Coco's Crepe

Haven't been back to Coco's for a while.  And I always enjoyed the atmosphere and the service there.

I got the Nutella & Banana crepe, and thank goodness that they're super generous on the Nutella, because let's face it, that's the whole reason for ordering it.  The home made cream does add a touch and balance the sweetness out.  

Don't get me wrong, they ain't no Melange.  But for a place close by that serves decent crepe.  I do stand by Coco.  Not pretentious, friendly staff and owner, decent coffee and good service always.  The staff there really want to please you and make sure your visit is enjoyable.  Not to mention, when the weather is nice, they open the doors and it's so nice to be there and enjoying the Texas weather like the Europeans do.

Coco's Crepe

2339 University Blvd

Houston, TX 77005

346-980-5525

http://www.cococrepes.com/locations/rice-village/ 

Little Liberty

Went to grab a quick lunch, my favorite place had a long line and no parking in the Village.

Just as I was getting discouraged, I remembered: hey, Little Liberty should be open!  Sure enough, it was!  Hooray for parking and good food.

 Decided to sit at the bar to get some company.  And they did not disappoint.  The bartender guy and one of the cashier banter, and chefs coming by to chit chat, it was a fun place that afternoon. 

 I got the lunch special that day, it was ribs cooked for 14hrs, and rub marinated for 45 mins.  It was nice with a sweet honey taste and a bit of tang of spice.  It was a nice mix.  The chef was telling me that he has a sauce that is honey soy with tameric and couple other spices with an Asian flair but still has a good kick to it.  He was not lying, it was tangy and delicious.  It came with a cole slaw, which was ok, it was spicier than I like my slaw.  And the fries were nice and crispy.  Overall, it was finger licking good.

The set up at Little Liberty is very much like its predecessor, you order at the counter, then grab a table or a booth and they deliver the food to you.  If you have a special drink to be made, however, remember to come back for it.  While I was sitting at the bar, someone ordered a cappuccino, but they forgot it, by the time I left it was still sitting there.  If you sit at the bar, you pretty much get full service there.  And don't forget they have happy hour specials and check out what's on their board too.  Don't forget to take advantage of their wifi

Little Liberty

2365A Rice Blvd

Houston, TX 77005

713-807-7224

http://littlelibertyhouston.com

Bramble Happy Hour

Met up with my friend for a quick catch up.

 I've heard a lot of great things about Bramble, so I was happy to go meet her there when she suggested that.  Though, after I told my coworkers, they were telling me how great their chicken are.  And sadly, the awesome chicken was only served on Monday.  Boo.

 Raspberry Lemonade, cannot tell you what alcohol is in it, but it is delicious.  Of course, it was kinda mixed in with someone that was sampling Round Rock Alcohol, which has whiskey, bourbon and peach whiskey.

This is the gumbo with fried oyster.  This was super delicious, the sausage, mix with the roux, it just was filling but not overly thick.  The mix with the fried oyster was super yummy, wish they have a whole plate of it.  

Sitting at the bar does give you a lot of perks.  You're close to the alcohol and the bartender is very knowledgeable of the menu and what was good that day.  I totally go with the recommendation by the servers and the staff.  They have to taste the food to sell it, and they'd know best.  Remember, yummy Fried Chicken is Monday!

Bramble

2231 S. Voss Rd
Houston, TX 77057
832-819-0322
http://restaurantbramble.com/

Liberty Kitchen Oysterette Happy Hour

Liberty Kitchen Oysterette is super close to the office, so it was a nice afternoon to walk over and not have the hassle of finding parking.

 Got the Karbach Love Street, it was an awesome summer beer.  It has a light body and no heavy after taste.

 We got the queso with crab meat.  The chips are super good, and the crab meat wasn't as generous as they can be, but the cheese was good, so I'll forgive them for that.  

