El Jardin in Meridian is NOT the best Mexican Food restaurant in Texas.
I went there today for lunch...it was my first visit.
Let me just say, when you walk into a restaurant around 11:45 a.m. and there are 2 tables, out of the approximately 25, with people, it's not a good sign. And when the locals are ordering hamburgers instead of Mexican food, well...
When I entered, I was told to seat myself, which I did, seeing as the wait staff was obviously quite busy.
The chips and salsa arrived and I was disappointed. The chips were stale and bland. The salsa had a slight hint of a decent flavor, but it was primarily just tomatoes. The bowls they served the salsa in were mismatched for the size of chips.
The unsweetened tea, they do not give the option of sweet tea apparently, was only second to Zur Autobahn's for flavor. It was great and I hate unsweetened tea.
I ordered a chile relleno, as those are my favorite things to judge a restaurant by. When it arrived, I was a bit surprised to not see salt and pepper shakers on the table, so I asked for some. They were the old cheap glass ones with stainless steel tops. This would have been fine, except the salt came pouring out...fine with me, but if you have a heart condition, not necessarily a good thing.
The meat stuffing was excellent. The cheese sauce tasted like it came out of a can. The batter was decent, but it honestly tasted like Bisquick. Overall, I'd give it a B, primarily because of the size and amount of beef stuffed inside. The batter would have lowered it to a C, otherwise.
The rice was quite good, although there were no chunks of tomato, or bell pepper, or anything else. This did not, however, detract from the taste. I was happy to see it was not loaded in butter.
The refried beans (you have a choice of refried or Charro), were some of the best I've ever had.
I also ordered a side of guacamole, just to see...yep, tasted like it came out of a can. It was not very good, and rather bland.

All in all, I give it a B- rating. The chips and salsa were lacking, although the salsa had potential. The beans and beef stuffing saved the entree. The unsweetened tea was just awesome, so that was good. The service was okay, but nothing special.
Would I eat there again? Probably, but I would not go out of my way. I would rather go to Tres Hermanos in Whitney. The beans at Tres Hermanos, nor the tea, are as good as they are at El Jardin, but there's more to life then just good beans and tea...and Tres Hermanos delivers on the rest.