Vida

When I made my reservation for Vida, I received an email from the manager asking if it was our first time at the restaurant, and offering us a free queso. Super-nice first impression, and things only went up from there.

Vida is located in River Oaks, near the world's best Target (seriously, I love it). The decor is beautiful: jewel tone walls, nude art, and an absolutely gorgeous bar. This is the "sexy" part in "sexy Tex-Mex."

We started with very good/strong margaritas. Us ladies got orchids in ours. Gimmick? Yes. Pretty? Yes.



Our queso, though free, was bland, but my tempura shrimp tacos were very good. The shrimp was crispy and not at all greasy, and served with a nice cool slaw and a cute little mound of brown rice. Pretty to look at too.



The most remarkable thing about Vida is how low the prices are. My tacos were $14, and I got a LOT of very good food in a very nice setting for that money.

So let's see ... beautiful decor, friendly staff, good food, low prices ... and yet Vida was practically empty. It was a Saturday night and only 4 other tables were occupied. I don't get it.

Please, please eat at Vida. I do NOT want to see this place go under. There are plenty of places to get good Tex Mex in Houston, and plenty of places to get upscale Spanish food in Houston, but Vida is filling a unique need: upscale Tex Mex. And they're filling it well. GO!

Greatfull Taco

What do you get when you cross a Deadhead, some really good tacos, and a cooler full of beer? You get Greatfull Taco, and you're pretty happy with your results.

My husband and I started with a bowl of queso and chips. The queso was spicier than I thought it would be, but in a refreshing way. In a city full of bland queso it's nice to get one with a little kick to wake your taste buds up. It's probably nice for the restaurant too, since it likely helps them sell beer and wine -- and they have quite a selection! I had an Ace Pear, which I absolutely recommend with everything.

I had one taco, and my husband had two. I honestly can't remember what he got. I had The Wharf, which is a crispy cod taco with jalapeno mayo, slaw and lime on a corn tortilla. The fish was well cooked and crispy, but honestly there was just too much slaw for me. The jalapeno mayo was good, very spicy, but after the queso my mouth felt a little burned out. Although I guess I should know better than to buy fish tacos. I've already had the best. Anything else is going to be a disappointment.

I tried a bite of one of my husband's tacos (I think it was the brisket) and I really enjoyed that. What's impressive about Greatfull T
aco is the sheer creativity and diversity of the menu. You want an eggplant taco? You got it. How about chicken strips? OK. Mystery meat? Well, I don't know why you want that, but they got it (and all they can promise is it isn't beaver). And none of it will run you more than $3 to $5.

Service at Greatfull Taco is basic. You order at the counter and your food is delivered pretty quickly to your table. I was surprised at how big the inside of the place actually was. Usually places with a fun concept like this are tiny holes-in-the-wall, but Greatfull Taco has plenty of room to accommodate you and all of your hip friends. Try it -- and let me know what you think of the mystery meat!

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.

TQLA

TQLA is located in my husband's building, but so is The Counter, so don't think that I'm going to give it a good review solely because my husband's boss collects rent from the restaurant.

But I am going to give TQLA a good review. I liked almost everything about this restaurant. The decor is very pretty and modern; I especially like the almost-neon-orange and black bar. There are two big-screen TVs above the bar which were showing the football game on the night my husband and I were there -- a great alternative to the overcrowded sports bar down the street. Service was a little green, but our waitress was friendly, and we didn't want for anything while we were there.

Let's start with the drinks. The menu at TQLA is impressive, if predictably heavy on tequilas and tequila-based drinks. I had two cocktails. Both were very pretty to look at, plenty strong, and tasted good. One minor critique: the martini glasses that the margaritas are served in are a little bit odd, and the ice is too big and difficult to drink around. A little thing, but the experience was so close to perfect otherwise that I had to mention it.



My husband and I love to do appetizers for dinner, so that's what we did at TQLA. We had the Queso Blanco with Poblano, the Wild Mushroom Tamale and some Beef Empanadas.



