Haven Houston

Several friends and I went to dinner at the newest greenest restaurant in town. Haven is a partnership of Randy Evans (executive chef), Debbie Jaramillo and Rhea Wheeler. Evans was the Executive Chef at Brennan's since 2003.

I think you will be surprised to find that even though Evans came from a famed steakhouse, steak is not a prominent feature of the menu. Everything in the menu is fresh from a local farm, if it's not fresh, they won't buy it. I can appreciate that tremendously, given that there's alot of bad news regarding how they forced feed animals by using bad chicken feed or grass that's been sprayed w/ pesticide. This going back to basic movement I can definitely appreicate.

As I said, the menu is all organic and local farmed goods. So, the items may change without notice, but you can see their menu on their website. Their appetizers also called Enticement, for me, it wasn't very enticing the day I visited. They had deviled eggs, seared Berkshire belly, shrimp corn dogs, and artisan meat and cheese. While I think it's very unique to have shrimp corn dogs, at a restaurant this caliber, I expected something fancier. Just as the deviled eggs, I know the Grove is trying to bring it back, but to me, its' still an item featured at Tupperware Parties and Baby Showers. I think I would've gone for the meat and cheese had I had to choose, but let's see what else is there.

Their soup and greens featured a Squash Bisque, torn greens, and tomato and mozzarella. Hmmm... nothing shakes me.

The main course, ah huh, something I like... They featured free ranged chicken with the bacon spaetzel, wood grilled loin, shrimp, tuna, and free ranged eggs (again). I think my husband would've been thrilled to see eggs featured as a main entree, but I'm sure the chef would have a clever twist to it.

I chose the free ranged chicken. They cooked it w/ the skin, and it was nice and juicy yet favorful, not a bit that's dried. It is laid on top of a bed of bacon spaetzel. I've never had that before, and for those of you who don't know, it is like a very finely diced potato and the texture is even softer if that's possible, and it's cooked w/ bacon which reminds me alot of ham hock. Along side was crispy brussels sprouts leaves. Let me tell you, if my mom and all moms cooked brussels sprouts like that, no kid will ever turn their nose up on the vegetable again. It was nice and crispy, like a chip, and who doesn't like their vegetable smell and taste like a chip?

Then comes dessert... all of us at the table all chose one of the dessert. They featured, pecan pie, layered chocolate cake, banana split, and cheesecake. Both the cheesecake and the pecan pie doesn't look anything out of the ordinary. The banana split is kinda cute, they have the ice cream and the corresponding sauce that goes along w/ it, but they presented it on a plate that has different compartment for each of the ice cream and the banana. So, they are splitted, and no co-mingling occur in the ice cream. I got the layered cake, it wasn't as I'd pictured it to be. In my mind, it'd be moised chocolate cake layered and have nice buttercream in between. The cake was dried, much like a biscotti texture. If you put some of the malted ice cream on top of the cake, which moisen it and added w/ the buttercream that would be acceptable, but for the first few bites, that was a surprise to me that it was so dry.

I wanted to point out how our waitstaff was awesome. He came from Captial Grille, which as I understood, alot of the staff came from well known places from the city, so the service is top notched and attentive doesn't even begin to described how well served we were. They made sure coffee was poured the correct way, which by the way, the coffee was french pressed. The tea choices, all 12 of them, were displayed nicely, brewed fresh on the spot, and no tea leaves was poured into the cup. That was just A+ all around.

The building was a certified green building, the wood was made of recycled wood, and the a/c is delievered thru a cloth 'pipe' with holes to make sure all areas get the same temperature. If they need to, all they have to do is unzip the cloth and throw it into the washer to avoid mold. Not only that, they have a rain gutter that catches the rain and that serves as reserve water for their own garden in the back of the restaurant.

The draw back is their location. Becuase they are hidden behind 3 other restaurants (Cafe Japon, Mai Thai, and Taco Cabana), it's not the easiest to find, even though it's easily accessible via the freeway, you just need to know where it is. The other thing is their parking, because they are located at the curve of the backway, they highly encourage valet parking. I find that alot of people chose to park at the abandoned Bennigan's parking lot and just walk. Some even parked over by Mucky Duck, couple streets over. So, that's something to consider.

Haven
2502 Algerian Way
Houston, TX, 77098
713-581-6101