max's wine dive

max's wine dive
4720 washington ave @ shepherd

first of all, if you've never been here, this place is much more restaurant than wine bar and it certainly isn't a dive. max’s offers gourmet comfort food, decent wine prices, and a kitchen that closes late. it has a loud, energetic atmosphere, great for dinner with the girls on a tuesday or saturday night. if i didn’t worry about calories, i would eat here twice a week. but i've still been here at least a dozen times.

last night was my third visit since the departure of chef jonathan jones who left for the executive chef position at the new americas in the woodlands. the menu hasn't changed too much and i hadn't really noticed a drop in the quality of the food until last night. later on in the evening, i learned that max's has gone through three chefs since JJ left and a friend of mine was just recently hired there. we went in last night hoping he would be there. he was not.

i rave and rave about the fried chicken. in fact, i have probably ordered it the last 4 times i was here. it's wonderfully flavored and always moist inside. but last night i realized that i'm in love the composition of the whole dish -- crispy fried chicken, creamy marscapone mash, bitter collard greens, and sweet, smokey chipotle honey. texas toast is garnish b/c when i finally get around to it, it's always cold. last night the chicken was fine, maybe a little more greasy than usual, but the mashed potatoes were bland and the collard greens were undercooked & fibrous.

btw, i checked the description of the mashed potatoes on the menu online and it no longer says they have marscapone in them. cost cutting? come on, this IS an $18 plate of FRIED CHICKEN.

onto other people's food, michael got the softshell crab special. it was served as an open-faced sandwich and was dressed with a tasty aioli. he gave me a generous portion. i enjoyed the dish immensely. paul got the fried egg sandwich which i have had before. it is a monstrously messy affair. max's describes it as "Three pan fried eggs, drizzled with truffle oil and maldon sea salt, topped with three slabs of applewood smoked bacon and Veldehuizen gruyere, organic bibb lettuce, hot house tomato, and garlic black truffle aioli. All sandwiched between two pieces of artisan sourdough and served with hand-cut chips." unfortunately, this dish is anticlimatic for me. i end up with lots of runny yolk, good bacon flavors, but not enough truffle. what a tease!

lea got the caesar salad and truffled mac & cheese. i do like how the romaine lettuce leaves are served whole the way cardini conceptualized the dish. the leaves are supposed to be picked up and eaten with your hands. the huge white anchovies are a nice touch. the mac & cheese is rich and creamy, but not to die for. i prefer the truffled mac at oceanaire to this version.

steve had the yankee pot roast made with locally sourced kobe beef cheeks. i had a small bite and for cheek meat (my favorite), it wasn't very memorable. dimitre had the kobe burger topped with brie (photo above).

i'll give this place another go when i know there's a different guy in the kitchen. btw, if you are industry, they'll give you 15% off your bill. last night, they discounted our wine too.

beaver's got nuts

beaver's
2310 decatur st. near washington ave

11/30/07 review

i made it to beaver's for lunch today. it's been a really long time since my first visit. i'm attempting to eat healthy this week (detoxing from last weekend's binge) so i came to try beaver's nut burger. i doubt it was lo-cal, but it was delicious. the menu describes it as "a protein bomb with Texas brown rice, cashews, walnuts, herbs, cheddar cheese & spices." it was a tad greasy and the patty fell apart quite easily. it was served with a miso-mustard on the side, which i had to remind them to bring. the sauce was wonderfully flavorful and creamy. i wondered if there was mayo in it, but the kitchen confirmed the absence of any. i asked for a side salad instead of the chips it came with. the chips came to the table anyway (annoying b/c then i had to restrain myself from eating them) and the side salad came in a little dish that the sides normally come in. the simple salad was dressed with vinaigrette. they charged me a $2 substitution charge, which normally i wouldn't mind, but i didn't even touch it b/c it was tasteless and boring.

the three guys with me all ordered the sloppy pork sandwich. the guys all enjoyed their sandwiches which came with a side of coleslaw. the slaw brought back some unpleasant memories of my previous visit and i noticed it went untouched for the most part. 2 of them also got sides of mac and cheese. one of my friends claimed it was the best mac & cheese in town, so i had to try it. it is very strange looking. orrechiette pasta in cheese sauce topped with chunky cooked tomatoes and croutons. it was pretty good.


one of my friends also ordered the sweet potato fries to start with. they came to the table glistening with grease. they looked soggy. it was easy to pass on them. they were served with the same miso-mustard that my nut burger was served with. guy friend looked like he enjoyed it anyway.

