Don’t Let the Gas Station Fool You

The Kitchen New Orleans Soul-food & Cajun runs out of a small counter inside the Tex Stop convenience store in Converse — and regulars will tell you not to let that throw you off. Everything is cooked to order: fried catfish, pollock and flounder plates, seafood gumbo loaded with sausage and shrimp, smothered meatloaf, and Cajun mac and cheese that customers rave about. One reviewer put it simply: it’s “one of the best soul food restaurants I have been to in San Antonio,” and the guy in line ahead of him said the gumbo was as good as anything you’d get in New Orleans itself.

The team behind the counter treats every order like family — calling ahead to time a pickup perfectly, joking with regulars, and plating huge portions at prices that keep people coming back twice in one weekend. Sides rotate through the week (collard greens on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; peach cobbler Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; banana pudding Monday and Thursday), so there’s always a reason to swing back by.

People drive from an hour away for this food, and once you’ve had the catfish po’boy dressed with mayo and Cajun sauce, or a plate of oxtails over rice, you’ll understand why. It’s a genuine neighborhood find — just look past the fuel pumps.