Luvianos Mexican Restaurant

I really like this place a lot. When not at Casa Maria’s I like to go here. The salsa is really good … The spinach enchiladas with red sauce taste so fresh. The Refried beans are on point and taste homemade and chicken (shredded) has a good flavor and is quite yummy. The plates average at $ 8.99 a piece and they say no substitutions, but the waiter was kind enough to let me sub a lot of things today.
I don’t understand the bad reviews and many of them are from years ago. My understanding was that the current owners have only had this place for maybe two years? So check this place out… If they were closer I would eat here more often :)

This is one of my favorite places in town and with all if the Mexican joints, that’s saying a lot. Small and quaint, the food is sometimes little slow to come out but it’s always perfect, tasty Tex-​Mex. Outdoor and indoor seating is available. The chips and salsa are perfecto!

I’m never sure what prompts some people to go into the restaurant business. Silly me, I would think it would be about sharing good food. Not here. They are always pleasant enough, but even if this were my dear mother serving this up, I think I would run away from home rather than eat it day in and day out. Don’t they eat any of this themselves? Is the cook a smoker with ruined taste buds? Greasy, tasteless, unattractive on the plate and with no evidence of an appreciation of flavor or nutrition. I’ve given them lots of chances and want local businesses to thrive. The check invariably is inflated and needs correcting. Just curious, why did you pick the restaurant business. It is a cute location that could be a great place to go.

Decent food early in the morning. My pancakes were light, flight and had a lovely vanilla flavor. My dining partner said their breakfast tacos and migas with chorizo were good and worth eating.

The place was slow every time I have passed this restaurant. The food was NOT the best, I would have gone to casa garcias in kyle for mexican food, but my bf wanted to try this place out. We had the large queso with chips as appetizer, and its basically spicy Velveeta. I ordered a combo plate which included: 1-​crispy taco, 1-​tamale, 1-​cheese enchilada, rice and beans. The best thing on my plate was the rice. The crispy taco, the shell was soggy. I also has a margarita and it was decent. Your first basket of chips is complimentary, and after that they charge $ 1.00, which is clearly posted on the top of each page of their menu. My boyfriend wanted to substitute his crispy tacos for soft tacos, and after ordering the waiter returned to inform us they were going to charge us $ 2.00 for the substitution, he ordered something else instead. My bf had the beef fajita burrito, he rated it a 4 of 10, he said he didn’t like the lettuce in it. I didn’t try the burrito but it had beef fajita, lettuce, tomatoes and green bell peppers then covered in chili. My daughter had the kids hamburger and fries, she ate half of it, she said the bun was hard, I felt it and it felt toasted. After all this we paid $ 45.00 plus tip $ 52 total. I will NOT be returning there!

Went here today and had the chili relleno. It was really good. The tortillas are store bought so not a fan of that. Most times I like the waitstaff here, today she didn’t understand a word of English and I was just asking for a side of potatoes (I came right after breakfast and wanted potatoes.) I finally had to pull the word papas out of my brain matter from long ago and she got it. I also really like their queso. It is pretty good here for the price. Nothing astonishing, but good.

Lousy mexican food. Come on… at least do good tortillas. Not impressive at all, especially for the price.

Stopped here today, drawn in by the breakfast taco special (turns out only available M-​F, but oh well). We were told to have a seat wherever, so we chose the patio. The patio was decorated… interestingly. There were plastic curtains surrounding portions of the patio, the fans looked like they were falling down, the christmas lights were missing bulbs, and there were weird bags of water hanging from the ceiling. Ok…
So I ordered a beans and eggs taco and one barbacoa and a tamale, my husband ordered huevos rancheros plate and a migas breakfast taco. The migas was great, I really enjoyed the tamale. My tacos were ok… pretty bland compared to what I was expecting, but not bad.
The service was… ok. I would say they did their jobs, weren’t overly friendly and didn’t go above and beyond.
All in all, I don’t think we’ll be back here. It was very underwhelming.

