Rafa’s Cafe Mexicano

Loved it! My husband had the enchilada banderas plate, delicious. I had another combo plate that came with a puffy taco, again, delicious as were the chicken enchilada and the beef enchilada with chili. Chips are light and crispy and the salsa is nice and spicy. Our server was a gem as well, we will definitely be back.

Food was really good as well as the service. Had enchiladas, Migas and nachos. Yum Tony was very attentive and polite and even was friendly to the kids. We will be back hopefully soon!

In my opinion, it’s s bit pricey. The food is very good. They have a habanero salsa that is blazing hot, but very good. The only think that keeps this out of my regular rotation is the price.

The sour cream chicken enchiladas are to die for! Mmm!

I can say with complete honesty that this is my favorite Tex-​Mex restaurant in Dallas, and that’s saying something! Their tortilla soup is beyond flavorful, their queso is so thick, and their food always comes out piping hot. It also feels like a family restaurant with eclectic decorations and dim lighting. I have only had good service when coming here. The restaurant itself is situated in a neat area near great shopping and Inwood Theater. This is definitely a great Friday-​night spot!

Rafa’s is great! The food, service and price are excellent. Every time I come I always receive the same awesome service that I had the time before. Parking is a bit difficult, but they do have their own Valet worker. I highly recommend Rafa’s for anyone that loves Mexican food.

Excellent food. Great service. I had the bandera enchiladas. My hubby had the seafood enchiladas. We ordered queso and ee had house margaritas.
Delicious. The queso was so yummy.

Rafa’s is our go-​to Friday night Mexican dinner spot for the last couple of years. Everything about it is amazing. Their fajitas are my favorite, tortilla soup and the fresh lime margaritas and pina coladas are to die for! They know how to take care of you and all the waiters/​hostesses are super nice and accommodating. Love me some Rafa’s!

Absolutely our favorite spot!!! Food is fantastic and the specialty they run each weekend never disappoint (the brisket tacos are outstanding). Wonderful tequila selection and the staff is so great they are almost like family. You will not be disappointed … except parking may be difficult because everyone wants to be there!

Very friendly and attentive staff. The food was good, although my entrée salad arrived with no dressing & it seems I should have known I needed to specifically ask for dressing when ordering. The chips were delicious — light & crisp. When our meal was over & we were waiting for Lyft, the proprietor let me charge my phone with HIS charger as we’d been out all day and my phone was dying. Very kind!

This was my first time here and it was ehh at best. We came for lunch and it was a group of seven. The service was lacking, but that could have been because it was New Year’s Day and the waitress was probably tired.
The sauce for the chips was good and had a good kick to it. I ordered the chicken tortilla soup and it was also pretty good. It had a nice flavor with well cooked quality chicken. For my entrée I ordered pork tamales, which weren’t on the menu, but were a special. They were homemade and I think the tiniest tamales I have ever seen. I didn’t like the flavor of the meat or the Mexican rice, which was nonexistent. Considering how much of a kick the salsa had and how salty the soup was, the rice was a big disappointment.

Delicious food and nice service, also it looks very clean and the Mexican decorations is awesome

Parking is an absolute nightmare. If you call in a to go order and you arrive when they say it will be ready, you are still waiting 15 minutes for your food. What gives! I have been coming here for 20 years but I am to the point it is just not worth the aggravation. Food is a B+ at best. I wish there was a better Tex Mex choice in the Park Cities area.

I have had lunch here regularly for past 25 years. I’m a new Unilocaler and wanted to catch up on Rafa’s. Great food. I’m a creature of habit and usually get Puffy Tacos. Top 5 favorite TexMex Entries in Dallas. Efficient service and excellent chips and Salsa. Parking is tight but ignore all the home made reserved signs for retailers in this strip. Can’t go wrong here. I always sit on bar side but if you have a group let host sit you.

Great service and great food! I love that you can draw on the tables as well!
It is straightforward tex mex with flavor and comfort. Chips and salsa are some of the best in town!

Have been here several times because I have family members who like this place. On this last visit, it was pretty much high school cafeteria Mexican food (several in our group agreed). Not sure why people go here. It’s not even good for Tex-​Mex. I guess it’s fine for Highland Park folk who have never tasted real Mexican food (wink), but you can do so much better in Dallas.

This place has fantastic food. Went here with friends on a Friday night and it was packed. We had to wait for a table but it wasn’t long, and we had beverages while we waiting. The margaritas here are potent and made the wait fly by.
I had Tino’s plate — a taco, enchilada, beans, rice, pico. It was excellent. The taco carbon was my favorite. I also enjoyed the salsa. My friend’s nacho plate was massive! We also had the flaming cheese, and it is incredible!
This is the best Mexican food I’ve ever had. I also like that there is paper tablecloths and crayons on each table. This was helpful when my friends and I needed to draw diagrams and maps to explain things to each other. All restaurants should have these, especially when there is a bar.

This is our go to spot for dinner on Saturday night. Salsa, cheese dip, guacamole, tortillas = DELICIOUS! Enchiladas are always a good choice, tacos & burritos — yes! especially the pan fried tacos. You’ve got to try those at least once. We don’t just come here for the food though; the wait staff is amazing and we always have a great time chatting them all up.

