I am seeking opinions about dining out. My wife and I like to eat out for a "date" once a week or so. We do not live in Houston, but come here about once a week. We have favorite places to eat out for : 1) Food quality 2) Atmosphere 3) Other-intangibles-location, type, fun level,bar One of our favorite Seafood places up until 2 years ago was Lil' Pappas on Shepherd near Alabama. It was my very favorite place for seafood. I had a stuffed snapper there in March 2000, and got food poisoning. We stopped going because the food quality had gone down. We ate there yesterday and the food is good again. I'm glad we tried it again. Do you swear off restaurants forever? Do you give them a second chance? As many good places to eat there are in Houston-it would be easy to never go back to a bad one... What do you think????
Whenever we come back to Houston we try to get to Landry's or Pappadeaux's for seafood and Pappacito's for Mexican. If we wnat Chinese we head off to Ta Hua for their steamed vegetable dumplings. A couple of weeks ago we discovered that Pappacito's has fajitas for two priced at $9.95 (instead of $25.00) on Thursdays from 4:00 - 10:00.
seafood? Try Goode Co. Seafood on Westpark right off of Kirby. Look for the rail car. Try the campachana (seafood appetizer served with chips) and have anything grilled. you can get fried fish anywhere.... Do you swear off restaurants forever? Do you give them a second chance? I got gastrointestinitis from El Paraiso on Fairview a few years back. Apparently they re-used their chips and salsa. They have since changed their ways but I have sworn them off forever. My favorite tacqueria, El Rey on Washington was recently on Marvin Zindler's rat and roach report. 80lbs of meat/chicken kept off temp. Haven't eaten there in months. I might go back. There are tons of great places to eat here in Houston. Do you have newsgroups? Try houston.eats, post this question there, you will get wide and varied responses.
li' pappas is my favorite too, and so is Goode Company seafood. You can also get great seafood at non-seafood restaurants, if that makes sense?? 1) Food Quality -- Sierra Grill on Montrose is one of the best chefs in town. Kinda that CIA early '90s "fusion," but he adds a signature Southwest character to everything. Oustanding steak and appetizers. It is one of those places where the only reason you might be disappointed in what you got is because you think your wife picked something even better. Menu is $12-30 for main dishes (I think it is $35 for steak and lobster, though). 2) Atmoshere--I really like Damians for dressy atmosphere. I've sworn off some Vietnamese restaurants. Speaking of which, anyone check out the new restaurant, Jenny's Vietnamese Cafe (I think?) near the original Van Loc?? That is some Vietnamese made with care. check it out.
Recently I tried Perrys Italian Grill again. I had gone there some years back and it sucked. This time however, the food was delicious. The atmosphere is obviously nice. Perrys Steakhouse always kicks ass. Americas is awesome as well. I've been wanting to try Zula in downtown and Palm on Westiemer. Anyone ever been to those?
I've eaten at Zula downtown -- I really enjoyed it. The prices are sky high, but the food is fantastic and it's a great spot to take a date if you're trying to impress her. You definitely pay for the ambiance. It's very much a shi-shi, trendy spot with most people dressed in black.
Ahhh, the Palm. Home of the 1-pound filet mignon. How I love thee... Here in NYC, the Palm is rated in the top 4 for steaks (with a 25 food rating). That's damn good. In Houston, it gets a 24. I personally love the Palm and would highly recommend the food there. If you want rankings based on food, decor, service, and cost, NOTHING beats Zagat's.
that may be the grossest thing i've ever read! thank god i stopped eating restaurant chips & slasa many years ago!
I wish I were not eating lunch while i read rH`s post. I rarely give a restaurant a second chance since there are to many choices and I will NEVER give a restaurant a second chance if their service is sub par. It`s been over a year since I have lived in Houston but I used to frequent "The Boat" on 1960 close to Jones road. They had awesome Gumbo and excellent fried shrimp, its a dive but the prices are cheap, the food is {or was} awesome and the beer is cold.
Backstreet Cafe on Shepherd & Dallas is one of my & my girl's favorite date-type places. Go when the weather's nice & sit on the back patio. Pesce is expensive as hell, but the seafood is great. Grotto, Tony Mandola's Gulf Coast Kitchen and Farrago are good places as well. I've never really sworn off any restaurants I like (never gotten sick at one either); what few problems I've had traditionally were service & food preparation related. I've found that in most situations, the kitchen staff wants to know if you're not happy with a dish. Rude/inattentive waitstaff is something that really bothers me, & most restaurant managers want to hear about it, given that you approach them with courtesy & explain what was wrong.
Zula is not bad.....I feel like I'm paying more for atmostphere than food there though. I pride myself on being adventurous, but strangely, some of my favorite Houston restaurants are chains...The Pappa's Seafood and Pappasitos in Clear Lake/Webster. I've never found any of the other locations to match the quality of these two. Also, P.F. Changs on Westheimer. I second the vote for Perry's Steakhouse. It's as good as any, but the prices are much better. do yourself a huge favor though. Bring a cooler and go to central market.....it's better than any restaurant.
because they suck. There are too many to choose from, why go to mediocre ones that don't taste good. Mia's is one. Then some whose names I never knew peppered throughout Midtown.
ahhh Damians...went there for prom back in the day...great food. but now that i live in seattle, when i go back to texas i never get seafood. it's like trying to find bbq here in washington...it doesnt exist.
Not a Houston resteraunt but one I highly recommend for anyone traveling thru Baton Rouge, is T.J. Ribs. They serve all kinds of bbq but all you need to know about what to order is in the name. They also had some really cool LSU memrobilia until a fire a couple of years ago. Not sure if they still have it all out or not. ANyway. The place has a great college type atmosphere and awesome food. it is definitely not to be missed when you pass thru "Red Stick" CK
Ah, I see. Makes sense. I have not heard of Mia's...but I don't really look inside the loop for good Vietnamese, either.
Anyone ever try Maggiano's (sp)?? I hear a lot of Texans hang out there, including Bob McNair. Is it high dollar and non casual? os
I like to go to: D'Amico's in the Village for Italian Pho Cong Ly in midtown for Vietnamese Freebird's World Burrito for comfort food. I have. I went for a business dinner about a year ago. It is fantastic. It's a little pricy (expect in the $25-$35 range if I remember right) and as I recall you can get away with business casual attire.
My favorite eating out destination is Brenan's for Sunday brunch. Another good date restuarant is Americas in the Galleria area. We always get the appetizer sampler which they size to your party. BTW Americas is a slightly upscale version of Churascos. If we are want Indian, we go to either Bombay Palace or Madras Pavillion (vegetarian). For Thai food, we go to Nit Noi in the Rice Village. For Mexican food, we go to El Tiempo Cafe on Richmond. For Italian, we go to La Mora, near Montrose and Westheimer.
