Tila’s Restaurante & Bar

Never been to Tilas so we decided today to stop in for lunch. Greeted promptly and seated. Waiter was attentive and menus looked great. We were waiting to give our order to the waiter, but before we could do that s small food roach decided
To make his way across the table. Yuck– I knocked over the green sauce as I proceeded to vacate my chair. Told the staff and he just smiled ! I said we were leaving and he said «I understand «no apology, I guess not much could be said. Very disappointed that we had this experience — but if there is one roach you know there are hundreds more. They have been marked off our list permanently.

We should have left after the appetizers. Slow service, had to ask for a drink menu. Ordered a Mexican martini with a tequila the server recommended. Tasted awful. Instead of changing my order (because the server was nowhere to be found) swapped drinks with my husband. Waiter never noticed. Ceviche was good but shrimp was chopped up, which I thought was weird. For dinner we ordered roll your own taquitos & milaneze de pollo. The chicken was inedible, vegetables tasted strongly of lime & the plate was garnished with some inedible crumbs and a grilled green onion. My husband ate his taquitos but only because he was starving and our server never returned to the table. Had to ask the bartender for our check. Really awful food & service. Should of known better when there was only one table in the restaurant on a Saturday evening.

Food was great and fresh. Margaritas were amazing! Also, the banana chips with the salsa were unique and tasty. We love to eat at dog friendly places and they went the extra mile and brought our dog water, and a plate of doggy snacks. Joseph our waiter was very helpful, attentive, and knowledgable. You have to ask for him!

Great food

Ana was fabulous. She was overworked, but handled it so we were not inconvenienced. Food great. Go with anejo recommended margaritas. Weather was great so we ate outside. Loved it.

Apparently location really does matter in this town because other than the handmade margaritas, there’s no reason to ever come here. The construction has been bad on Shepherd and looks like it will be awhile until Tila’s patio is construction zone free. Before the construction started, Tila’s sat on a part of Shepherd road where they were literally the only real estate there. They sit on their own little island of land with a very small parking lot. If you can’t find parking, you’ll end up being forced to park a half a mile away or use the valet parking across the street at Backstreet Café.
The patio is the most appealing part of this restaurant since the interior dining space is the size of a matchbox. The patio is easily double the size of the actual restaurant, but the downside is that they allow smoking on the entire patio. I love sitting outside, but I don’t love having to smell someone’s cigarette even if they’re sitting all the way on the other side of the patio from me. You can dine inside, but what a waste of a dining experience if you do.
My waiter was engaging and entertaining with his witty sense of humor that kept me laughing all night. I found his style of humor to be engaging, but he never lingered so long that it became awkward. He definitely made the evening enjoyable. The patio furniture isn’t anything special, it’s just typical metal outdoor furniture that will leave a nice criss cross pattern on the back of your legs after you’ve sat on it for at least five minutes. I asked for a couple extra cloth napkins to lie down on my seat so that I wouldn’t end up with a basket weave imprint on the back of my legs.
The food was downright terrible; hands down the worst version of Mexican food I’ve had in Houston and ranks right up there with some of the worst Mexican food I’ve ever had. I can’t even begin to recommend anything because not only was my food bad, but my dates food was bad too. The clincher here was that my date loves this place and he expressed how much he loved their food. He clearly doesn’t get out enough to try other Mexican style restaurants since Houston is the TexMex capital of America.
This would have been a 1 Star rating, but the handcrafted margaritas saved them for an extra star. They don’t do frozen and their margarita base is made fresh daily with freshly squeezed lime juice, sugar, and water. The price of the margarita depends on the type of tequila chosen. It ranges from the very inexpensive tequila, which I wouldn’t recommend for a handcrafted margarita, to the very expensive tequila, which I wouldn’t recommend since it’s meant to be sipped and a margarita would ruin its flavor. My recommendation would be to order tequila within the mid-​price range for the best tasting margarita.
I won’t be back and I’ll even make it a point to discourage anyone who wants me to go with them, but if I’m ever forced into returning here, I’ll do as the Americans do when faced with a difficult meal and just drink the margaritas. This is one of those restaurants that you go for the margaritas and dessert and skip right over the chips, salsa, and main entrees.

