Restaurant Reviews Archives - Page 10 of 15

May 24, 2013

Rudy's Country Store and BBQ

Had to hit up some more local food before we leave. We stopped by Rudy’s BBQ on the way to the airport. This place, serves in the style of many of the local joints. Pick your bottled beverage out of the ice coolers, order at the counter and help yourself to the condiments. The burger is served on a paper tray. My friends went for the hunk of prime rib and they cut and ate it on wax paper. Finger lickin’ good.

I usually don’t like to eat too much before a flight, but this time, oh well. The slices of pork loin were cut thick, done well, but still remarkably tender. The rub had a strong flavor of salt, pepper and spices. The “sissy sause” poured like ketchup and tasted more like vinegar than sweet. Texas BBQ, I will miss you, but my waistline won’t.

Pork loin sandwich with pickles, onions and sissy sause

May 24, 2013

El Ranchero

We stayed in a vacation home near the town of Burnet. Looking for lunch one day, we chose a random Mexican restaurant. El Ranchero is a family run diner, serving Tex Mex style food. I thought the food was decent, for a small town. I had the taco salad with chicken fajita. I also sampled the chicken tamale. It had a nice taste of corn husk. The deep fried ice cream (it’s really deep fried and not rolled in cornflakes) was good.

May 24, 2013

Goode Company Barbeque

Eager to try another classic, the Texas BBQ. We headed over to Goode Company Barbeque to see what we could find. I ordered up some pork ribs and chicken. It’s hard to see that under the “Texas Toast” sized slice of bread. The bread was very good; soft, homemade cheddar and jalapeno. The sides were good too. The BBQ sauce was zippy. In Texas style BBQ, the meat is done dry with sauce, if any, added afterwards.

You can order meat by the pound and have it just like that, if you wanted, no sides.

Pork ribs, chicken, green beans, baked beans and jalapeno cheddar bread

May 20, 2013

Ninfa's Mexican

We were looking for some lunch at the Galleria. This was a pretty random selection, “Let’s have Mexican, oh look there’s a restaurant”. I’m not sure what’s up with the bad reviews because I enjoyed my meal. I had a chicken chimichanga covered with a vegetable gravy, beans and rice. The chimichanga was good. I found the beans were a bit on the bland side and I suspect the rice was from a package. Ok, well I can see how this would get a mediocre review. It is what it is, a sit down restaurant in a food court.

El Benny Chicken chimichanga — El Benny
Chicken chimichanga

May 20, 2013

Ragin Cajun

My first meal in Texas; we decided on Cajun. I’ve never had real Cajun food before. Admittedly, this is a chain, but that’s ok. I’m not a discriminating foodie. I’ve always wondered what crawfish tasted like. They taste less of shrimp and slightly like lobster. There’s a lot of shell so great if you like fiddling with your food. The broth they were cooked in had kick. I also had a small bowl of shrimp and crab gumbo. I must be a wimp because the spice really kicked. I dumped a few packages of saltines just so I could eat it. No wonder, they have a large pot prominently on display where they must stew this stuff all day. The flavors were bold and concentrated.

I love Houston restaurants. This would be the first of a few restaurants where counter service and serve yourself condiments are the norm. All the tableware is disposable too.

Boiled crawfish served with corn and potato

May 20, 2013

Komé Sushi Kitchen

On our way out to Hill Country, we stopped in Austin for lunch. This was a less random pick than some of our other choices, as we had the use of Yelp and Urbanspoon. Komé Sushi Kitchen is nestled on a street with a bunch of older shops. Most of the street has a gritty feel, complete with the graffiti on the buildings. It’s not much to look at from the outside but inside it’s a nice Japanese style bistro. Their awards line the entryway. The hostesses are friendly, greeting customers in Japanese as they walk in the door. Finally, a place that uses real chopsticks, not the splintering wooden kind.

The scallop sushi with mango and avocado was just the perfect bite. Good way to freshen the appetite.

Battleship sushi Scallop with mango and avocado — Battleship sushi
Scallop with mango and avocado

The mackerel came with a small dish of Japanese pickle, miso soup and rice in addition to what was on the plate. A very tasty and affordable lunch for $8.50. The fish was tender and perfectly cooked. Reminds me of the fried mackerel my Mom used to make when I was little. The service was friendly and they handled their lunch rush well. After heavy Texas BBQ, Mexican and Cajun; this is a refreshing treat.

