roflhouse

611 W 22nd St
Houston, TX 77246
(832) 209-7177

A small group of us headed to Textile to take advantage of their $55 5 course degustation menu on Thursday (1/28/10), during the drive up I was amazed at how hidden the place was, but was comforted once entering the door to be greeted by Daniel Rich. He seated us at the table and asked us for cocktails. After asking him for a sazerac, he was a bit worried about making one after telling him I had been getting them from Justin at Anvil. During dinner Danny would come tell us about the dish and all of us would chat about food and where we’ve been in Houston and around the US. Once the asian in all us came out (READ Cameras!) , he commented on us “damn bloggers”, thank god we all have a sense of humor lol. At some point during our meal he offered to take us on a tour of bakery which we happily agreed to.
In addition to the 5 course menu, we decided to order the sweetbreads and steak tartare. Daniel commented that they changed up their tartare recipe and I honestly could have gone without that dish, but the sweetbreads were another story. Two large pieces came out and looked like the most amazing Wendy’s chicken nuggets you’ve ever seen, only difference was, these were $17 for two pieces (lol) and their execution of the sweetbreads had me wanting more with every savory bite.

1. hydro bibb, forme d’ambert, onion strudel
Amazing presentation, the hydro bibb was perfectly wrapped up in a small bundle but the biggest kick came from the forme d’ambert, the flavor was out of this world,

2. bacon tart, based quail egg, wilted bitter greens, balsamic
Again, amazing presentation, small quail egg perched atop a small arrangement of greens with bits of bacon. My first bite was a cross section of bacon bits, quail egg white, bitter greens and bread. The first bite wasn’t all that impressive and at first lacked any punch, this made me taste the ingredients as single pieces to the complex puzzle that would make sense once the next bite included the quail egg yolk. The yolk offset the interesting tastes from the other elements and everything came together

3. salmon, miatake, basil fed snails
When the salmon arrived, it wasn’t as visually stunning as the previous two dishes, but I expected a dish to amaze me in flavor, this is where they lost a bit in the food rating for me, I am used to eating my fish raw, and the fish was just a tad overcooked for my personal taste, however my dining companions commented about how much they loved the flavor and smoothness of the fish.

4. lamb rib eye, picked summer veggies, mache
The lamb came out with exciting presentation, the bone sticking straight up with some slivers of veggies surrounding the edges, I was the first to taste the pickled veggies and immediately commented on the punch of flavor. Daniel decides to give us all a glass of wine on the house to complement the lamb. Great addition to the dish.

5. bread pudding with salted caramel and foie gras ice cream
Daniel got sneaky on us and changed out the normal dessert in favor of the bread pudding with foie gras ice cream. He had over heard us talking about foie gras at different places and wanted us to try it out in a completely different style. I fell in love with this dessert immediately.

6. bon bons.
Again, Daniel went above and beyond and brought us more food to stuff our face with, an assortment of pecan tarts and almond cakes made their way to the table and immediately into our stomachs before we all happily paid and went on the bakery tour.

The end of the meal definitely left me wanting more of the dessert, but I guess that is why they do a 7 course dessert tasting menu as well. The $55 happy hour price is a steal for the amount of quality food coupled with great presentation that they offer you. The food definitely gets a 4/5 from me because of the fish, but the service gets a 5/5, Daniel was a delight to have as a waiter during the 3 hour dinner, he went above and beyond what we all expected while dining at Textile.

4/5: One of the single best dining experiences I have had in Houston.

510 Shepherd Dr
Houston, TX 77007
(713) 863-7777

I made reservations for Branch Water Tavern after hearing positive reviews from friends, what sealed the deal was seeing the restaurant listed as one of Alison Cook’s best new restaurants in Houston. We arrived about 5 minutes past 7 with the awkwardly positioned valet parking lot in front of the restaurant, after waiting for some cars to back out I was able to make my way into the lot and was greeted by some nice valet people. As we made our way to the door, I found myself attempting to locate which door was truly the “front” door, luckily one of the cute hostess’ greeted us at one of the 2 front doors. The bar area was really nicely decorated as was the rest of the restaurant, while the bar area was packed the dining area was a bit more sparse. We were seated and were immediately given the wine list and their menu for the night. I had previously looked at the menu and had a general idea of what I wanted to order as did my date. Our previous date found us at Sorrento and after ordering the mussels there, we sort of carried on the tradition at BWT. We went for the mussels to share as an appetizer. I went with the aged New York strip cooked medium rare and she ordered the crispy skin flounder. The mussels intrigued me because of the riseling, bacon, harissa and garlic flavors that should have worked great together; instead we got fishy tasting mussels with no hints of the bacon or garlic. 404, FLAVOR NOT FOUND. My New York strip arrived with some onion rings and some spinach and her crispy skin flounder arrived and while the dishes looked great on the plate, they just lacked any flavor. I’m not even going to get into how poorly cooked my steak was. I was hoping the flavor issue was just limited to my dish, however one taste of the crispy skin flounder and I realized they should have just called the dish, dry flavorless flounder.

I’ve definitely got Drew R.’s back on the taste issue at BWT. Service was great, however the highlight and the high point of the meal shouldn’t come with the biscuits at the beginning of the meal. I didn’t even bother with dessert and opted to go with Marble Slab for dessert duty. You won’t find me back at Branch Water Tavern anytime in the future.

2/5. Great Service, Great Bar Atmosphere, Great Décor however the best part of the meal shouldn’t be the free biscuits and butter; I really think the biscuits had more flavor than the rest of my meal.

10890 Westheimer Rd
Houston, TX 77042
(713) 953-7237

Some friends and I went to Cafe Pita+ for lunch on friday, I decided to head here because of the whole diners, driveins and dives fame and because I was rather interested to try out “Bosnian” food. When we all got there at 1pm, every table was full which to me was a great sign that we were in a treat for some great food. After waiting about 10 minutes a couple decided to move to a smaller table and gave us the 4 seater table (thanks to whoever you are!). The menu was pretty small but the prices were what amazed me, everything ranged from $4 to $15 which is damn cheap in my book. We went with the feta and hummus appetizer and got a bit more adventurous with the main courses. Cevap, Beef Kabob, Grilled Chicken and some Lepinja bread. The food was decent but nothing that amazed me. The service was severely lacking and the beef, while seasoned well wasn’t anything that set the place apart from any other greek / mediterranean place.

i will say that i will return on a saturday to give them a redeeming try since i want to try the saturday lamb special.

3/5: Waiting for more!

14360 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77083
(281) 988-9912

Came here with some friends for lunch on a recommendation from some indonesian friends, they gave me a loose guide of what to order from the menu. While the decor definitely leaves something to be desired the food made me forget about the rest of it all and just concentrate on what brought me there in the first place. After the group settled in, we ordered and ordered and ordered some more, a total of 10 dishes arrived at our table between the 4 of us. Empek Empek, beef rendang, ayam goreng bumbu kuning, gado-gado, fried rice, chicken satay and some fried chicken wontons made their way to the table. and were devoured in a matter of minutes. Everything had some really great distinct flavors with some adding just the right amount of spice. The 10 dishes we demolished came to a wallet satisfying $50. $50, 10 dishes and 4 happy people later, and you have yourself a winner. I will definitely be going back for more.

4/5:  One of the only Indonesian places in Houston that you MUST try.