Recommends

katscoyote

Joined 5 years ago

Best cheap Mexican north of the river. If you haven't tried this place in a while, give it another round. Fresh, spicy, and savory, I have a hard time actually eating a meal here after I chow down on the complementary chips and homemade salsa. It's so homemade, I rarely get the same taste twice. Friendly staff, easy atmosphere, and great food combine with low prices to make this a favorite return for me and my family... even now that we live south of the river.

Recommends

TejasRichard

Joined 4 years ago

Best damn enchilada gravy in town. While this may not top the charts as far as absolute taste goes, it is BY FAR the best bang-for-the-buck mexican food in austin. I think Camino Real sits directly in that sweet spot, just before deminishing returns kicks in. You can get cheaper Texmex, but it'll taste like it. You can get better texmex, but you will PAY for it. Hells bells, the burrito dinner is about the size of a freebirds, but you get your choice of sauces or gravy on top, plus rice and beans! And it's cheaper than freebirds, too!

Recommends

bluevelvetelvis

Joined 5 years ago

Tasty Tasty Greasy Spoon TexMex. Camino Real has some of the tastiest greasy spoon TexMex in Austin. It's not a fancy restaurant and you shouldn't expect some complimentary Hamachi shots or anything. However, what you will get is some really tasty TexMex. Pretty much this is like the Hillbert's or Dan's of TexMex. Almost everything is tasty, but you should like shredded American cheese on your Tacos. If the only TexMex Restaurant you would go to is El Chile, you might not be too fond of Camino Real, excluding the drinks, which are cheap and satisfying. On the other hand if you like El Caribe, Amaya's Taco Village and/or Matt's El Rancho, you will not be disappointed here.

Personally I love the Special Plate (#31). Also the Fajita Burrito is very tasty with its queso and choice of sauce all wrapped in a fresh tortilla. El Camino has great salsa and they keep it coming, it's on the spicy side. As for the beans, nice plain refried beans with black pepper (probably chicken stock as well); they are somewhat soupy, but I would not call them watery as they have a rich flavor which compliments the rice and entree.

Also its a damn good hangover helper restaurant.

Camino Real a little funky, but its real and the food is delicious and reliable. Honestly I would rather it be funky, especially up in North Austin where cookie-cutter corporate restaurants with antiseptic smiles abound.

Doesn't Recommend

ohyeahlach

Joined 7 years ago

Sloppy and dirty establishment!. Went here for lunch recently... the refried beans were so watery they were like soup. No taste in anything on my plate. Also ordered a side of guac for $2.75 and rec'd a tablespoon of guac. Also charged us $1.50 for pico de gallo. The place itself was dirty and our bus boy knew absolutely no english. Brought us chips but couldn't understand what he was asking (figured out later he asked if we wanted water or tea).

Will not return to this place.