tetsujustin

And where is that? ← Just down the street at 17 @ the Alden Hotel.

I was told by the former sous chef that it closed this past Tuesday. I left Laidback at the beginning of summer to be able to concentrate on school better for the summer. I now just started at another place. Interestingly enough, I think most if not all of us Laidback alums except for Randy have ended up at the same place.

That was on MyTable's side dish. Though I agree on the Blackbird comment, (though I personally think an Avec here would be a huge hit), Chef Rucker is really into what he has been doing. I don't see him changing it too awfully much. Startups are awfully hard to maintain, I'm sure he'll take this experience for the better in his next place.

If you're not in the mood for an informal evening and just want some nice food, Spring also now has a bar menu that's not inexpensive, but it won't break the bank and as always Sue's there with great wine suggestions and interesting cocktails. I third Sultan's, we always went there Sunday for lunch before we went to work. Really good chicken schwarma and falafel.

Did anyone see the Yeo vs. Morimoto battle this past week? One of the best battles I've seen in recent memory. Each dish looked really good. Especially Morimoto's cabinet presentation. The whole idea of the dish seemed extremely Japanese to me in aesthetics and in flavor profile, which was very refreshing compared to a lot of the dishes I've seen from him lately. I guess the biggest upside to this battle was that it actually kept me guessing on who would win in the end. Both chefs seemed to make every dish good. Of course, Steingarten or that Bakoum or whatever her name is lady wasn't judging.

I had been to twist twice I think. The food isn't bad, and the prices touched around 20-30 per person depending what you're ordering. The food's more or less straightforward Americans. Several renditions of steaks and chops with a couple of sauces or compound butters you can choose from. They also have nice, large cuts of fish and dishes such as steamed clams or cockles. A very neighborhoody place with a lot of tables in a rather small space and an open kitchen where you can watch, though a bit more on the higher end side as it came to the pricing. It has been about a year and a half though. The food isn't something to write home about, but it was a good change from what I normally ate. I personally would have rather gone down the road to Naples pizza and got one of their stellar pieces of white or fresca. Crew if I remember correctly had sort've a bar/brewery/grill atmosphere and offered burgers, fries, and a few interesting twists on american food. The time I was there my friends went in and looked at the menu and left because it wasn't what we were looking for at the time. Again, it's been about a year and some since I left Hyde Park/Poughkeepsie.

I mean there's no getting around it, Pakistani food is heavy on the fat (mainly ghee). This place with it's awsome food is not for dieters. After soaking the "wheat" naan in some rich glistening curry, I am not sure how "healthy" it is. Of course I think labeling anything that is low in fat as healthy is rediculous as well. Himalaya's food is lovingly made from scratch and tastes fantastic, in my book that is all that matters. Like Jscarbor said though, moderation is key. Most of the times when I have lunch here, I do not/cannot have dinner anyways. Great, now I'm craving some good food from Himalaya... ← All I was suggesting was that there was the option for the people who would rather have it.

On the shopping center on the corner of Hillcroft and Southwest freeway. I've forgotten to post here, but to echo jscarbor neverending champion-ing of this restaurant, this place is the real deal. My favorite dish so far has definitely been the Grilled fish with Naan with the Beef Lohsi (sp?) coming in at a close second. The fish is rubbed with a lot of spices, which most of it I think is garam masala and grilled perfectly till it is nice and tender and served with their famous naan (I found out they also have a wheat version for you healthy folks) the Lohsi beef is slowly simmered with with coriander, onions, and bell peppers and topped with fresh cilantro and again served with naan. Other things I have were the Chicken tikka masala which was pretty fiery, but filled with flavor, and the beef chapli. I hear they make a good burger too. I'll have to check it out. My girlfriend, being vegetarian has also yet to be disappointed... with her favorite being the malai kofta which is a potato and veg dumpling simmered in a red, rich sauce and the Baigan Bartha which is eggplant that's been cooked slowly and mashed and served with a lot of spices that I can't remember at the time. I'd also like to point out that not only is their naan good, but they have a good poori too. Also if you want dessert, don't pass up their rice pudding which is creamy, soft, and not too sweet and sprinkled with pistachios. If anyone's been recently and had something else that's really good, post it here, I want to try everything. If you haven't gone, go, then tell me what else you ate. ... and also thanks John for continually posting about it because I go at least once every week or two.

