1800 Post Oak Boulevard, 77056.
[Dec. 14th, 2007] Americas is New World Latin Cuisine restaurant… that is what it says on the website. Americas is owned by the Cordúa restaurant group, all of which has some sort of Latin inspiration. I got the pleasure of being taken on a date here… and I have to say, the ambiance is quite nice. The setting, very romantic and dim light, even though I prefer the company of bright fluorescent light cascading down on me with my meal… one still needs to understand mood setting. Getting to this location, however, seemed like a daunting task. Parking is underground and when you walk up to the big sign, you actually have to enter the mall. Then, you must twist and turn till you come to the restaurant entrance in the mall… perhaps there was another location to enter from, but we did not see it.
These are fried plantain chips, aka my addiction. When I go to their sister restaurant, Amazón Grill, I can honestly nibble up to 10 bags of these. They are fried so crisp, not too greasy and dips well with the provided cilantro pesto dipping oil. But, I still prefer to eat these by themselves, just have to remember to practice portion control.
This appetizer, what I thought was a twist on crab cakes, is actually corn smoked crab fingers with herb yuca polenta and jalapeño lime sauce. It was very good, the crab fingers I could do without, but that yuca polenta is magnificent. The dish is called Marineros and stacks in at $16.
For my main dish, I skipped all the specials and went straight for the paella. I knew I wanted paella at a Latin restaurant for some time now. The dish is called, Arroz, paella with grilled fish, chicken, crab, chorizo, shrimp, scallops and calamari with saffron rice $29. In my opinion, the best bet, it came with everything on the menu except for red meat. I wanted to eat lighter, so I chose seafood and it did not disappoint. I think my favorite was the scallop and calamari. The shrimp was grilled too much on the salty side for my taste. The saffron rice was a good filler for the light seafood, but I thought that saffron rice would be something of a higher caliber.
My date had the special of the day. It was basically like my paella dish, minus the saffron rice, plus a lobster tail. The lobster was no doubt delicious, the shrimp was the same salty ones, and everything else was great. This dish came in at a whopping $50… all for the lobster I guess.
With our meal, we had complimentary sides. At first, it was thought of because we ordered a whole bottle of wine, but I soon realized that the table next to us had this as well, without a whole bottle of wine. The sides were composed of broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, fried plantain, croquettas, and rice. I loved the fried croquettas, and we see a trend with me and fried foods. I can’t have them often, but who will disagree with me that anything fried will taste as least decent?
To top the night off, we ordered the Tres Leches cake $7. How can we pass it up? Even if we are full to the brim, this is a must try. And, I’m glad I did. The cake wasn’t really cake consistency. It was a cross of cake and pudding… sponge cake-ish with cream sauce. The cake seemed soaked in this cream sauce and this made the cake heavenly. This cake is really really sweet, and oh very very heavy. A good dessert after seafood, but not seafood and rice. Heh.
At the end of the night, I’m happy to have experienced this restaurant. I would definitely recommend this place for anniversaries, birthdays, and what nots… but just remember, it can get kind of pricey.
