Friendly Eastwood restaurant settles the age-old dilemma: tacos or pizza?

807 Telephone Rd, Houston, TX 77023
(713) 921-9250
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5:30AM–4PM (Mon–Sat); 5:15AM–3PM (Sun)

This is our first post after spending six weeks in Mexico City where we have been eating incredible tacos of all stripes every day and doing Spanish immersion at CEPE (highly recommended for anyone wanting to advance their español). Our first order of business upon returning to Houston? Eat more tacos, of course. But after being disappointed by under-baked pizza in Mexico City, we also returned with an urge to visit a dependable pizzeria. So, our curiosity was piqued when we noticed that a restaurant on Telephone Road specializes in both tacos and Italian food, including pizza. After arriving at Por Mis Cazuelas on a Saturday afternoon and doing a double take at prices that recall the sweet dining deals of Mexico, we ordered barbacoa tacos, a pico de gallo pizza, and two Topo Chicos (which sadly and surprisingly we never saw for sale in CDMX).

Barbacoa Tacos ($1.99 each). While Mexico City offers an endless variety of amazing tacos, you would be hard-pressed to find barbacoa de res on house-made flour tortillas. Por Mis Cazuelas does justice to Texas’ take on the Mesoamerican classic of barbacoa. Pulled into super-fine, grassy shreds, the tender cow head meat is unctuous and mucilaginous. Raw onions and cilantro add an indispensable sharp, crunchy contrast to the rich, toothless beef, and the house tortillas de harina allow soft, chewy, and crispy to co-exist—textural complexity that bagged tortillas could never deliver. The restaurant hands out a single salsa picante, but it’s a good one, a spicy verde slightly orange from the addition of tomatoes.

Pico de Gallo Pizza ($6.50). Pizzas come in one size at Por Mis Cazuelas. We didn’t have rulers on hand, but the pie was in the ballpark of 12 inches: plenty for two. The pico de gallo version is topped with—you guessed it—chopped tomatoes, onions, fairly mild jalapeños, and cilantro. Por Mis Cazuelas maintains the rawness of the salsa by covering the pizza with it after the pie comes out of the oven. Reminiscent of a quesadilla or a Oaxacan tlayuda, the pico de gallo pie is made tart and fresh from the salsa cruda, a good complement to melted cheese and pizza dough. We also couldn’t resist squirting the salsa verde left on the table after our first course of tacos. Thanks to our appetizer of fatty barbacoa, we ended up boxing up half of our pizza and eating the rest later for dinner.

Basic math proves that the pizza at Por Mis Cazuelas is a win. For only $3.25 each, you and a friend can share a tasty, filling lunch. The best pizza you will ever eat? Probably not, but with its fresh-made dough and good-quality ingredients, it is probably be the best you can get at this price and light years better than a frozen pie.

Por Mis Cazuelas’ chalkboard menu offers other economical temptations, including $4.99 breakfast platters, $6.99 meat platters, several pasta dishes, and a range of pizza combinations. And if you crave dessert, cross Telephone Road and treat yourself to a coconut nieve or a mangonada at the top-notch Treats of Mexico.