Chinese - The Ambassador Chinese Restaurant - A Time Warp on Richmond Avenue

Let me tell you about my own personal favorite hangout. 

The Ambassador Chinese Restaurant is located on Richmond just next to the Rajun Cajun. 

There is no question that there are better Chinese restaurants in town. No argument here. But sometimes, it isn’t just about the food. And I promise you, for an all around fun experience you can't beat Ambassador. Giant shrimp eggrolls photo with dollar bill for comparison.

(Because sometimes, one just craves a simple but perfectly executed chicken chow mein with lots of vegetables!)

It is like taking a time machine back to the 50's. You walk in, and you'll hear Frank Sinatra playing through the stereo system. The waitresses are adorable. They have been serving customers there for years, and if you say something that gets them to give a nervous laugh, they will cover their mouth with their hands. It’s kind of like trying to get the guards at Buckingham Palace to crack a smile. But in a good way. They are real sweet-hearts. On some nights you might see a group of WWII veterans hanging out at their own table. Or ladies from the River Oaks crowd. Or hipsters. And old white guys like me.

The food is Cantonese and it is the Cantonese that used to be all that you could find in Houston when I was growing up in the 50's. 

The egg foo yung is crazy. When it comes out you will swear they brought you a giant chicken fried steak. 

The egg rolls are super sized, probably the biggest ones in town. 

The hot and sour soup is just perfect with the right amount of rice wine vinegar to white pepper. 

And yes, there's even a great typo on the menu (Human beef instead of Hunan beef). 

If you have an opportunity to talk to the owner, she is an absolute delight and will share wonderful stories about the Ambassador over the years. 

Yep, for me, it's the Ambassador. I recommend staying with the tried and true Cantonese dishes: sweet and sour pork, egg rolls, egg foo yung, a chicken with vegetables stir fry and on the side a big bowl of egg drop soup or (not Cantonese) hot and sour.


Ambassador Chinese Website


Some photos for you:

The giant, shrimp eggrolls.

Riel Restaurant in Montrose - Upscale Dining

 An enjoyable meal with a diverse and interesting menu. Named after a Canadian politician, Louis Riel, who (apparently) did many good things for Canada. We took the advice of our neighbors who had been previously and ordered: cauliflower tempura, a bannock style soda bread, mushroom empanadas, pierogi, kim chi carbonara, grilled fish, eggplant, sticky toffee pudding. Recommended. Not cheap, but an impressive dining experience with great waitstaff.

Chinese - A Menu From 1940

 

Vietnamese - Pho Ve Dem - A Michael Shum Discovery

Michael Shum says: " This used to be my top favorite Pho spot, but I haden’t been back for a while because the quality was not consistent. Now that it was revisited with father-in-law, I got a chance to find out the current status. When I took my first spoon of the broth, I was instantly impressed, because the clear beef broth was complex, and had wonderful, strong herbal accents. It was packed with layers of flavors that kept coming through. The fatty oil that I asked for also enhanced the richness of the broth. Beef could have been better but it was not bad at all. I loved the nroth, and it’s still the type of heavy herbal aroma broth I prefer. 

"Don’t forget to get their durian ice cream for dessert. It’s fantastic!"

The Best Flour Tortillas in Town - Trigo's Mexican Restaurant on Fulton

On my most recent visit, in April 2022, I had a most excellent pozole and some more of the flour tortillas that I write about, following this newest photo:

I came across Trigo's Mexican Restaurant a few years back when I was exploring Irvington and Fulton and I fell in love with this place. Great ambience, wonderful staff, and a style of cooking reminiscent of the northern part of Mexico. I have not strayed too far from my beloved order of chile relleno here. It comes either with a ground beef (picadillo) filling or a cheese filling accompanied by rice, beans and a small salad. And it is wonderful.

The flour tortillas here are so delicious, so perfectly realized, that it makes me want to cry. Too many places serve up flour tortillas that are so soaked in oil and so greasy that you could swear you can see through them in places. Not here. Fluffy, not too salty. Just perfect.

Highly recommended. Note: this is a breakfast and lunch place. They close at 3:00.

Here are some additional photographs from my recent visits solo, with friends, Joanne, Greg, Angie, my wife Irene, and with our good friend Don Jesús Avila from Zacatecas.

Restaurants Recommendations - Great Places to Eat In Houston and Elsewhere ( A Work in Progress )

I follow several Houston food groups on Facebook. One of my absolute favorite groups to belong to is the one moderated by Houston treasure and consummate foodie, Cleverley Stone (see links to your right).

I've noticed that one some, the same questions about "where to eat" come up every couple of months. And many of the same recommendations from people for their favorite places.

So I thought, "why not start just capturing the recs here?".

So this page will be a work in progress. I am going to be a little lazy and just list the names. Most of us are internet literate enough to know how to do a web search or a Yelp/Zomato search to find more information on a place that interests us. Feel free to add comments in the comments section below.

