Red Onion Seafood & Mas

ABOUT AND BEYOND

Red Onion Seafood & Mas
12041 Northwest Freeway (Hwy 290)
Houston, TX
713-957-2232
www.caferedonion.com

I love ceviche. This establishment on the northwest side of Houston specializes in them. For lunch they offer 13 different ones. They also have a full menu to boot. But I was there for the ceviche. They have a deal called Red Onion Ceviche which lets you choose five of the thirteen. I went with that

Instead of tortilla chips and salsa they bring plantain chips cut lengthwise sprinkled with chile sauce. This is a nice change. Since they do this with unripe ones they were more starchy than sweet. The chile sauce really helped make this special. You also get a different sort of bread plate. The rolls are made with coconut milk and coconut meat. Instead of butter they come with a bowl of red pepper jelly and a bowl of sour cream with herbs. The slightly sweet rolls play well with the sweet/spicy jelly and the tangy sour cream.

The ceviche came out as five scoops on a skinny oval platter normally used for serving a side of cured salmon. Sesame Tiradito Lettuce Wrap was snapper in a sour orange marinade with red onions, cilantro and tomatoes. Placed in a lettuce leaf you ate it like a taco. I found it tasty and not too tart. El Coco Loco with fresh yellowfin tuna in pineapple, coconut milk and spearmint proved my least favorite. The tuna was too dense and chewy. Ceviche Mixto had octopus, flounder and shrimp tossed in a Peruvian marinade (mostly lime) with choclo (giant corn kernels), diced sweet potato, and red onion. The varying consistency in texture (soft, chewy, crispy, sweet) made this the most intriguing. Mango Salmon tossed with olive oil, grapefruit juice, mango and red onion became my favorite because of the rich oily salmon, definitely a keeper. Caribbean Ceviche with its tilapia, red onion, and diced tomato marinated in lemon, lime, and grapefruit juice was also a winner with the tilapia soaking up all the flavors. Plantain chips for putting the ceviche on and Chinese soup spoons of hot sauce completed the dish. I was highly pleased and full.

I finished off with an excellent Tres Leches cake, sweet and moist. The rest of the menu is very tempting but I had ceviche on the mind. I would however recommend this venue for people seeking a taste of the Lain cuisine of Central and north South America along with the Caribbean.