We stopped at Tilas’ for a drink (or two) and dessert after having brunch elsewhere. We sat at the bar and Tila herself made the drinks! She was super nice and recommended some dessert options for us to try. The drinks were delicious, we had the Margarita and Paloma. The Margarita was my favorite. It is served Mexico City style, in a martini glass with a super cute tub full of ice. I typically don’t eat grapefruit unless I’m detoxing lol but after Tila insisted I should try it, I did. Omg! It was freaking delicious!!! The grapefruit was glazed with piloncillo (basically unrefined brown sugar) and baked in the oven long enough for the piloncillo to melt. Needless to say, I went home and raved about it to my mom. I will definitely be back for dinner or lunch!

We stopped for a night drink and ended up with two amazing drinks and great service. I had a Margarita and my girl had a Michelata with Pacifico beer. Awesome. The cerviche was the bomb and the avocado halves were so good. Ana the bartender was friendly and loved her. Sergio the owner bought us and shot which ended up buying a Skelton tequila bottle to take home.
Highly recommend
#jesse #inmode

I’ve been here so many times I can’t count. Authentic Mexican food. It’s delicious and unpretentious. Nice patio that is super dog friendly. They provide treats and water in nice stainless steel bowls. What more can you ask for? Happy hour is great too. I recommend migas for brunch, nachos for lunch and sea bass for dinner.

My fiancée and I stumbled upon Tilas in August of 2014 by mistake and it was one of the best mistakes we’ve ever made. Tilas is by far the best Mexican restaurant we’ve ever experienced. And Now every time we are in the Houston area we cannot leave until we have had our Tilas fix.

I went to happy hour which is 5 – 7 on M-​F and offers $ 5 Margaritas and half-​price appetizers. The plantain chips are phenomenal and they come with two different salsas (red and green), which was all around delicious. The Chicken Azteca meal was amazing and I highly recommend. Excited to go back and sit on the patio!

Charming Tex-​Mex/​Mexican restaurant (with a great patio)! And don’t even get me started on their delicious cocktails!!! Give it a try!

Came here for brunch with my wife and new puppy and had a great time and enjoyed the food and service. They give you chips with small plantains made fresh. We started with a fruit plate which was crisp and fresh. I had the heovos bendictos which was amazing! Probably one of best I had in Houston. Wife had a egg white dish that pretty good as well.
They also have live music that a real treat and the décor — ambience is great for sitting on the patio.
The drinks are a bit pricey tho. Definitely would recommend to a friend. It’s a hidden gem and try the heovos bendictos!

Had a great meal tonight. I got the sea bass special and it was absolutely amazing. Sea bass topped with shrimp served over some sort of mole sauce. Eaten here many times and this was the best I have ever had.
Such an underrated restaurant in a great location!

The quality of food is less than average. The meat was dry and overcooked (chicken). The menue is missing the typical Mexican options.
Be careful ordering drinks, there is no frozen margarita. All they have is margarita on the rocks, which comes in a downsized ikea-​glass. Half of it is just ice. A tiny tiny portion for $ 11. That’s ridiculous.
And the worst: they have no fajita dinner. You have to order everything individually, which is just to increase your bill: guacamole ($ 8), rice&beans ($ 4) and fajita ($ 11).
So you end up with a BILL OF $ 50 PER PERSON.
Obscene and not acceptable.
I talked to the owner. She tried to give reasons for this but at the end she understood her mistakes. Looks like they aware of the unethical things they are doing.
DEFINITELY NOT A PLACE TO RECOMMEND.

I am sad to say that I am leaving 2 stars. Honestly, the food was great. I loved our waiter, David, who was amazingly helpful as far as ordering on and off the menu items! He was so attentive and nice.
I’m leaving two stars because of the owner. She was there to greet, and talk down to us on our first visit. She immediately made me feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. There were numerous tables available but she made us feel as if we were imposing because we did not make a reservation. Later in the meal as I passed her «seating station» at the front door I made my way to the bathroom I heard her talking down to an employee telling him to, «Hush! Be quiet when I’m talking to you.»
Some people may not be bothered by it and it may not ruin your experience at Tilas. But as for me, a former restaurant employee, I feel as if it is my need to inform you of the mistreatment within the restaurant.
I will not be going back to the restaurant, as I do not want to support someone who is rude to their employees and treats them as if they are nobody’s.

