Best Wine Bar, Beckrew? (Upper Kirby)

I read recently somewhere that Beckcrew might be the best, current wine bar?  Well today, I decided I would find out for myself for happy hour.  Located in the former Tasting Room spot and I find I like the new mid-century modern atmosphere. And more importantly, I really liked the array of cheeses and chaucuterie spread that I walked up to!  Tasty and that blue cheese, you know I despise blue cheese, but this cheddar blue cheese was delicious!  Mostly because it didn't taste like blue cheese but had the texture and taste of cheddar.  And chorizo, it's my favorite cured meat, mm...had some of that too.  I did like most of our selections, but as the night went on, I found the items not as exciting, including the baked brie.  They also had these pickled okra, tasted like pickles but consistency like okra, I loved it!  They also have these wonderful selections of honey, never seen that before.  We tried Mike's hot spicy honey, love loved it!

When we walked in at 5pm, maybe 2 other tables were taken, but by 8pm Oscar noticed there were a ton of ladies and only 4 men in the whole joint.  So gentlemen...ahem...you know what I'm thinking...great place to see some pretty ladies!  We had a nice time, our server and bartender was great, we enjoyed it, I will definitely be returning!  And please forgive me, my battery ran out of my camera, so must resort to the iphone.

Starbucks Mobile Order!

My first mobile starbucks order, didn't even have to wait in that long line, and it even has my name on it!  Love it!

B&B Butchers (Washington)

I was super interested in making a visit and since we still have a week of Restaurant Week left, we decided to visit.  Unfortunately, their earliest availability this week was Monday at 8pm, so that's when we decided to go.  Matt and I both ordered the Wedge Salad, he with Blue Cheese dressing and since I despise Blue Cheese, I went with the server's suggestion, Balsamic Vinagrette, which was not really a good choice, in my opinion.  A Wedge works better with a creamy sauce, anyways...  We both ordered the 8 oz Filet Mignon, Matt ordered his medium rare, mine was medium and they both seemed to be cooked the same, more rare, which was fine by me.  The Filet was amazing, wow delicious!  Really tasty, perfection.  We also had 3 glasses of wine between the two of us, which went perfect with our steaks.  Our desserts were good, but by far...the steak was the standout, perfection!  The others were all subpar, in my opinion.  The atmosphere was nice, not overdone, simple, and masculine.  Good place for a really nice steak.  The charity portion of our meal, the restaurant donates $7 per meal.  Our bill came out to $172 including tip so a $14 donation seems a little ridiculous as a reason to eat, dine out for charity...but you know, it's an excuse and I guess $14 is better than nothing.

Quick Visit to Sprouts (Washington/Heights)

Not bad, cute, a tad expensive but not too shabby.  We had to do 2 emergency trips this week to the grocery store and though they don't have the typical things we buy, I prefer it over Walmart!  I assumed it would like Trader Joe's and though it kind of does, it's better.  Nice option!

Pho Binh (Heights)

Well now...Vietnamese food hits the Heights!  Is it good, is it not, is it going to make it...well, that's what I came to find out!  They've been 1 week opened...and me and Matt both are with somewhat low expectations, open, but a little apprehensive.  As I'm looking to see what their hours are, I do find out there are several Pho Binhs in Houston.  The manager says third one, and he's Vietnamese and so are most of the employees.  Good sign.  There are servers that are not, but that's ok, it still feels authentic.

I ordered Pho Ga, Matt ordered the Pho Tai and we also ordered Vietnamese egg rolls and the Vietnamese coffee.  The coffee came out first, it wasn't bad.  Not the best I've had.  It was quite a hefty serving in a plastic bubble tea-like cup.  Good ice.  Our Pho comes out and yes...it's good!  The temperature was great, hot!  The taste was good too!  We both liked it.  We did notice they brought us both our own individual plate of greens, which is different.  We noticed they were kind of limpy.  The lime slice was teeny tiny.  I happened to notice there was a big portion of noodles in my soup and when the manager came by to check up on us, I told him about it and he said that there was someone that came in the week before that complained there weren't enough noodles.  I asked him if they were non-Asian and he said yes.  Well, what they don't get is you're not suppose to have too much noodles because it expands and overtakes the soup!  Anyways, we got a laugh about that.  

