Monday, August 5, 2024

Parrillero Catracho

This little place flies under the radar a bit, tucked away in a corner of a strip mall set back from Spring Stuebner. But it's been there awhile so I stopped in the other day to give it a try. The restaurant has a dauntingly large menu of Honduran and Venezuelan items. I had a pollo (chicken) pastelito to start, and the pork chop entree. As far as I can tell they do not offer desserts.

The pastelito is a fairly small bite, but it was fried fresh and was warm and crisp when delivered. The crust was perfectly crisp and had just a bit of that promising shine of grease. The filling was quite delicious. The texture and flavor set me up to enjoy the meal.

The pork chop was lightly breaded and seasoned and pan fried. It was cut quite thin. When a chop is thin there's about a 10 second window from under to overdone. The chef hit it perfectly. The texture and flavor were great. I often hesitate to order pork chops in a restaurant because they are normally dry and overdone. This was one of the best I have had. The dish came with rice and beans on the plate. The rice is a more sticky variety than the usual Tex-Mex rice, and has some different seasonings. I really enjoyed it. The refried beans are darker and have a rich flavor.

The entree is served with a side of plantain chips. It's a very generous serving, easy for at least 2 to share. They were sliced very thin and fried to order, nice and warm when they came out. The seasoning is very light, so I did add some salt, but the texture was perfect and they tasted great.

Service was fine but we had some awkward moments--I get the impression that the customers are mostly regulars. If you decide to come, just pick a table and sit--someone will eventually come to serve. The pace is very relaxed, you will need to allow time. They do have agua frescas, I would get that next time instead of soda. I can say for sure that they know how to cook, everything was done about as well as it can be.

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