{"id":461241,"date":"2026-10-09T14:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T14:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/461241\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T14:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T14:36:08","slug":"can-houstons-guadalajara-mexican-grille-make-a-new-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/461241\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Houston’s Guadalajara Mexican Grille make a new memory?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time I walked into the Guadalajara Mexican Grille<\/a> off the Southwest Freeway in Houston’s inner loop was 15 years ago. Former KRIV-TV news anchor Mike Barajas<\/a> threw a farewell party at the restaurant after he signed off for the last time on Jan. 18, 2011.<\/p>\n

The memory has hung over the restaurant at 2925 U.S. Route 59 like a faint billboard. It’s not a painful one by any means. In truth, I haven’t visited Guadalajara because I never had a reason. The El Tiempo Cantina by the old strip club off Richmond Avenue is pretty good, and so was Arnaldo Richards’ Picos off Kirby.<\/p>\n

Curiosity got the better of me though when I dropped by on a recent warm Wednesday afternoon. When I had gotten out of my car, I quickly became well versed with the tale of woe from a woman who had dropped off her car at the nearby Discount Tire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside Guadalajara I discovered a colorful and inviting restaurant. The bar area was on one side and the dining room on the other. Guadalajara’s setup reminded me of the old Pass and Provisions, which is now Bludorn. I ventured to the bar, its own separate and intimate room with a full counter and small booth seating. It felt like a restaurant inside a restaurant with colorful curios including calaveras and roosters. A trio of women at one of the high tops were celebrating a birthday and making an impression on their server.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The history is a little vague but the Torres family founded the Guadalajara family of restaurants, opening the first in the 1980s in Town and Country Village. (Another member of the family, Patrick, opened Escalante’s, a more upscale Tex-Mex establishment, as an offshoot.) Guadalajara has experimented with different spinoffs and concepts, including a rebranding of the Southwest Freeway location to GUAD. It didn’t last very long.<\/p>\n

Guadalajara’s menu features your typical Tex-Mex fare. There are combination plates, fajitas, queso and nachos. I found myself drawn to the lunch specials. I ordered a poco rita\u2014a roughly 4-ounce margarita for $6.25\u2014and a roasted poblano bisque for $15.95. Just to test the restaurant, I also added a taco al carbon for $3.95.<\/p>\n

The poco-rita was the perfect size for lunch. I wasn’t out to get drunk on a weekday afternoon, and the drink was easy to finish before the tangy, cloyingly sweet mixture wore out its welcome. The poblano bisque was a hearty mixture of creamy, light green broth, avocados, small chunks of chicken and corn. It was savory and maybe a little decadent but very enjoyable on a cool fall or cold winter’s day, whatever they are.<\/p>\n

The taco, more resembling a taquito, featured thick, tender pieces of grilled steak. The beef was well seasoned, but I would have appreciated some char or smoky flavor.<\/p>\n

Guadalaraja’s was the kind of meal that tugs at you when you leave. And I wanted to explore more of the menu, including the restaurant’s redfish tacos, corn tamale cakes and shrimp relleno.<\/p>\n

After all: A restaurant sometimes deserves more than just one distant memory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time I walked into the Guadalajara Mexican Grille off the Southwest Freeway in Houston’s inner loop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1703,1704,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-461241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-chronfood","tag-chronstaff","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}