Today's News and Forecasts - UPDATED 3X

This latest edition of restaurant news from greater southwest Houston indicates the Bellaire restaurant scene continues to evolve.


Saltillo Mexican Kitchen,  5427 Bissonnet @ Chimney Rock

I was watching carefully for this one to open and it's been open almost a month now.  I went in by the end of the first week and the place was already packed for evening service.

This is the new place by the owner of the short-lived but acclaimed Mexican steak house La Casa del Caballo in Montrose.  The menu is beef-centric and includes the 4 pound plus Tapa de Lomo rib-eye cap for $190 but the former eatery was famous for it's enchiladas, too, and that's what drew me in.

I had the Enchiladas Saltillo, 3 chicken enchiladas in a sauce made from 5 kinds of chiles, with chihuahua cheese and sesame seeds.  I also had the Hearts of Palm Ceviche with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime juice and olives, with hearts of palm substituting for any seafood and looking just like scallops.  Service was virtually flawless, remarkable for a new eatery.

This is not the type of Mexican restaurant where you get a huge basket of chips and salsa.  There are four salsas brought to the table to use as you wish and they are meant to be used more as garnishes or relishes than as dips, though you can get a small saucer of warm, thick chips by asking for it.  I passed on the chips but some were brought to my table anyway; I wasn't charged for them.  The salsas range from a mild tomatillo salsa verde to a tomato and red jalapeno based one with a little more heat, then a minced red onion and habanero with lime and orange juices and olive oil, and at the most intense end of the scale, one made with green papaya and habanero.  The servers were explaining the salsas to each table.

Judging by the crowd I experienced, I'd say Bellaire is ready for this kind of upscale Mexican place and it's certainly a very welcome addition to my grazing grounds.

Saltillo Mexican Kitchen


Tapester's Grill, 4520 Beechnut @ Newcastle

This is a new family-style neighborhood eatery across from the Southwest Houston Police Station on Beechnut.  It's a very welcoming modern space with a patio on the back side, away from the traffic on Beechnut.  When I went in there were lots of families with small children and a few tables with older couples.

I had the Bratwurst on a Housemade French Roll with housemade chips.  The online menu describes this as thin sliced turkey pastrami for some reason.

I didn't get a good look at any of the other menu items except the 1/3 pound burgers which were obviously a popular choice; they looked pretty good.

Tapester's Grill


Suzie's Grill, the kosher (meat) restaurant that has operated out of a tiny space in a Chevron station at Beechnut and Hillcroft for the past few years, has closed.  The website indicates the menu is available at the new kosher steakhouse Genesis on Bissonnet at Chimney Rock, in the same strip center with Saltillo.

Suzie's
Genesis


WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

Enoteca Rossa, 4566 Bissonnet @ Avenue B, just inside Loop 610

The former much-loved Daniel Wong's Kitchen, which has been closed for over a year now, is about to open as an Italian restaurant with wood-fired kitchen.  The building is hardly recognizable.  A banner announcing they're hiring staff has gone up so the opening must be soon.

EDIT TO ADD:  FACEBOOK

(The picture was taken through the windshield on a rainy day).


Salt 'n Pepper Indo-Pak and Mediterranean Restaurant and Banquet Hall, 9619 SW Freeway @ Bissonnet

The banner indicates it's opening soon.  A url given in a sign on the front door leads nowhere and I have not been able to find anything for this online except a white pages listing but will add a link when one becomes available.

EDIT TO ADD:  A "NOW OPEN" BANNER HAS GONE UP.  THERE IS ALSO A BANNER PROCLAIMING "#1 RATED BBQ IN TOWN."  

FACEBOOK

SALT' N PEPPER GRILL HAS COME AND GONE.  ALONG THE WAY, SNP HOOKAH LOUNGE WAS OPENED NEXT DOOR.  NOW THE BUSINESS IS NAMED GHUNGROO GRILL AND HOOKAH LOUNGE.  A GHUNGROO IS A MUSICAL ANKLET (BELLS) WORN BY TRADITIONAL INDIAN DANCERS.

Philippine Community Center, 9101 West Bellfort @ Riceville School Road

The exterior cladding is all but complete but the weeds have gotten so tall I couldn't get a decent picture from the front.  These pictures, from a blog on the northwest side, appear to me to be more pictures of this one.