I’m torn between 3 and 4 stars but picked 4 because I literally ate everything put in front my face.
Plantain chips are my favorite and they usually bring them out mixed in with tortilla chips. I use the word usually here lightly — sometimes its an equal chip to chip ratio and sometimes I can only find a handful in the pail. And they charge for an extra serving of chips, not paying for that so I just deal with the tortilla chips. Those are fine too.
We came here on a Tuesday night. Kind of empty but its always like that. We got the stuffed mushrooms and guac to start. The guac is my version of a single serving but its good… I guess I can share. Stuffed mushrooms are real good. Crab, cheese and some sort of fried dealio on top. I ordered the Camerones Asado (sp?). Spicy shrimp in a creamy red sauce with grilled veggies. The bf got the carne asada and mom got the crab tostadas. All so good!
My internal struggle with three stars was the waiter. He was like a used car salesman. Everything was an up-​sell. EVERYTHING. We asked for a tequila recommendation for our margs, he picked the most expensive one on the menu. I told him absolutely not homeboy, lets have a middle priced one please. Then he tried the same thing when we were ordering. Its just annoying and honestly unprofessional. Some of the other reviews have talked about how strange the service is and I agree, quirky and somewhat off is the best way to describe it. Have never had to deal with Tila herself but based off what I have read, I wouldn’t want to.

I hate to write a bad review about Tila’s because I have enjoyed many good meals here but this experience was absolutely terrible.
Three of us sat outside on a Sunday afternoon. They had live musicians and the music was distractingly loud. We sat as far away from the speaker as possible but it was still a bit much.
Soon after sitting down the manager came over and told us he was sick (probably a hangover) and he wasn’t sure who our server was but he would look. Not long after that our server showed up and mentioned that they have Mimosa’s. We each ordered a drink and he seemed upset that we didn’t order the Mimosa’s. About five minutes after we ordered drinks, he comes back with the drink menu and tells us to have a look at that before he placed the order. We said that we would like the drinks that we ordered. He had already forgot what we ordered, so he took out his pad and asked us again what we would like to drink. We also ordered some appetizers.
Literally 35 minutes go by before two of the three drinks arrive along with the appetizers. We had to endure the loud band during that time with no drinks. It was painful. When we were finally able to get his attention again, we asked about the third drink and he said «Oh, they didn’t make it»? He asked us what drink we ordered and we said we’ll just take a check. He said he would give it to us on the house but at that point we just couldn’t take it anymore.
We really felt like we were in the Twilight Zone. We paid the bill and headed to Pico’s, where we had a professional waiter and a great lunch with many drinks.
It takes a lot for me to leave a restaurant but the staff working that day needs to be fired or Tila’s is going to lose a lot of business.

I would love to tell you about the food and drinks here, but unfortunately we never received them. Had a reservation for 10 people outside at 12:30. They did not have our outside reservation, we said we would wait and as people leave they would combine tables. No one combined tables, and when we complained to the waiter he told us to «Smile, it’s not the end of the world.» Meanwhile, it over an hour after we ordered drinks and two times of asking they still did not have drinks. The waiter came back and said he forgot our order. Order was three mojitos (sugar free) and one margarita… No refills on water also, no napkins, no silverware. Way to break the mood for the day.
We are still sitting here, for what reason? I can’t tell you… If there is a big change of events I will update this post.
Okay– drink order came and it was wrong, also very small. Queso was strange, just melted cheese. Not impressed at all. I wish I could give this place 0 stars.

The best part about Tila’s is the atmosphere. We went with a family member who’s rather hard of hearing, and this is possibly the only Mexican restaurant I’ve been to that’s quiet. The decorations are old, but they work for the environment and add a cozy sense of charm.
The next best part was the plantain chips that are mixed in with the tortilla chip basket. We dug through that basket to pick out the plantains, then asked for a fresh basket… they were worth it:)
Everything else was just blah. Not great, but edible. The guacamole was interesting. It was served like tuna tartar, in a little dome blob with chopped up avocado, onion, and tomatoes. It looked pretty, but it was a small portion and not necessarily worth getting again.
Their menu is different than most other places I’ve been to. I couldn’t find fajitas on the menu — it’s labeled as something else. Whatever that name was, I got that. It was okay. Tiny portion and just nothing special. My brother got the carne asada; he thought it was great with the sauce that accompanied it.
Dessert was a small portion of flan. We planned to share a bite between the 5 of us, but saw the portion and determined that only two would share it. To make sure they could adequately get a taste.
Notice a thread here? Tiny portions. I wouldn’t mind except that this isn’t fine Mexican food, and based on its pricing I would expect a little more. The best part is that it’s a quiet restaurant for a family gathering. Not worth visiting again.