Maderas - Kitchen & Cantina — Restaurant in Houston

I’m so sad because the food is GREAT. I personally love the Mole and the Quesadilla de Flor de Calabza. I’ve been here twice. Both at different times and days. The first day I went it was a Friday and around 7/8pm so it was relatively busy. The food was great but the service was pretty slow and it was hard to get the servers attention, but she was friendly so whatever. I decide to give them another try because again… I genuinely like the food. Went on a Saturday this time, around 4pm (both times I had a reservation). My sister checks in, and lets the hostess know we have a reservation. Without a word, she turns around and grabs a couple menus and a rag and begins to clean a table and set it up. Again, not a single word, so it was pretty awkward. As she was cleaning, my sister asked if that table was for us. She looks up and just says “yes” and we wait for her to finish and then sit. We order our drinks pretty quickly, 2 sodas and 1 specialty drink. Around 5/10 minutes go by and the waitress comes back to our table. We order appetizers and about 5 minutes after that we order entres. another 10/15 minutes later, our appetizers arrive…. Still no drinks. Another 5 minutes, our drinks finally arrive. Now you would think oh, they must have been busy, makes sense. Nope. Restaurant was not busy at all. There was people coming in without a reservation, which were all being told there was no tables available in which ALL customers had a confused face at that response because the restaurant was not busy and looked pretty empty, but the hostess would just tell them those tables were reserved and only the bar was open. At this point we were getting pretty annoyed because of the drinks, especially since there was around 4 people standing around the hostess stand by the bar. Our entres finally arrive, great, again…food is great. Our server does not come to our table after we get our entres at all, drinks are empty the only thing we have is the water they give you, okay, whatever, I guess we’re drinking water. We finish with our food, and practically have empty plates in front of us for about 15 minutes, no drinks, empty plates, trying to get our servers attention. Finally we flag her down, she asks if we were going to order anything else. We say yes and order 2 desserts to share and a refill on our drinks. 10 minutes go by, no drinks no desserts. Another 5/10 minutes, our dessert comes, still no drinks. The table had been cleared at this point. No silverware. My sister had to just get up and go to the hostess stand to ask for silverware and napkins, they brought them to the table along with our refills finally. I wanted to order a coffee but opted to just get the check as soon as our dessert was out because we honestly didn’t want to wait another 30 minutes for that. I’m honestly so so bummed because I wanted to make this my staple but honestly it was not a pleasant experience. If you don’t mind the service, I would say the food is...

I love how the space is smaller than most Houston restaurants, but this is in Montrose so real estate is expensive. It gives Maderas an intimate feeling and there’s less reverberating voices in the restaurant to compete over for attention. But, there’s no waiting area when you open the door to the restaurant. You just open the door and stand until someone approaches to help you. You make a reservation on Resy, so you’re guaranteed a seat but while we were there with a friend for lunch the place was never entirely full. We saw a couple of girlfriends, two families, and a couple on a lunch date while there for lunch. There was also a patio available and a full bar. It was decorated with plants, a beautiful floral mural, and Mexican hats on the wall.

We were greeted and seated wherever we wanted. We chose around the corner for more intimacy and walked past the bar to be seated at a table for four for our party of three. Our server, Miguel, brought us a bottle of cold water and placed it on the table along with glasses. We waited for our friend to arrive before we ordered drinks. The Oaxacan old fashioned I ordered was a twist on the original using mezcal and añejo instead of bourbon or whiskey with agave providing a sweetness to the mezcal and añejo. The ice cube was a little larger than I have seen at other places and used that as a justification for a second drink. It was served with an orange rind and cherry. My wife ordered the piña which is a pineapple margarita with Espolón tequila.

I ordered the birria barbacoa ramen, my wife ordered the enmoladas, and my friend ordered the tacos de carnitas. Everyone was happy! The enmoladas came with Mexican rice and either charro or refried back beans. We chose the refried black beans and they were rich in flavor that lingered in your mouth and had you going back for more bites of beans. Next time I’m here I’ll definitely order an extra side of beans just for myself. My birria barbacoa ramen was a memorable riff on the birria ramen trend. Spice is subjective, but I’d put this at a solid medium as the spice slowly builds the more you eat. For someone more accustomed to a Szechuan, Thai or Indian spice this may rate low for on your tolerance level. I don’t believe this was made fresh as the noodles were overcooked and broken into short pieces. The barbacoa was cooked well and falling apart in my mouth just as tender barbacoa should. It was plenty to eat and I couldn’t finish it all. This is a different Mexican dining experience and not...

Visited for dinner on a weekday. We were 1 of 2 tables when we arrived. The host/waitress greeted us at the door.

For an appetizer, we ordered the ceviche. It was mediocre. Not bad but nothing special.

We ordered the octopus tacos, along with one of each sides. (Elote, rice, refried black beans & charro beans) We've eaten a lot of octopus all over the country because we love octopus. Unfortunately, this was the WORST octopus I've ever had. The only "flavor" it had was overly fishy - like it was not fresh. But the texture was like nothing I've ever experienced. It was... Chalky almost? Weird. We sent it back & explained why to our server. She made it a point to tell us that she'd never ever heard that before & she didn't seem real happy about taking it back. We asked for carne guisada instead.

The sides were good. I like the way the corn is presented. It's tasty. The refried black beans are good but a little too runny for my liking. The rice is flavorful but my favorite by far is the charro beans. They were delicious! The carne guisada is not what you would expect. It's not a gravy - it's stew meat with carrots & potatoes in a clear broth. It's really tasty but does have a little bit of heat to it.

We got the churros for dessert. They are definitely homemade & really well executed.

As for the cocktails, the Oaxacan Old Fashioned is good, slight smoke on it but not overbearing. The hibiscus margarita was sweeter than I'd like.

My BIGGEST complaint is the amount of time everything takes. We arrived at 430 with one other table & although it did start to fill in, it's now 635 & we haven't even been able to request our bill. The lack of attention & slow service is extremely frustrating.

Lastly, I handed my server my card & she brought the machine & swiped it at our table. When filling out the tip, I immediately knew that she had not taken off the octopus tacos so I asked for a printed receipt. She left & brought it back telling me that she wasn't sure why it charged me for the octopus but she issued a refund. I think she purposely left it on the bill, hoping I'd swipe my card without asking for the itemized. Which is really just not cool. That alone took them from what would have been a generous 3 to what is now (a still...