Sweet Inspirations Tea Room & Gift Shop

Stopped in to try out this new place near Kroger the other day.  The target demographic is most definitely Christian "ladies who lunch".  The decor is for sale, and is very nostalgic and Christian family oriented.  Christian popular music plays in the background.  

The food is absolutely delicious and very well done.  It is a classic tea room, featuring quiche, sandwiches (including cucumber) and a full tea menu.  I started off with one of their popular teas, the Houston Hero.  It is a delicious, full bodied tea, with a hint of caramel and almonds.  No sweetener needed for me, and I would say try any of them first before you add anything.  For my lunch I had the Tea Room Sampler, which includes a slice of quiche, a cup of soup, and a salad selection.  For the quiche, I had the sausage and spinach.  Nicely savory and very pleasing texture, really enjoyed it.  I went with the tortilla soup--very nice presentation with the colorful tortilla strips.  The soup itself was very thick, with good rich flavor and just a little kick.  The pasta salad was fine, a pasta with black and green olives and tomatoes.

For dessert I went with the brownie.  It had a crunchy chocolate top, kind of like a Nestle's Crunch bar but homemade, with a layer of marshmallow creme and the brownie.  Hard to eat with a fork but good to pick up, and the taste and texture combination was excellent.

The restaurant itself is spotless throughout, including the bathrooms.  Service is paced for conversation.  The teas are very unique, not a coffeehouse offering.  If this is your kind of thing you will find no better example.

My Yelp Review

Taqueria at Windrose Food Mart (Star Stop 58)

There is a new taqueria in the Exxon station at the corner of Gosling and Kuykendall, where Chai Taco used to be.  I believe there was one after Chai Taco that I never got to review, because when I stopped in today for lunch the owners are brand new--so new they have not come up with a name for their business yet.  

I ordered a plate with carnitas and beef birria, something unique in my experience.  They threw in a pork adobo taco as a sample.  The carnitas were very tasty, moist and tender with great pork flavor.  The beef was good and interesting--I could taste the beer and the flavor had a lot of depth. The beans and rice were the usual stuff.  The salsas definitely tasted homemade.  The salsa roja was decent, with a good strong kick.  The salsa verde was the highlight, though--it was delicious, excellent chile flavor that blended well with both the pork and beef.

The people are very friendly and seem ready to work hard.  The store itself is very clean, and the drink machine was in good working order.  The new business has some growing pains--the salsa came in a little bundle of plastic wrap, am guessing they didn't get their salsa cups in yet.  But I'm very happy to give a new food place a boost.  Hopefully they will get their name soon so we can leave reviews.

Uncle's BBQ

We've been watching for this place to open for awhile, and gave it a try for a family dinner a short while ago. Sure glad we did!  Overall an excellent experience.

Our order included a 3 meat platter, pulled pork sandwich, tacos, a baked potato, and dessert.  We ordered online late in the day.  As often happens with a good BBQ place, they were out of the ribs I ordered, and also 2 of 3 desserts.  But they called right away to let me know and offer a substitute on the meat.  

The headline product is BBQ, so we'll start with the meats.  I ordered moist brisket, sausage, and turkey.  The moist brisket is truly moist, nice and tender, and had a good smoke on it.  The sausage was great, a very balanced flavor--not too smoky or chewy, but not Polish either.  The turkey was moist and tender.  The sauce provided was very good--had a little kick to it and complemented the meats wonderfully.  The meats are lightly seasoned--this is sauce-oriented barbecue and is well executed.  

The pulled pork sandwich was one of the best we've had--we ate a lot more of it than we intended.  Great smoke flavor on the pork, and very tender.  The tacos were quite delicious and the potato was well received.

The sides were a mix--we had green beans, which were cooked southern-style (soft) and had great pepper and onion flavor.  No bacon that I could discern, so they might be vegetarian friendly.  We also had the shrimp fried rice, which was somewhat less successful.  Basically popcorn shrimp heated up with brown rice.  They should either kick that up a level or take it off.

Dessert was more of an adventure.  They were out of both apple crisp and pecan pie, but they had some banana pudding left.  I had ordered the pecan pie online, and to make up for it they offered 2 banana puddings.  We had ordered another banana pudding, and ended up with 2 total, so we were shorted just a little.  But the pudding itself was wonderful--creamy with great banana flavor.  I think you wouldn't miss with any of them.

They have a very broad menu so future visits will have many new things to try--we didn't get into the hot dogs, burgers, or empanadas.  They are close to the Corkscrew/Franklins/etc level and may yet get there.  4.5 stars rounded up.

My Yelp Review