Originally one of Houston’s best Mexican restaurants, Las Alamedas has now moved to the Katy area where it still serves up some of the best authentic Mexican cuisine for a decent price.
For the Easter weekend family meal, we decided to take advantage of Las Alamedas’ Sunday brunch buffet.
Las Alamedas’ menu for the buffet tends to shift dishes around, keeping every visit fresh and new every week. Though if you are a returning customer and you have a favorite dish that isn’t on that week’s buffet, diners are welcome to order it a la carte.
The usual suspects of any breakfast or brunch buffet were present: bacon, waffles and eggs. Unfortunately there weren’t any Mexican breakfast dishes on the line of shafing dishes.
Filled with classic Mexican flair such as enchiladas, fajitas, spiced fish and refried beans, much could be found on the buffet line. But I would have really liked to have seen maybe a Chilaquiles, an egg dish with corn chips and salsa.
Though the selection seemed a bit limited, what was there was great flavor and very fresh tasting.
The food in the trays was served in small amounts and rotated frequently to ensure that the taste and texture of the dishes wasn’t sacrificed, a trait not often found in a restaurant but more typically found in hotels.
Positioned in the center of the buffet and dining room was the bar that was transformed into a cold food bar, packed with trays of fresh fruit, ceviche and salad bar.
Whenever I see that there is ceviche on a buffet, I find myself powerless and end up loading up my plate with delicious citrus fish goodness.
A flavorful ceviche but not the texture you would expect, chock full of different sized pieces of fish that seemed to be ripped apart rather than cut, they might have been trying to go for some kind of rustic feel but it only left the dish feeling a bit unrefined.
As for the sweeter side of this smorgasbord, the desserts are fantastic, making the seemingly mundane task of selecting a single cake from the buffet table look impossible, if only you could just pull up a chair to the table.
Creamy chocolate mousse, perfectly cooked flan or a moist tres leches cake with a drizzle of chocolate sauce; I dare anyone to single one out above the other.
Often, most Mexican buffets tend to serve the same dishes with the same quality of ingredients, making the restaurant fade into the background.
Though Las Alamedas has its reputation for serving high quality Mexican cuisine, the drive out to Katy weighs heavily on weather, but it is worth a Houstonian diner’s time.
With its hit and miss buffet, maybe the 30 minute drive from the city should be reserved for dinner rather than the brunch.