Not sure if you've been in town yet (I just got to this thread) but I just wanted to add to Jay's list. Sinh Sinh for the best live seafood in town, plus serving both Chinese/Vietnamese food (and also the most exotic/fresh) Luling City Market for BBQ The Breakfast Klub for a great southern breakfast Sam's Diner Deli for a nice greasy burger. Or if you're in the Seabrook area-- Tookies. I would choose Don Cafe over Givral Hoang for Banh Mi, but both are good. I second, third, and fourth Himalaya. It's become a weekly addiction for my girlfriend and I. They have great food and as Jay pointed out, the best naan in town. Peking Cuisine or Shanghai Cuisine (it's actually cantonese) for Chinese, depending on what type of Chinese you want. Niko Niko's for Greasy Greek food. If you want to go healthy-- Hobbit Cafe has very good food (especially if you like avacado) plus it's just fun because it's basically dedicated to Lord of the Rings. Montrose Cafe for a wonderful hole in the wall, Belgium experience. Frenchie's for fried chicken. Most of the good, small places I know are in Chinatown (being Chinese) though I would suggest checking out a lot of the small Mexican places here too. Much of the Asian and Mexican food here in Houston is second to none. The thing here with Chinatown is that it's a mix of Chinese and Vietnamese-- and most of the places show it in the menu... also responding from upthread the signs there are actually mostly chinese with certain areas being more vietnamese like Hong Kong Market. Either way, it's a bit hard to navigate and know exactly what you're getting if you can't read either or don't know the area. If you need any more suggestions feel free to PM me. I'd love to help out. Edited to add that we have bad ass Korean food too.

Actually, you can do it either way. Some times investors just know they want to invest in you and go for it. As for making a business plan, normally you just have to have several options for locations and budget the estimated cost (and you should probably leave a lot of room for it being higher) into your business plan. This is if you're approaching investors with a business plan. If you get the investors to invest, then it comes down to how much money you'll have versus where it'll fit and where you believe it'll be successful. Some Chefs just approach investors with an idea and several menus to see if the investor will actually put the money into it, and the investors will help in finding a location. If you approach a bank, you will need set numbers and I think a set location (someone correct me if I'm wrong) All in all, yeah, the whole process is a huge confusion after another. I do believe however that Bull here is his own investor. You could ask David Coonce though how he got his investors. But back to the Revolver-- how's the construction going and do you have a planned opening date? Also, do you have any menus designed that you could post here?

I can't do either, however I can say that website for TRU hasn't been updated in at least two years. I wouldn't be surprised if they still did though after looking through the articles posted above.

Has anyone tried Stone Mill bakery? I forgot exactly where it is but it's somewhere around Shepard/Westheimer area. Of course for bread you can go to Kraftsmen too.

I didn't realize that place offered peking duck. I'll be sure to check it out next time I'm there. Next time you go, get the marinated beef tendon and the spicy eggplant. I'm also a fan of their stir fried bittermelon and lily bulbs, but I think that may be somewhat of an acquired taste. When we're in the mood for this type of Peking cuisine, this place is our first choice.

The food there has always been mediocre for most and below par some of the time. The only thing I remember being very good were the cold cuts and the jellyfish. If I remember correctly, I think their Peking duck is served with the pancakes (like moo shu) instead of the bread. I know the pancakes are more authentic but I guess I like the bread more. My family is Chinese, but I guess we go to the more informal places like Shanghai Cuisine in the Welcome complex (which is actually Cantonese cooking) and Sinh Sinh because they have live seafood. When we do go to the more formal places it's always Fung's Kitchen or when we're forced to, Ocean Palace.

I haven't had it there in a while, however, the very best that my family and I always got peking duck at is at Golden Palace on Bellaire near the intersection of there and Fondren. The entire center is blue, you can't miss it if you turn from fondren onto bellaire towards gessner. Ask for the bones also to be made into soup even though it's a couple bucks more. They also have a great pan fried noodles with stir-fried lobster. Again, it's been at least a year since I've been. Also, for a good option though it is for sure a little pricey, go to Fung's Kitchen. I've found that with their food it's sometimes great, sometimes mediocre, the food is pricey, but you'll always get good service. hope this helps.

I didn't see anyone dressed in anything less than slacks/button-down with a jacket. I figured that we would have to considering they made it a point to request us to wear jackets... so probably no jeans/tshirt. However, you could probably ask them when they call you to confirm. Or call them directly. It's a nice dining room, I would probably just go with the formal stuff.

