The Republic Grille

The Republic Grille is an established favorite in The Woodlands, but I have never gotten around to trying it until we had a family dinner there the other night. We tried several items so this is a detailed review.

We started off with appetizers--we got the bruschetta and the mac and cheese bites. The bruschetta was a good choice since the restaurant does not start with a bread course. The bread was appropriately chewy and the marinated tomatoes went well with it. This is a generous appetizer, there were more than 10 pieces of bread, so it's good for large groups. The mac and cheese bites were a real treat. The breading had just the right crunch and was very flavorful. The mac and cheese tasted like fine cheese, as advertised. I can recommend it.

Two of our party got the tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich, with salads--a meatless Caesar and a TRG. The salads were good representations, lots of arugula on the TRG. The tomato soup was very good, with a nice bold tomato flavor. The grilled cheese sandwiches were pretty ordinary, you might make better at home. But they did serve as a good dipper for the soup.

One of us got the shrimp scampi. The shrimp were cooked nicely--maybe just barely past fresh, but well worth eating. The pasta sauce is different than other scampis I've had. The garlic was only in the wine sauce, very subtle. The strong flavors came from the capers and the tomatoes. They use the same marinated tomatoes in the scampi as they do with the bruschetta. The scampi also comes with bruschetta bread, something you might think about when you pair appetizers and mains. The flavors were present and the pasta was cooked well, but personally I'm not sure I would get it again.

Lastly we had a chicken fried steak. It is billed as an award-winning Wagyu beef steak. The breading is quite delicious, crisp and well seasoned. The gravy is good too. But like most other CFS I've had, the breading comes off the meat as you eat it. The cut looked like eye of round, kind of dense and not as tender as you'd expect from a Wagyu billing. On the whole, it's as good as nearly all chicken fried steaks I've eaten. The only time I've really liked it is at a place that served chicken fried ribeye.  I got grilled asparagus and mashed potatoes with it.  The asparagus was done nicely, and the potatoes were fluffy and tasted fresh made.

We went for a dessert, the molten chocolate lava cake. This features a regular brownie with a fudge center, and vanilla ice cream with chocolate shavings. I liked the brownie--a lot of places have this and it's barely cooked, mushy and too sweet. This one had a firm caramelized crust and was just the right sweetness. Good way to finish.

The restaurant is tucked away in a corner of the Panther Creek Shopping Center and is usually busy. The decor is classic upscale, not obtrusive and dark but not too dark. Service was fine, we reserved online and were seated right on time. Overall it's a solid choice.

My Yelp Review