering and take-out alcohol. The one consistent knock in recent reviews is the wait at peak, with one December 2025 diner reporting about 21 minutes to be seated, so Friday at 7 p.m. is not the time to arrive hungry and in a hurry.

Casa Morales is the long-running family restaurant on South First, and it is the one your grandparents in Angelina County will name first. Sources differ on how long, with the Lufkin chamber of commerce listing saying 50 years and tracing the business to 1972 while an East Texas dining directory dates it to 1984, so treat the exact year loosely and the longevity as settled either way.

The chamber listing credits the menu to the kitchen's cook, who it calls Momma Juanita, and names the tableside salsa and the lunch specials as what the place is known for. There is a bar attached, Bocho's Cantina, for margaritas and cocktails. It is the only entry here that opens at 10 a.m., which makes it the early lunch option downtown.

The newest thing on this list and the only reason to be in downtown Lufkin at 10 p.m. Danny's opened in spring 2026 on East Lufkin Avenue and runs to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, which is later than any other Mexican kitchen in the city. The menu is tight, which is the right instinct for a taqueria, and the bistec taco is the one reviewers name.

Beyond tacos there are tortas, quesadillas, loaded fries and loaded baked potatoes, plus a caramel flan and a Dubai chocolate dessert that tells you roughly when the place opened. The kitchen says it cooks family recipes. The unusual closing pattern, shut Thursday and Sunday, is worth checking before you drive down.

This is the Lufkin room that does Mexican seafood properly alongside the usual plates. It is a small, plain dining room on North Timberland with most of the classic menu plus a substantial mariscos section, and the Lufkin Daily News reviewed it for exactly that combination. Breakfast runs from early morning until 11 a.m.

One thing to know before you search for it. Current listings at 308 N Timberland Dr appear under two names, El Salto Jalisco Restaurant and Tequila Bar on delivery platforms and the regional dining directory, and Taqueria Jalisco Seafood on Yelp and in the newspaper review. It is the same address and the same room, so look for either.

An ostioneria is a Mexican oyster and seafood house, and this is the only one in Lufkin trading under that name. It has been on North Timberland since 2017 and the draw is the cold seafood, the cocteles de camaron and the ceviche, which no other kitchen on this list builds its menu around.

It also opens at 6 a.m. every day of the week, which is earlier than anything else here and makes it the breakfast option on the north side. The reviews are the most mixed of anything we kept, strong on the grilled chicken and the breakfast plates and weaker on consistency at the tail end of the day, so it is ranked here rather than higher for that reason.

The honest description is fast casual rather than a restaurant, and we are ranking it last for that reason, but it is family owned, it is not a franchise, and it carries a bigger review count than most of the sit-down rooms above it. Bowls, burritos and tacos are built to order, there are gluten-free options, and the brisket is the protein regulars pick.

The part nobody expects is the bakery. The same family runs it inside the business and it is known locally for cupcakes and sopapilla cheesecake. The restaurant says it has been voted Lufkin's best burrito eleven years running, which is its own claim rather than one we could verify, and there is a second, smaller Express outlet at 1708 Deans Way.