Amazing Amazon

During my time in Houston I have heard endless rants and raves about just how good Churrascos, Americas, and the other Corduarestaurants are.  Unfortunately, as a 24 year old male these restaurants tend to lie outside of my price range.  Then I caught word of a cheaper restaurant in that family and of course I had to give it a try.

Amazon Grill definitely jumps out at you as you drive down Kirby just south of 59, the banana yellow exterior alone is enough to make you stop and investigate this place further.

The interior is no exception to that rule either, for a counter service restaurant the furniture is trendy and even the duct work is artistically designed.

One of my favorite features of this place was the plantain bar.  How could you resist a serve yourself fried plantain bar?  For those of you who don’t remember me talking about these in the past, these are a substitute for tortilla chips when in this form.  They are sliced thin and perfect for dipping in the variety of sauces.

And sauces this place had, there were about 3 different salsas and even some rich chimichurri, what I like to think of as South American pesto.

Now comes the real food, we will start with mine to get it out of the way.  I ordered the Plantain-Coconut Shrimp, basically coconut shrimp with plantains creating the crispy crunchity exterior.  It was served up with a side of sweet chile sauce and I opted for a side of yuca fries (note that these are not made from yucca plants that you see in the deserts of Texas and other regions, but rather from the plant we know as cassava).  The shrimp was average at best and the sweet chile sauce was lacking, the best part of my meal was the fries but thankfully I had another meal to fall back on.

That is where the delicious Mixed Grill dish came into play.  This amazing plate is chimichurri grilled beef tenderloins, grilled chicken, and achiote grilled shrimp.  If the meats weren’t good enough for you this dish is served up with some cilantro rice, escabeche vegetable (personally one of my favorite Latin sides, basically pickled veggies with loads of flavor), and some roasted plantains with some crema fresca.  All in all this is an amazing plate and enough food for two making the $13.95 price tag a great bargain.

My addiction to plantains also mandated a side order of roasted plantains (note here they are called maduros in case you are looking for them on the menu).  They certainly didn’t disappoint someone who was jonesing for a fix.