The Washington Post very recently published “A local’s guide to Houston,” just the sixth one joining Phoenix, Moscow, Montreal, Bogata, and Madrid in a seemingly new project by the paper.  The concise guide is actually pretty good, especially when highlighting cultural and recreational spots, but as a former author and contributor to guidebooks about Houston, I do have a few quibbles with the restaurants and bars recommended, of course.  I’m a critic; I criticize. 
 
Within the format of the guide, which I think is well done, here are restaurants to replace several of those recommended:

• EggHaus Gourmet – A rather obscure and singular place near Timbergrove from the folks at King’s Bierhaus serving breakfast tacos and odd versions of kolaches – ever heard of a bratwurst kolache?  Replacement: Kolache Shoppe –  These two locations are easily the two best outposts for kolaches in Houston and likely the entire state – Weikel's Bakery in La Grange is the only serious challenger I’ve found – and the drive-thru of the Heights spot is the source of a mini-traffic jam every weekend morning.
• The Rice Box – The coolly set little Chinese-American place on the curve on Shepherd across the street from The Backstreet Café attracts a younger set. Replacement: Pepper Twins – One of the several home-grown Sichuan-specialists is on West Gray, a half-mile away, serving far better food in the Chinese vein, it has resonated with both the growing Chinese community and any diner who enjoys usually well-crafted food with noticeably high quality ingredients.
• Ninfa’s on Navigation – The Tex-Mex landmark that help instigate the fajita craze several decades ago was a Houston favorite for years. Replacement: El Tiempo on Navigation – Ninfa Laurenzo’s family long ago moved on to El Tiempo and has seemingly much of the former staff at Ninfa’s; serving similar fare, but just much better and in a much more consistent fashion, especially those grilled steak offerings.
• Mai’s – The Midtown spot that had served as introduction to Vietnamese for many college students has been known mostly for its late hours, post bar, when the dishes happened to taste a lot better. Replacement: Thien An Sandwiches – There are still a number of Vietnamese restaurants in Midtown, though not as many as in years past, and the no-frills Thein An is the best, serving excellent versions of all the local favorites across banh mi, bun, com dia, banh cuon, and pho – where the old school tripe and tendon can still be added.  It does close at 6:00, unfortunately.
• Tacos Tierra Caliente – The food truck across the street from the West Alabama Ice House is alright, if nothing special other than it’s often quite handy location. Replacement: Master Taco – A few blocks away on Richmond and Woodhead, this friendly daytime and early evening spot from a family from the state of Guerrero, in which Acapulco is located, crafts some terrific small tacos on both corn and flour tortillas, both house-made.
• Coltivare – This place on White Oak can be credited with generating interest in the Heights as a dining destination, though it’s been surpassed by several other restaurants in the neighborhood. Replacement: Squable – Comfort, wit, intelligence, experience and a lot skill are hallmarks of this eclectic eatery that is especially good with breads and cocktails and almost everything, actually, as it is the top dining spot in the Heights, and one of the best in the city.
• True Anomaly and Truckyard – A new brewery and a fun, tacky, beer garden imported from Dallas were two of the recommendations for EaDo.  Given my experiences, I cannot suggest visiting a small domestic brewery in good conscience, and there are better options in EaDo for those past their mid-twenties to imbibe than the Truckyard. Replacements: J-Bar-M and Tiny Champions – The new barbecue joint is not only the slickest in the area, it serves up fantastic ‘cue and with an expansive, attractive bar and plenty of seating with views of some of the nearby downtown skyline. Tiny Champions, a funky place with well-crafted pastas, cocktails, ice cream and pizzas.  It’s the best pizza joint in town these days.

 
And a couple of other things worth revision:

• “Don’t leave without having: A rib-eye at any of the bars that hosts a steak night throughout the week…”  I had to laugh at this, as did a friend in the hospitality business and a former bar owner here.  Neither of us could recall a decent steak we’ve had at any bar’s steak night over the years, and it’s got to be tougher to pull off with more expensive beef these days.  These promotions don’t exactly draw the most demanding diners.
• “But the local favorite is really: Food trucks….”  There might be a number of food trucks in Houston, but with our usually hot and humid weather, the area is not as well suited to food trucks as a place like Los Angeles.  A much better option to the food truck scene is the broadly similar food halls, which have sprung up in recent years.  Bravery Chef Hall, The Post Market, Railway Heights, and Finn Hall are all worth visiting.  Not only can you dine under cover and in air conditioning with metal utensils and proper plates, you will find an array of dining options much better than from the food trucks. 
• “But the local favorite is really:..pizza….”  Though it pains me to write this, but Houston is not a good pizza town.  The recommendable pizzerias are limited: the aforementioned Tiny Champions, Poscol, Vinny’s, Rudyard’s. Though pizza is certainly eaten often here, a cuisine that is very popular, deeply woven into the local dining culture, and is done here as well or better than anywhere else in the country is Vietnamese, and something visitors should try before any pizza place.  The complex beef broth anchoring a good bowl of pho or a crusty loafed banh mi are two types of often excellent locally found fare to be had for a comparative song.
  

 
On last thing, for the ink about The Menil Collection, I would have mentioned Barnett Newman’s “Broken Obelisk” that’s set on a reflecting pool near the Rothko Chapel, one of my favorite pieces of public art in Houston. 
 
There is a lot that can be recommended for Houston.

The fiery, delicious Pepper Twins Chicken that's just $11.99 for lunch during the week.