Gujarati Samaj Center, W. Bellfort @ Beltway 8

There hasn't been anything going on at the future site of this sports complex, unfortunately, but someday no doubt.

Indo American News article from last February

And just what are these items about cultural centers doing on a blog that's supposed to be about food?  I keep hoping that all of these cultural institutions will spur some sort of restaurant activity in the immediate vicinity.  Of course the Raindrop Center, Istanbul Conference Center and India House, all along this same stretch of West Bellfort, haven't had any such consequences but I can still dream.  Maybe a food court with stalls from each -- or a couple of food trucks?????

More News of the World - UPDATED 9/29

King's Chicken, known for its Pakistani dishes, naan, and fried chicken, has abandoned it's longtime place on Beechut just west of Wilcrest and moved way out on Highway 6, just north of Westheimer.  It's now a sit-down restaurant.

King's Chicken review in the Press.

The new name at the Beechnut location is Scarlotti's Eatery and Catering but except for a sign in the window advertising a 2 piece chicken deal, there's no indication what kind of food is served.

Johnathan's Grill Pampanga's in the International Food Court at the Viet Hoa Center on the West Belt at Beechnut is now La Fernandina's Grill Pampanga's.  There are still just the two Filipino places side-by-side in the food court (the other is Pinoy Fast Food).

Haveli is a new Pakistani restaurant at 5901 Hillcroft.  It's a buffet 7 days a week in a former nightclub space.

Arny's Bakery

9601 S. Gessner @ Bissonnet

This little Filipino bakery has opened, tucked back behind other businesses at the corner of S. Gessner and Bissonnet.

I picked up, from the left, an ensaymada, bibingka, and mamon.

The bibingka is a super-moist, dense rice cake made with coconut milk, a cross in texture with a dense rice pudding and a cake, traditionally baked in a terra cotta pot, wrapped in banana leaves.

The ensaymada, culinary descendant of the ensaimada of Mallorca, is a bun topped with finely shredded cheese and sugar.  The Mallorcan pastry was made with saim, a type of pork lard, but the Filipino version is made with butter.

The mamon is a sponge cake, a Filipino version of Angel Food cake; the name comes from Spanish slang for breast.

Both the ensaymada and bibingka were about 5" across and the bibingka weighed just over half a pound.

Not all of the items pictured were available the day I visited and there was at least one pastry and one type of bread I saw not pictured. A sign in the window also advertises kolaches which would probably make Arny's the first ever Tex-Czech-Filipino bakery, but there weren't any on display the day I was there. I plan to go back to try the Pan de Ube (purple yam) and Hopia (mung bean paste, I think), which were not available.

There were beverages available from a cooler and a coffee maker on a counter top.

EDIT TO ADD:  I HAVE SEEN BAKED GOODS FROM ARNY'S AT THE HONG KONG MARKET ON BELLAIRE IN THE READY TO EAT DEPARTMENT.

Jambeto's

609 Dulles, Stafford, TX

All over the area the food scene in the burbs is taking off.  Sugar Land, Katy and The Woodlands have all been noted but you don’t hear much about Stafford except maybe on this blog.  While there are no celebrity chef-driven restaurants in Stafford yet, over the past year I’ve been pleasantly surprised  by the food and the diversity of ethnic cuisines at numerous restaurants.  The little stretch of Dulles just south of US 90-A, the continuation of South Main Street from Houston if you’re unfamiliar, has undergone a remarkable transformation in just the last few months with new outposts of Chinatown stalwarts Don Café and Parisian Bakery and Sandwiches and this new Filipino bakery and café.

I’ve eaten at a half dozen Filipino places around the southwest side of town over the last couple of years.  I can’t claim any great love of the cuisine nor knowledge but every time I see a picture of pancit, I want it. It’s the rice noodles that ring my Pavlovian chimes and so it was that after coming across this place online I immediately shelved my plans to try a North African version of pizza and headed down to Jambeto’s for dinner one night.

