The Best Places in South of Southtown & around

Each tasting menu here is built around a different region or era of Mexican cuisine, so the kitchen might be cooking through Oaxacan traditions one month and pre-Columbian ingredients the next. Mixtli is a fine dining restaurant holding a Michelin star and an AAA Five Diamond, and it's the kind of place where the food has a thesis. The team treats Mexico's culinary geography like a curriculum, and somehow the results are as delicious as they are cerebral.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant

A little bungalow turned Peruvian ceviche bar where the kitchen leans hard into citrus-cured fish, leche de tigre in several forms, and a pisco sour menu that makes the decision-making easy. The cooking draws from the owners' Peruvian roots, and the flavors are bright and punchy in a way that earns that description. A James Beard nominee two years running, and the cute patio fills up fast.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best Chef: Texas · Emil Oliva
3. Texas Monthly #7 · Texas’s Best New Restaurants

Iron four-poster beds and colonial furnishings fill a building that was, not so long ago, a saddlery. The Mokara is a boutique hotel on the River Walk with a Forbes Four Star rating, a rooftop pool overlooking the water, and a spa serious enough to count as a destination on its own. Ostra, the in-house restaurant, leans into international seafood. A compact, well-appointed stay for people who find the big chain hotels depressing.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. San Antonio Express-News #8 · Top 50 Restaurants in San Antonio
3. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In San Antonio

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. San Antonio Express-News #43 · Top 50 Restaurants in San Antonio
3. San Antonio Express-News #1 · Top 10 San Antonio River Walk Restaurants

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. San Antonio Express-News #3 · Top 10 Brunch Restaurants in San Antonio
3. San Antonio Express-News #20 · Top 50 Restaurants in San Antonio

1. San Antonio Express-News #1 · The Top 5 panaderías in S.A.
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Baker · David Cáceres

Cupcake-pink walls and white trim set the tone at this breezy seafood bar in the King William District, where a tree-shaded patio deck effectively doubles the place on a warm afternoon. The menu revolves around a rotating oyster selection and moves into fish tacos, lobster rolls, and the kind of bright, light seafood that pairs well with a glass of rosé and nowhere particular to be.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. San Antonio Express-News #8 · Top 10 Outdoor Dining Restaurants

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. San Antonio Express-News #16 · Top 50 Restaurants in San Antonio

The cellar bar has been a notorious local nightspot for longer than anyone will admit, which tells you something about the Hotel Havana's bones. This boutique hotel on the Riverwalk keeps its century-old structure intact and layers on a pre-Castro Cuban romance that feels lived-in rather than themed. Rooms start compact but climb quickly toward something genuinely plush. A Michelin Selected Hotel, and one with actual character to justify the billing.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Wood-decked and genuinely neighborhood in feel, this Neapolitan pizza spot on the south side draws regulars who know the margherita is the thing to order. The crust is soft and blistered the way San Antonio rarely pulls off, and Italian wines by the glass keep prices honest. Patio seating handles groups without the chaos, and the kitchen moves fast enough that you never feel forgotten. 50 Top Pizza USA ranked it among the top 25 in the country.

1. 50 Top Pizza #23 · 50 Top Pizza USA
2. San Antonio Express-News #4 · Top 10 Pizza in San Antonio

A river taxi pulls up right to the front door, which tells you something about where this hotel sits on the San Antonio Riverwalk. Rooms run to walnut paneling, teal accents, and gold hardware, with the Presidential Suite adding a marble dining table and floor-to-ceiling city views for anyone who needs convincing. The rooftop pool has a tiki bar, Cavalier does upscale American brasserie downstairs, and the Convention Center crowd is a short walk away.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Eight stone-walled suites with freestanding tubs occupy what was once a 19th-century schoolhouse dedicated to Friedrich Schiller, which is either poetic or a little on the nose. This 347-room boutique hotel blends that preserved historic shell with a tower that layers Bauhaus and Spanish colonial details in together. Ten floors up, the open-air Tenfold rooftop bar has unobstructed views over downtown San Antonio, which does a lot of the selling all by itself.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Three 19th-century buildings on the National Register of Historic Places anchor this 253-room hotel spread across four and a half garden acres between Downtown and Southtown. The River Walk is a short walk, but the shaded pathways, big pool, and the Anaqua Garden Bar tucked under the trees make leaving feel optional. A daily tea ceremony under an ancient anaqua tree is the kind of quiet ritual guests mention long after checkout.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Rugged wood, leather, and stone textures run through the modernist interiors here, giving the Thompson brand's mid-century aesthetic a quietly Texan edge. This sleek hotel towers above the River Walk, which means the city's restaurants, bars, and shops are essentially at the front door. It's a Hyatt property now, but the design identity has held. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In San Antonio
2. San Antonio Express-News #4 · Top 10 Italian Restaurants in San Antonio

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. San Antonio Express-News #2 · Top 10 San Antonio River Walk Restaurants

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant

1. AAA Approved
2. San Antonio Express-News #5 · Top 10 San Antonio River Walk Restaurants

1. San Antonio Express-News #10 · Top 10 Brunch Restaurants in San Antonio

1. AAA Approved

A King William neighborhood coffee shop so small that the bar, one round table, and a window counter fill the room completely, leaving the picnic tables outside to handle the overflow. Stranded pulls Proud Hound beans from Cincinnati for a dense, chocolatey cup, then builds a short menu of named regulars around house syrups. The staff keeps the music loud, which should tell you something about the vibe.

1. Eater Best Coffee Shops in San Antonio

1. Eater Best Coffee Shops in San Antonio

1. San Antonio Express-News #10 · Top 10 Outdoor Dining Restaurants

1. San Antonio Express-News #10 · Top 10 Steakhouses in San Antonio

1. San Antonio Express-News #4 · Top 10 Steakhouses in San Antonio

1. San Antonio Express-News #6 · Top 10 Outdoor Dining Restaurants

1. San Antonio Express-News #3 · Top 50 Restaurants in San Antonio

1. San Antonio Express-News #11 · Top 50 Restaurants in San Antonio
2. San Antonio Current The 50 best bars in San Antonio

1. San Antonio Express-News #42 · Top 50 Restaurants in San Antonio
2. San Antonio Express-News #3 · Top 10 San Antonio River Walk Restaurants

1. San Antonio Express-News #7 · Top 10 San Antonio River Walk Restaurants

1. San Antonio Express-News #9 · Top 10 San Antonio River Walk Restaurants

1. San Antonio Express-News #10 · Top 10 San Antonio River Walk Restaurants

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in San Antonio
2. San Antonio Current The 50 best bars in San Antonio
3. San Antonio Express-News #8 · Top 10 San Antonio River Walk Restaurants

1. San Antonio Express-News #6 · Top 10 San Antonio River Walk Restaurants

1. San Antonio Express-News #2 · Top 10 Italian Restaurants in San Antonio