First I loved the setting. An old house with much of it’s charms preserved. The wait staff could not have been friendlier. I had the enchiladas verde with chicken. My gold standard of Mexican Food. It was okay but for the price not a bad value. Give El Rinconitio’s a shot and see what you think.

Gordita’s were awesome! Lemonade was refreshing. We also ordered fajitas for one and it was HUGE serving. Would definitely put this is the usual rotation.

Note that Luviano’s in Kyle has changed its name to El Rinconcito del Sabor. Same menu, same staff, same owners. It was better than it has been in a long time. Enchiladas Rancheros were good. Margarita was not too sweet. Charro beans were very very good. Service was good. I’m glad to see an effort at improvement. It’s paying off.

I was starving after taking cattle to auction choosing to stop in Kyle instead of waiting 50 minutes for the Lockhart BBQ doors to open. In retrospect, I should have waited instead of partaking in the food and service delivered at Luvianos. I coulda been in BBQ heaven!
I walked to a warm greeting, I’m the only diner in the place. That should have told me something, but it was just before 11 so I pressed on. Decent salsa, chips could have been better. I asked if I could get mole on the lunch enchiladas that included tea for $ 5.99 including tea. She instead pointed to the $ 7.99 mole enchilada plate.
Fine, a small upgrade in the price. The mole was actually good as was the spanish rice. Charro beans weren’t that great. Meanwhile, I’m listening to what sounds like a Univision soap opera coming from the other room. They were beyond loud while my tea sat empty while I dined on my entrée. For the upgrade, I thought ala my home town I’d get a small dabble of guacamole. Instead the cheap lettuce pile topped with diced tomatoes.
So now with tea and the plate I’m up to $ 10.50 which totally was not worth the price. Add GENEROUS $ 3 tip on top of that. Sadly, I would have traded this experience for Taco Cabana or even the low scoring Taco Bell. Next time I’m holding out for a better experience elsewhere.

With the abundance of Mexican restaurant options in Kyle, we opted to start at Luvianos for no reason other than we had to start somewhere. Now having said that, I doubt a return trip is in the works anytime soon… or ever.
First impressions of this place are that the space inside feels very small. Perhaps it’s larger than it seems, but given the amount of clutter evident throughout, it gives off a cramped feel. We didn’t sit at the bar, but judging from appearances, it looked as though only one person could comfortably sit there due to the items placed on the bar. Looks as though they were running out of space & the best they could do was pile things at the bar.
You do get chips & salsa while you’re waiting for your food, but despite the chips being warm, they are clearly store bought & could’ve easily been in a bag just moments ago. Quite a let down from other places that make their own chips in house. I didn’t try the salsa, but my wife did say it was quite tasty.
We both ordered breakfast tacos (they were running a special of three tacos for $ 2.99, which we both took advantage of). My wife & I each had a bean & cheese as well as an egg & cheese, whereas my 3^rd was a potato & egg, while my wife got the chorizo & egg.
Our first impression of the food, based strictly on appearance, was that the tacos looked very greasy & in this instance we could definitely judge a book by its cover. We both liked the egg & cheese the most, but both commented that all the tacos were quite bland. I needed a lot of salt to bring out the flavor as did my wife. The bean & cheese was a bit of a letdown as the beans were rather chunky. Perhaps its just my preference, but I like my beans to be very smooth & unfortunately that’s just not the case at Luvianos. My potato & egg was just ok & again, very bland. However, my wife’s chorizo & egg was inedible. She made it just a few bites before giving up saying the chorizo was unappetizing.
Unfortunately, the food itself made our trip to Luvianos likely a one & done. But after reading other reviews, I feel the need to comment on our service experience. Perhaps we went at a time when the restaurant was not terribly busy, but our server couldn’t have been nicer, more attentive or eager to please. Refills on drinks were not a problem, more chips (without asking) were brought to our table & the check was delivered promptly once we asked for it.
If service was the sole barometer, Luvianos is a solid 5 star establishment. But sadly, the food was as underwhelming as could be & as such, there is no way in good conscious I could recommend this restaurant; especially with the amount of other Mexican food alternatives that are prominent in Kyle.

