We talk all the time about how much we love Disney Springs and all of its various restaurants, because it’s true!

Frontera Cocina, how we love you!

One of our favorite spots, Frontera Cocina, just celebrated a very special anniversary — 10 years! That’s a big deal and absolutely should be celebrated. We were thrilled to have been invited to celebrate the special occasion with them, and it reminded us why everyone should be making this restaurant a priority on their next visit.

We started off incredibly strong with our drink, The Lucy, which is made with soto, carrot, lime, and ginger. It wasn’t nearly as strong as we thought it was gonna be, and instead it goes down really light and it’s super smooth. The drink is definitely pretty tangy and has a tad bit of salt flavor to it due to the salt rim, but also thanks to the flavors of ginger and lime. If you’re a fan of Soto, you’ll definitely like this drink, because while it’s sweet, it’s not overly so, which we appreciated.

The Lucy

When it came to the eats, the Beef Short Rib Ancho BBQ absolutely blew our minds! It’s made with Creekstone boneless short rib slow-cooked with toasted ancho chilies, tangy fire-roasted tomatoes, caramelized onions, garlic red bean refritos, and herb salad.

Beef Short Rib Ancho BBQ

The short rib is so easy to cut into; it surprised us in the best way. You put your fork in, and it just falls apart perfectly. The rib also has such a smoothness to it that was incredible, especially when paired with how flavorful it is without being overly sauced or too dry. The beans are such a nice complement to the beef, as they’re soft and don’t have a crazy amount of flavor to them, but you can tell they’re there just to balance the dish out. The veggies are also a great add, and we recommend eating them with the rib.  But wait…it gets better! We got our short rib with a side of tortillas, and WOW. Just as we didn’t think this dish could get any better, throw the rib and the veggies and the beans in a tortilla, and our entire month was made. We cannot recommend this dish enough!

This blew our minds!

We also got to try the Gazpacho de Sandia, which is chilled watermelon soup, thickened with bread and garnished with lump crab meat, cucumber, cilantro, and mint. While our reporter isn’t the biggest cold soup person, even so, this was incredibly solid. The soup is very chilled, and it balances nicely with the hotter dishes. The crab in this is delicious, and it’s complemented perfectly with the watermelon soup, the tomatoes, the cilantro, and the cucumbers. We expected it to be sweeter, but it wasn’t over the top at all. Our only complaint is that we would have loved a bit more crab!

Gazpacho de Sandia

We also tried the Shrimp “Dorados Style,” which are fried tacos stuffed with shrimp and Chihuahua cheese, topped with salads diabla, crema, tangy cabbage, cilantro, and onion.

Shrimp “Dorados Style”

There’s not one thing we would change about this dish! The deep-fried taco shell is so crisp and crunchy, and it’s the perfect piece to go alongside this soft shrimp on the inside. The shrimp is very tasty and flavorful, and all the toppings balance out the flavors beautifully. The shrimp tacos have a little bit of a heat to them, but it’s countered perfectly with the vegetables and the cream to give it a little bit more of a light, cooler taste. We’re big fans!

Yes, please!

For dessert, we had the Fresh Citrus Tart, which is tangy lemon-lime-thai basil custard in a nutty macadamia nut graham cracker crust, whipped cream, and fresh citrus segments. This is overall a good dessert, but we do feel it’s a bit of an acquired taste as it’s very unique!

Fresh Citrus Tart

Our favorite part of it was the graham cracker crust, as it was soft and smooth, almost like biting into a soft cookie. There’s a LOT of the lime custard, and the flavor really does come through pretty strong. If you’re a big fan of the flavor, or of sour/tart flavors in general, you’ll love this. The nuts on top added a really great, and honestly needed, crunch to the dessert, and then the whipped cream balanced out some of the tartness. It may not be for everyone, but it’s a very well-done dessert!

It’s also a great size!

We can’t wait to see what the next 10 years have in store for this restaurant, and you can bet we’re already thinking about when we can go back. Be sure to stay tuned to DFB for all the latest Disney news and reviews!

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What’s your favorite thing to get at this restaurant? Tell us in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Frontera Cocina to attend their 10 year celebration event. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