AR Valentien , san Diego. Seems the whole state is crazy about farm to table, so I gave it a go for a 3 course brunch. Great ambience but didn't notice a discernable difference or anything unique .. Creative combinations and flair are it's strengths.
Finally made it to Hubcap Grill in the Heights. It's sort of a dump honestly. A bunch of picnic tables outside and a small room on the side with tables, felt like a detention room or something. I ordered a double cheeseburger and a Mexican coke. It was a huge burger. Probably should have just gotten a single. The burger was incredibly greasy. I've never had a burger drip so much grease while trying to eat it. It was very messy. The meat itself was too seasoned. An hour or two later I felt like a sodium bomb had gone off in my body, too much salt in that meat. I got to try some cheddar bacon fries but they were very average. The place itself is kind of gross. There was a cat eating from the floor underneath one of the picnic tables near us which was disgusting. Styrofoam plates and plastic silverware, napkins from the kind of dispenser you find in many bathrooms. My hands got so greasy I had to wash my hands in the restroom after eating. The best part of Hubcap Grill was the Ms Pacman machine, still $.25. I knocked out the high score of 34,000 tonight. Honestly I'd probably visit Hubcap Grill to play Ms Pacman and have a beer before I'd ever eat there again. The Fuddruckers near Katy Mills is just better across the board... better food, better service, and better cleanliness. I wouldn't recommend Hubcap unless you don't mind greasy sloppy burgers at a dive joint.
Necro... Anyways, so in another thread some folks were talking about Bernie's Burger Bus. All hail the burger bus, apparently. Given all the hype this joint receives, we decided to head on over to the location at La Centerra in Cinco Ranch. As we walk in it's pretty much a mad house. I have no idea if we're supposed to seat ourselves or if they're supposed to seat us. The chick at the door is just kind of spaced out so I ask her if we seat ourselves and she says no. So we wait as she tells us a table is being cleared off. So we just wait, kind of taking it all in... looks like a full house. Finally a guy shows up to take us to our table. We get to our table and sit, then the dude asks us if it's our first time there, we say yes, and he gives us this cocky question "What took you so long"? We're just kind of taken aback and we tell him we just heard about it. So then a young girl comes to take our drink order. Drinks arrive, massive hard plastic cup which is good with me. Then I notice the drinks have that super soft, addictive ice that I could just crunch on all day long. Thumbs up. I'm looking at the menu and there's a lot of stuff packed on it. All kinds of specialty burgers and aioli this and that. So I just ask the girl to bring me a half pound bacon cheeseburger, medium rare and some fries. She says no problem. The wait is quite long. I'd guess a solid 20 minutes. I'm nearly done with my massive cup of sprite so she brings a refill. When the waitress returns I jokingly ask her if they're killing the cows back there and she tells me she'll check on our order. Not long after, she brings our order to the table. Fries are barely warm, like they've been sitting under some lamp for 20 minutes. We waive our waitress down, she's going to bring out new fries. Cool. So then I get to my burger. Looks good, hot and juicy. I look for my silverware so I can cut it in half. No silverware. New fries come out, nice and hot. I ask the girl for silverware. Here comes the silverware, one pair of silverware. Girl leaves. I taste the fries, no salt on the fries. So I get up to chase down another set of silverware and some salt. Now I cut my burger in half and it's definitely not medium rare. I'm pretty well damn hungry at this point so I just chow down. What I absolutely did not expect in this joint is the number of annoying teenagers there. It's basically Chuck E Cheese for teens. At the end of our meal or waitress did remove our fries from our bill which we appreciated. We paid up and got out of there. Interestingly enough, the couple next to us had still not received their food despite getting there right after us. The lady next to us kept looking at me and I looked back at her and we shared several WTF is this place looks. On the drive out, I looked at the bill and couldn't believe I was charged $16 for my burger. The bill came to $35+ tip. I couldn't believe I paid $35 for two burgers and two soft drinks. Unbelievable. I'm beginning to think that whole La Centerra area is just a teenage landfill. Bernie's is right next to Grimaldi's and I've had the same experience there. Just inundated with stupid teens, both customers and employees. I definitely won't need to go back. Hopefully next on my go to list is Tom and Chee, the new grilled cheese joint off I-10 and Mason.