There was some miscommunication and they fixed my order to go but no problem, I just settled into one of the handful of tables and dug in.  It’s a small place with a very small café menu, perhaps more of a bakery than a café, stylish and spic and span in a brand new strip center across from Dulles Hi.  There are a half dozen varieties of pancit on the menu, I went for the recommended chicken and shrimp but next time I think I’d just opt for the shrimp.  Not that there was anything wrong with the chicken but why pass up the opportunity for twice as much shrimp?  The dish included green beans, cabbage, carrots and celery and came with a calamondin and a packet of soy sauce and there was banana sauce on the tables, too.  Apparently you can eat the whole calamondin, skin and all - I did not know that.

The empanadas here are snack sized, smaller than a golf ball, and are baked and there are some other tasty looking snacks including lumpia.

I haven’t had much of a sweet tooth for several years now but that has been changing of late and I spent several minutes drooling over the pastry case.  Next time, one of those cakes or some cookies is going home with me.   Check out there Facebook page for more pictures.

Jambeto's

The Jeepney Truck

I think we have a pretty impressive array of food trucks serving various national cuisines, not even counting all the 'fusion' food trucks (how many Korean-Mexican trucks do we have now?).  My own list on this blog is woefully outdated and needs some editing but I'm happy to add the Jeepney Truck to the roll call.

I tried the Pancit - noodles, chicken, sweet Chinese sausage and vegetables - plus garlic rice and lumpia and a choice of sauces.  I chose the 'hot' sauce which I think was sriracha or something very similar.  I still don't know much about Filipino cuisine (I've had it a half dozen times at four different places now) but I thought this was very good except for the lumpia which were quite greasy.  The vegetables were not overcooked, the rice fluffy and very garlicky.

I caught up with them outside the Cultural Outreach Center of the Philippine Consulate on Highway 6 and they were very busy with families ordering multiple to-go items.  It took 35 minutes to get my food.

I was disappointed the Jeepney Truck was just a step-van instead of a re-purposed Jeepney and they haven't had many stops so far but I'm looking forward to catching up with them again and trying more of their offerings.

The Jeepney Truck

Best of 2010 - Part 1

It's been a great year being Chili Bob. I've sampled a huge number of new places and had many good meals and only a few that made me wish I'd jumped at that career as a toll booth collector for the HCTRA and been making change in a toll booth and having a sack lunch that day. I've also had some great finds and I thought I'd jump into the fray this year with my own version of best picks of the year. For the first (and possibly last time), here's what I thought was the best of what I encountered this year. Keep in mind the limited focus of this blog - for the past year, mostly street food and small ethnic eateries that are new discoveries.

In making these selections I've followed a principle we always followed in my line of work: cream rises to the top and clearly separates itself from the rest of the glass. Also, not only is the delineation of 10 bests in any category arbitrary, sorting out any below the top 2 or 3 or at most 4 in any category is arbitrary, too (and requires much to much mental effort). Well, that and for none of these categories do I have 10 to reasonably consider anyway.

BEST STREET FOOD - Gourmet Food Truck Division

1. Pork Belly Taco from HtownstrEATS - I've caught up with this truck several times since my report and am very impressed with both the inventiveness of the menu and the execution but nothing has surpassed the pork belly taco (or it's complement on that day, the butternut squash taco).

2. Just about any Crepe from Melange Creperie - this is such a novelty food to encounter on the streets of Houston (and such a welcome one); I haven't had a disappointing one of all the varieties I've tried.

3. Signature Taco - Indian beef short rib on grilled flatbread with spicy raita from Fusion Taco - I've liked everything I've had from the Fusion folks, especially the Fish Taco, perhaps the best I've ever had (in a category that doesn't get much love from me) and I love the Asian slaw on all their tacos, but this one really is special. The filling is different from the usual taco, the condiment is different and they've changed the holder but intrinsically it's a taco; it occupies the same space, intrinsically, as a taco. I haven't even tried the quesadillas, chalupas, flautas - hey!, it's a taco truck, not a quesadilla truck, right?