Just like an authentic Vietnamese restaurant, where nothing comes in order, our egg rolls come at the end of our meal.  The rolls were ok, again not the best we've had.  We did also notice they brought us one piece of lettuce leaf with the egg rolls.  I guess they didn't think we would use it...so we had to ask for more and our server came out with a plate with one more leaf...haha!  We got a laugh out of that too.  Also, I don't know if they were having ac issues or it's normally like that, but it was hot in there too.  But, all in all, we liked it and it will probably be our go to pho spot, simce it's much closer than Simply Pho.  They seem like they're ironing out some kinks, but we liked the pho and that's what really matters the most...and they seem to care.  Good job on the grand opening.

Mala Sichuan (Montrose)

I know...the food looks so good, doesn't it?!!  But, it's not!  Well...let me explain.  I went in there with no information, other than that it's new.  Nice looking place, I'm glad they finally got something good in this location.  In the former Mo Mong location.  We really came in with no knowledge of anything, so we asked our server about some of the pictures posted on Yelp and he recommended the Dry Pot Beef, Crispy Chicken, Dan Dan Noodles and I ordered the Water Spinach.  

He failed to mention that both the main dishes, Dry Pot Beef and Crispy Chicken had pepercorns in them and the more you ate the more it affected your tastebuds and after awhile, we couldn't eat anymore.  It affected our senses in a bad way and even the water tasted like sprite or something.  It really turned us off and when our server came back to us, we asked him what was in the dish that made our mouth go numbish and he looked at us puzzled.  Then he said...maybe it's the peppercorn.  I was amazed that he had no idea what we're talking about.  He even said no one has ever mentioned anything.  I checked the reviews on Yelp and come to find out it's not a strange thing, but common.  So watch out for those dishes with the peppercorn and definitely don't order more than one of those!  That was a really odd experience.

To be fair, the other dishes were good.  I liked the Dan Dan Noodles and the Water Spinach.  I don't feel great motivation to go back, but if someone wanted to, I would go back.  I did also read on Yelp that the restaurant prides itself for not altering the dishes to fit American taste, but a warning would be nice.  So go, but beware and eat at your own risk!

Max's Wine Dive (Montrose)

Did you know?  I didn't know there was a Max's Wine Dive over here on Fairview across from Boheme.  It's a much less crowded space which is really nice if you're just wanting that good old Southern Fried Chicken from Max's.  Our server was a young man, adorable, and fun...but my whole night was runined by a roaming cockroach...under our table.  They always find me!  

Fat Bao (Upper Kirby)

Oh Fat Bao...who's been on my to do list for quite some time.  I'm glad I finally got to check this one off my list, but honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with it.  It wasn't bad or great, just good, no fireworks or anything special.  I got the Pork Katsu Bao and the day's special Spicy Thai Chicken.  They were both good, but I wasn't overly impressed with either.  Matt got the Pork Belly and the Peking Duck, and said they were fine, the boy got the Big Byrd Bao, which is a fried chicken bao and he said his were ok.  The one thing we all liked were the Fat Fries, but other than that, I don't have much else to say...my curiosity has been officially cured.

Goode Company Taqueria

Had me some really good Pecan Waffles! Highly recommended by Jason and Karen B. and they were right, it was really good! I'm glad I got the ala carte else I would have eaten two waffles!  It was a great day to visit too as they had a big ol backyard space!  My clerk was kind of rude, but that's ok, it didn't ruin my waffles.

Ula's Mex+Tex (Washington Corridor)

Old Coppa spot on Washington.  Nice atmosphere.  Guacamole was great, chunky not super mashed up.  Beef fajitas were tasty. I like it when it's a little tangy.  The corn tortilla were thick, salsa a little spicy, margaritas were pretty good too, but we thought the service was lacking. Our server was friendly, but they forgot to bring our corn tortillas, didn't refill our salsa, chips or tortillas.  Overall, ok experience.

Brasil Cookies...

delicious, coffee ok and Internet sucked!

Hugs & Donuts

Small place.  Long line.  The wait is nothing in comparison to how long we've all been waiting for this place to open!  We came by yesterday just after lunch and they were sold out and closed.  Today we made sure to show up early, however it did cost us going to our class at church.  The things I do to bring you all information!  

