Trip to Houston, June 2016: El Tiempo Cantina

Tex-Mex cuisine is very popular in Texas, so one of the evenings, the team had dinner together at El Tiampo Cantina, located at Vintage Park.

The restaurant may look quiet from the outside, but as the door opened, whoa...the place was packed even at 6:30p.m.! Thankfully the team made a reservation, especially since it'll be a large group of like 20 over people.

The interior of the restaurant feels very 'old school + Mexican'. The stairs to the 1st floor was really steep, so walking up the stairs with heels just didn't feel like the best idea, especially after work with the laptop & all. Lighting was REALLY dim, so please excuse my photos quality.

Their menu is extensive, with tonnes of Tex-Mex dishes! If you're new to Tex-Mex dishes, you'll be totally lost. AK who's vegetarian was really lost with the menu & she gave up looking at it after a while. Thankfully, the team lead pre-ordered the dishes for that evening with some vegetarian dishes for our Indian-vegetarian colleagues.

Without any images, one will seriously be confused as to what's what

Side: Guacamole & salsa - to go with the meat + tortilla

Appetizer: Fried Tortilla with Cheese Dip

As it's AK's first time having Tex-Mex food, I had to explain to her what each dish is like & to assure her that it's vegetarian. She was very amused when I connected each dish with her roots of Indian cuisine! Check out how I did that in the next photo ;)

Fajita, Tortilla, Rice & Beans & the grilled Meats

Flavors were pleasant, but I didn't find them "wow". The grill was quite unique though & they used charcoal for the grills, which gave the meats/vegetables a nicer, smokier taste. I told AK to imagine:

Fajita = alike Tandoori vegetables/meats

Tortilla = alike Chapati

Mexican-flavored rice = alike Briyani Rice

We ended the evening with some happy chatters before calling it a night. There goes another day in Houston. One last blog post on Houston & I'll move to something else :)

El Tiempo Cantina
Vintage Park Leasing & Management
114 Vintage Park Blvd
Houston, TX 77070.
Tel: (+1) 281-374-0500
Business hours: Mon & Tues 11:00a.m. - 9:00p.m.; Wed & Thurs  11:00a.m. - 9:30p.m.; Fri & Sat 11:00a.m. - 10:30p.m.; Sun  9:30a.m. - 9:00p.m.
URL: http://eltiempocantina.com/vintage-park/
GPS: 29.9947833,-95.5747085


Enjoy Tex-Mex, but this was nothing "wow" to me,