Kosher Food and Drink

Now that I’m in Houston, I’ve been having the opportunity to go back to some of the restaurants we visited when we were on vacation here last year. But time hasn’t stood still, and there’s a new restaurant in town: Mexicano (9804 Hillcroft St, Houston, TX 77096; phone N/A; mexicanorestaurant.com; under Houston Kashruth Association (HKA) supervision; meat). You’ll remember Mexicano from a recent article I wrote about them. Well, they’re in soft opening mode now, and my kids and I had the pleasure of dining there.

Like I mentioned in my Cafe K and Oro Nami posts, you’ve got to have some understanding for restaurants in soft opening mode, or their first week. They’re still trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. This isn’t a review so much as some impressions of what Mexicano is right now.

Mexicano doesn’t really have much signage on the outside yet, but it’s easy enough to find if you know where Pizza TLV was, and it’s right next to Oh Mama Kitchen (which I still haven’t been to yet, oddly enough). Going inside, it’s well-lit, with nice furniture, and a pleasant, but somewhat austere aesthetic. It’s early days, but this is a nice start.

The service is kind of an oddball hybrid of sit-down and counter. Someone took our order at the table, but there’s not really any wait service per se, and I had to go to the counter to pay. I think they need to nail it down a little more firmly. Personally, I think “order and pay at the counter, and they’ll bring your food to you” is sensible enough for this style of restaurant, and would push them in that direction.

The menu is… eclectic.

There’s some Mexican! There’s some sandwiches! There’s some Asian food! They’re trying to figure out what works, and while I think maybe this is a little too unfocused, I thought the organization itself was nice, and appreciated the detailed descriptions of the items.

We decided on the enchiladas, beef tacos, and the Americano mix in a tortilla, along with a large side of the seasoned fries. Fleishig Mexican food is not something I’ve had in quite a while, and the kids were interested in trying it.

Simply put, the food was really good. The flavor profile of the enchiladas was outstanding, and it has just the right amount of spice – enough to tingle, not enough to burn. That said, the taco format of the enchiladas was a bit unexpected given the pictures of them I’ve seen online. The kids were similarly impressed their beef tacos and Americano mix burrito. The fries were also a surprise favorite – heavily spiced, crunchy, but creamy on the inside. Generally speaking, I think boosting the quantities somewhat of the meat in the tacos and enchiladas might be helpful – it felt somewhat parsimonious, especially the menu’s description of the enchiladas being “stuffed with chili con carne”. These are the kinds of things you work through in a soft opening, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they improve them.

One other oddity was that I couldn’t find any napkins or forks and knives. I never asked, so maybe they’re on demand or in a place I didn’t see, but it was an odd oversight.

All in all, I’m sure we’ll be back, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the menu evolves over the next few weeks. Kosher Mexican food is a real delight, and my nitpicking aside, it looks to me like Mexicano is going to be a really quality option.