Though it bills itself as a Mexican seafood restaurant, La Calle Doce’s menu offers beef and chicken dishes as well as some plates for the diehard Tex-Mex lover. In fact, the menu is one of the many pleasures here, especially if you like variety: 10 appetizers, five soups, four salads and upward of 40 entrees, many of which are inspired by Southern and coastal Mexican cuisine.

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What sets La Calle Doce’s food apart is the freshness of its ingredients. Vegetables are crisp and juicy, herbs and seasonings are fragrant, and the seafood is “fresh fresh fresh,” as one manager described it. The shrimp in the dish pictured with this story — Camarones a la Veracruzana — were huge and cooked just right.  

 

And unlike other Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurants in the city, La Calle Doce’s atmosphere has a more subdued kind of look to it. Instead of serape-inspired hues or ristras hanging from the rafters, you’ll find a baby blue and white color scheme, exposed brick walls and terra cotta tile floors. Which is not to say the restaurant has been gringo-ized: photos of scenes from and Spanish bullfights are hung liberally on the walls, and avant-garde iron sculptures are hung from the ceiling.

 

The interior is more spacious than the restaurant’s exterior would lead you to believe, with at least three separate dining areas, including one that can be rented for private parties. The backmost dining area adjoins a huge bar, and a tiled fountain and high ceilings add drama to the atmosphere.

 

 

 

La Calle Doce Restaurante

 

1925 Skillman

 

214-824-9900

 

$$, FB, OD