Ten Cafe

Just north of 59, on Hillcroft lies a neon sign that reads, "TenCafe." It's open utnil 10:00 most days, but on weekends it stays open until 11:00. A couple of cool friends from Austin came to visit and they suggested this place. With tail between our legs, Rekha and I had to admit we hadn't tried a restaurant a couple of Austinites with rare visits to Houston have already been to at least once--probably twice. We tried to lessen the blow of our inexperience by claiming we had always wanted to try this restaurant, but the facts remain--we didn't know a restaurant in Houston that Austinites knew about and liked.

Ten Cafe is an Indo-Pakistani place. I think most Pakistani restaurants serve some Indian food to capture the huge Indian population here in Houston. The restaurant is definately not a place to go to if you want to impress a date--but is a good place for a relatively late spicy food fix.

I had the Seekh kebab. It's minced meat with chili and possibly cilantro mixed in. The spiciness is the draw of this meat. It reminds me a little bit of a burger we tried at a restaurant called Himalaya nearby. The kebab comes with onions, a carrot, and rice or naan. I usually like to put lots of pepper and a bit of salt on my onions before drowning the onions in lemon juice, but forgot to do that for this meal. Instead, I enjoyed the simplicity of the Seekh kebabs with hot naan and a brilliant carrot.

We had good conversation at the rickety table. We didn't have to pay much for the food. Ten Cafe was open relatively late and had a good number of people. And the food tasted like ethnic food. Overall, we had a good time. If you need a quick spicy fix before your clubbing jaunt, give this place a try.

Oh yeah, a lot of people were trying the biriyani (rice-based dish), we'll give that a shot next time.