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Merguez in Midtown
Majorca Bistro & Tapas offers good food, great sangria and plenty of people-watching.
Hoping for strictly Spanish food here is the other pitfall that diners must avoid if they're to enjoy Majorca. The underwhelming paella is nothing to write home about (and how could it be, if it takes only ten minutes to reach your table from the kitchen?), nor are the dried-out, puny slices of tortilla española.
On the other hand, the black mussels served in a simple white wine broth with plenty of butter and lemon are stunning. Nafaa must have a great mussels contact, because the things are monstrous brutes: fat and almost obscenely thick like Gulf oysters, with more butter flavor to them than brine. And the patatas bravas — while definitely not authentically Spanish — are still good, with crisped edges and a tangy tomato sauce that demands to be swiped up until gone.
Troy Fields
Extraordinary value: Albóndigas with a fried egg at lunch.
Location Info
Map
Majorca
207 W. Gray
Houston, TX 77002
Category: Restaurant > Spanish
Region: Downtown/ Midtown
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Details
Hours: 11 a.m to 11 p.m. Sundays and Mondays, 11 a.m. to midnight Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.
Patatas bravas: $4.50
Sangria: $5.95
House salad: $7.95
Empanadillas: $7.95
Albóndigas: $7.95
Grilled sardines: $8.95
Merguez sandwich: $8.95
El Diablo: $9
Paella Valenciana: $26.95
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It's at lunch, though, where Majorca surprises me the most. Lunch specials are served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day and there's no valet to contend with then. You can usually park directly in the small lot or on the street. And the prices on the menu are an extraordinary value: $8 for a hearty bowl of albóndigas — meatballs braised for hours in a creamy, butter-based tomato sauce — that's topped with a sunny fried egg, or $9 for a sandwich on great hunks of soft, crusty bread with pert links of merguez sausage, the lamb flavored with ideal amounts of hot harissa and soothing sumac.
Majorca may not be perfect, but at times like these it's difficult to care. No Spanish restaurant in Houston has gotten it right yet, from the promising Cafe España to the underwhelming Convivio. Instead, I find myself liking Majorca on its own merits, which are many.
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