El Fenix Cafe in Mercedes, Texas, features family friendly dining

Editor's note: This article was written by Jerry Flinn, with minor editing from the webmaster of this web site.

Last Saturday, my wife Edna and I had the pleasure to dine at El Fenix Cafe, in Mercedes, Texas, which is located at 126 N. Texas Street. As soon as we entered the restaurant, we could immediate feel the friendly atmosphere, that just seemed to radiated from everywhere. Wearing a big smile was Jimmy, our host, and he immediately seated us at a table.

Left: This is Dalia at work, in the kitchen, preparing delicious food. Note the big pot of menudo cooking on the stove in the lower left-hand corner. After all, it's a Saturday morning in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Right: Hostess, Julie is taking a breakfast order.

Since it was around ten in the morning, we decided to order breakfast. El Fenix's menu features some pretty tempting dishes; oh where to start? One especially delicious dish is the "Hash Brown Special," which gives you a choice of bacon, sausage or ham, along with two eggs and toast. The other dish that grabbed our attention is their "Pancake Special", that naturally comes with two pancakes, two eggs, cooked to your liking, and your choice of breakfast meat. The price for either of these meals is only three dollars, which is very reasonable.

Julie was our waitress, and she did a fine job, delivering to us an almost never ending supply of coffee.

Left: Gilbert and Jimmy are two locals who love to dine at El Fenix. Right: Nathan the busboy, busy at work.

The owner of El Fenix is Dalia, and she's proud that the food served at El Fenix is made from "scratch," and not mixes and other "prefabricated food sources." She told us that she has been running the restaurant, since her childhood, as her mom bought the business fifty-one years ago. This woman works hard and has a really good attitude that shows in her work, and the quality of food that El Fenix serves.

The breakfast menu is quite extensive, and it features almost any egg dish you can think of.

Left: The breakfast menu features many Mexican and "Tex-Mex" dishes. Right: The lunch menu. Note that the menu includes menudo and barbacoa; I could eat at this place!

The lunch menu has many items also. An example is the Mexican dinner, which includes two tacos, enchiladas rice and beans. The lunch menu also includes carnes, soup and more that I could ever write about. Since the restaurant closes at four in the after noon, no dinner entrees are offered.

You never know who will pop in to eat at El Fenix. The mayor of Mercedes, Joel Quintanilla, stopped in to eat breakfast, the morning of our last visit.

Left: The "Hash Brown Special.: Right: Here's the mayor of Mercedes, Mr. Joel Quintanilla, standing at the center of the photo, who enjoys good food and a friendly atnosphere.

El Fenix Cafe's hours are Monday through Saturday six in the morning until four in the afternoon, and Sundays mornings from six until two in the afternoon.

So stop on in and enjoy this friendly local eatery, in Mercedes. You'll be glad you did!

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