Galveston:
Gaido's Seafood
Olympia Grill
Shrimp and Stuff
Benno's Restaurant
Little Daddy's Gumbo Bar
BLVD Seafood
Black Pearl Oyster Bar
Miller's Seawall Grill
Fish Tales

League City:
El Dorado #2 Mexican Restaurant
El Indio Mexican Restaurant

Pho:
Les Noo'dle (Montrose)
Cafe TH (Downtown)
Saigon Cafe (Downtown)
Pho Hoang
Pho Binh
Pho Dien
Pho Saigon (Midtown)
Pho Thanh Long
Pho Danh
Local Pho (Sawyer Heights)

Healthy Options:
Local Foods
Ruggles Green or Black
Bella Green
True Foods
Sud Italia

Huntsville:
1836 Steakhouse
Farmhouse
Mr. Hamburger
Toasted
City Hall Cafe and Pie Bar
Carbonero Rotisserie


Bourbon and Whiskey Bars:
Reserve 101
Bosscat Kitchen
Poison Girl
8 Row Flint
Anvil
Federal American Grill


Sichuan:
Mala Sichuan Bistro
Chef Liu Houston
Chengdu Taste
Pepper Twins
Cooking Girl
Chuan's Chinese
Sichuan Noodles
One Dragon

Dim Sum:
Fung's Kitchen
Golden Dim Sum
HK Dim Sum
Ocean Palace Restaurant

MascalzoneChargrilled Pork Spring Rolls:
Vietnam Coast
Bo Luc Lac

Sugarland:
Sabai Thai Cafe

Nachos:
El Tiempo Cantina
Los Tios
Goode Company Taqueria
Yucatan Taco Stand
Cyclone Anaya
Pico's
Chaco's
Alma Latina
La Finca Mexican Restaurant
El Dorado #1 and #2

Mediterranean / Middle Eastern:
Abdallah's Lebanese Bakery and Restaurant
Al Aseel
Aladdine (Montrose)
Al's Quick Stop (Montrose)
Cafe Lili
Dimassi's
Droubi's
Ekko's Greek American Deli
Ephesus (Katy)
Fadi's
Mezza Grille
Phoenicia
Sayad's
Tangerine
Zabak's

Egyptian Style Pizza (Feteerah, or, King Tut Pizza):
Dandanah Cafe


Butcher Shops:
B&W Meat Market (North Shepherd)

Southern and Comfort Food:
Barbecue Inn
Cleburne Cafeteria
Dot Coffee Shop
Frank's Americana
Gus's Fried Chicken
Kelley's Country Cooking
Kitchen 713
Mikki's
Punk's
Sweetie Pies

Pizza:
El Canton (Guadalajara style pizza)
Coltivare
Pi Pizza
Mascalzone


Bread From Other Countries:
Simit and Poacha (Turkish breads - Westheimer)
Droubi's (various locations)
Phoenicia (Westheimer and Downtown)
Artisana Bread (Pinemont)
Alvand Bakery (Iranian breads - Westheimer)

Mexico Style Regional Mexican Food:
Pico's
Xochi
Hugo's
Caracol
Los Morales

Coffee Outside the Loop:
Barbazzar (Clear Lake / Webster)
Pearland Coffee (Pearland)
Blockhouse (Richmond)
Momentum Coffee (Spring)
Barbarossa Coffee (Louetta Road)
Tout Suite (Memorial City location)
1000 Hills Coffee (Barker-Cypress Road)
Blendin Coffee Club (Sugarland)
Holy Roast (Rosenberg)

Oldest Restaurants in Houston

Paul Galvani's (with his wife Christiane) researched and published the book Lost Restaurants of Houston in April 2018. Highly recommended.  Here follow links to articles on restaurants in Houston. And more!

Some of these still exist, or the families do, with Houston restaurant families into their 3rd or even 4th generation such as the Carabba's, Christies, Adairs, Vallones, Laurenzos, and more.

In composing this blog a while back before this latest update, I came across a very good FB posting from Katherine Leigh Ermis and Kevin Lacobie and its really good comment sections on this subject and I thought I would preserve it here.

Now, to start off this blogpost, here is Natalie Dressman's article:
Oldest Houston Restaurants


In addition, I know that the Houston Architects Forum has an ongoing discussion of older Houston restaurants.

Defunct Houston Restaurants - Houston Architecture Forum


Back in the day, the Felix Mexican Restaurant on Westheimer had a framed article on Houston dining and I wish I had a copy of that as it listed all of the popular restaurants, circa 1970's.

Another excellent source for information on Houston restaurants that may no longer exist are the Ann Criswell series of Houston Is Cooking and Houston Gourmet books, which show up from time to time in the resale shops in Houston.

Ann Criswell - Houston Is Cooking Books


Thanks, as always, to Gregory Buchold for pursuing and investigating this topic in greater detail. Check out the phenomenal job that Greg has done on Pinterest of documenting these with photos.

Greg has the Pie-Biting Frog website here:

Gregory Buchold - The Pie-Biting Frog

And...Here is a link to his Pinterest photos list of older Houston restaurants:

Greg's Photos Page of Older Houston Restaurants in Pinterest


Greg Buchold's List of Older Houston Restaurants

Thanks, also, go to Russell Weil who wrote the following excellent article for Buzzfeed:

Russell Weil - Restaurant Memories


Katherine Leigh Ermis got the ball rolling on Facebook:

Jay's Facebook Link