Went to go eat Breakfast right after my son's cross country meet. Great food and great customer service!!! Thank again!!!

Great Breakfast Tacos! PRO TIP: If getting food to go - call your order in ahead of time and skip the wait!

Small town service great food , friendly staff. Always a pleasure to eat there when in town

Not the fanciest place but the best Mexican food I have eaten. We went there twice,once for breakfast and once for lunch. Wish we had a place like it here at home.

Awesome breakfast! Hearty portions. Wonderful home-cooked sensation from the meal. The best migas I have had.

The BEST Mexican food in town!!!!

We had dinner yesterday and breakfast this morning. Both were perfect. Really friendly waitresses and the food was great and cheap.

I may be a bit biased because we've known the Espinosa family for over 20 years, but you'll be hard pressed to find food this great anywhere else!

PAULINE was a wonderful server with an awesome personality. The food was great and the atmosphere was relaxed!

Great mexican food. Reasonably priced. Nice restaurant. Took order to go. Service great. In and out in 15 minutes. Lunch time.

Amazing food it might not look like much from the building but if you want good Mexican food this is your place

Still the Best breakfast tacos in the world. The buddy taco has been my favorite since I was a little kid!

Our first time to eat at Jacalito…it was amazing food and even better service! Anisa was our server and she was wonderful!

Our newfound jewel in Bandera. Lots of witty banter from the wait staff (very funny). Their mother is the chef and we just caught the chicken and spinach enchiladas lunch special before it ran out. Amazing. And, by the way, Their breakfast tacos are incredible. Check their opening times before you pull up.

Excellent food. Reasonable prices. Quirky and fun staff! Closes from 2-4. Spinach Enchiladas on special Wednesday! Tell them I sent you, and you get an extra special hard time!!!

Wednesday spinach enchiladas are extremely tasty. Service is fast. Staff is friendly. Tuesday trio special is flavorful, and the sweet tea is a delight.

This place was amazing !!! We were passing threw and found this gem !! The food was fresh and truly on point!! The staff was super welcoming and inviting! I gave it 5 stars cause the food came out in a flash ! I will FOR SURE be back and bring the whole family

The first time we came to Bandera, we were invited to ear at El Jacalito. Now that we live here, it is our go-to place for breakfast out. You can't go wrong dining at El Jacalito. Good food, great wait staff, and excellently prepared food.

Met one of the servers on the way to the eatery next door. Said the food was good so we decided to try it. Totally impressed. You gotta try the sauce and the prices are good too. I rate this excellent.

The BEST breakfast Tacos ever! The bean an cheese with bacon is my favorite. The girls that serve there are always so nice!

The absolute best breakfast spot in Bandera. The staff is so friendly and welcoming and the food comes out so fast! I highly recommend the carne guisada tacos! The best I've ever had. I continually come back to this place because it never disappoints.

Best carne asada tacos in my hometown. Prices are on point as well.

The best chorizo breakfast burritos anywhere, and their salsa and hot sauce are delicious, perfectly spicy! I'll eat here every time I'm in Bandera, and you should too, especially if you love authentic Mexican!

Delish Wednesday lunch chicken spinach enchiladas!!! 😋👍👍

Awesome place! small town, family oriented environment with people that really do treat you like their own. And the food is always amazing in this place no matter what day. definitely recommend to anyone who wants some delicious food with freat servixe

Always good Mexican food and a nice staff . They allow eating inside. I now only order to go. Here in Bandera county we have had minimal COVID 19 cases. Ofcourse we don't have any hospitals in the county either.

Delicious fresh breakfast tacos!! Such friendly staff and filled with locals. Highly recommend!

Well, for the longest time this was the place to go for a delicious breakfast taco but a new company came in with much cheaper prices and all the loyal customers went to them. Sadly, El Jacalitos is closed forever. The new place has cheap prices but El Jacalitos memories will live forever in our hearts. They were always there to help someone out.

This place has "The Best" Mexican food in Bandera, Tx. Fresh and homemade food! Homemade tortillas! If they're not open I don't eat Mexican food that day. Fast, friendly staff!