Since I"ve been hanging with my coworker who is a oyster snob, it's nice.  I've only been having the best oysters since hanging out with her.  This time, we have Wellfleet (left) and Blue Point (right).  Both are super clean and delicious.  No ounce of sand whatsoever.   The meat is nice a not sludgy at all.  I loved the sauce, not so much of a fan of the horseradish, but it's pretty good.

Liberty Kitchen Oysterette

4224 San Felipe

Houston, TX 77027

713-622-1010

http://www.libertykitchenoysterette.com/

Jenni's Noodle House

Was jonesing for pho in the Galleria area.  The first thing I thought of was Jenni's Noodle House.  Thank goodness it's right around the corner.

So, we have yummy pho with flank steak.  They are a tad more rare than I like, but it'll do the trick.  I ordered an egg roll.  I didn't really want an entire order, just for taste, so that's perfect.  

I like the Galleria location, easy to get in and out, plenty of parking, not to mention, you can sit outside if you like.  But to top it all, their staff are super friendly and goofy.  They make small chats and sometimes goofy jokes.  So, it creates a light and friendly environment.  Even though I was by myself they came and check on me and make small talk, but not overly hovering.  I felt like they were looking out for me, so that's nice.  They also have quiet a few regulars that they have gotten to know, it's like a Cheers except serves noodles.

Jenni's Noodle House

2027 Post Oak Blvd

Houston, TX 77056

713-NOODLES

http://www.noodlesrule.com

Hunan's Garden Fine Restaurant

Out of desperation, went to Hunan's.

It was late lunch, so super quiet.

I ordered the lunch special, which came with a soup, I got the Wonton Soup.  I forgot that they have pork inside in the dumpling and the wonton was more dough than meat.  Broth was ok, though.

I got the BBQ pork with veggie, fried rice and crab ragoon.  The problem is, the fried rice doesn't have much taste, the sauce was good, so you mix those together.  The pork is really Chinese char shui.  The crab whatever that is, is really cream cheese... there was no crab whatsoever.  Don't fall for it!

We also ordered Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Cha Gio).  You eat it by wrapping the lettuce around the egg roll, because you can fool yourself into thinking that is somewhat healthy.  Then you dip your wrapped egg roll into the fish sauce.  THAT, was delicious.  Somehow, for a Chinese restaurant, they are better at Vietnamese food than Chinese food.  We told the manager that, and she said that mainly American styled Chinese... hmm... not sure I'm convinced of that.

Hunan's Garden

3835 Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77025

713-666-2000

Soma

Snuck out for some yummy lunch.  And ended up at Soma.

 I didn't know this, but it was pleasantly surprised when I sat down and realized that Sunday is all day Happy Hour.  Wohoo!

 I got the Paper Thin Yellowtail.  And it has a little pepper, come greens and this spicy kick to it.  You can also get Tuna version of this dish too.

 I was super curious about the Japanese Curry and Roti combo.  So, ordered it just to check it out.  So, the curry indeed is the Japanese Curry base, but the mix inside has more peas that I've ever seen, especially when I'm not a fan.  There's a little bit of meat, and ginger, scallion, daikon, carrot.  The naan is delicious, too bad the curry was too much peas.

 This is their house made gyoza, it was super delicious.  They steamed it then pan fried it.  So, it is nice and hot when you get it, be careful, it's hot!  Delicious, nonetheless.

 This is the Mini Destiny, which has: Flounder, Salmon, Tuna.  All are super fresh, just love the flounder.

This is cute, it's the Spam & Egg Masubi.  I was expecting the Hawaiian style Masubi.  Instead, they did a cute checkered masubi.  Of course, I ordered all of this when my eyes were bigger than my tummy. By this point, I was just stuffed... that said, I really enjoyed the tapas.

Their happy hour starts at 4pm every day, and all day Sunday.  The problem is not about their Happy Hour during the week, it's the parking since they're so popular.  However, do go and enjoy all the awesomeness.

Soma Sushi

4820 Washington Ave

Houston, TX 77007

713-861-2726

http://www.somasushi.com

Cafe Lili

Went to lunch with a coworker.  I don't usually go very far from our building, but since there's no decent food by us, there's not really a choice.  We ended up at Cafe Lili, and it's been since a long time since I've been there. 

