Well, Explore Houston 2012 has begun! I looked on some Houston foodie blogs and they mentioned this place had the "Best Comfort Food of 2010" ... I'm a little late to the party - but I looked it up and it's still open, had decent reviews and was only 20 minutes or so from the house. Explore Houston begins --- and begins pretty close to home!
Conrad and I agreed to try it out for Sunday lunch and all the reviews I read said the food was really good - even outstanding in some instances. They said the service was terrible and the place was run by "young kids" - and since Cy-Fair High School is literally across the street, it made sense to me!
We arrived and it's a very unassuming place - right next to the railroad tracks - I guess, thus lending the name "Cypress STATION Grill". Clever.
They have a HUGE parking lot which always wins my vote! They also have a pretty decent outdoor area - for outdoor eating, concerts, etc - had it been evening, no doubt the fireplace would have been lit. It's very nice. I liked it! We are thinking of building a very similiar fireplace outside, when our new house is built.
The interior was nice and they had various railroad company logos all over: Union Pacific, Amtrak, BNSF, etc ... clever. Menus were fair (sort of boring looking) ... but they have a HUGE selection. Tons of apps --- salads, tons of burgers, pastas, and comfort food. It took forever for us to decide, but in reading the reviews everyone recommended the chicken fried chicken. Said it was NOT TO MISS. The prices were fair - burgers about $8 although they did offer a bison burger for $15. The pastas were around $12 - the apps were $4-5.
So we finally decided and ordered the queso to start. DEFINITELY the star of the show. The chips were warm and crispy - and the queso was WHITE QUESO. LOVE LOVE LOVE and it's so rare! This queso came with taco meat, guacamole and pico de gallo on the side in little cups. So we added that, of course, and it was delicious. Still missing something though- so we asked for jalapenos to add. They came and it was PERFECT. It didn't have much zip without them, and Conrad and I are pretty zippy people. I recommend this queso - I mean I would DRIVE there just to get it. It's pretty, huh?
Conrad got a burger. I asked him was it akin to Chili's ... or a more homestyle burger like this place in Tomball - Mel's --- and he said more like Mel's. So I thought this was good. Homemade type burgers always win my vote. I went with the chicken fried chicken. It was HUGE - and the gravy was really nice. I went with green beans which were a good solid B - they had the bacon and onions like I like but were a tad too crunchy .... and the broccoli and cheese was off the CHAIN. It had the white cheese like the queso. I could have licked the bowl. The CFC was a bit of a disappointment. It was seasoned well - and was pounded out to a nice thin/but not too thin, thickness - and the batter stuck to the chicken. BUT it wasn't near crispy enough. I like it be like --- when you go to Long John Silver's and get the crispys --- I like to have a few really crispy, battery pieces on it and this one didn't have it. You can tell by the picture the batter just isn't brown enough. It should be dark, in my opinion, KFC dark, you know?
We give this place a good B+. The service was great - we didn't have a problem in the world and the place WAS filled with kids that worked there. Our drinks were filled a million times, the food came fast - it was fine. The queso is worth the trip --- and I'll go back for that, if nothing else. They DID charge me $.79 for the jalepenos which I think is CRAP and I left them a note to say so. I buy giant jars of them for $1.19 --- that is a RIP OFF. It came to us in this tiny little cup (see the honey mustard cup next to Conrad's french fries? It was a cup like that, SMALL) - probably 15 altogether, I mean REALLY? I don't like being nickeled and dimed to death - it was already a $30 check for goodness sakes. That was a turn off, or I would have probably said A- on this place.
Explore Houston will be continuing! I won't always be talking about restaurants - I want to see other things too and I have an idea of what those places are, but I'm hoping there will be tons of resturants reviews too. Finding new places is probably one of my favorite things!
Kah
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