Molina's is heading back to West U (well, almost)

After almost a three-year hiatus, one of Houston's original Tex-Mex families is heading back to the West University area.

Molina's Cantina has announced plans to open a new restaurant in Southside Place at the Braes Heights Shopping Center at the intersection of Bellaire Boulevard and Auden Street, just east of Stella Link/Weslayan.

Molina's closed its longtime location in West University in January 2008 to make room for the new H-E-B Buffalo Market. In 2009 Molina's considered a plan to move back to the neighborhood by building a space next to Goode Company Seafood with a new parking garage for the restaurants to share, but those plans fell apart by the beginning of 2010.

The Southside Place restaurant will be 5,000 square feet, with seating for 180 indoors and a spacious patio that will seat 40. The opening date is set for this fall, a few months after Molina's celebrates it's 70th anniversary in June.

Are you looking forward to the return of Molina's? Is Braes Heights a good substitute for Buffalo Speedway, or too out of the way?