El Jacalito is a perfect example of why we moved to Texas. They do what they do with pride, attention to detail, and an unwillingness to cut any corners. The service is friendly and genuine, the portions are large, the prices are great, and the taste and flavor is AMAZING.

Great breakfast! The Mickey Enchilada was awesome!

The breakfast tacos are freaking awesome! Definitely get your money's worth!

Amazing Tex mex for a great price

I really only ever order tacos to go, but today we ate there, it was AMAZING! the cheese enchiladas were great, beans and rice great and the waitress was so sweet and I never once felt without. Such a great place to stop and eat!

Best Mexican food ever! A place where all the locals go. Everyone table hoped and knew everyone. Go early it was paced by noon. An older couple stopped by the table and told us breakfast was even better and just an entertaining. We will be back for sure. Everyone made us feel welcomed.

Best Mexican by far. I drive all the way from Boerne with my whole family just to get it. I’ve been going there since I was a little kid and now my kids are doing the same thing. Staff is always awesome and nice. Relaxed no pretense kind of place. Let’s a fat man leave happy.

This is a hidden diamond. I have lived in the area for over 5 months and would completely pass many times a day. Till I was driving around and saw this place. Let me tell you... the food is amazing. Especially the Carne guisada . I have searched for many years looking for this. l lived by the border. Authentic Mexican Carne guisada.. is hard to find.. I shall look no more . The beans are fantastic. The breakfast is also amazing. The amount they give you for your money is great. Oh!! Not to forget the service. The girls there are freaking fantastic! If one is busy and another sees that you need a refill or something. They take care of you. They ask all if your good sweetie. A must go. You will not be disappointed.

Fantastic Mexican food with colorful waitstaff. Daily lunch specials served quickly with hot chips and salsa and beverage. Excellent value. They have a small parking lot so be prepared to park on the street if you come at peak times.

Very good dinner menue.

Good food ar decent prices. We eat here often. Pauline is a hoot, y'all!

Wait staff was on point. I believe waitress was Oxianna ( spelling) She was fast and food was fast hot and good. Nice little hole in the wall resteraunt. Don't change.

Love the friendly service the food was amazing, I will totally recommend ❤️

Ohmygerrrd. Wow. I'm from California and we have good Mexican food, but this was amazing! Authentic home cooked flavors, huge portions. Best refried beans I've ever had. Service was fast and friendly. I'll be back before I head home.

Excellent Lunch, my husband and I had the brisket lunch specials! Guacamole & salsa were awesome, service was prompt. We sat out on the patio as we had the pups with us, love the dog friendly spots in Bandera, and now we will add this one as a local favorite!

I have been going to this family restaurant for over 20 years now. Every time I come into town for the holidays I make sure to stop by. Prices are great, food is delicious, and service is friendly. They are well known for their amazing refried beans and variety of delicious Mexican food. Stop by, you won't be disappointed.

This is our go-to breakfast place. Yvette and the other ladies are friendly and always happy to help. The food is always good. Especially the refried beans. My favorite.

Get ready for a dive bar! Best refried beans we've ever had (can you say bacon grease?). Enchiladas were great. Can't decide which sauce we liked better. Waitresses were a hoot. So much fun!

Lease To Own Dishwasher

Amazing food, great atmosphere! Highly recommend this to anyone looking for the best Mexican food out there. I will definitely be back.

Rosalinda Adams

Great down to earth hospitality. Waitresses are very attentive and so sweet. The place is old but with charm. This will be my to go place. We ride our motorcycles from San Antonio every morning. I'm glad to have found a great breakfast place.

Had take out breakfast burritos. Yummy

James Roseland

Regarding the two recent one star reviews. Karen’s cannot be pleased. This restaurant is consistent in quality and service. Wait time is minimal, and the always friendly staff serve the best Tex-Mex in Bandera.

Ruthann Grace

Absolutely delicious! I had the special of the day, chicken spinach enchiladas they were excellent. My husband had beef tacos, again delicious. Beans and rice were homemade. Salsa very good too. Highly recommend.

