Laredo sits directly on the Rio Grande opposite Nuevo Laredo, and the border is less a dividing line than a seam. The city is overwhelmingly Mexican-American, and the food here is northern Mexican cooking rather than Tex-Mex — the distinction matters.
That means flour tortillas made fresh, carne asada and fajita cuts grilled over mesquite, cabrito roasted whole, barbacoa on Sunday mornings, and machacado with eggs for breakfast. Norteño cooking is beef-forward and wheat-based in a way that central Mexican food is not.
The taquerias and family restaurants are the point; there is little in the way of a destination dining scene, and that is rather the appeal. Sunday morning barbacoa is the local institution worth planning around.