I ordered 6 glaze donuts, 1 coconut lime, 1 lemon meringue, and a dozen of cake holes.  In the car, on the way home, I tried the cake holes and they were definitely different and they were tasty.  Not too thick, but definitely more cakey than I'm used to.  Not too glazed or sweet, but overall texture and taste was great.  So far so good.  The glazed donuts were actually a little disappointing.  I guess waiting all this time, I had done a lot of following of their progress on Facebook.  I thought they were going to be closer to Krispy Kreme quality and taste than any old donut shop.  Unfortunately, that was my take and Matt thought they weren't even as good as Shipleys.  On another note, I had these new doughnuts from Shipleys, they were the yeast one, and oh my gosh they were good.  I usually never go back for seconds, but I had 2 of them!  If we weren't out in public I might have even gotten a third!  

Ok so back to Hugs & Donuts doughnuts...I tried the coconut lime, it's ok.  The lemon meringue also ok, better than the coconut lime, but it's probably just because there was more umph to it because of the filling.  The coconut lime was just a little bland.  So overall, a bit disappointed, but not a bad place to go for just some regular old doughnuts.

Brasil

I'm not really big on scones because they're mostly dry and tasteless, but I had this blueberry scone at Brasil and it wasn't dry or tasteless. It was actually pretty good. I was pretty surprised at how good it was. They've really vamped this place up over the last years. I really like how they dropped the ceiling to add central air, creative and pretty! It looks great against the wood ceiling too. Sharp!

Mary'z Lebanese Cuisinse (Washington)

I'm glad to have a Lebanese restaurant nearer to me than Aladdin, although Aladdin is more of a self-serve than full service like Mary'z.  They have been on Richmond in the Galleria area for many many years, just soft opened on Washington yesterday.  At the Ricmond location they have packaged pita bread, whereas the Washington location has fresh bread made in their stone ovens.  I wouldn't think I would prefer the packaged bread, but it happened to be softer than the fresh bread and easier for me to eat.

There were 4 of us plus a toddler.  We ordered in a family meal like fashion and we girls got the hummus, tabouli, and falafel appetizer and the guys got the meat sampler.  The guys also ordered tabouli and a green bean dish for their appetizer so they actually weren't able to finish their meat sampler they had so much food.  I thought everything was great, but my falafel was different than I was used to.  The outside was crispy, but the inner was very soft and airy, which was different.  We were really full by the end of the meal, but they brought us out free baklava, which was nice.  They also brought out strawberries for the baby, which was super nice.  We thought the staff was great.  We'll be back here for Lebanese food!

Weights + Measures (Midtown)

I've been sort of waiting for WM to open for some time that I lost track until I saw a client/friend comment on their visit and I was so excited, I made it there within the week!  The interior looks like a cross between True Food Kitchen and Canopy.  A very open, casual, clean, refreshing, kitchen like space with mid century furnishings.  We're finding out they've been open for 2 weeks and our server does seem a little new.  WM has Sourdough Bakery near the entrace, great display of pastries, I want to eat it all!  But, you know I got to watch my girlish figure, so I only ordered two, the raspberry linzer and the chocolate croissant.  The raspberry linzer was sweet and tasty, the chocolate croissant was ok.  Nick and I decide to share so we can try more things...so, for our main meal, we shared a butter lettuce salad and a sausage pizza.  The salad was ok too.  The pizza was tasty, but it was a little limp to pick up, probably because of the sauce.  It was good, we both liked it.  For dessert we ordered the chocolate flourless cake which our server highly recommended.  I don't typically lean towards desserts that are chocolate, but I'm glad we listened to him because it was amazing!  That cake was just delicious!  Super super good!  I liked it all, great experience, I would definitely go back...after all, got to try all those mouth watering pastries they have!

Oporto (Midtown)

Well...what can I say...it's gorgeous inside!  I already had a great opinion of Oporto Richmond, but this one...eye candy!  Absolutely beautiful.  We were sat in a booth, love the booth!  The interior had a mid century, retro modern look to it.  Super handsome interior.  I thought the menu was a little hard to read, so we let our server drive, which we would have done anyways.  He seemed super excited about that and ordered the following items in order of the pictures above...Bife a Portuguesa (hangar steak/fried egg/potatoes), $14.  Pao com Tomate (wood fired grilled/tomato pulp/sumac), $6.  Queijo de Cabra (goat cheese/walnuts/basil & tomato sauce/garlic bread), $10.  Crab & Avocado Crostini, $14.  I recommend all of these dishes, they were great.  I was surprised the crab had a nice freshness too.  I don't prefer crab, but here it was great, with a little sprinking of lemon.  The Queijo de Cabra, Avocado Crostini and the Pao com Tomate were my favorites.