Shio-saba Teishoku Grilled mackeral — Shio-saba Teishoku
Grilled mackerel

May 6, 2013

Forest Lawn Bakery

I found this little gem while shopping at Lucky Supermarket next door. I’m really used to visiting Chinese bakeries with all the predictable Chinese favorites. I suspect, this bakery caters to Vietnamese and Filipinos. They had an assortment of western bread, cookies, pastries and cake. But they also had various sweet rice desserts, and cassava cake. My friend was so happy to find a rice cake that she hadn’t eaten since childhood. They also had the Vietnamese equivalent of lo bok go, steamed daikon cake.

May 6, 2013

Indonesian Kitchen

I’m on a mission to try all the southeast Asian restaurants in town. Well, mostly the Malaysian and Indonesian ones. Indonesian Kitchen is a small family run restaurant located on the ethically diverse International Avenue. Not much to look at from the outside, but the interior is warmly decorated. There are also shelves of crafts from Indonesia and a small selection of dry groceries. If I were more familiar with Indonesian cooking, I would have picked up some.

We started with the fried cassava. So good. Think of it as a spicy french fry. The chicken curry was up next. It was pretty average; I definitely expected more of a flavor hit. The mie goreng satisfied my craving for carbs after climbing. It was slightly sweet, which I was also craving. The shrimp chips and fried egg were a nice touch. Surprisingly, the tempeh was my favorite dish. Tempeh is a fermented soy product. I’ve cooked it before, and found the taste a little hard to swallow. But this version tasted good and combined with the sambal (chilli) sauce, was very tasty.

Worth a return visit, to try some of the other dishes.

Singkong Goreng Fried cassava lightly spiced — Singkong Goreng
Fried cassava lightly spiced

Kari Ayam Indonesian curry chicken — Kari Ayam
Indonesian curry chicken

Mie Goreng Chicken andshrimp fried noodles served with Krupuk and fried egg — Mie Goreng
Chicken and shrimp fried noodles served with Krupuk and fried egg

Sambal Goreng Tempeh Tempeh sauteed with sambal sauce — Sambal Goreng Tempeh
Tempeh sauteed with sambal sauce

May 5, 2013

Mimo

One area of town that I should explore more is International Avenue. There is a diverse range of food culture represented there, one of which is Portuguese. I’ve had Portuguese food once before; when I had a salt cod casserole. It was delicious.

Mimo is a family run place, for over 29 years. Mom is the chef and the daughters are servers and hostesses. We had a large party so we got to sample a few dishes. I found the flaming sausage quite entertaining. It was homemade; tasted smoky and spicy at the same time. I also had a nibble of the grilled squid which was tasty. My main dish was the paella and what a paella it was. Lobster, crab, shrimp, mussel and clam served in the shell. Also a braised chicken leg, squid and pieces of beef served on top of flavorful, buttery rice. I had enough to take home.

Our server was one of the daughters and she gave us a history of how the restaurant came to be along with memories of a thriving Portuguese community in what is now Little Saigon Mall. She was astute enough to notice that one of her guests left the chicken leg uneaten on her plate. It was uncooked in the middle. Another one of our guests had undercooked chicken as well. She offered to cover everyone’s dessert which I thought was really nice.

The dessert was good. I preferred the passion fruit pudding over the orange creme caramel. Only because the pudding was less sweet. Life would be complete if only I could find some Portuguese egg tarts. According to our server, best head to Edmonton.

May 1, 2013

Lazy Monkey

I’m always looking for new things to try. I am very unfamiliar with Taiwanese food so I went to satisfy my curiousity. Unfortunately, I did not have a photo taking device, so a description would have to do.

Lazy Monkey is a tiny, family run cafe. It looks like a place where Asian high school kids hang out to do their homework. Well, they were doing just that and Sir Winston Churchill is across the road. If you like bubble tea, this is the place for you. Being neither a high schooler nor a bubble tea lover, my friend and I sampled the regular courses.

I just had to try the chicken hearts. They came broiled, six to a skewer, with a light dusting of salt and pepper and a subtle taste of five spice. Who ever thought chicken hearts could be tasty. Next time will have to try the gizzards.

My friend had the egg wrap with curry rice. The curry reminded me of Japanese style curry. It was a good foil for the hearty serving of rice and egg.

I had the Hakka style pork. The tender pork slices were served over rice with a black bean style sauce. The pork was nicely salted and seasoned. There also was a hard boiled tea egg on the side. It was a substantial meal for lunch. Our main courses were served in takeout containers which I found a bit odd.

They had some rather interesting things on the menu, such as coconut thick toast. With vanilla ice cream. I’m trying to figure out if that is a dessert or snack item. I’d like to come back for the salted fish and curry casserole.