Independent Mexican restaurant in the middle of the long strip mall bordering Lovers Lane. Parking is terribly tight and highly towable, so pay attention and don’t rule out walking quite a ways to the front door.
Interior is typical Tex-​Mex décor with plenty of tables but in a tight layout, looks divided into dining and bar areas. (Knocking down that wall would improve the space greatly.) The menu is more typical Tex-​Mex including breakfast/​brunch than authentic Mexican. There are some dishes that tip toward the Mex more than the Tex, but otherwise it’s pretty standard fare comparable with many other local places.
Had the «Rafa’s Plate,» a sampler with beef and chicken enchiladas, a crispy taco and R&B. Both enchiladas were good but not great — beef sauce was standard canned, sour cream sauce was very good. The taco came out puffy, stacked up as more a flat taco salad than a folded crispy shell, and I actually liked this better than just a typical side taco.
Came here on a recommendation as the «best of» in Dallas and, while decent and tasty food with good prices, its quality is really little different from many other places around North Texas. Worth a trip, worth a return trip or even a regular rotation, but not really worth a «best of» reco.

Went to Rafas for a business lunch. Ordered the lunch special: chicken stuffed green chili with a side of steamed veggies. Was underwhelmed. I had been hearing rumors that Rafas was one of the best long standing Mexican places in town but had yet to try it. The flavor of this dish was missing– there was little to none… just kind of a boring dish. Next time I’ll just stick to the traditional enchiladas or tamale dish.
The service was good– our server brought the table a Mexican coke with real sugar cane and an American canned coke (with the syrup) to taste the difference. I am not a coke drinker but my boss appreciated the gesture.
Chips & salsa: average.
Price: average meal is between $ 7 – 15 for lunch
Not my favorite Mexican spot in Dallas but not the worst I have visited either.

I had the quail lunch special at Rafa’s, and it was delicious, smoky, and perfectly cooked. Rafa’s consistently delivers a quality product for a fair price point, excellent.

This Mexican Restaurant is awesome! Located on lovers super easy to find and great location. The staff is super friendly and the food is delicious. The 7 layer dip is a must!

I made a to go order. Puffy tacos, when I got back to work, I realized I was given corn hard shell tacos. I found that odd since when ordering, «puffy» was the first word out of my mouth. I called was told to return and get the right order, so a lil’convenient, but good. I picked up my order, got back to work. My order was three fried corn tortillas with ingredients that they had just thrown into box over the unfolded tortillas. That’s how this place fixes as problem, they make an awful mess!

It’s easy to miss this place if you’ve never been here or heard about it as it’s in a shopping center surrounded by many stores/​shops. It’s always busy when I come, but I’ve never had to wait.
Typical mexican fare and really decent prices (especially considering the area). I’m not a huge fan of the margaritas but I do like that they have some wine options as well. The queso is pretty good too and they have a few varieties of it!
It’s a good place for a quiet date night or a night out with the girls. Especially since it’s right across the street from Inwood theater! Parking is sometimes hard to find because the shopping center has designated spots but if you go WAYY down to right in front of Sonny Bryan’s, you can usually find some parking spots.

I hate reading Unilocal reviews for restaurants I’ve never been to with reviewers praising how good it is only to end up being greatly disappointed when I dine there.
Some of the reviews for Rafa’s claim it’s the best Mexican food in Dallas.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: If you think this is the best or even among the top 10 best Mexican restaurants in Dallas, then apparently you haven’t eaten at many Mexican restaurants in Dallas.
Here are the top 10 things I hated about this restaurant:
1. Parking
Entering or Exiting the parking lot is a total nightmare.
2. Zero Ambience
Depending on where you sit, just pray you don’t end up where the florescent lights beam right into your eyes.
3. Cramped Space
This place is tiny! You could literally bump someone at the next table while you’re eating.
4. Very Expensive Weak Drinks
I ordered the Bloody Mary special made with Tito’s Vodka and didn’t even taste an ounce of it. It was more like V8 juice.
5. Lack of fresh ingredients
Some items tasted like they came out of a can or were prepared a few days ago.
6. Total Blandness
Refried beans = Bland. Tacos = Bland. Chili sauce = Bland. Rice = Bland.
7. Musty interior
Right when you walk in it just feels like an ancient restaurant. Maybe 70+ years old. Smells old.
8. Mediocre salsa
Not sure if it was blended improperly or lacked an authentic Mexican recipe, but it just didn’t have the WOW factor for me.
9. Chaotic as hell during lunch
After we were seated, our server took a very long time before he greeted us.
10. Misinformed & Misguided Unilocal reviews
How can this place get so many 5 star reviews? I don’t get it!
It didn’t seem like it would be 5 star worthy.
This place would get 2 or 3 stars from me if other Unilocalers dropped it down a notch and kept it real, but I’m giving this restaurant 1 star to bring in proper balance to the equation. I personally do not believe it could even be ranked among the top 20 best mexican restaurants in the entire DFW area.