A few of my Mexican faves started in Texas are mentioned here so I figured I would butt in just a bit.

Someone mentioned Abuelos as trying to hard to compete with Don Pablos... actually it couldn't be further from the truth. Both restaurants started on the lonely plains in Lubbock TX (where Texas Tech boasts one of the top restaurant/hotel/institutional management programs west of Cornell). Until the mid-90s, Don Pablos were mostly found in Texas and the "original" in Lubbock went by the name "Don Julios" - same look, but an experimental menu. It was the learning lab for ventures that would eventually make their way onto the menus of the other DPs stores (or be banished to oblivion). Incidentally, the original Harrigans, also owned by the same restaurant group, was in the shopping strip a block away.

Abuelos never wanted the Don Pablos/Don Julios crowd - it tended towards 21 to 25 year old college students in search of big portions and specials on margaritas. It was a favorite happy hour stop and its positioning near the mall and neighborhoods full of rental houses and apartments made it perfect for the off campus crowd. Abuelos, conversely, located its original location in the upscale neighborhood development at 82nd/Quaker where many of the city elite were moving to get away from the university squalor.

Abuelos original menu focused on high-end margaritas (in over a dozen flavors w/ a tequila tasting menu), more upscale Mexican vs. Tex-Mex (grilled topped steaks, seafood items, a variety of specialty enchiladas served w/ fried eggs) and the crowd who was willing to pay. As an "expensive" joint by Lubbock standards, it tended to have 90 minute waits for tables and an older audience. For us college kids, it was a "special date" kind of place.

As Abuelos expanded into the metro markets (beyond West Texas) in the late 90s, they originally kept the look and feel of the original - but slowly have bowed to competition by making their menu slightly more Tex-Mex (but still not like the other quesadilla/burrito/fajita/taco joints) and a bit more affordable. Along the way, prices on the steak/seafood items have crawled up and things like the tequila tasting menu have been replaced by more mainstream frou-frou drinks.

My favorite dish is still the bacon-wrapped steak and shrimp... but now you have to remind the servers to give you the spiced potatoes and creamy Mexican spinach (the traditional sides) because they have grown too used to accomodating the rice and beans crowd. And enchiladas require asking for the egg... that option was not even on the menu the last time I was in.

If anything, its not (as one poster said) that Abuelos is trying too hard... if anything, they aren't trying hard enough. They are attempting to compete with the Don Pablos (with their $12.99 three-course menu and cheap/huge portions) while forgetting that the differentiation is what made Abuelos popular in the first place!