It's funny because the last restaurant I ate at provided my wife and me with the best meal we've ever eaten. It's in Los Angeles (Encino). It's called Scratch Bar. They do a tasting menu and one of their chefs was on Top Chef Masters. The whole concept is fantastic and breeds creativity and good food. The restaurant has no wait staff. Only cooks and chefs. There has to be 9 - 12 of them. They experiment with food and ingredients. They give input on each other's dishes and work together to come up with the menu. The chefs present the selections to the table, explain what is in it, how it's prepared, the ideal ways to eat it, and can answer any questions about it because they know the dishes inside and out since they created them. Even the butter used to cook with is made by the staff. Everything is homemade. They bake their breads, cure their meats, and use only fresh ingredients. The tasting menu is 12 courses with last 2 being dessert courses. It was hard to say which was my favorite, because I thought each course was the best while I was eating it. Anything I try to describe would do the food an injustice. But I will try to give just one example. They had a version of sushi which included the chef taking a huge whole salmon, all of the preparation right in front of us. Instead of putting the fish over rice they put it over chopped shrimp instead. They used actual wasabi root, and not the paste or anything as part of the flavoring. The service was fantastic, and they gave us extras of some courses because we were enjoying it all so much. The menu changes every month depending on what ingredients are fresh. I've been to Maude (Curtis Stone's restaurant) which has the same idea and enjoyed it. It is a similar concept. But Scratch Bar is about half the price, and was far and away a superior meal and experience. It was fantastic from the concept, to the food, and service. It does take about 2 hours to complete the meal, but it's time well spent
Can someone make a version of this thread for just inside the loop? Or is there a way I can ignore the outside of the loop posters, Clutch?
Ughyr Bistro in Chinatown. I want to say its Western Chinese food with Islamic influence. The lamb shank is the best in town and their garlic cucumber salad I'm pretty sure has crack in it.
It was Saturday afternoon, probably between two and three. Afterwards, we headed over to Trader Joes and back around to the pet store.
Rudy and Paco's in Galveston. A+ Pretty much our go-to "nice" restaurant because we can drop the baby off at my folks' in League City and just continue on down to Galveston. Plus, I somehow always spend less there than when I go to any other nice restaurant. They somehow made brussel sprouts delicious. I didn't think that was possible, but ate them all eagerly. Side note: I didn't realize Mardi Gras was going on. Wasn't too bad but had to try a little harder to get street parking 8pm on Saturday.
What dishes did you all have? We were down there, I wanna say a couple years ago, but I was in shorts and they had a dress code.
Tatsuya Ramen on California Street. Have eaten at Tiger Den, Ramen Jin, Agu Ramen and Jinya. Tatsuya is head and shoulders better than all of them. Their broth is amazing. Went to Campesino Coffee house after for some Cafe de la Oya (Mexican style coffee brewed with cinnamon) and that too was great.
I like the Filete de Pargo a la Parker. My wife got the Atun a la Parrilla this Saturday and liked it. Previously she got the Vuelva a la Vida and it was great, but too spicy IMO. Rudy is usually there. He sat us at our table and came around a couple times to either tidy up our table or make sure everything was good. Always good service, and yeah they always strictly enforce the dress code. They turned away a few people stumbling in from Mardi Gras. BUT... I'm pretty sure these 2 fat dudes were in there with a wannabe high class hooker; they were all 3 dressed classy but something was off; there was no reason for that solid 5/10 to be with those 2 obese -5/10s.
In one sentence or less? Sure: Slather yourself in a little extra douche and you'll be thoroughly urban camouflaged in all of your native environs.
