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Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen

Sylvia's offers 19 different kinds of Enchiladas

MY REVIEW: Eat here agin today after my aunt's funeral. This place is wonderful.

Such great service, great food, we had a party of 35 and they were totally ready and we never waited for anything. This place is awesome!!

NAME: Laura
SUBMITTED: 2/9/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 2/2012
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: I met a friend at the Woodway location this past weekend and was disappointed. Normally, I order the enchiladas, which are very good, but we got the beef fajitas. For our taste, the fajitas lacked flavor. The meat was tender but just lacked flavor.

The waiter seemed overly attentive and was trying to read the menu to us rather than letting us peruse it on our own. I liked that the salsa was warm, but it too was not to my preference. Overall, I would not return to this location or order the fajitas again.

NAME: marva
SUBMITTED: 10/11/2011   LAST VISIT WAS: Oct 2011
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: What a great party we had last Saturday. From the moment we came in to book the party, through all of the preperations, we felt welcomed and it felt like we were hosting an event in our own home. The food was delicious, the atmosphere delightful, and the waitstaff incredibly helpful and enjoyable to work with. Stephanie is a profesional at what she does and was so helpful throughout. Thanks again for a great time and wonderful memories.

NAME: Cindy and Matthew
SUBMITTED: 8/8/2011   LAST VISIT WAS: 8/6/2011
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: Nice place, great wait staff, great location.

Food=terrific Best Mexican food I've had in a very long time and I eat a lot of Mexican food. I had the tamales (pork) and chicken enchiladas. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for great Mexican (not Tex-Mex, altho I love that, too) meal

NAME: fannie
SUBMITTED: 7/4/2011   LAST VISIT WAS: 7/3/11
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: Possibly the best Mexican Food in Houston.

Enchiladas and chili gravy are excellent, guacamole is outstanding and the fajita meat is tender and very tasty.

They have many choices and combo plates so you can try several things on a single trip. They also have an unusual item of "stacked enchiladas" like in west Texas and New Mexico and you can get a fried egg on top - sounds odd but it's AMAZING!

They use good cheese and not that processed sticky fake stuff that ruined so many Mexican places in town.

Service can sometimes be a touch slow but if you are having a relaxed dinner with one of the good margaritas then you probably wouldn't notice.

Some people don't like the salsa but it's served warm and I think it's really good. Other comments here say it's pricy but I can't really say it's any more expensive than any other place that serves food that isn't nearly as good.

This place has been around a long time and they really have very good, solid, tasty South Texas / TexMex type food.

Always a good meal.

NAME: HouFit37
SUBMITTED: 5/8/2011   LAST VISIT WAS: 5/2011
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: First time visit - mixed opinion. To state up front the service was excellent, nearly perfect - kudos! The chips and salsa was the weakest link; OK chips with very bland salsa (among the worst we've had in metro-Houston) - very disappointing salsa.

We ordered Chicken Fajitas that were excellent! Good value with the portion size and accompanying sides - all-in-all excellent dinner. Also ordered the Beef Fajita Quesadillas that were merely OK; lots of melted cheese but not enough beef to cover the large portion tortilla. Very little sides with this dish; could have used some Pico de Gallo (as came with the chiken fajitas). Since the salsa was poor this quesadilla dish turned out to be somewhat plain cheesy tortillas, with a litle beef.

Bottom Line: OK chips with poor salsa; excellent chiken fajitas (amond the best I've had in Houston); and plain beef quesadillas (needed some extras) - I doubt we return. There are other places with good fajitas AND better salsa and quesadillas.

