The menu at Soto’s Kitchen in Missouri City is designed to test the boundaries of traditional Mexican cuisine and to introduce customers to a different side of Mexican food.

Co-owner Amador Soto teamed up with his four brothers in 2012 to open Soto’s Kitchen in Sienna Plantation as a way to represent their home city of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, through the food they grew up with as children.

“We want to offer a different Mexican restaurant,” Amador said. “Because [San Luis Potosi] is in the center of Mexico, you get seafood from Veracruz, Mexico, and moles from the south. And because we are from the center of Mexico, there is a lot of commerce around it.”

Amador and his brothers Carlos, Jose Antonio, Sergio and Juan Soto, moved from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to Houston in 1991 and have gained more than 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry. As a result Soto’s Kitchen’s dishes are inspired by the different regions of Mexico and pull influences from surrounding countries.

For example the restaurant’s signature dish, chicken Cubano, features grilled chicken served with fried plantains from Cuba and chimichurri sauce from Argentina.

Amador said the fusion of flavors the restaurant offers is what separates Soto’s Kitchen from other Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants in Sugar Land and Missouri City.

“We get to use all of the different flavors, that is not typically cheese, and put them with steaks and seafood,” he said. “Tex-Mex is more sauce with a lot of cheeses. Traditional Mexican food does not use as much cheese as people may think.”

With the growing popularity of the restaurant’s concept, the Soto brothers opened a second Soto’s Kitchen location in December at 2899 Dulles Ave., Missouri City. Amador said he and his brother Carlos have expanded the restaurant’s menu due to the larger kitchen at the Dulles Avenue location. He also said he is also able to focus on the presentation of the food to help draw in additional customers.

“We try to maintain the neatness and cleanliness to allow the dishes to look beautiful,” he said. “The aesthetic plating is one of the things that we really try to emphasize.”

Although there are no immediate plans to open a third location, Amador said he is always on the lookout for different ingredients and dishes to introduce to the menu. Amador said he visits the local restaurants in his hometown to taste new dishes.

“Mexico has a lot of different food that is not really known to the United States,” he said. “The whole world is somehow in Mexico.”