What they're up to for Houston Restaurant Weeks: La Casa del Caballo is back on the list of restaurants this year and are offering both lunch and dinner. Lunch is three courses for $20, with first course options of two different kinds of soup, or a salad. Entrees include a 6oz ribeye, chicken breast or their wonderful enchiladas saltillo, filled with queso fresco and five types of chiles. For dessert, choose from tres leches, flan or the tradtional arroz con leche, creamy rice pudding laced with cinnamon. Dinner runs for $35, and while the first course and dessert options are the same as lunch, the entrees during dinner is for meat lovers only. Choose between a 10 ounce angus beef shoulder or an 8 ounce ribeye cooked over mesquite wood accompanied with grilled vegetables and refried beans. If you really want to throw all caution to the wind go with the 20 ounce smoked brisket served with crispy potatoes. La Casa del Caballo will donate $3 to the Houston Food Bank for each lunch sold, and $5 for each dinner.
Service/Atmosphere: While the location may still evoke memories of Sundays spent at La Strada, La Casa del Caballo has taken the location and given it the "steakhouse" treatment adding wood finish and dark tones. Dining upstairs is a treat as the large windows open the room and you feel like you're dining among the trees. Service there is also top notch. Servers are attentive but not intrusive and the front of house staff is extremely professional.
Items that won't be on the regular menu:All items on the HRW menu can also be found on their regular menu. The brisket and the beef shoulder are already $25 and $35, respectively, on the regular menu, so it's quite the deal.
Don't miss this dish: The beef brisket was a big hit amongst our group. According to the menu the brisket is smoked for 13 hours with mesquite then baked for three more. I can believe it, as the meat was incredibly tender. Each bite was full of smoky flavor and the meat, while tender, wasn't mushy. It's served simply and perfectly in just it's own juices. Don't miss this dish! But really any one of the entree choices for dinner is a winner as the beef shoulder and the rib eye are cooked exactly to your liking. If you like your steak rare plus they know exactly how to do it here.
Don't Bother: I'd recommend everything on the menu but if there's one thing you can probably skip out on ordering it would be the salad. It's a perfectly fine salad of fresh mixed greens, grape tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, radishes and queso fresco with a vinaigrette dressing -- but why get a salad when there's so much meat to be had.
Final Verdict:This is probably one of the best deals to be found on the Houston Restaurant Weeks list. If you haven't tried La Casa del Caballo this is an opportune time to check it out.