Jalapeños at 2702 Kirby, just south of Westheimer, was an Upper Kirby favorite for years that succumbed to development at the end of 2005.  Pondicheri among others rests on its ashes today.  I wrote in the first edition of Houston Dining on the Cheap that “Jalapeños is back among the better Mexican restaurants in town.  In fact, Jalapeños is, overall, one of the best Mexican restaurants in town.”  Its spinach enchiladas were the first dish I recommended and were among my favorites there.
 
Those can be found at Seco’s Latin Cuisine tucked away in a small house on Nottingham, a stone’s throw from Kirby, and not far north from the Rice Village.  Owned by the former chef at Jalapeños who has had Seco’s for about fifteen years now, which has a menu that has morphed over those years to one that is nearly fully Tex-Mex, if with a decided accent from the 1990s or so.  Chief among that vibe is Chef Seco’s Famous Original Spinach Enchiladas.  Featuring, rather unusually, flour tortillas that are filled with roughly chopped spinach and a mild cheese then topped with a cilantro cream sauce and served with lightly Spanish rice and choice of refried black beans or charro beans.  The enchiladas taste comfortable to me – and an order in which I can try to believe I am eating healthy – and readily enjoyable with spinach that’s verdant but not overpoweringly herbaceous nor harsh, and the flour tortillas carry a surprisingly light touch, even with a cream sauce atop.  It is a taste of Houston restaurant history, albeit not too distant one, but a remainder to me how much has changed in the local dining landscape in the past couple of decades.
 
Seco’s is set in an old house with several small rooms.  It is quaint, and there are very few parking spaces at the restaurant.  You should be able to find parking easily across the street, though.
 
Seco’s Latin Cuisine
2536 Nottingham (just east of Kirby), 77005, (713) 942-0001
secoslatincuisineinc.com

Just $12.99 and with chips and salsa, of course

Eating a pambazo the other day at La Chingada – a small place that I have really enjoyed in recent months that’s quite friendly in contrast to its somewhat crass name – made clear why I often hesitate to order tortas, Mexican-style sandwiches found at taquerias around town.  A pambazo is basically a quickly pan-fried torta drenched in a guajillo pepper sauce, a piquant knife-and-fork sandwich.  I enjoyed the version at La Chingada but that sauce-soaked telera roll was obviously of the dull, lousy Mrs. Baird’s-like quality.  The same issue occurs with the torta at another Mexican spot I’ve had some very good food from, Master Tacos.  The tacos are great there, but the torta is handicapped by cheap-tasting bread.  That happens at too many places.  Most Mexican restaurants here, in fact, in my experience.  The tortillas might be made in house or are otherwise good quality, but the bread, either the telera or bolillo rolls, is of the inexpensive, overly processed variety.
 
As with other types of sandwiches, the bread is substantial part of the whole; it’s not going to be a good sandwich without pretty good bread, at least.
 
There are certainly exceptions to the curse of Mrs. Baird’s afflicting area Mexican eateries.  The fairly new Urbe, from Hugo Ortega and team, has excellent breads for its torta-like creations and Mexico’s Deli on Dairy Ashford, still possibly Houston’s torta king, has long served quality rolls for its innumerable sandwiches.  But, unfortunately, when thinking about a torta at a Mexican restaurant, you might want to think more about something else.

Lame, processed-tasting supermarket bolillos; the problem at many places.

Spent the past weekend in New Orleans helping to celebrate a friend’s birthday with a big group and indulging into much rich Creole fare.  Too much alcohol, too, of course.  It seems impossible to eat without drinking there, especially as a tourist.  As in the past, the weekend’s festivities began with a Friday lunch downstairs at the famed Galatoire’s, which is something special, largely for its celebratory environment that’s raucous yet mostly refined, but the food is terrific, and has been on each of several visits.
 
The menu is not inexpensive, but fairly priced.  Many of the dishes are centered around locally sourced seafood.  High quality seafood bears a cost.  The fairness in pricing extends to its good-sized French-heavy wine list, and maybe more so to its spirits.
 
After we finished with the food – at the men’s table, as the women shunted us to a separate one where the desserts were overlooked but the beverage list not at all – my brother tapped me on the shoulder to show me what another person in our group had just ordered, a glass of Macallan 12-year-old filled neatly a full-three fingers high.  That was a surprisingly stout pour, and just $15.  In Houston, to give a few examples, an order of Macallan 12 at both Georgia James and Le Jardinier is a full ten dollars more, and nearly so at Squable where it is $24.  The pours at most establishments in Houston are probably an ounce or even an ounce-and-a-half less than the one at Galatoire’s, also.  It was impressive.  The Macallan 12 is an entry level Speyside single-malt whisky that is easily enjoyable for me most after-dinners with a big meal.  With the tariff for that quality and quantity, I had to order one.  It might have been two; it was a fun afternoon.
 
I’ve experienced this over the many years in New Orleans; in the tackiest touristy bars in the French Quarter to the nicest restaurants in the city, the town does not rip you off with the alcohol.  I find that the quality of the cocktails there are usually just middling, even at James Beard Award-winning bars and restaurants, including at several in a few days, though Commander’s Palace in a notable exception in this regard.  Regardless of the quality of mixing, the drink is always strong, and usually more-than-properly priced.  Plus, the settings and atmospheres are almost always a lot of fun.   

A neat whisky at Galatoire's the other day.  Note all the stains nearby.