This is the second time I have eaten at Luviano’s, and overall I am pretty pleased with the experience.
Apps: Always start with the queso, it’s only a few dollars and it’s among some of the best queso I’ve ever had. Creamy, light, rich and savory all at once, you do not want to miss out on this.
Entrees: I’ve had the enchiladas and mole chicken here and both dishes I have quite liked, but the food seems overly safe, standard and Americanized. You won’t be blown away by truly authentic mexican food, but it is certainly a better experience than eating somewhere like Mamacita’s.
Service: The service at Luviano’s is friendly and there is always someone ready to greet you at the door. The décor is cheap, guady and seemingly appropriate. It’s not a distraction, but it’s not fantastic. The biggest problem, and the place that Luviano’s really loses points with me is that the place is very small, but you are not checked on very often. 100% of the time I have eaten here, when finished with my meal, I have to hunt someone down to get my check. It makes me seem aggressive and a bad customer, but otherwise I have sat upwards of 20 minutes waiting for someone to notice that I had finished eating, when the max seating is 29.
Overall, it’s a nice place to swing into to get some good Mexican food in Kyle, but it’s not somewhere I would frequent just due to the service.

–Cute little environment
–Great salsa
–okay queso
–hot chips
–meh cheese enchiladas (not diggin’ the sauce)
–okay beans and rice
–good tea
–mediocre service
I will go back here if the other places in town are packed. That’s how we ended up here in the first place. It’s not yucky by any means, its just nothing to brag about.

I have been here twice now and I am looking forward to going again.
The staff is super friendly. The outdoor patio is great (they have lots of fans to keep you cool). I loved their Mexican Martini’s and I ate some really amazing chicken breast that had mushrooms, peppers, and cheese on top (sorry I can’t remember the name). And it was cheap! $ 80 for 4 people including drinks and an appetizer!

There were flies everywhere and the restaurant was dusty and crowded. Our food was unmemorable and mediocre, except for the stale chips. I gave Luvianos two stars because our server was very nice. We will not be back.
If you want cheap but good food, I recommend that you go to Garcia’s.

Luviano’s mole rules. I could pretty much eat it on anything. The fact that they serve breakfast tacos all day (and they’re pretty big!) is awesome, too. I like this little house full of tasty Mexican treats. It’s an adorable place and the huge patio is nice, too.
The only part where Luviano’s falters is on the service. Sometimes it’s attentive, sometimes it’s «hey, where’d you go?» If you come here, you better have plenty of time to wait, and wait, and wait. I’ve even called in take-​out orders here where the person at the cash register seems to be MIA when I go to pick it up. At least there’s free chips and salsa while you wait, but COME ON. Work on the service, and give me more mole while you’re at it. Mmmmm… mole.

Luviano’s use to be the the only Mexican restaurant in Kyle, so it had all the business. The food has always been just ok at best. It is food you can cook in your own kitchen. There are no outstanding or stomach loving food dishes on this menu. Simple, regular, everyday food choices that you can get from any Mexican place. At its best, it is a 3 star restaurant. Sadly, it is way past it’s best since other Mexican restaurants have moved into the city. The reason I give it a one star is that the service has gone down since its hay day.
Pros:
Large portions, and cheap.
Liquor license.
Cons:
EVERYTHING else… If you are looking for good or great Mexican food, go somewhere else.

I find it Funny that everyone that has been here gives it one or two stars it is also funny they compare as one review said «First off, I would put restaurants like Trudy’s, Chuy’s, Polvos, Baby A’s in my 3 – 4 star category»
People this is REAL Tex MEX. not your Chuys or Polvos the guys cooking here ARE Mexican American .THE recipes are from the «ABUELA» grandmo, nana, the elder peeps passed on on check it out and open your mind real tacos, real tortillas. get REAL just once.