With our lunch order, it came with hummus and pita bread.  It was delicious, but I didn't want to fill up on bread.

I got the stuffed eggplant dish.  It has meat stuffed inside an eggplant, roasted, then baked with tomato and pine nuts on top.  The sauce is very close to a marinara sauce and drizzle over it, makes every nice and moist, easy to cut into and enjoy.  The dish was so huge, even though it was delicious, there was no way for me to finish it.  The sauce is super nice with the meat and the rice, and oh yeah, there's the eggplant.  It was so cooked that it melts when you put your fork in it.  

We went during lunch time and was a tad worry about finding a place to sit, as they were packed inside and outside.  Papa saw us ordering food, already eyeing for a table for us.  He led us there, and put our number up for the server and runners.  The only thing he shy of doing was pouring our drinks for us, and even that's not true, because after our meal, he came by and poured us some coffee.  It was dark as mud and as soon as you sipped it, you feel the caffeine surging thru you.  Oh yeah, no falling asleep back at the office after that.

Cafe Lili

5757 Westheimer Rd

#112

Houston, TX 77057

713-952-6969

http://www.cafelili.com

Smashburger

Grabbed a quick burger on the weekend...

I love how fast they get the burger to you.  We got the milkshake, which the little one ended up having majority of it.  Go the Class Smash with fries. I love how big their burger patties are and you can taste that it hasn't been frozen.  So delicious for a quick and fast burger.  Of course, for the fries, I got the Classic Fries, was tempted to get the Smash fries, which are super addicting, but since the little one doesn't quite appreciate the rosemary with olive oil and garlic, we'll save that for next time.

Smashburger

5220 Buffalo Speedway

Houston, TX 77005

713-343-0191

http://locations.smashburger.com/

Sur La Table - Healthy Cooking class

Went to another cooking class with Sur La Table, this time is a work event, which is totally fun when you do the class with a bunch of friends.  

The theme is Healthy Cooking with Green Pan.  So, obviously they are obviously going to show you how to cook with this pan in various way.

First we made our Frittata with the pan, the sauce that goes with it gives it an amazing kick.  A lot of these dishes, you can leave it in the pan and put it in the oven.  It slides off nice and clean like the frittata here. 

Chef Ryan basically did all the work.  We were imbibing and listening, but he did most of the work.

There's chicken in the pans, on top of mushroom, wine reduction.  Once the chicken came out of the oven, he added some butter and thicken things up, and it became a delicious sauce for the chicken.

Final product: nice color, with sauce to go with the meat.  

Most importantly, it is moist and not dried. The sauce also goes great with pasta.

For our veggie, we have rutabaga with carrots.  I've never had rutabaga that I know of.  

And before cooked, it has a texture of turnip, but once cooked, the taste is sweet.  Definitely want to add to my veggie rotation.

For dessert, they wanted to showcase that the pans can handle souffle as well. And I was highly skeptical.  How will the pouf not cave in?!

Well, I'll be... he buttered the pans, mixed the egg whites, gave us some tips about that, and we zested a few lemons, and next thing we know, it came out nice and awesome souffles.  Too cool!  And delicious too.

I highly recommend getting a group of friends or go to these cooking class as a team building event.  Not only we get some great cooking tips out of it, someone is cooking our dinner with our 'help'.  They clean up afterwards, and we get to bond and drink.  Oh yeah, for your own private event, you can bring wine.  Of course, check with the store first.  Otherwise, their classes are enjoyable as well.

Sur La Table

2200 Lone Star Drive

Sugar Land, TX 77479

281-242-2238

http://www.surlatable.com/browse/storeCalendar.jsp?storeId=116

Kata Robata

Went back to Kata for a quick lunch.  

I like to sit at the sushi bar and watch the chefs prepare the food.  You always see something interesting.

Got couple of pieces of unagi, just because they're yummy.

