Noble Steak and Oyster
CITY GUIDES | TEXAS
Laredo’s Best Restaurants Right Now: The Border Town Guide to Eating Well
By Rebecca Thompson | Feb. 12, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Rebecca Thompson has held many jobs over the years, from daily newspaper writer to middle-school math teacher. As a restaurant critic, she’s reviewed Michelin-starred fine-dining to gas station barbecue.
The border is not a metaphor in Laredo; it is the daily weather system, the way to give directions, they way to define how your day will go. And it keeps the food honest, defining almost every single thing I’ve eaten here.
These days in Laredo, the restaurant scene feels less like “Tex-Mex town” and more like a city that has learned how to stretch: a tapas bar with a known chef behind it, a bistro that plays with global flavors without losing its footing, a sandwich shop that treats the smoker like a personality trait, and the older institutions that still run the table because they always have.
This is the Laredo I come to eat in, and these are the best restaurants right now in Laredo.
Border Foundry
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Border Foundry runs on big-shouldered indulgence: crispy tuna poke tacos with compressed watermelon in ginger-pomegranate ponzu, duck confit sopes with mole negro, and a pizza parillada that puts ribeye and avocado on a black bean base. The room’s whole pitch is “American with a Southwestern twist,” and the menu backs it up with equal enthusiasm for tomahawk ribeyes and huitlacoche tenderloin in tequila cream sauce.
Best for: A celebratory dinner with steak and spectacle
Casa Ramona
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Casa Ramona is my favorite spot in town for Mexican brunch with a slightly dressed-up streak, and it leans hard into café drinks and daytime comfort. I’ll order chilaquiles, with horchata and café de canela, and figure this isn’t a meal but basically the plan for the rest of the day. They’ve recently added dinner on weekends, with the same high energy that makes this place a star in the mornings.
Best for: Brunch that turns into a long, chatty afternoon
El Capataz
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El Capataz is the rare place that can get away with serving tequila-chimichurri queso borracho alongside beer-poached shrimp ceviche and a prime rib that clocks in at either 13 or 23 ounces, depending on your level of commitment. The menu bounces between “Latin American, Mediterranean, gastropub,” which is how you end up ordering Camarón Capataz: roasted shrimp with garlic, warm queso bits, habanero, and olive oil.
Best for: A menu that lets the table graze
La India Packing Co.
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La India is a spice-market institution that started in 1924, and the restaurant side reads like a greatest-hits album of Mexican comfort anchored by the company’s own pantry. Settle in with tacos, enchiladas, and carne asada, and then buy the spices that made the whole thing famous on the way out because souvenirs should be useful.
Best for: Breakfast or lunch that feels like a Laredo rite of passage
La Tapiz
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La Tapiz sits inside the DoubleTree, but it is not playing hotel-restaurant small ball; it is actively programming chef’s tasting nights with multi-course menus built around border flavors and a “limited seating” urgency. When they run those events, it is the rare Laredo dinner that’s designed to unfold in courses, not in a rush, which makes it feel like somebody is trying to raise the city’s ceiling on purpose.
Best for: A multi-course night out when the move is tasting menu
Lolita’s Bistro
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Chef-owner Gabriela Fernandez runs Lolita’s like a bright, art-hung neighborhood bistro that just happens to serve serious food, which is why the room can feel cheerful even when the plates mean business. Go from short rib loaded sweet potato fries and goat cheese jalapeño poppers to a three-hour red wine braised short rib, then close the loop with chocolate abuelita cake and the sense that somebody here is paying attention.
Best for: Date night with serious food and good lightning
Mariscos El Pescador
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With a couple locations around town, Mariscos El Pescador keeps it direct: ceviche to start and then a massive menu of fish and shrimp dishes. The vibe is casual, which is exactly right when the move is a cold tostada followed by a massive platter of fried things.
Best for: Ceviche that cuts the summer heat
Noble Steak and Oyster
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Noble is a new-school steak-and-seafood spot led by chef-owner Nelson Eguia, and the menu is a proper splurge: bread service with house sourdough and Japanese milk buns, beef tartare with a thousand-layer potato pave, and octopus carpaccio with chorizo crisps. Then think full commitment with dry-aged ribeyes, porterhouse, and tomahawks.
Best for: A big night when the order involves dry-aged steaks
Nonna’s 1120
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Nonna’s 1120 is an Italian grill, and it’s leaning into a steak-and-Italian hybrid identity. Start with calamari and the shredded ribeye with Caesar on focaccia, before heading to chicken fettuccine finished with capers, which is a pretty good snapshot of where they’re aiming: familiar, but not stuck in the red-sauce lane.
Best for: A dinner that feels like Laredo stretching in a new direction
Scratch Sandwich Co.
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Scratch is a sandwich shop with a smoker, which is how the brisket grilled cheese shows up packed with smoked brisket, a three-cheese situation, jalapeño, barbecue sauce, and crispy onions. The menu pivots just as easily to loaded fries, tacos, and a torta ahogada with pork carnitas in pasilla-tomato sauce, which makes the place feel like it was built for people who refuse to pick one lane.
Best for: Smoky sandwiches and tortas
Tabernilla
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Tabernilla is a Spanish-leaning tapas bar that invites over-ordering, then rewards it with things like bacon-wrapped dates with Spanish migas and queso Mahón, plus sautéed octopus and potato that shows up with enough confidence to shut down small talk. The bar is a big draw, but the real trick is how quickly the table turns into a parade of small plates.
Best for: Drinks and small plates
The Tack Room
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La Posada Hotel’s signature restaurant does the classic steakhouse thing in a historic setting, with dinner service that leans into ribeyes, and tenderloins. The Belmont bone-in ribeye is the calling card, and the room’s whole energy says the night should move slowly and end with a slice of the Key lime pie topped with a mountain of whipped cream.
Best for: A formal-ish steak dinner that feels like old Laredo
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