I ate at Alinea last wednesday and the entire experience was even more than I had expected (which is hard since I've been following the Alinea thread since it's days as a "the making of" thread) I won't get into play by play details (and the pictures I took are on my friend's camera) but I will say the service was exceptional, and the whole atmosphere as a whole not only was comfortable, but also worked extremely well with the food. Even the entrance to the restaurant which I won't completely describe to you (because I think it'd ruin the experience for people who haven't been there) really put you in the mood and mindset of what you would be getting at Alinea. We had the tour and was later told that the menu was only a few days old. I will, however, tell you my favorite dishes: YUBA, prawn, miso, orange - I can't completely describe to you the flavor of the yuba which had been twirled and fried, but it was very savory, and was by far the biggest flavor of the dish. The prawn that was wrapped around the yuba acted as sort of a sweet, briny component to the dish, and the sauce underneathe which I'm guessing is the miso really bound the whole dish together. KOBE BEEF, watermelon, cocoa, wine - it's hard not to like kobe beef anyway, but this dish really stood out because of the redwine soaked watermelon cubes that were covered on either side with cocoa powder. The entire dish seemed to come together over that component with the savory kobe, then a bite of the watermelon which also had a slightly bitter cocoa/wine taste. For me it was almost as if I were taking a bite of meat then taking a sip of wine. SQUAB, strawberry, sorrel, long peppercorn - This may have been one of my favorite dishes of the night, not because I love the sorrel/strawberry combination (which helped), but the squab rillette that was served with this was by far one of the tastiest things that I have ever tasted. PORCINI, cherry, ham, toasted garlic - I'm not sure if this is the dish we had exactly (I for some reason remember matsutake... might be from looking over previous menus) but it looks just about right. There was almost a... rectangular mousse of the porcini, but it was great seeing and tasting all the different flavors that went with porcini. The crisp piece of thinly sliced ham, the garlic (which I don't remember), but most of all the mascerated bing cherries. You would think the super sweet and super umami/savory flavors wouldn't mesh... but it really did in an odd sort of way. LANGOSTINE, Vacherin, litchi, ginger - This was a langostine and vacherin cheese that had been tempura-ed and fried served what I think on my menu was a plantain puree instead of litchi and ginger then sauced with a sauce made of the shells of the langostine. The langostine and cheese were a very suttle, yet sweet sea/sweet flavored bit that was crunchy, and I thought the main flavor was the sauce, which had been frothed and carried a lot of the flavor which sort've reminded me of shrimp bisque. The puree seemed to put together the two strong and suttle flavors. Great, great dish. I had to get a piece of bread to sop the sauce. HOT POTATO, cold potato, black truffle, parmesan - Not only is this a great interactive dish, but these are tried and true flavors with a new twist on it in the form of temperature control. Others have written on this dish, so I'll just say that I echo any good thing that has ever been said about this dish. Just great. CREAM CHEESE, guava, black sesame, tamarind - I will say all of the desserts were great, but this was my favorite. It was like a cream cheese panna cotta with molten guava in the middle. I normally don't like sesame, but somehow this really came together. It's hard to explain the dish, so I'll just say it was really, really good. I will say though there were a couple dishes that I didn't like so much including the hamachi which had crushed peanuts which had been melted over the top. It wasn't its accompaniments of the cassis, buttermilk, and young peanuts, but my friend and I personally though the hamachi was just lost to the peanuts that had been put on top of the fish. You tasted mostly what tasted like peanut butter and hardly any of the fish. The lamb I wasn't crazy over not because it didn't taste great, but because I don't think the dish made the impact I think it was supposed to make. We saw the lamb being served to other tables, as it came in three cubes with three different accompaniments on a hot rock which cooked the lamb at your table. The captain then placed the piece of rosemary which was previously your table centerpiece into the rock and I'm guessing it was supposed to stimulate your olfactory senses in to thinking there was rosemary in your lamb as you were eating too. The lamb was pretty good, but the rosemary flavor never got there because it never smoked or smelled like rosemary. I think maybe they should light it at the table or something because the captain explained to us the accompaniments on the lamb were there to compliment rosemary... and the flavor never got there. Not that it was a bad dish, but I don't think it worked the way ChefG wanted it to. I ate at Trio while Chef Achatz was there and to me, it seems as if the food at Alinea as grown exponentially. There were a couple of dishes at Trio which I thought weren't great, and though here there was a few that I didn't like as much as the rest of them, I never thought that any one of them was there that I didn't like at least a little. Whereas many chefs that strive to be "molecular" or "avant-garde" or whatever title anyone wants to put on it do a lot of things to try to be different like putting together flavors that don't go together or playing with new toys and sous-vide everything, it can be seen here at Alinea that flavor is at the forefront all the time. Everything else is built around it. The flavors and textures here work, even though some may not work as well as others. It's true when other people say that this place is an experience. It is. And with a price tag that I'd happily pay. With the service, the atmosphere, the food, and the fun that came with this meal, it's not hard to see why people love this place. I'm glad I came and I'm looking forward to coming back.

