Americas (River Oaks)
This entry was posted on 1/8/2011 9:00 AM and is filed under New Openings, Casual Chic - Jeans Allowed.
We aren't big fans of the long standing Americas on Post Oak but recent press enticed us to try this new, hot and happening restaurant on West Gray in the River Oaks shopping center area. We dropped our car off with the valet and took an elevator to the second floor. We wouldn't have expected this new location to be boringly designed, and we weren't disappointed. The Cordua Group continued the funky, eclectic, eccentric -- you give it a name ... decor of the original Americas. This is a large restaurant, but it was packed on a recent Saturday evening. And we had reservations which were clearly necessary.
Service was prompt and friendly. We tried a couple of the specialty cocktails -- the ciprihana and margarita. Both were very good, as were the obligatory fried plantains that arrived shortly after we were seated. Served with three sauces, we only liked the old standby chimichurri, and we weren't quite sure what the others were. Credit to the waitstaff who saw that we were going through the chimichurri quite rapidly (in our defense, the bowl was very smal) and brought us more.
We started with the taquito medley which included four taquitos with various toppings. Our favorites were the short rib and bacon wrapped quail, although the almost iconic softshell crawfish was also quite good. The plaintain crusted shrimp didn't excite us. True to form, we couldn't resist the potato crusted calamari, which wasn't bad but also wasn't great. The jalapeno remoulade was forgettable. We shared the crispy carnitas entree. We were expecting bite sized pieces of pork, but we received two large chunks of slow cooked pork shoulder, slightly crisp around the edges, served on a very tasty creamy rice with peppers. We ended up taking most of the pork home for lunch the next day, and it improved with a little more cooking. The roasted vegetables and rice served family style were a nice accompaniment.
2040 West Gray
832200-1492
http://www.cordua.com/americas/