4. Grass-fed beef hamburger from Oh My Pocket Pies! - once again, I've liked just about everything I've had from OMPP! (is this sounding like a broken record?) but the deal is, a few years ago I was obsessed with finding the best burger in Houston, Burger Joint Division; hence the category on the sidebar. But I hardly ever eat burgers anymore; I've had maybe 5 at the most in the past year including a vegan burger at Loving Hut. There's so much more out there to try and enjoy but a great burger is still hard to resist and this is my favorite burger in Houston right now - simply and straight forwardly presented, without all the frou-frou that other burger joints are throwing between a bun in the competition to create the most elaborate, trendy, eye-popping and media-attention-grabbing variation as possible, just lettuce, pickle, onion, mustard, mayo, ketchup (if those condiments were good enough for Moses and the Twelve Apostles, they're good enough for me). I even forgo the cheese - with this burger, it's the grass-fed beef and the fresh-baked Krafts'men bun that does it.


BEST STREET FOOD - International Food Truck Division

We have a small and perhaps slowly growing collection of food trucks that don't really fit into the Gourmet truck category but aren't taco trucks. I've hit quite a few of them this year, more than actual taco trucks in fact. These were the best finds:

1. Arroz con gandules with Pernil at El Mofongo Boricua

2. Chicken Seekh Kabab Masala at Tandoori Nite

3. Empanadas and Hallacas at El Punto Criollo

All happen to operate along Highway 6 between I-10 and Bissonnet but that's just a coincidence. So far as I know, most of these International vendors are on the Southwest and West side of town.


BEST NEW FINDS - Brick and Mortar Restaurant Division

Again, more great finds, places that will be in my regular rotation for a long time, I surmise. I think about the food I had at these places regularly.

I've been unable to rank, them, however. I wind up either with three tied for # 1 and the fourth in second place or one in first place and the other three tied for second. I could have listed them alphabetically but decided just to list them in the chronological order in which I reported on them which happens to also be alphabetical. It's like destiny or something.

1. Argentina Cafe - empanadas, Sandwiches de Migas, Matambre and Chorripan - although the variety of empanadas isn't as impressive as Marini's, this is my go-to Argentinian place.

2. Jonathan's Grill - Pampanga's - Authentic Filipino Cuisine, Kapampangan Style, the haute cuisine of the Philippines and served up by a great crew in a food court.

3. Sheba Cafe - of our limited number of Ethiopian places, I prefer the wots here slightly and also the coffee, though the injera tends to be on the dry side for my taste.

4. Sweet n Namkin - Discriminating bloggers agree, this unpretentious Indian and Pakistani vegetarian snack place is a real jewel.

Jonathan's Grill - Pampanga's

8388 W. Sam Houston Parkway, # 135, in the Viet Hoa International Food Court

UPDATE 7/18/15 - THIS PLACE HAS BECOME LA FERNANDINO GRILL PAMPANGA'S - SAME LOCATION


The gang that got together for the BBQ comparison last November got together this week to try Jonathan's. Airon, whose family is from Manila, had promised to introduce us to Filipino food so when he announced another visit to Houston, we started making plans. Howard had seen signs in the Viet Hoa Center on the BW at Beechnut of a new Filipino fast food place and when I went to check it out I discovered there are two Filipino places in this food court. Jonathan's serves 'Authentic Filipino Cuisine, Kapampangan Style,' 'Sizzling Sisig, Barbeque and more.' Airon says the Pampanga province is noted for it's culinary excellence; this is the haute cuisine of the Philippines. Reading up on it, I was so pumped up I couldn't wait.


Jonathan's menu offers recreations of several favorite dishes of some popular Filipino restaurants - Spaghetti, Jollibee's style (yes, with hot dogs and banana ketchup), Everybody's Cafe style Pancit Palabok, Fried Chicken a la Max's, and Sizzling Sisig, Aling Lucing style, plus many of his own dishes.


On my first visit I tried the Pancit Palabok. To eat this, you add some lemon juice (jars on the condiments bar) and stir it all together. As is sometimes the case when trying a new cuisine, I wasn't really wowed with this dish. I liked the noodles, the crunchiness of the pork skins on top and the ground pork underneath plus the green onions but the sauce was nothing special to my palate. Airon says the dish is all about texture and how well the shrimp sauce is made, from pulverized dried shrimp I think.

It was obvious, though, Jonathan's is not your typical food court eatery and I went again a few days later.


