Alicia's

Alicia's is located in the West Houston/Katy area, right off the highway and close to the HEB. From the outside it looks like any other Mexican joint, but don't let that fool you. Alicia's is on the Top 100 Houston Restaurants list for a reason.

Let's start with the margaritas. They're perfect. They're light, fruity, and not too sweet. They're also an amazing value, and a great way to start your meal.

The food doesn't disappoint either. I had enchiladas rancheras (chicken enchiladas with ranchera sauce). The best part of the meal was definitely the ranchera sauce. It paired well with everything -- from the plain brown ride to the very good refried beans to the enchiladas themselves. Everything tasted real, like a lot of thought and good ingredients went into each part of the plate. It was satisfying and comforting and fun.

Service was good -- a sweet college-aged kid who actually seemed to enjoy his job -- and prices were fantastic, particularly items on the lunch menu. And it wasn't even crowded! All around, Alicia's is a win.

Cyclone Anaya's

Time for my one word restaurant review of Cyclone Anaya's in Houston's City Centre.




Meh.

El Taco Tote

One thing I've discovered since moving to Houston is my deep and abiding love for breakfast tacos. We didn't really have them in NY, and in Waco I was too busy or tired for breakfast most days. My husband and I have tried a few different places for tacos in Houston, and I can easily say that the best, by far, is El Taco Tote.

(Sorry about the music on their website).**

ETT's breakfast tacos are only $1 apiece and are prepared very quickly using fresh, quality ingredients. You have your choice of a wide variety of fillings: potatoes, eggs, chorizo, beans ... you can pretty much name it. I am not a huge fan of eggs, so my favorite is potatoes and chorizo. The chorizo is stand-out; it's not greasy, too spice, or too bland. Perfect for the morning after a rough night (perhaps at Red Lion). So at the end of the day, my review boils down to this: if you're in the mood for breakfast and you have a dollar and a hangover*, definitely try El Taco Tote.

* Note: Hangover not necessary, but helpful.

** Particularly if you have a hangover.

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.

El Tiempo Cantina

I'm not feeling well today, so I'm going to keep this review of El Tiempo short and to the point.

The food: fine, for the most part. I had chicken tacos, which were composed of tasty, fresh ingredients. We also shared a flan, which was extremely pretty to look at (see picture above) but tasted off. The custard was a little bit grainy with a strange crust on the bottom, like it had either been overcooked or had sat too long.

Service: our food was delivered so quickly to our table that I believe they probably pre-make a lot of popular lunch choices. Once our food arrived, however, our waiter disappeared. Eventually another waiter (or maybe a bus boy) bagged up our leftovers and cleaned off the table.

Price: we paid $33 (before tip) for two taco platters off the lunch menu, as well as cokes and desserts. Not a horrible price for a sit-down meal, but there are better lunch deals out there.

Overall: El Tiempo is alright, provided you have time to spare and don't order the flan. If you're in the mood for Mexican and you're on Washington Avenue, however, there are better options. Of course there are much worse options in Houston as well. El Tiempo isn't anything special, but it's not awful either.

Cadillac Bar

An annoying thing happened to me on the way into Cadillac. I wanted to go to Spaghetti Western, which is located next door to Cadillac in a not-so-nice area of town. My husband and I parked in a large lot between the restaurants, which has three signs: "Cadillac Bar", "Saltgrass" (located across the street) and "Parking." Notably, there is no sign stating that the parking is for the Cadillac Bar only. However, the rent-a-cop who stopped us as we walked across the lot told us that it was, and we could either eat at Cadillac or move our car.

A couple of points here:

1) These pathetic parking lot Nazis weren't doing a very good job. The parking lot was full; Cadillac was not.

2) Normally this kind of behavior totally turns me off to a restaurant. However, I'm on medication this week that makes me feel sick to my stomach. Eating helps. I was very hungry and not feeling well, and rather than drive around the block another two times searching for somewhere to park where our car wouldn't be stolen, we decided to eat at Cadillac.

The food at Cadillac was fine. Generic Tex-Mex. I had the Cadillac burrito, which is stuffed with ground beef, beans, lettuce, and tomato and covered with melted cheese.



It was big, filling and tasted good, but it wasn't anything special. My husband had the carnitas, and he reported that they were a little gristly but fine.



We also had tres leches cake, which was delicious.

The staff -- except for the wanna-be law enforcement in the parking lot -- were all friendly, though service was a little slow. This wasn't a BAD place, but it was no Cafe Adobe either; it's not going to become a favorite of ours. And the way the evening started didn't help. Being chased down by two "security professionals" in a golf cart doesn't set a place up for a good review.

I have no problem with a place wanting to reserve parking. But let's be sensible about it: put a "_____ Parking Only" sign up. Don't chase people down like it's the end of the world that they parked there (particularly at 8:00 at night, when the dinner rush is more than over). And do a good job -- the last thing I want to be is harassed, only to later find that the restaurant is practically empty, and the lot is not. Otherwise you're going to offend potential customers before they even walk through the door.