But I was really here for the Chirashi.  My neighbor saw the nice presentation was so curious what it was.  To me, it's a nice way of trying all sorts of fish in a good deal without ordering each nigiri one at a time.  For the price, you get all these variety and of course rice, it's really an awesome deal.  This round, amazingly, the tuna was super fresh, and you can really tell.  My trick usually is eat some sashimi and then rice, as I'm getting full, I just go of the sashimi and skip the rice.  I'm sure most people would do the same.  But truly, this is the most bang for your bucks!

Kata Robata

3600 Kirby Ave

Suite H

Houston, TX 77098

713-526-8858

http://www.katarobata.com  

Kuu

Went to Kuu for a low key dinner.

I can never figure out the valet at the back of the breezeway, which is also the closest to the door of the restaurant, so we ended up self parking.  Keep in mind that garage has tight corners, so make sure you check traffic both ways.

Had a Midori Sour, they didn't have enough Sour in it.

Had the Kuu Roll, there's avocado, lobster, maguro on top, then a little bit more lobster on top. The greenish white sauce is edamame puree.  It's actually quite good.

This is the Waygu & Unagi, is to die for.  The soft meat with the soft fish together, is divine.  You don't feel like they put any soy on top of them, just melts in your mouth.  Deeelish!

Piece of Waygu, yum!  Not as yummy as the Waygu & Unagi dish, but good on its own.

Hamachi & Eggplant.  I know it's an odd choice to pick Eggplant, they actually grilled it, and it has this yuzu sauce on top.  So, it's not salty all the way.  Pretty good, I would recommend this.

This is the smoked duck.  It's actually very good.  Texture is moist and soft.  Match with edamame and pureed sauce, we basically picked on it and picked on it for the longest.

Overall, we enjoy the service.  Since one of the diners have special diet, she was kind enough to go back to the kitchen and check for us time and time again.  The bar is the hopping place, dinner crowd don't roll in until much later.  Usually they get there about 7pm, but the dinner crowd didn't get started until 7:30p - 7:45p.  That said, a reservation is always the sure fire way to make sure you get in quickly.

Kuu Restaurant

947 Gessner Rd

Houston, TX 77024

713-461-1688

http://www.kuurestaurant.com

Berryhill

Had a queso craving.

When I got my quest, I was reminded that not all queso are created equal.  The ones at Berryhill's has a kick to them.  You just grab as much chips as you want from the side.

Here comes my entree, 2 enchiladas and the sauce on there is delicious too.  That's where the rice comes in to soak up the sauce.  It was yummy.  Sometimes, a quick Tex-Mex is all you need.  I will say though, the meal deal is worth the price even though there are stuff on there that you don't want.  I got a la carte and doesn't really pay to do them separately.  So, do them by the deal.

Berryhill Baja Grill

5110 Buffalo Speedway

Suite C

Houston, TX 77005

713-667-8226

http://berryhillbajagrill.com/location/west-university/

Auntie Chang's

Whenever we want some good Chinese inside the loop, we always ended up at Auntie Chang's.

Mostly because the location is convenient, and we know Chinese owner, chef, server and crew.

We got the fried dumplings to start.  Except, it was the last dish that came because they steam cooked it first then pan fried.  I forgot that the skin they use for dumpling are really thick, so that adds to the cooking time.

This is Broccoli and Water Chestnut with Garlic sauce.  The sauce tastes good, but they put a tad too much starch on the sauce, it thickens up quickly and congealed.  Towards the end, I didn't want to touch it.

Finally to my favorite, Singapore Street Noodles.  I just love the curry paste they use in the dish.  Not spicy but flavorful.  There's pork and normally shrimp, but I didn't have any this round.

Every guest that walks thru the door, they are super polite and want to accommodate, that's a nice feeling to see.  In case you don't want to drive there, they also accept online order and they deliver within 5 miles.

Auntie Chang's

2621 Shepherd Dr

Suite 290

Houston, TX 77019

713-524-8410

http://auntiechangs.com