I've spent half my life in Texas, and while El Caminito isn't Tex Mex (I haven't found real Tex Mex anywhere in the Bay Area), it is easily my favorite Mexican restaurant anywhere around here. The service, atmosphere, and food are all excellent. I've been slowly working my way through the entire menu, dining there at least once and usually twice a week, and I haven't been disappointed yet. My favorite dish so far is the San Thomas burrito.

I'm frankly surprised to read some of the negative experiences people have had at Cafe Torre. We discovered them through the 1, 000 Points program at OpenTable.com and we like the place so much that we're almost weekly diners there. We've never had bad service or anything other than excellent food, some of it memorably so. In particular, we can always count on the specials to be superb, sometimes the best example of whatever dish it is that we've ever had. Especially if you choose the pasta and don't order wine, you can have a lovely meal for a quite reasonable price. We've always found the portions to be generous. Our only complaint is that the butter for the wonderfully crusty bread seems to come straight from the refrigerator and isn't spreadable.

Yes, it's a chain. But it's a decent chain, as these things go. Decor is nice, with brick and leather, and wood-burning fireplaces both inside and outside on the patio. The kitchen is open, and noise level pleasantly low. I hadn't been to a Houston's since the last time I ate at one in, of all places, Houston, 15 years ago, but my favorite Hawaiian ribeye was still on the menu (named because of the pineapple and teriyaki(?) marinade, I presume), and was still as good as I'd remembered. So was the bone-in prime rib, which my date ordered. Our appetizer of peel-and-eat shrimp was chilled, firm, and tasty, served with a lovely zesty cocktail sauce and tartar sauce, followed with welcome hot moist towels before the entrees arrived. We arrived there straight from seeing the movie In America, where the only food mentioned in the protagonist's Irish household was Colcannon mashed potatoes, and lo and behold, that's what accompanied my date's prime rib. We splurged by splitting an apple-walnut cobbler that was quite tasty. Service was pretty attentive, and iced tea refills meant they brought an entire new glass with fresh lemon, rather than just refilling from a pitcher. Water was delivered in an old quart milk bottle for the table. My date had one glass of a nice Chardonnay, and the total bill came to $93. Seemed like an extravagance, especially compared to how we usually eat, but the quality of the food, service and ambience, and the nostalgia of repeating a fond "back home" memory made it seem worth the expense for an occasional treat.