I'm feeling rather curmudgeonly today, so I'll add a few negative comments about several of these places. I'm pretty demanding when it comes to food and don't put up with very much nonsense. But I visit places wanting to like them, and usually have high expectations. Cafe Montrose: I visited there last summer and was very disappointed after reading nothing but good reviews. I too had the mussels, but was dismayed by the small serving, the small size of the individual mussels, and the fact that too many of them remained unopened. The fries that accompanied them were abysmal, and fries were supposed to be Cafe Montrose's claim to fame. These were soggy and had obviously been reheated. I've never eaten any meal done so poorly in either France or Belgium. On the other hand, the apple crepe was utterly fantastic! The waiter and owner of the place talked with my companion and me for quite a while. The owner was quite outspoken and friendly. I hope we caught them on a bad day and wish them well, but based on this one experience I wouldn't return. Monica Pope: I've only visited one of her restaurants, and that was quite a few years ago. It was Boulevard Bistro on Montrose. It was a horrible experience, and far too expensive for what it was. I had invited several couples to join me and had highly recommended the place to them based on reviews. The service was awful throughout, alternating between complete inattentiveness and outright confusion, either ignoring us when needed or getting things mixed up. While I thought the quality of the food was alright, the portion sizes were laughable. We ordered an appetizer for five, and it was three very scant tablesoons of various dips like hummous, tapenade and so forth along with just a few slices of white bread. I remember getting the salmon, and it was one half of a steak. Not even a whole steak, but just one of the slender flanks that extend down where the fish's cavity is, about as large as my middle finger. My companions' meals were similarly portioned and I distinctly remember everyone's faces dropping and conversation stopping when the food arrived. At one point I visited the toilets only to find our waitress passed out in the hallway, obviously high on drugs, which accounted for her extreme spaciness and confusion while serving us. The place was popular with lesbians, and while I couldn't care less about other people's sexual preferences, I'd rather not eat my meal surrounded by women sticking their tongues down other women's throats. And I'm not only talking about some of the customers, but the waitstaff as well, right in front of the customers. Real classy place! I could go on about this, recounting more bad things that happened, but why? I have never returned and will never again eat at a Monica Pope restaurant. Ta'afia or whatever it's called can go to culinary hell. Trulucks: Only ate there once. I don't remember many details, but do remember everything being so utterly mediocre and bland and tired and uninspired and disappointing. This is another place on my list to never return to. Sorry for the downer, but I lived in Houston for 14 years and still own a house there. There are good restaurants there, but in my opinion these aren't among them. I do get irritated by those places that consistently get good writeups but fail to live up to them.
