REVIEW: Cafe Red Onion

[ormand]

REVIEW: Cafe Red Onion
by Ormand

Cafe Red Onion on Kirby
www.caferedonion.com
3910 Kirby Drive
Houston TX
(713) 807-1122

for food
for service
for price/value
for hawtness of staff

So tonight I just came back from Cafe Red Onion next to Myakos and Madras Pavillion on Kirby/59. This is a place I have never been to but have always been wanting to go, so I txted my dinner buddy Justine and we were set .

The menu consists of a variety of latin-influenced dishes that extend beyond our Mexican food. They have plantain and black bean sauces, salsas with corn and tomatoes and a wide range of other influences mixed in with all of there foods which makes the menu lively. We started off with there chips and salsa...the chips were the *real* Mexican chips that are nice and thick and not too greasy. The salsas were very interesting...both your standard red salsa (which was great and perhaps a lil sweet) and then an unusual pineapple salsa spiked with spices that was really good yet unusual. The chips and salsa alone were a draw to this establishment.

I ordered the Chicken Tikal, as described from there menu...

http://www.caferedonion.com/new_loMa...DinnerMenu.pdf

Breast of chicken grilled, served over black bean
sauce, laced with homemade queso and topped with
fried onions and a fresh Mexican corn relish. Comes

with grilled veggies, fried plantains & sour cream.

The chicken breast was a bit over-salted but tasty...yet I would have prefered less salt since the black bean sauce was already salty. Everything else on the plate was great and again, a bizzare mixture of foods. I particularly liked the fried plantain with sour cream.

Justine had ordered a chicken spinach quesadilla (I think)...

Fresh flour tortillas with spinach, grilled chicken

breast and melted Monterrey Jack cheese.

Her dish looked really good too and she said it was pretty tasty.

Each of our dishes was $12-13 + drink. The drink selection was dissapointing considering the influences and cultures available to there style of restaurant...the only unique drink was a "caribbean" shake which translated into a milk smoothie. Presentation of the dishes was superb.

I didn't give this restaurant the full 4 because everything was a little less than expected. Which such a wild range of options they have available to exploit, the end result left me wanting a little more. The staff could have been hotter...like some nice Brazilian or Chile women.

The End