This is not your typical Tex-Mex fare. TQLA tends to use some more adventurous ingredients: goat cheese, mushrooms of all kinds, toasted pumpkin. No ingredient seems wasted, however; everything is used for a purpose, and unexpected flavors melded together beautifully. We ate every bite of food and never tasted anything we didn't like. Whoever is in the kitchen at TQLA is clearly ambitious, adventurous, and very talented.

The prices, at least on the apps, were uncommonly low. To eat so well for so little money was a very pleasant surprise. This area of Washington Ave is quickly becoming a local hot spot, and TQLA is a great addition for both the lunch and late-night crowd.

Taco Milagro

I wanted to try Taco Milagro because to its name alone. Miracle Taco? Really? That takes cojones. I was all for it.

The outside seating area at Taco Milagro is fantastic. There are tons of tables arranged around a very nice pool. Unlike most other outdoor eateries this time of year, we had no trouble finding someplace to sit. It was a beautiful Friday night, and all kinds of people were there: men in business suits; families with small children; nervous-looking first dates. The people watching and fabulous weather alone were worth the price of dinner, which is a good thing, since the food wasn't.

Let's start with the margaritas. Taco Milagro has a full bar inside, but if you order a margarita with dinner, it comes out of a big vat behind the counter, the kind that other places use to serve sweet tea. I went in with the belief that the best margaritas were usually made, at the very most, by the blender-full. I left with that belief intact. My margarita just wasn't very good.

My husband ordered a mango margarita. I made fun of him for it, but his drink was actually much better than mine (and prettier too):



For dinner I went with one of my staples, bean burritos. This is what I got:



Nice to look at, but unfortunately these tasted exactly like the burritos I make at home (when I spread canned refried beans on tortillas and microwave them). The rice and beans on the side were very good, but let's face it -- no one goes out to dinner just to have rice and beans. It just felt like very little effort went into the food at all, from conceptualization to the actual ingredients, and that's always disappointing.

Overall, this was the kind of Mexican food you might get in the "Mexican Village" section of an amusement park. It was edible, but it wasn't authentic, and it certainly wasn't memorable. In a town full of great Tex-Mex, those kind of offenses are pretty much unforgivable. The only real stand-out here was the Mango Margarita, which hinted at how good this place could be, if only they would try just a little harder.

Berry Hill

Berry Hill's original location is located within walking distance of our home, but that's not why I love it. I love it because of this:



Berry's Hill Original Fish Taco is not the best fish taco I've ever had. It's the best taco, period. It's about as simple as you can imagine: two flour tortillas wrapped around battered fish, shredded red cabbage, cilantro and a "special sauce" that may or may not have addictive properties. Be forewarned: if you order one, you'll be back for more. Pair it with a beer, or one of Berry Hill's very decent margaritas, and you have the best little meal you could ask for.

Berry Hill has lots of outdoor seating on a very nice covered patio (with plastic walls that pull down when it rains). Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of seating inside, and there's sometimes a funky sewage smell that lingers around. Nothing that prevents you from eating, but in the interest of full disclosure, I felt like I would put that out there.

Cafe Adobe

Cafe Adobe claims to have the best margaritas in Houston. I haven't had enough margaritas here to verify that claim, but I can say that their margaritas are very good. And very strong. My husband and I ate outside on a Friday evening, and between the heat, the booze, and the fact that we hadn't had much to eat during the day (we skipped an appetizer to get a dessert, and the dessert ended up being another margarita), we left there feeling no pain.

First, a note about atmosphere. We sat out on the patio, next to a fountain and some potted plants. The garden accessories helped to block out the traffic and it was easy to forget that we were on a busy road in a major city. It was sunny and warm but not unbearable, and the other people were having a good time but not loud or distracting. Pretty much a perfect outdoor dining experience.

We decided to have a little fajitas with our alcohol. I smelled steak on the way in, and that's what I wanted. What arrived was a delightful little platter of grilled flank steak, well made guacamole and salsa, lettuce, grilled onions and jalapeno peppers. The tortillas were warm, with little black marks that indicated they were probably homemade. We each got two fully assembled fajitas, as well as a bit of extra goodies we made into "fajita salad", out of one large order. I can't pretend that I can remember much of what they tasted like, but I think that they were good. Not as good as the margaritas. But then again, not much could have been.