Dawn Jones

Best little "hole in the wall" Mexican restaurant here in the Hill country! The specials are great and the service is super friendly!! Yum!

Janine Barker

Really good breakfast tacos made the way you want and the best hot sauce ever... Oh yeah, and the iced tea is really good too

Rudy Mendivil

Just recently moved to Bandera. First time frequenting this establishment. What caught my eye was the outside sign about how everything was home cooked fresh! From the friendly warm greeting when we entered and the friendly welcome from our server with a great sense of humor, I would definitely recommend this place. The food was indeed delicious and their homemade flour tortillas were amazing. You can always tell how the food in a Mexican food restaurant will be just by their salsa. Once I tasted that salsa, it had enough spices for flavor and just enough kick for me to nod my head! We will definitely be returning more often.

Sarah Martin

The food is out of this world. Absolutely delicious. And the staff is so nice! I absolutely love this place

J W

This family owed restaurant in Bandera is absolutely the best restaurant in town. No other restaurant comes close to the food and service. This was our first time to visit and it will not be our last. The food and service was outstanding, and not one complaint to mention. The owner came by to visit with us, and thanked us for our visit. If you are staying in Bandera or just passing through you don’t want to not stop here. Our food was the best breakfast I have ever encountered. Great family atmosphere and they love kids.

+6

S

Great restaurant for southern/simple cuisine.

A Squared

Take Out - Food was great - Service was fast!

Charles “CorgiDad7982”

Excellent service and there breakfast tacos are so good and so big fills you up so much!!!!

Great food. Excellent salsa, but the prices are a bit steep.

The Wednesday special is amazing. Chicken and spinach enchiladas. I'm only in Texss for a 5 week vacation but will eat here every Wednesday I'm in town.

Best food ever!! Have to come on a Wednesday and get the special! And their tacos are to die for! Ask for Pauline she is super funny and gives the best service, but everyone there is very friendly! Great food and great service I will definitely be back again

Great lunch menu. Have had better breakfast tacos. That's just my opinion. Other's liked the breakfast tacos. Fast service too.

This is a family owned business in the small town of Bandera. The service is fast, food is really good and the staff are personable and proficient. Many locals frequent this restaurant. Prices are reasonable as well.

Delicious and fun place to eat! Staff is great.

C.M. Rowe

Excellent food & service. I ordered 6 breakfast tacos which according to the website should have been $10 to $12. Was almost $18.00. Please update your prices pn your site. PLEASE!!

John Wilkins

Great lunch spot.Go for the food and service. Brisket Enchiladas were great.

Service was good not great. Food was average. The fajita meat was ample but chewy and the tortillas were homemade but doughy. Salsa was average, not much kick. Place was clean and price was fair.

Chips and salsa were fantastic not sure if they like refills on these items. The fajita plate was ok. We ordered the guacamole because it was listed as a favorite only to get a big serving on our food. Wait staff could use some hospitality training. The man was very nice but the other ladies not so much. I believe one was the owner which is sad.

The cooks here know what their doing. Trust me good food! On another note You can taste the detergent in the coffee cups. At least their washing cups. Lol. The waitress are overly friendly they push the brink of being unprofessional. They argue in-front of customers and make comments when I eat my menudo to enjoy my guts! I was even told one time my food smelled. To loud. Unprofessional comments. So I edit this post. I wanted to add today the waitress was talking loudly to a customer saying “Does your job work you like a Mexican!” She kept repeating it. But again awesome food. The cook is the best.

John Najvar

Food was ok, service war great

They need to change their posted business hours. Three times I went there during business hours to be told that they were closed. That WON'T happen again. Too bad too, since the food is really good.

Good food but they never answer the phone to place to go orders. They stay busy so it takes a while to get your food when you have to go in and place a to go order.