Of course we also got dessert, his recommendation was the lemon pastry and the bread pudding, in that order.  So, we got both.  I didn't care so much for the bread pudding but the lemon pastry was nice.  I probably could have had 2 of those to myself!  Sorry, no pictures of the desserts, as we gobbled them up!  Great service, great food, love the atmosphere!  Another quick mention...I didn't realize the food here was Portugese, and didn't know the other Oporto was as well.  I figured it was all similar to Queen Vic, which it is not.

Urban Eats (Washington)

On my first visit last week, I was really impressed.  I liked how the interior was set up, not sure if anyone actually buys the grocery items.  These kind of stores seem really hard to sustain, but I hope they do well.  I love the decor, very industrial, rustic,  handsome, it has a really nice feel inside.  There's so much to look at, I think I could be here for an hour and still not be done exploring.  They have shelved items, cheesse, smells like there could be cured meats somewhere, and obviously baked goods.  So much to look at!  There's a more casual sitting area downstairs, but upstairs is where the restaurant is.  Nice looking patrons here, maybe the hipster crowd?  It's a full house for lunch.  We sit down and I ordered the tuna salad and Jimy got the chicken salad.  He also ordered the eggplant appetizer and an order of french fries.  I thought everything was good, but I didn't finish my salad, which is kind of rare.  I liked my whole experience from the food to the atmosphere.  Staff was great too, very helpful!

My next visit, I took a friend, his first time.  This time I ordered the tuna sliders since he was getting the cowboy.  I was impressed that the tuna sliders didn't taste fishy at all.  I find most don't get a tuna burger right all the time.  I enjoyed it.  Again, I enjoyed it and Jay liked his burger.  They have a great outdoor patio with a great view of the skyline, which would be geat to use these days because the weather is awesome!  Also, one more tid bit, the parking is kind of a pain.  But overall, I like it and it's a great lunch spot.

Dak & Bop (Museum District)

As I mentioned some weeks ago about my ending my mission to find the best fried chicken until the next fried chicken joint popped up...well, that time has come.  Dak & Bop is a Korean inspired fried chicken restaurant.  It's a small shop.  Long wait.  Lots of cool, young, hip people eating Korean Fried Chicken.  They have basically 3 options: wings, drumsticks or tenders.  I was confused by the "drumsticks" and thought that would be like wings but the legs.  Needless to say, we had a extremely large order.  We got the combindation 14 wings and 8 drumsticks combo with half and half sauce (soy garlic and spicy), $30.  Then we got an additional 6 wings soy garlic wings, $8.  We also ordered the Kimchi fries, which wasn't on the menu.  And we got the mac & cheese and the asian coleslaw.  I thought all the sides were ok.  And you end up eating them all because it takes so long for the fried chicken to come out, you basically devour all the sides and don't really have much room for the main course.  I had about 6 wings.  So did the guys.  The wings were actually pretty up there on taste.  Not your average fried chicken.  The skin is nice and crispy and sweet.  Tehy were pretty good, but there was no way we were going to finish it all.  We took all the drumsticks home and the next day, they were even more tasty!

So overall, I thought it was a fun experience.  The true test to all of these fried chicken places is if I go back for seconds!  We shall see...

Drexel House (Highland Village)

I had visited Drexel House for the first time months ago and totally forgot to blog about it.  So here it finally is!  We visited on a Saturday for a mid day snack after reading an article on their revised menu.  On arriving we really liked the atmosphere.  It was a little cold and seating inside was full so we were directed outside and it was just a little uncomfortable, but ok for the most part.  We thought the service was pretty bad.  We were rotated through 3 servers and finally the third server actually brought out what he said he was going to bring out.  We did like the Kale salad and the cheese plate.  The bread was ho hum, but I did like the selection of cheeses.  Overall, I did like the place and will be back.  

Selma

In honor of MLK Day, I went to Sundance Cinema to watch Selma at 130pm in the afternoon.  The entire theater was packed!  The good thing about Sundance is you can purchase your ticket and pick your seat in advance!  Back to the movie...wow, what an inspiring story!  MLK Jr. has always been one of my biggest heros and this movie just reminds me of his human and courageous resolve.  Loved the movie!  Go watch it!