MadFriars Road Food 2025

El Paso

Winner:  L&J Cafe

This El Paso landmark has been around since 1927, in one form or another, and serves classic Mexican Sonoran border cuisine. It’s one of the rare places that’s popular with both locals and tourists.  Open seven days a week, L&J offers all three meals, and its breakfast, particularly the picadillo and chilaquiles plates, is underrated.    

What to Get: El Paso is really more a part of New Mexico than Texas, and in this region of the country, it’s red or green for your enchiladas.  I like the green hatch chile sauce, but the Oaxacan mole sauce is also very good.  Anything with the Chili Colorado — chunks of beef in a spicy red sauce — was outstanding.

Runner-up: Kiki’s Restaurant

Aaron Sanchez, the Food Network star and El Paso native, believes that the Machaca (dried beef) plate is better than anywhere else that serves Mexican food. Excellent daily specials, and get the homemade flan.

San Antonio

Winner: Pinkerton’s

Most barbecue in the South emphasizes pork, but in Texas, it is all about beef —specifically brisket. The best place to get this barbecue is in Central Texas, and a short drive from San Antonio in any direction is some of the best you will find in the state, with the Burnt Bean in Seguin or Kreuz Market in Lockhart.  If you are staying in town, Pinkerton’s, which is in Texas Monthly’s Top 50, can compete with anyone. 

What to Get: Brisket. For sides, try the Jalapeno Cheese Rice and the Duck and Sausage Jambalaya.  Texas barbecue is also known for its sausages and turkey.  

Make time for a nap.

Runner-up:  DeWese’s Tip Top Cafe

When in Texas, any trip necessitates a stop at a Whataburger and a chicken-fried steak. As a rather large person, I was fine—and full—from the child’s chicken-fried steak portion at Tip Top.  Save room for dessert—they have great IceBox Pies, particularly the coconut and chocolate varieties.

Fort Wayne

Winner: Cindy’s Diner

Only open Monday through Friday, Cindy’s is everything that you think a great diner should be, with only 15 seats in a long, narrow former railroad car.  The local institution has been around since 1952 and is known for its breakfast, but it also serves a solid lunch.

What to Get: If you go to Cindy’s, the locals will ask if you had the garbage plate—a scrambled mix of eggs, potatoes, cheese, onions, and ham.  Also, try going back a second time to get the biscuits and gravy or corned beef hash.

Runner-up: Powers Hamburgers

Despite a snarky wondering from one member of the MadFriars staff, about the Indiana Health Department rating of this icon on a recent visit, this restaurant, which was founded in 1940, prepares delicious White Castle-style hamburgers loaded with melted cheese and onions. Locals drive by and pick up a bag of the small burgers to go or to eat at the small counter.

Powers is a treat, but your arteries can probably only handle one visit a year.

Lake Elsinore

Winner:  Annie’s Cafe

A cute cafe that, like many on this list, is popular with both locals and visitors—I’m not really sure that Lake Elsinore has “tourists”.  British expats founded the cafe and might be the only place in the surrounding area to get a full English breakfast.  A fun place where the staff even does a song-and-dance routine in the middle of breakfast.

What to Get: All the breakfast plates are high-quality, but the Coffee Cake, either before or after, is worth the trip. Despite a somewhat rude comment from a local NBC anchor in San Diego, if ‘the coffee cake needed butter to be moist,’ it does not—it is one of the better pastries I have eaten.

Runner-up: Michi Tacos

Located in downtown Lake Elsinore, it serves up quality Mexican food, especially its Birria tacos.  Bonus, they also have El Salvadoran pupusas.