Saltgrass Steakhouse

Our last night in Texas, on the way to the Houston airport, my father-in-law decided we should drive to Kemah and eat at Landry’s.  Traffic was worse than we expected on the drive there.  There was a half-hour wait when we arrived, and we didn’t have time to wait or we’d get to the airport too late to check our bags.  We ended up eating at SaltGrass Steakhouse instead.

 




 

I’d never eaten at SaltGrass before, but looking over the menu, I saw many items that really looked delicious.  It was fairly crowded when we arrived, but we were still able to be seated right away.  If we’d been able to wait, we probably could’ve gotten a table by the windows with a water view, but we still had a nice view from our table one row away from the windows.

We told the waitress that we were in a hurry and needed to order right away.  I usually try to pick a “healthy” option at restaurants.  Since I didn’t have time to put too much thought into my order, I ordered the first thing that sounded really good.  What was it that caught my eye?  The Coconut Shrimp, which comes with a side, and I chose Sweet Potato Fries.  Yeah, so not healthy, and sweet enough to almost count as dessert!

I wasn’t the only one in the mood for shrimp.  My father-in-law ordered the fried shrimp, and my mother-in-law ordered the Stuffed BBQ Shrimp Enbrochette, which are described on the menu as “Jumbo shrimp stuffed with cream cheese & a jalapeño sliver, wrapped in bacon & basted with BBQ sauce, served on a bed of scampi rice with grilled onions, chopped tomatoes & poblano peppers.”  They both chose a Baked Potato for their side item.

My husband broke the trend, kind of.  He ordered a steak, the 12oz version of Pat’s Ribeye.  I say “kind of” because he didn’t order shrimp, but he did order a Baked Potato for his side.  However, he asked for all of the potato toppings on the side instead of having them put directly on the potato.

All of our meals came with our choice of a dinner salad, Caesar salad or cup of soup.  We all chose dinner salads.  My in-laws chose honey mustard dressing, and my husband and I both requested ranch dressing on the side.  Our salads were good.  They were basic dinner salads, pretty much what you’d expect.

Our meals also came with Shiner Bock Beer Bread, which my father-in-law sliced as soon as it was brought to the table.  It was a good brown bread, but what was exceptional was the honey butter that was served on the side.  Yum!

 

Our entrees were exceptional.  I’ll start with my husband’s ribeye.  First of all, it was seasoned with SaltGrass-7 Steak Spice (I’m suspicious that it’s TexJoy under a different name) and topped with garlic butter.  Okay, you had me at garlic butter!  He ordered the steak cooked medium, and he couldn’t rave about it enough.  I’m pregnant and not supposed to eat red meat that isn’t cooked well done, but I had to know what this steak tasted like.  I asked my husband to cut off a tiny piece on the edge without any pink.  OMG.  I mean, now that’s a steak!  It melts in your mouth, and I’ll say it again, you had me at “garlic butter.”  As for his potato, it came dry as he requested with all of the toppings on the side.  The toppings included butter, sour cream, chives, cheese and bacon.  He ended up dumping most of the toppings on the potato because they were all so good.  He said that next time he wouldn’t bother asking for the toppings on the side.  My in-laws kind of smirked, like “duh?”

On to my entrée.  Coconut shrimp is a real treat for me.  I always think it just about tastes like doughnuts.  This was really good coconut shrimp.  Even my husband liked it, and he always says that he doesn’t like coconut.  I didn’t use the roasted jalapeño & pineapple marmalade that came with it for dipping.  I tasted it, and it had a nice kick, but I’m not a fan of citrus dips with meat, even when it’s coconut shrimp.  The sweet potato fries were cut really thin like shoestring fries.  I had never seen sweet potato fries cut like that before.  I prefer a thicker cut for a sweet potato fry, but that didn’t stop me from addictively devouring these fries.  They were nice and sweet.  This meal was a definite splurge for me, and it was worth it.

I didn’t taste my in-laws meals, but their shrimp looked really good too.  My father-in-law had no problem polishing off his shrimp and loaded potato, but my mother-in-law needed a box for about half of her shrimp.

In summary, the SaltGrass in Kemah is located right on the water with a great view, even if you don’t sit right next to the windows.  The décor is very Texas.  I don’t know how else to describe it.  The food is delicious, and next time I just might have to order a steak!

Happy Eating!