service was pretty terrible even though the restaurant was slow and our server was very chatty. but the food was much better than my first visit. btw, i confirmed that they only serve ribs at lunch on thursdays. i'll be back again soon with some houston chowhounds next week. i'll try to bring back some photos of actual bar-be-que.

soma

4820 washington ave #A @ shepherd

did anyone read this article in the chronicle today about robert gadsby, formerly of noe? he is at soma now, the new franco-japanese place that opened on shepherd/washington by the azuma folks:

i've been to soma twice now since it's soft opening several weeks ago. i had higher expectations since it is owned by azuma and i want to see this place succeed b/c of the location. personally, i think there is much better sushi in houston than azuma, but the location is within a 5-10 min drive of my house and i'm excited to see washington ave. become the new, hip part of houston with all the recent openings of restaurants, bars, & clubs.

back to soma, my first visit was on the 4th day they were open. the sushi was mediocre, although the fresh salmon was wonderful. i don't normally order rolls but the soma roll was listed on their sushi menu as having cilantro and onion in it, so i couldn't pass it up. it came to the table with tempura crunch all over it and there was no onion or cilantro flavors to be found.

disappointing.... on my second visit, a week and a half later, again, the sushi was mediocre. they did have a live scallop special where they served it 2 ways and it was excellent. but both times, the quality of the sushi was worse than azuma (and i've frequented both locations). it seems to me that they have a different seafood purveyor for this establishment?

the non-sushi menu is all gadsby's doing. i have to say that is was very strange seeing a kitchen full of non-asians back there (is that un-PC of me to say that?). the menu is creative. think truffle oil, quail eggs, fois gras. my first night, i ordered a hot plate with ny strip loin and potatoes. the steak (about 4 oz.) was chewy, although cooked a perfect medium-rare. the potatoes were similar to an au gratin, but less saucy with a nice buttery finish. it was apparent to me that this dish could have been heavenly, if not for the low-quality of the meat. i think this small dish was $18. i would have gladly paid $25 for it with a better piece of beef.

on my second visit, the non-sushi menu had changed, although it was still printed on normal white copier paper stapled together with the word "DRAFT" stamped on it. there was a fois gras terrine with raw tuna on there that i could not pass up. it sounded interesting, scary even. it was served just like a slice of a terrine. there was a large hunk of tuna in the middle and fois gras wrapped around it. it was served with a mango relish. no regrets, it was very interesting, much better than i could have ever imagined, but a novelty. fois gras is much better in more classic preparations.

soma is already reeling in big crowds. expect a wait. expect a large bar crowd. expect loud techno music. give it a try, but stick to the non-sushi menu. they still have a lot of kinks to work out and the chronicle article says that gadsby will work on the sushi menu when he is done with the main menu. but really, he just needs to find a new fishmonger,some sushi chefs with better knife skills, and probably just add a few more rolls for the not-so-serious-sushi-eater types.

ziggy's healthy grill

302 fairview st @ taft
2202 w.alabama st @ greenbriar

hey a girl has to watch her figure every now and then and ziggy's serves up excellent "diet" food. almost everything on ziggy's menu is guilt-free except the deep fried fries, sweet potato fries, and onion rings. however, they are fried in canola oil if you aren't that concerned with the calories. the onion rings are sliced really thin and battered and are excellent.

secondly, you can't go wrong with a burger. served on whole wheat buns, my favorites are the black bean burger (very similar to beck's veggie burger) and the spicy garlic turkey. as for entrees, i love the meatloaf -- it is huge and the mashed potatoes with low-fat brown gravy is yummy and comforting. the tilapia and salmon are both very good and with steamed brown rice and veggies, it is also very filling.

perhaps, my favorite time to come to ziggy's is for brunch. i almost always choose the santa fe breakfast burrito w/ egg whites, which is very large and is filled with scrambled egg whites, turkey sausage, black beans, rosemary potatoes, and assorted veggies. it is served with salsa, low fat queso, and fat free sour cream. or i opt for an egg white omelet.

at the west alabama location, you order at the counter, they give you a number and they bring your food to you. it's a great lunch spot, but i would never come here for a dinner out with friends. then my prayers were answered with the second location on fairview which is in a quaint house and has table service. i am very happy that houston has a health conscious restaurant on this level (and now there is a second location on fairview and taft which is much closer to my house). it makes trying to live a healthy lifestyle so much easier.