I was happy yesterday to try a new restaurant than our usual here in Bandera. Well our food was served in 5 minutes which tells me that the food was already made. I got the machaca plate as well as my husband. The machace with eggs were hot meaning just cooked. The beans were luke warm, and the potatoes were all greasy, not warm at all and definitely had no seasoning. I ate them but my hubby didn't. So yesterday evening my stomach started cramping 😫 and you know what follows. Now mind you I generally cook at home everyday, but we wanted lunch. I fast for the most part 12 hours a day, meaning I could have only gotten sick from here. I gave them 2 stars because the food except the potatoes was good. I am not happy that I have food poisoning though 🤨

The food was good as was our waitress, however they refused to make substitions which makes dining with food allergies a real problem. I ended up having to order ale carte. Also, if you are allergic to mold, you may want to stay away, especially right after a rain. I could smell the mold coming off of the old wood walking in and I was pretty uncomfortable even though I'd already taken allergy medicine for the post rain mold spores.

Horribly long wait time!! Waited 1.25 hours for our food while we watched people come and go. There were 3 other tables having the same issue. Waitress screaming accross the ding room to guests and other servers. Our sever dropped my bacon on her arm and tried to pick it up and put it on my plate. She never brought me new bacon. The food and salsa were very good and the price was fair.

Lost my business because the cashier is rude and usually in a bad mood, some of the other waiters are nice but the hospitality ain’t there in this place unfortunately. Food was okay but the chicken as another review stated seems like canned chicken.

I walked into El jacalitos @ 1145 and this one lady wouldnt even look at me. So i just stood there. Until that same rude lady told the younger waitress to tell me they were closed. By the way they didn't close until 12, I had 15min. For only 1 taco I wanted. Why couldn't she tell me herself? Waisted time and how rude. I told rita the Manger once I got home and she apologized. Feel a little bit better, but talk about not caring about the people that are trying to give you business! What a shame!!!!!!

Service suck. Went in at 12:15pm left at 12:38pm, due to lack of service the center room was empty but dirty. No bus boy to clean off tables.we sat in the right room and it took 15min for them to even notice we haven't been helped.Over heard waitress tell a customer "if you want more chips you can go get them yourself." Seriously? Saw the table next to us annoyed AF with the lack of her refilling their drinks and they had little ones. As soon as they got their food she asked for to go boxes. Gave the waitress 5.min to bring our drinks and she didn't she we just left. Deserves no stars!

Great food but very slow. One very loud mouth waitress gave me a headache with her non stop screaming. Over an hour wait on a Saturday morning. Since most folks order eggs bacon and beans, you would think breakfast tacos would come out fast but it ain't happening.

If I could give a negative rating I would. From the minute we walked in there was so much rudeness. First, we have a small dog that is a registered service dog. We were asked for proof. The dog wS in a small dog stroller and the manager said the dog should not be in a stroller. We had her contained and calm. They then made comments that we need to hurry because they are closing in 10 minutes. We left because we was waiting for someone to join us. There was comments being made as we were leaving that they need to go. Will never go there again or recommend this place to anyone

Food had no flavor!! They did not have enough guacamole to do a bowl for an appetizer. Chicken Enchiladas tasted and looked like chicken that was just taken out of the can.

Went in with friends who have a service dog. Yes ADA states when working four on the floor. Unfortunately if anything falls on the floor this dog is quick to eat it and she has food allergies, this is why she was in a stroller. The owner's wife asked if the dog was a service dog and I said yes. Then she stated it needs paperwork or a vest. The dog had a vest. We sat down and barely ordered our drinks when the owner's wife said loud enough for us to hear they better order quick we close in 10 minutes. She was very rude to us and so we're a few other employees. We decided to just pay for the drinks we ordered and leave. As I walked out of the door I heard a female employee rudely tell my friend, who went outside, you better leave. If you have a service dog this is NOT a restaurant to visit. Bad management and employees to boot. Went to another restaurant with better food and service.

