El Rey

My husband works very close to the El Rey on Washington Avenue, and he loves their Cuban tacos. Not being a huge fan of plantains, I had him bring me a fajita beef taco to work. At first glance, this looked like a pretty good taco, and my only complaint was that it needed a little dairy (cheese and/or sour cream).




Until I found the piece of plastic.



Holy taco ... what is that?!

Judging from the thickness and size of the sheet of plastic that I pulled out of the bottom of my taco, I am guessing it was part of a plastic glove. Hey, at least we know the kitchen staff is wearing them, although this is not how I wanted to find out. When I first encountered it I thought it might be the skin from a tomato, but clearly it's not edible. I'm just happy I didn't eat it. This was one of the more horrifying things I've encountered since starting this blog, and needless to say I won't be visiting El Rey again.

Here's the thing I don't understand about Houston. In my short time here, I've encountered some really wonderful food. I've also encountered some truly awful things: the service at the Avalon Diner, the food at Taco Milagro, the, um, plastic gloves at El Rey. Yet these places not only stay in business, they seem to be BUSY most of the time. I truly don't get it. Do people simply get caught in a rut, eating at the same places because that's where they ate growing up? Are people truly too busy/loyal/afraid to try something new that they don't see how bad some of these places are? Or am I just catching a fair number of local restaurants on off days?

Whatever it is, keep this in mind: every time you frequent a restaurant, you're "voting" for it with your money. You're voting to keep that place open for another day, and you're voting against every other place you could have gone. Don't take that for granted. Vote wisely.

Niko Niko

My husband, some friends and I popped into Niko Niko's on Montrose for lunch on one of the first really warm Saturdays of the year. I ordered a falafel platter and some baklava, two of my all-time favorite foods. We had the good luck to get a table outside, although the inside of the restaurant was a bit crowded.

I immediately dropped one of my falafel patties onto the floor, which left my sandwich a little unbalanced but still good. The patties were crispy and all of the ingredients were fresh, but it could have used just a little more Tahini sauce. The baklava was not as successful. It was much too dry and the slices themselves were too big to comfortably eat; every time I bit into one it collapsed into sticky little bits. The experience of eating outside on such a nice day was lovely, but otherwise this meal was only fair-to-middling. And the garbage cans were overflowing, which was both inconvenient and made me wonder about the cleanliness and/or understaffing of the kitchen.

On a completely unrelated note, there was a gentleman with a backpack in the ladies bathroom. This has nothing to do with the restaurant, since the only employee who noticed him (a cleaning woman) immediately acted appropriately (by kicking him out). It was just a very odd experience, and I thought I would mention it.

Shameless Plug #2

This Saturday. Houston. Let's do this.

Dylan's Candy Bar

I am so, so sorry that I have been so bad about posting lately. I am working full-time right now, trying to negotiate a move to a bigger apartment, and volunteering my time. But I promise I will keep posting as frequently as possible, so please keep checking back. After all, a girl's gotta eat!

My husband and I visited Dylan's Candy Bar what seems like forever ago to pick up some candy for a friend's wedding. While we were there, we just HAD to visit the in-store ice cream parlor for a Candy Bar Blast sundae. We got to choose our ice cream flavors, and we went with two scoops strawberry, one chocolate, one cookie dough and one rocky road. Yes, that's five scoops -- topped with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and a variety of candies like Kit Kat and kisses. It took the kid behind the counter well over 5 minutes to create this caloric masterpiee, and it was well worth his time.



My advice is to bring a friend or two to share it with, and don't plan on eating dinner after.

So how is the ice cream at Dylan's? Amazing. Like everything about this store, the sundaes are extravagant, fun and designed to appeal to the kid in you. They're also a little bit pricey ($10) and come with a wait. Trust me though: it's totally worth it just to see the look on people's faces when they plunk it down in front of you.

Spicy Pickle

Sorry it's been so long, blog fans. I actually have three places to blog about and I thought I would catch up this weekend, but now I have plans, so this is going to be slow going. Bear with me; there are still plenty of reviews left in this thing.

I'm going to set the way-back machine to a few weeks ago and write about Spicy Pickle, where my husband and I had lunch. Yes, it's a chain (though not national), but that's OK; I have no problem eating at or writing about a chain restaurant, provided the food is good. And the food at Spicy Pickle is good.

I had the Roma panini, with tomato, mozzarella and basil mayo. This is a flavor combination that I adore, and this panini didn't disappoint. The bread was a little hard, probably from over-toasting, but it wasn't burned. I really enjoyed the pasta salad on the side; loaded with chunks of fresh mozzarella and a dressed with a light oil and vinegar mixture, this is nothing like the mayo-heavy stuff you might get at a family picnic, and it paired really well with the Italian-inspired sandwich. I also noted that Spicy Pickle sells Miss Vicky's chips and Izze grapefruit soda. It's always a good sign when a restaurant carries products you already like, and that holds true at Spicy Pickle.

Houston is a good city for sandwiches. We have Potbellies, Brown Bag, Spicy Pickle, even Les Givral's. There is no excuse for coming to Houston and having a bad lunch. Chain or not, Spicy Pickle delivers consistently good food and friendly service, which is more than we can say for some of the larger chain restaurants (and yes McDonald's, I'm looking at you).