I had dinner here last friday night. We had planned on going to Avec but a person in our party was extremely hungry and the hostess at Avec said it would be about an hour wait whereas the hostess at Blackbird said it would be about a 10 minute wait. However, it turned into at least a 20 minute wait, and I actually think I'm being nice on that... I know for sure we didn't get seated until a bit after 11 when we had gotten to avec at 10:15. This wouldn't have been a problem, but we were staring at the open table that was to be ours and watched them set up half of it, wait around a while, then set up the rest of it. The hostess then said it would just be a minute, and we stared at our set table for what seemed to be forever before being seated. Now granted I know it was at the end of the service and people normally start taking it easy near the end of service on a Friday night, I would probably think that they would want to get us out of there. However, the service that night was absolutely horrible which is a shame because I'd had amazing service the previous time I had there, and also because to me the food was good -- but I'm sure it could had tasted better if the service was good. We had let our waiter know that one person in our party was vegetarian, but they had brought out a non-vegetarian amuse anyway, and it took an extremely long time for the waiter to get back to us. We had our water filled once, only given bread once, and the space between the appetizers and the entrees was very, very long and again, because no one ever came to check on us or tell us our entrees were arriving soon... or that we couldn't flag anyone down, we couldn't complain or at least ask how much longer it would be. I also had wanted to switch my entree after first deciding on the veal and tried multiple times to flag down a waiter (we were sitting outside) to no avail. My girlfriend wanted pepper for her entree, but after we got our entrees no one ever came to check on us even once and again we tried to flag down waiters. I'm a firm believer of not having to walk up to a waiter to try to get something, especially at a place like blackbird. I think what topped it off was that I had complained about the service being non-attentive and the waits being long as they tried to present us with the dessert menus (we had considered getting desserts because we wanted some, but decided it was probably best that we'd just leave before we'd have to wait another 20 minutes.) And I made it a point that I wanted them just to know and work on it, and that we weren't looking for comps or anything. The waiter sort've just stared at me with a pretentious look on his face and said, "well, um, noted." So you would think he would try his best to get us the check quickly then get us out there quickly. So we were presented with our check, and he didn't come back for what we timed as 14 minutes as we sat there looking through the window watching the waitstaff standing in the middle of the dining room talking and laughing to each other (also to note, we weren't the last table there. There were several.) I wish I could write about the food, but to say the least, it was the least of what we were thinking about when we had left. We had planned afterwards to go to avec, but didn't feel it was right. I was so disappointed because I'd gone to blackbird two times before and had nothing short of an amazing night. I suppose I may go back after a while whenever I get back to Chicago, but I won't make a point of it. However, the next day my friend convinced me to go to avec at around 12 in the morning and we had a great time. The food was great, the wine was great, and even though it seemed as if there was only one waitress, she was very personable, and we had great service plus she came to check on us a couple of times and I was very glad that I went. I certainly hope that our night at blackbird was just a "night off" for service, because Chef Kahan's food shouldn't suffer like that.

