MIKE RICCETTI
  • The best of Houston dining
    • Best Values
    • Breakfast
    • Chinese
    • Cocktails
    • Fajitas
    • Hamburgers
    • The Heights
    • Italian
    • Indian / Pakistani
    • Mexican
    • Middle Eastern
    • Pizzerias
    • Sandwiches
    • Splurge-Worthy
    • Steakhouses
    • Sushi
    • Tacos
    • Tex-Mex
    • To Take Visitors
  • Musings on Houston Dining
    • The best new restaurants to open in 2023
    • Houston's Italian restaurant history
    • Restaurants open for lunch (or brunch) on Saturday
    • Restaurants open for Sunday dinner
    • Restaurants open for lunch on Monday
    • Restaurants open for dinner on Monday
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2022
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2021
  • The margherita pizza project
  • The martini project
  • Italian restaurant history
  • Italian & Italian-American
  • Entertaining tips
    • Booze basics
    • Styles of Cheeses
    • Handling Those Disruptive Guests
  • Wine
  • Beer
  • Cocktails and Spirits
  • Miscellaneous
  • Blog
  • The best of Houston dining
    • Best Values
    • Breakfast
    • Chinese
    • Cocktails
    • Fajitas
    • Hamburgers
    • The Heights
    • Italian
    • Indian / Pakistani
    • Mexican
    • Middle Eastern
    • Pizzerias
    • Sandwiches
    • Splurge-Worthy
    • Steakhouses
    • Sushi
    • Tacos
    • Tex-Mex
    • To Take Visitors
  • Musings on Houston Dining
    • The best new restaurants to open in 2023
    • Houston's Italian restaurant history
    • Restaurants open for lunch (or brunch) on Saturday
    • Restaurants open for Sunday dinner
    • Restaurants open for lunch on Monday
    • Restaurants open for dinner on Monday
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2022
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2021
  • The margherita pizza project
  • The martini project
  • Italian restaurant history
  • Italian & Italian-American
  • Entertaining tips
    • Booze basics
    • Styles of Cheeses
    • Handling Those Disruptive Guests
  • Wine
  • Beer
  • Cocktails and Spirits
  • Miscellaneous
  • Blog
MIKE RICCETTI

Mostly food and drink...

...and mostly set in Houston

Easily the best meal I’ve had in the last few weeks was at Saldivia’s

8/27/2022

0 Comments

 
I dine out frequently; it’s been even more so this August with Houston Restaurant Weeks that benefits the Houston Food Bank – doing charity work while at the table – and also some renewed desire to try and re-try places on my lengthy list of eateries.  And I’ve eaten at a number of well-regarded restaurants very recently including Izakaya, The Grove, Brasserie du Parc, Kiran's, Coppa Osteria, Weights & Measures, Bludorn, Riel, Toro Toro, and The Annie.  A few a visits were for lunch or happy hour and a few were quite good, but clearly the best meal I’ve had in the last three restaurant-packed weeks was at Saldivia’s, the Uruguayan steakhouse in west Houston.

Long a favorite of the family, we ate there in early August for the first time since the advent of the pandemic.  It had been too long.  My meal was terrific, no surprise.  The star, as almost always, was the entraña, a dark-brown cut of skirt steak crisscrossed with darker grill marks and topped with a nearly addictive chimicurri sauce and in a small pool by some bloody juice from being perfectly cooked to medium-rare.

The entraña is the signature cut at Saldivia’s.  It is the rather humble outside skirt steak – which is from the plate section, below the rib and between the brisket and flank and whose fat has been trimmed off by the restaurant.  Proprietor Gus Saldivia told us that he purchases halal steaks for its more natural and better flavor.  The entraña remained juicy and remarkably tender for the cut, while being nicely beefy and extremely flavorful.  Though no assist was necessary, the oily, tart and garlicky house-made chimichurri sauce is an excellent accompaniment.  Made in the traditional Uruguayan, Argentine way, it is much more savory and complementary to food than the versions of chimichurri served at Churrascos and the newish Toro Toro in the Four Seasons.

The twelve-ounce steak came with a half-dozen slices of grilled carrot, squash and zucchini displayed in an alternating orange, yellow and green-tinged array, a thick column of yellow rice and some plump, roasted potatoes with a few small pieces of parsley, all provided welcome partners to the meaty centerpiece.  It was an impressive plate for now just $35 or so.  Excellent empanadas in several varieties, blood sausage, sauteed sweetbreads and crusty, fresh bread provided the delicious opening rounds.  And there was plenty Tannant, the star varietal of Uruguay, to wash down the meats and everything.  It was a fun, caloric and noticeably very tasty visit once again, notable even among meals at top local restaurants.
 
Saldivia’s
10850 Westheimer (between Walnut Bend and Westheimer), Houston, 77042, (713) 782-9494
saldivias.com

An order of the entraña at Saldivia's earlier this month
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Author

    Mike Riccetti is a longtime Houston-based food writer and former editor for Zagat, and not incidentally the author of three editions of Houston Dining on the Cheap.

    Picture

    Archives

    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All
    Beer
    Cocktails
    Italian
    Margherita Pizzas
    Recipes
    Restaurants
    Wine

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.