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Luna y Sol, Home-Cooked Mexican in Midtown - Formerly BYO, Now With Beer and Micheladas


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If you happen to be in midtown Houston (adjacent to Downtown, Museum District, and Montrose), you could do worse than heading to the Mekong Center on Milam.  While you could definitely hit one of Houston's top (maybe the top) banh mi shops in Les Givral's, I would recommend grabbing one of those to go after a lunch of home-cooked Mexican (like, real Mexican, not the delicious-in-it's-own-right Houston version of Tex-Mex) at Luna y Sol.  Anywhere on the East Coast, this would likely be a relentlessly blogged-about and critically-acclaimed place.  In Texas, it's good.  Really good, but then, there are a number of these type of places tucked here and there, and everyone has their favorite neighborhood joint.  

You order at the counter from a fairly extensive menu, get a number, and have a seat.  They charge for chips and a nice, aggressively-spiced red salsa that is served warm.  The chips are on the thinner side and appear to be homemade.  I would say it is worth the charge to get them, but many in Houston would get their pitchforks out and call for someone's head over charging for it.  Enchiladas verdes were as good as they can get (which is very, very good), and could only have been better had the chicken stuffing been ever so slightly more moist.  The salsa verde was mildly spicy and piquant...perfect degree of acidity from the tomatillos.  Instead of drowning in cheese or crema, there was a restrained and appropriate dusting and squiggle on top.  The charro beans were far from mushy, and simmered in a deeply-flavored broth that begged to be spooned over the requisite Spanish rice.  I grabbed a bottle of hot sauce from the condiments counter but it remained unopened.  That is a major compliment.

As good as the enchiladas were, the highlight was an order of 2-bite al pastor "street tacos."  These come 3 to an order, and are offered in a variety of meats and vegetables.  Small, toothsome yellow corn tortillas topped with just the right amount of protein, finely diced onion and cilantro.  The pork was excellent, with craggy bits of caramelization throughout.  I'll have to try the rajas next time.

No longer BYO, they have a good selection of Mexican beers, and make a mean michelada with whichever beer you'd like, and offer margaritas with a beer floater, though I can't speak to how good those are.

There were a few other small Vietnamese joints in the mini mall that looked worth a visit, though there are approximately a million of those scattered throughout Houston as well.

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