Second time out I went for the Sizzling Chicken with Rice, served in a butter-rich gravy. Fried chicken in the Philippines means a very small bird, Cornish game hen size, un-battered or coated, deep fried whole or halved, then served with a sauce. This was much more impressive. On this occasion the rice was pretty fluffy but Filipino rice typically is sticky. In the background is the small side of atchara, pickled papaya, which I really liked. As should be apparent from these pictures, portions are kind of modest but I concluded from this visit that I was going to go in the direction of sampling more of Jonathan's own creations rather than his re-creations of other restaurant's dishes.

Finally it was time for Airon, Howard and myself to meet again. I had seen the combo with the pork bbq (skewer) and sisig and knew I wanted to try that plus the lumpia (Filipino egg rolls). The restaurant didn't have enough of the sisig for all three of us so we got what they had left, opted for 2 bbq pork skewers apiece, and an order of Fried Lumpia Shanghai. We each got a side of rice.




I could nosh and nibble on these first two dishes all day long. The skewers are popular street food in the Philippines, made with pork sirloin, I'm guessing, sliced in strips and folded on the skewers. The snack sized lumpia are a real treat. According to Jonathan, the Shanghai sauce is just ketchup, vinegar and sugar, plus a little love. Hmmm. Wonder what those specks are? The skewers were bigger than I remember them from the combo platters I saw being served before and I would have been plenty satisfied with just one, given everything else we had.

Aling Lucing's is a restaurant in Angeles City with a famous version of Sizzling Sisig; the dish is supposed to include such things as pigs head and liver. We detected some offal in the dish but not much; like the Pancit Palabok, it needs the addition of a few drops of lemon juice. I thought it was an interesting dish and shouldn't be off-putting even to those who think they don't like offal. Airon said there should have been more crispy pieces.

Note that a section of Jonathan's menu is Pulatan, meaning it is meant to be consumed with beer. Howard had brought along a selection of beers he brought back from a recent trip to Colorado. We tasted a Port Brewing Wipeout IPA first, then a Lost Abbey Red Barn Ale, and then the final one was the Odell IPA. I am not much of a beer drinker. Howard and Airon both loved the Odell best but I found the Lost Abbey selection most appealing; it reminded me very much of the excellent beers of the Celis brewery in Austin. By the time we got around to the last one, though, I was pretty sated.

Finally, Airon insisted on getting some Flan. The portion we got was intended for take home and supposedly was enough to serve 3 people. More like 6, maybe; it was so rich and creamy, we had to pause after each spoonful. It was an over-the-top finish to the meal and again I forgot to get the camera out.

We saw (and smelled) several other dishes being served including the two other fried chicken dishes, the Salpicao and Halo-Halo, a heaping ice cream, fruit and shaved ice desert.

I wasn't really sure I wanted to taste the spaghetti but I had really wanted to get a picture of it. I couldn't convince either of the others to order it but after seeing several other customers dig into their bowls with relish, I'm going to have to try it.

Word is getting out about Jonathan's in the Filipino community already. I almost had the place to myself on my first visit but on the last two, several tables were occupied with large groups ordering tons of food and obviously enjoying themselves.

Pinoy Fast Food is the only other restaurant open in the food court, a steam table operation. It's obvious several other restaurants have come and gone in this court which is at the far southern end of the Viet Hoa Center. I'd wager many people come and go to the Center and never realize where it is. The hours are in flux; signs variously indicate 8a to 7p or 8a to 10p but right now Jonathan's is only open 8a-7p Wednesday through Friday, 8a to 3p on Saturday and Sunday so call to confirm hours before driving a long distance (281-530-8887). On Friday evening we were there until almost 9pm and some customers came in just before we left.

The fast food buffet is also closed on Monday.

Note that several of the dishes on the weekend only menu, Tocilog, Longsilog and Dangsilog, are breakfast dishes. I think they would have served me the Longsilog on a Sunday about 1p if they'd had any left, however. Airon says the fact they're weekend only specials may mean Jonathan cures his own meats for those dishes.

Prices and dishes may vary at the restaurant from the menu posted above, of course. There's an extensive catering menu and the phrase 'Itawag ninyo, iluluto ko' which basically means call me, I'll fix anything you want, but we found out that applies only to the catering menu.

It is a bit presumptuous to start talking about my best finds of 2010, I guess, but I have a hunch Jonathan's will be on my list.