Business Highlight of the Week: Hungry Horse Restaurant & Catering

A note on sourcing: every fact in this feature, including the address, the phone number, the owners' names, the founding date, the hours, and the restaurant's history, was verified this week against the restaurant's official website, the City of Boerne community page, KENS5's Neighborhood Eats feature, and the Boerne Star. Hours and the daily menu can change, so call ahead before you plan your visit.

This week's Business Highlight of the Week is Hungry Horse Restaurant & Catering, the home-style cooking landmark at 109 S Saunders St in Boerne. Steve and Paula Artale have been feeding the Hill Country since 1983, when they opened the Hungry Horse in San Antonio, and the restaurant has called Boerne home since 2001. The chicken-fried steak is hand-breaded and served with homemade cream gravy, the meatloaf is made fresh every day, the sweet bran muffins come out warm from the oven, and the portions are famously sized in pony, regular, and large. It is the kind of place where the menu reads like a family reunion and the regulars order without looking up.

From a San Antonio corner to the Hill Country

The Hungry Horse story starts in 1983, when Steve Artale opened the restaurant at the corner of Evers and Wurzbach in San Antonio. The recipes were his family's, the portions were generous, and the cooking was the kind of honest, from-scratch home style that builds a following. In 2001 the Artales moved the restaurant to Boerne, and the Hungry Horse has been part of this town ever since. That is more than forty years of the same kitchen, the same family, and the same standard, which is a rare thing in any business and rarer still in restaurants.

Steve and Paula Artale, the family behind the kitchen

Hungry Horse is owned and run by Steve and Paula Artale, and the community has returned the favor over the years. Steve was named Citizen of the Year by the Boerne Chamber of Commerce in 2007, the restaurant has won Best Business of the Year honors multiple times, and it took home the Chamber's Small Business Award in 2012. The awards are nice, but the regulars will tell you the real measure is the line at lunch and the fact that the same faces have been coming back for twenty-five years.

What you will find inside

The menu is the family recipe book, and the most popular page is the hand-breaded chicken-fried steak with homemade cream gravy, which KENS5 featured on its Neighborhood Eats series. Fried catfish, meatloaf made fresh daily, King Ranch chicken, chopped sirloin, and the Pony burger all have their own followings, and the sweet bran muffins and homemade pies close every meal the right way. Portions come in pony, regular, and large, which means you can eat light or leave with tomorrow's lunch, and the vegetable selection is famously wide. The restaurant also caters, which is how a lot of Boerne weddings, reunions, and office parties end up tasting like the Hungry Horse. As of this writing it holds a 4.0-star average across more than 300 online ratings, a number that reflects how consistently it has shown up for the town for two and a half decades.

Why we are shining the spotlight here

Every week we feature a local business that makes Boerne, Fair Oaks Ranch, and the surrounding Hill Country a better place to call home. Hungry Horse is exactly that. For families new to the area, it is the kind of honest, home-style kitchen that makes a new town feel familiar within a single meal. For longtime locals, it is proof that a place can stay family-owned and scratch-made for more than forty years without losing what made it great. You can follow the whole series on the Business Highlights page, and we hope the Hungry Horse becomes part of your own Boerne routine.

Visit Hungry Horse Restaurant & Catering

You can find the Hungry Horse at 109 S Saunders St, Boerne, TX 78006. Give them a call at (830) 816-8989, or check hungryhorsehillcountry.com for the menu and catering details. Go hungry, order the chicken-fried steak with cream gravy, and save room for a bran muffin. And when you go, tell them Bill Ross sent you. Supporting the places that make the Hill Country home is good for all of us.

Sources

1. Hungry Horse Restaurant & Catering, official website. Business history, the founding in 1983 and the move to Boerne in 2001, menu, hours, and catering details. hungryhorsehillcountry.com
2. City of Boerne, Hungry Horse Restaurant community page. Community description of the restaurant, its owners, and its place in Boerne. ci.boerne.tx.us
3. KENS5 Neighborhood Eats, "Dig into some good ol' home-style cooking at Boerne restaurant." Feature coverage of the chicken-fried steak, the family recipes, and the restaurant's place in Boerne. kens5.com
4. Boerne Star, "Hungry Horse serves up its best for TV show." Coverage of the restaurant's television feature and its signature dishes. boernestar.com
5. Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce. Recognition history including Steve Artale's Citizen of the Year honor and the restaurant's Best Business and Small Business Award wins. boerne.org

Last verified: November 6, 2026