Okay... I haven't been to El Jacalito for many many years as I've been away from the area for years. So I was excited to take my husband and show him excellent Mexican food. I actually worked at their original location back in high school for a bit. Today must have been a really off day. We ordered 4 bean and cheese with bacon tacos which we were charged $3.50 each because it was after a certain time which is ridiculous especially because each one of the tortillas were burnt. The cheese nachos were $5 and we're also ridiculous. Pictures show why. The menu they showed us had different prices than what we we was fine but the tortillas were also burnt. I've read the other reviews so I'll probably give them another chance. Today we picked up and brought everything home so we'll eat there next time when we give this place another chance. The employees seemed very nice. But for what we got $32 was way too much. Especially for overcooked food. My husband said the bacon was descent.

Cheryl Overstreet

This place had a 5 star rating & that's why I took my family there. The food was cold, the lettuce tasted weird & when I asked for fresh or canned jalapeños (their hot sauces weren't hot enough for me) I was given sliced canned peppers that were way too old to be served; super mushy & were spotted with signs of age (grey/green & slimey spotting). Very disappointed. The waitress was friendly though.

Joe Can

I left Church today, early to make sure I got there before closing! It was 11:47am, they close @ Noon, girl took my order of a Barbacoa & Picadillo taco, but when she went to kitchen to put in order, they said Kitchen Closed, 10min Early, Sucked

Alanda Marks

I called to ask if they still had breakfast going. They said yes for 5 more minutes you can order ahead. Ok I'd like refried beans, tators, and tortillas. The person on the phone said oh so you want a taco. I said can I have a plate maybe I will make my own taco if that is ok. So I get there and they have my food boxed up and ready to go. I said I would like to eat at a table and get a plate. I was asked if I wanted anything to drink I'll take a water and do y'all have any natural waters? The waitress looked at me funny. You don't have any natural Waters like Jamaica or lemonade or horchata or pineapple. She said no and gave me options. Only carbonated options. Non-carbonated drinks...she offer me something carbonated. I said I'll just take some water. Never got any water I was having trouble swallowing the tortillas but I managed. The refried beans were a darker color and crusty on the top. I tried two bites yuck....the beans had been either old or microwaved. So I waited for the waitress to come back around while she was waiting on everybody else cuz I'm just a single person don't pay attention to me you know. Finally she came back around and I said hey I have a question does this normally have your refried breeds look? She said yes they are made fresh every morning. I said ok they are microwaved. She kind of had an attitude and attitude with me no they are not microwaved. The taters, salsa, and tortillas were good though but I needed protein for my day. I prefer real Mexican restaurants not tex mex food. I should of known that since they didn't have nor knew what fresh fruit water was this wasn't going to be a real Mexican restaurant. But I thought it's a simple refried beans tortillas and potatoes. I tried but the attitude and not listening when I said the refried beans were microwaved gave me a bad impression. Also I never asked fory food to go on the phone. But again a server didn't listen. Just had a kinda bad attitude. Waste of my time their time and my money. I'll stick with the other real Mexican restaurants and taco trucks around Bandera. Again I asked for a plate when the gal on the phone said you want a taco I didn't ever say taco and I get there and my food is in a to go box. How do you go from I want a plate to in a to go box? Horrible service that doesn't know how to listen. Also there was a happy loud baby. Which put a smile on everyone's face. But a waitress wearing short shorts bending over showing her back side to about 5 people behind her talking to the baby about stinky feet stinky feet out those stinky feet in your mouth. Showing how privates while bent over was definitely not appropriate for a waitress. That's straight up gross to talk about while people are eating especially breakfast.

John Martinez

The Tacos use to be larger and the same for the Pancakes. Now the Tacos are smaller with less meat, Pancakes are a lot smaller but the same price. Will not be going back ever again.

Debra Deleon

If your looking for a nice breakfast don't come here. LOUD 📢 LOUD LOUD. Rude as Hell, loud as Hell, it's like a circus in there. Why so much Yelling? Absolutely no manners. Use all that energy and clean 🫧 🪥 up your place sweep those floors that probably never been cleaned in over ten years. Learn how to handle customer service. If you don't like your job. Get out! Whomever takes phone orders hangs up on you without saying goodbye or does this complete your order. Are you kidding me? Customer service has taken a back seat 🪑 here.