NAME: msu79gt82
SUBMITTED: 4/4/2011   LAST VISIT WAS: 4/11
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: I had gone to the original location when it first opened years ago and was not impressed. I had not been back again but my lady friend bought a discount certificate and said we needed to go since the Woodway location was nearby. Decor was nice although the wooden chair backs were straight up and down and rather uncomfortable. The tortilla soup was good. We tried the North and South mini enchilada plates which gave us a taste of eight different enchilada varieties. Both the crab and vegetable enchiladas were pretty good as was the pork enchilada. The beef and the cheese enchiladas were - well, beef and cheese enchiladas. Nothing special here. And then there was the mole enchilada. This ranked number 10 out of the 8 enchiladas sampled. Not good at all. The service was pretty good but the waiter insisted on completely beating the phrase "You Guys" to death. Final count was 17 "You Guys". Some more training is in order for the wait staff. I would expect this at a C*hili's or T*GIF but not at a place that purports to be a more upscale restaurant. All in all I would give this place a 6 out of 10. Prices for enchiladas are insanely high with not that much of a step up in quality from most of the other Mexican or Tex-Mex places. You could eat twice at most other Mexican restaurants for what was spent here even with the discount certificate.

NAME: thedrywallgourmet
SUBMITTED: 1/25/2011   LAST VISIT WAS: January/2011
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: Enjoyed Carne Asada, cooked perfectly to my liking, Black Beans, Moist Rice, Four Tortillas, Rita, Chips and Salsa, and Flan, and had another enjoyable evening. Great food and quality. I look forward to the weekend, for another run at Sylvia's. I will agree with you, I am biased: I like quality food and service.

Per the other reviewer, to each is own, but the prices have not changed; prices do slightly differ across both locations, as do some of the menu items.

If you want to enjoy what I feel is the best in Houston, try Sylvia's. I have been enjoying it for a few years now.

NAME: Grady Cole
SUBMITTED: 9/25/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: 9/24/10
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: To start I have been eating at this place for years and have always enjoyed the food and the great service. However I was not happy to see the price increase that was in my opinion excessive. I will not be going back as often now...sorry to see this happen

NAME: txgun
SUBMITTED: 9/19/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: 9/10
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: First visit to the Woodway location after regular visits to the Westheimer restaurant. All four of us ordered a mesquite-grilled entree rather than the enchiladas we usually order on Westheimer, and we were elated with the result. All the food was excellent, with great mesquite flavor. It's not cheap, but worth the cost because the food was great. Sylvia herself spends most of her time at this location, and she is a very amiable host. Definitely earned return visits.

NAME: arma
SUBMITTED: 9/13/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: September 2010
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: We went to the Woodway location based on reputation of Westheimer location. Not disappointed. The food was excellent and the service was great. We had a light lunch of mixed nachios and large guacamole. Chips, hotsauce, and water kept coming as a good restaurant should be able to provide. Asked for tortillas and was not charged, even better. Decor was consistant with the Mexican cuisine and side patio looked inviting, but Houston heat kept us from eating out there. We came on a Saturday afternoon and the place was almost deserted, not sure why. We will come back. I hope it has better crowd in the evenings. Bar looked good too.

NAME: Excellent food - good service
SUBMITTED: 8/3/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: 8/2010
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: Excellent food: from salsa/chips, Tex-Mex items, Sylvia's wood-fired grilled specialties, to the Flan--hands down delicious. The margarita's are tasty--as good as I have enjoyed anywhere--equally balanced between taste and strength. Service is attentive and very good. Enjoy. Both locations are excellent.

NAME: Grady Cole
SUBMITTED: 7/12/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: July 2010
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: Excellent Food and Margaritas.

This place got off to a slow and less than smooth start but things are really in line now. I have eaten there enough to watch the change and it's great I go there often and rarely ever see anything less that spectacular food. I've tried many different things on the menu and it's all good.

This is my most frequented Mexican Restaurant and if it wasn't good, I wouldn't keep going back. I've also introduced many friends to Sylvia's

I live very close but I would easily drive a good distance to eat here anyway. This has become and Excellent place for Mex & Margs !!!!

