CHINESE-PUERTO RICAN RESTAURANT MICHY’S CHINO BORICUA IS OPENING A SECOND LOCATION IN KATY
Chinese-Puerto Rican restaurant Michy’s Chino Boricua in Katy has drawn in diners from all over Texas and beyond for a fusion of island staples, like crispy carne frita and tostones, saucy barbecue ribs, tender pepper steak, and mofongo. Now, they’ll have another location to frequent.
Owner Michelle “Michy” Lao will open a second, larger location of Michy’s Chino Boricua at 806 Katy Fort Bend Drive, next door to In-N-Out Burger, by the end of the year. Unlike the first space, Lao says this restaurant will not have a drive-thru and will instead focus more heavily on takeout and dine-in, with a larger dining room to accommodate more people. Michy’s will also offer new menu items, including Chinese-Puerto Rican sushi rolls that incorporate popular Caribbean ingredients like sweet plantains, steak churrasco, chimichurri, sausage, and coconuts.
“That was the original idea we had, but we didn’t dedicate space for it,” Lao says. “When we opened the restaurant, we were so busy with just Chinese food that we forgot about the sushi.”
The second, larger outpost, which is around 15 minutes away, will also have more dedicated space for food preparation, which will serve as the central kitchen to prepare all of the flavors, sauces, and ingredients so all dishes at both locations stay consistent.
Lao, who signed the lease in May, says the new restaurant is slated to open end of November and December, with a grand opening event in January after the holidays.
Lao opened the original restaurant more than two years ago in hopes of introducing Katy and the surrounding Houston area to Chinese-Puerto Rican cuisine, a Caribbean island staple her family served while living in Puerto Rico.
“We didn’t think that there were many Puerto Ricans (here),” says Lao, but a “good surprise” was there were lots of local people from the islands or from Latin American countries who eat similar styles of Chinese food. Others traveled from all over the country to try the food, while others, from other areas, made pitstops to the area.
Lao says she learned from a friend who works at Univision that the team behind Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny ordered takeout from the restaurant while on tour in Houston and had it backstage at his concert. Latin band Grupo Frontera also made a pitstop at Michy’s after a suggestion from their barber and stopped for a photo opp.
“A lot of people saying that it reminds them of home, which is heartwarming,” Lao says. “We are lucky to have such great customers.”
Lao says there are plans to another location in Houston proper, followed by a location in Dallas, where she says there is also a significant population. But in the meantime, Lao and Michy’s team is excited to continue serving Katy.
“If you’re in Texas, people will drive to get food and whatnot, but people do stay in their neighborhoods for weekday meals, so we’re excited to bring food to this neighborhood,” she says.
806 Katy Fort Bend Drive, Unit 150, Katy, 77493.
2023-09-25T15:20:22Z dg43tfdfdgfd