If I remember correctly, you externed at Blue Hill. If you want something Dan Barber-like, I highly recommend North Pond. Plus I think they have al fresco dining soon? I myself am going back to the city to visit soon (I externed in Chicago), and snagged a reservation at Alinea. I have 4 days there, and besides Alinea, two other "for sure" places that we've decided on are Green Zebra (just because I need to visit) and either Blackbird/Avec (depending on the mood for the night) I highly recommend all three. I had a great, great meal at Spiaggia last year, and though I did enjoy MOTO, it was probably the least favorite of the nice places we went to. I had a friend who went to Trotter's recently, and said it was wonderful food, but the prices didn't make the food any sort of value to him. Other places I recommend are Sweets and Savories because it's great food with service and prices to match, and though I've heard a mixed bag of reviews of it, I really enjoyed Le Lan for an interesting take on Vietnamese food. Also to everyone else, I have one more night open that I'm looking to fill with a nice place... nothing over the top expensive... around 100 a head including tax/tip without alcohol. Again, we're already going to alinea, zebra, and Avec or Blackbird, so I'd like to keep a good variety. I'm not a gigantic fan of old-style French, however. Also, we're planning on hitting up Hot Dougs, Weiner Circle, and Mr. Beef for lunch, if you could give me any suggestions on other places where we could get a good lunch under 10-15 bucks, we're staying at the Westin which I think is on the Mag Mile. It doesn't have to be greasy spoon like the other places I mention, and actually it would be better if they had vegetarian options also (my girlfriend is a vegetarian.) Hope this helps FabFoodBabe (a little) and hope I didn't impede on your thread. Haha.

I'd suggest working (kneading or in a mixer, depending on how lazy you want to be) it more to develop the gluten strands a lot more. Then it'll hold together a lot better when you try to stretch it.

You gotta have their honey balls then. There can never be anything wrong with fried batter, powdered sugar, and honey. I will say that I did have their calimari once, and though I'd probably never have it again because I've had better, I don't remember it being all that bad. Just nothing special. Souvlaki platter with fries is normally what I have. Though during the winter, their chicken soup is good. Oh, and honey balls. If you're not a fan of fried desserts, my friend who always goes with me swears by the rice pudding. I've never had it.

I had dinner at Wink a few weeks ago between my girlfriend and I, we had three of the same courses you had. The scallops, the sweetbreads, and the trio of desserts. I agree with Kent on the value of the restaurant, though the prices weren't bad for what the food was, I probably would more readily go to a place like Driskill and pay more for food I find more interesting, but that's just my personal taste. The food there is well prepared, and the pairings were fairly simple-- things that are tried and true and are known to work together. I do disagree with Kent on a point, though. Maybe I'm not understanding your gripe with their "signature" items and their predictability. Both Wink and Zoot have never really gone out of the box with their food. I guess it's hard to call those items "signature" if the food is done that way, but I think you'd be leaving yourself set up for disappointment if you were expecting something drasically different from their menus/tasting menus... I don't think their aim is to be new age/super contemporary. They've never really been that way. As for the food itself, nothing was bad, but for some reason I prefer Zoot. I think the price is more reasonable (just a few dollars less) for what I see is essentially the same ways of doing food. Also the cooks here are pretty heavy handed when it came to the salt. I'm not sure that I'd ever go back because for the prices paid, I expect there to be something there where I'd really want to go back for, but there wasn't. The food wasn't bad. It wasn't wow though. Maybe if someone else was paying. I will say that the service at both places were excellent though, even with a full dining room and what looks to be like a small staff. If you enjoy the Alice Water or Monica Pope ways of eating though, I think you'd enjoy this place.

It's not a bad restaurant but the food is a little boring and stagnant. For the money any other one listed here is preferable like Mark's, Noe, Bistro Moderne or the new Tony's. If you are a little more adventurous check out "Laidback Manor" for Avant Guard cuisine and report back. For excellent Thai, Vieng Thai is not to be topped. There is a thread bout it here. Check it out. ← Wow, you got the "quotation marks" right and everything. I've never been to Vieng Thai so I can't comment, but Nit Noi on Woodway is probably my favorite Thai spot in the city. I'd suggest going to Vietnamese before Thai in Houston, though, since we have such a large Vietnamese population. Tay Do in the Hong Kong 4 complex on Bellaire and Boone would be a good place for the family.

I also wanted to point out the Custom House finally finished their website, so you can actually scour through what you might want to order ahead of time and take a look at the wine list for yourself. Nice pictures, too. Interesting story on how it got its name as well. Custom House Webpage

Problem with hanger steak is that there's only one per cow, which makes it hard to find unless you specialty order it, plus it gets expensive. I haven't seen it retail very much, and the times I have, it wasn't in Houston. You might have to go to restaurants to see if they can order it for you, and even then you'd probably have to buy in a larger quantity than you're looking for. But hey, meat freezes well.