NAME: HoustonMan
SUBMITTED: 5/30/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: 5-10
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: I had the South of the Border Enchilada Combo. This combo had four authentic taste enchiladas from different areas of Mexico. The different combinations of enchiladas was really good and spanned a good deal of Mexico. The rice was really flavorful and moist, unlike a lot of other Mexican food places. I normally don’t eat the rice, and I cleaned up the entire plate of this stuff. I decided on charros beans because those are usually my favorite since I don’t like refried very much. The beans were very flavorful and tasted like they had been cooked for hours and had a very homemade taste to them. I tasted Jenny’s refried beans, and I have to say, I actually liked them better than my charros beans. I rarely eat refried beans, so the fact that I liked these was pretty amazing. I would order refried instead of charros next time around. My order came with picamole, which is a chunky version of guacamole. This actually tasted better than guacamole. I would love to eat a whole bowl of this one day.

1. Chicken with salsa verde. Wow this was amazingly good. The sauce was tart and bitter and tasted of tomatillos, but didn’t have an overwhelming tomatillo flavor to it. The chicken was stewed in the traditional Mexican way and was very moist and tender. The crema was the perfect touch to the tartness of the salsa. These enchiladas tasted just like the ones I had in Mexico City when we went they were that good.

2. Queso fresco cheese salsa with spicy chili salsa. This was filled with a cheese that was creamy and smooth. The sauce was very spicy, but flavorful. Reminded me of normal enchilada sauce, but much spicier. It was topped with cotija cheese crumbles, fresh lettuce and red onions. This was a good enchilada, but not exactly my taste in enchiladas. This was much better than any other cheese enchilada I have had anywhere else though, so that accounts for a lot since that is how I judge how good a restaurant is.

3. Pork carnitas enchiladas with green sauce. Wow these were good. The pork was flavorful and very moist. The sauce was like a creamy tomatillo salsa. The combination of flavors was fresh and not one I have had before, so it was very good for me. I enjoyed these very much and would probably order these as a full order when I go back.

4. Chicken mole. I had this exact same enchilada last week at a different restaurant, and I do believe this will be the enchilada I base all other Mexican restaurants on. The mole last week was amazing, but this was even better. This one had the perfect combination of savory, sweet and spicy. I made sure I had all of the sauce off of my plate too I liked it that much. The chicken was very good, but I was so enraptured in the mole, that I honestly didn’t pay that much attention to it. I will be ordering these again for sure. I find it amazing how different the exact same mole is from restaurant to restaurant.

We never wanted for anything while we were here, which I find absolutely amazing. The chips were fresh, hot and thick. The salsa they serve with the chips was perfection. It was constantly refilled throughout our meal. I found this touch to be extra special. Even Sylvia came and said hello to us, which was great. We had a very nice conversation with her, and it is little things like that that will get me to visit again and again. I like the concern she had with internet reviews and how word of mouth is everything. And in all honesty, it is everything. One bad review will keep a lot of people away from that restaurant. People have to remember that food is subjective and just because one person didn’t enoy what they had, doesn’t make a bad restaurant. I always try to keep that in mind when I go to places people have reviewed badly, as everyone should.

NAME: Elisabeth
SUBMITTED: 5/21/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: 05/2010
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: Had been dying to try this place and took my stepson who loves enchilada's too. the crabmeat enchilada was the best I've had and worth going back for. the chicken Mole Enchilada is amongthe best as well. The Suiza and Ranchero enchiladas were average at best. My son didn't care for his Ranchero and barely finished it. My biggest criticism. The quality of the enchiladas were good, but it tasted as though they heated up the red salsa and salsa verde that came w/ out chips and used them for sauces on the Ranchero and Suizas. The margarita as the 2nd worse I've ever had. The size of the regular house margarita did not justify the $6.50 cost, so I thought the big $10 one was a better buy. It tasted like that prepared mix you buy in a bucket, at the store and freeze, then scoop out. I tasted no tequila at all. Seemed like it was all triple sec. I further support this theory in the fact that after making myself finish the fish bowl, I should have at least had a buzz....nothing, though I had hardly eaten all day. I'll go back but will insist my wife avoid the over-represented ritas.

NAME: Luv2EatOut
SUBMITTED: 4/21/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: April/2010
FREQUENCY: Visited once

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