The Soda Shoppe

Another treat at a festival.

I've seen Mary Had A Little Party before, but never seen one in person.

Lemony Cricket - Lemonade with raspberry.  Super refreshing on a hot humid day.

They also have milkshake too.  Definitely is a nice late summer treat

The Soda Shoppe by 

Mary Had A Little Party

https://maryhadalittleparty.com/thesodashoppe/
 

Tamashi

It's been a while since I had Tamashi.

Parking here is always a challenge.  They have since carved out spots at the back of the building, but you do need to watch the signs and be respectful of other businesses. 

I got some karaage - which is chicken nuggets Japanese style.

So it comes with everything but broth.

Once you pour the broth over, I also added fried Kani (crab meat).  I just love how they fan it out, but the bag it came in has lots of oil leftover.  

One thing I was kinda sad about the dish was the noodle was all stuck together.  So, even though we don't live far from the place and I pour the broth as soon as I could, the noodle still stuck pretty tight. Took a few tugs to pull them apart.  

Tamashi

2518 W. Holcomb Blvd

Houston, TX 77030

346-204-5523

https://tamashiramensushi.com

 

Arts & Crepes

Tis the festival season.  We saw this crepe cart and got curious.

I've never seen them before, but since I'm a fan of crepes, I'm always game.  

This is melted Brie & Pear with walnut and honey and some marmalade on the side.  It comes with a salad and chips.  Chips might not be what I would've chosen as a 'side', but the dressing that comes with the salad was really good.  Wouldn't have minded if they sell the salad by itself.  Don't get me wrong, they do have that on their menu, but I didn't know until I got my crepe.

So the crepe itself: the brie was strong and the pear went well.  But maybe it's was a tad overwhelming even with the honey and marmalade.  If you were to order this, it is best shared with another person.  It is, as I said, strong.

Arts & Crepes

https://www.artsandcrepes.com

only available on private bookings or food truck

 

Concura

When I was at Eloise for Happy Hour, saw Concura was curious.

At first, I was surprised that for Resy, they ask you to put down a credit card for a $20 hold.

I'm like: I haven't tried your food and you already thought so highly of yourself.  That's curious, and not necessary in a positive light.

Once we arrived, I can understand why.  The indoor seating is very limited to say the least.  They have maybe 6 at the counter towards the kitchen, a maybe 8-10 tables tops.  The place is tiny inside.

What sold me, as I walked by, was their outdoor space.  On a nice night, under a tree, with some lights and candles.  It's super cute.  

Got a cocktail - blueberry with spritzer.  Pretty nice.

This is the Polipo e Patate - which is grilled octopus on top of mashed potato and olive oil.  Very nice and surprisingly light.

This is the Carpaccio di Spigola - Sea Bass carpaccio.  It's heartier than I'd thought it'd be.  Guess I was thinking like Japanese restaurants that have very thinly sliced equals to very little of whatever that may be.  But there's a lot of to this than meets the eye.

We ordered 2 pastas to share, this is the cCalamarata al Ragu Toscano - it's really pasta cut in rings with Tuscan Ragu which has pork as the meat and a very light white sauce and olive oil.

I like this, not too heavy, and the white sauce worked very nicely together, unlike in my mind ragu is usually paired with red sauce, this was a nice pairing.

Then the Passatelli Bosaioli - which is a in-house pasta with mushroom ragu and truffle.  To be honest, I'm not much of a mushroom person, but a lot of people gave a rave review and I was curious.  

The truffle definitely gave it the body, and the sauce is thicker and the entire dish is pretty 'meaty' without meat.  If you tried it, you would understand.

I got cup of decaf espresso, it was weird getting it in a sake cup instead of a demitasse. 

For dessert, I got the Kinder Garden.  It does come in a little pot - because it's a garden.

They are trying to replicate the Kinder Egg taste, and has the nutty condensed milk with white chocolate with chocolate crumbs.  It does have a taste of a Kinder Egg filling.  At the bottom, there's a chunk of chocolate, but can't get it out because it was very stuck at the bottom - you know where the hole of a pot would've been....

Salame al Cioccolato - it's a play on food - it's basically chocolate fudge shaped in salami with nut.  The ice cream that comes with it is Parmisan Ice Cream.  The fudge went amazingly well with the Kinder's pudding, not a huge fan of the ice cream.

As mentioned before, you should make a reservation because the place is not big.  They are right by a parking garage, so it's convenient to park and walk over.  By the way, their front entrance is not by the outdoor seating, it's around the corner.

Concura

4340 Westheimer Rd

#150

Houston, TX 77027

832-997-4220

https://concurahouston.com

 

Cafe #13

Was looking for Boba Tea and found Cafe #13.

Next to Siu Lap City, and in a tiny shopping mall is a kitty little place.

Definitely have groovy in mind.  Lots of spaced out seating for kids to camp out and study.

I got the Ruby Oolong with Boba.  According to the girl that works there, she thinks this is the most underrated drink they have, but the best tasting one.

I will say, this is not bad at all, not too sweet and not too zingy.  You can see they are quite generous with the boba, so you get more than you pay for here.  My challenge is the parking here.  The parking lot is small and there are also bank and doctor clinic here, so parking spaces are sparse here.  They do have an parking lot above the building, but I'm just lazy.  If you see street parking that you can get to safely, please do that. 

They have coffee, smoothies, frappe, matcha series, brown sugar series, milk tea series, fruit tea series, that's just for drinks.  Then they have Bahn mi, rice dish, vermicelli dishes, and snacks.  You can get it all here at one place.

Cafe #13

2808 Milam St

Ste #G

Houston, TX 77006

713-360-6279

https://www.cafe13tx.com
 

Hella Bubble

I was driving by and saw a Bubble Tea place, gotta stop and check it out.

There are parking spots in front of the store or some spots across.  If not, there's a parking garage nearby too. 

They can customize your drink with topping, more/less ice or more/less sweet.

I got the Mango & Passon Fruit Tea.  Since it was right after dinner, I didn't want to add boba to my drink but it was just right after dinner.

The place is supremely clean and the line is not long when we were there.  So, feel free to stop by.

Hella Bubble

2400 Mid Land

#110

Houston, TX 77027

https://www.hellabubble.com

 

Merchant Cafe

Was seeing this place being featured on Instagram and was curious.

It's kinda tricky because the place faces inside the plaza, so drove past it and realized.

Cute display on the wall.

Great inside decor and you see the a cute bar, and outside has a long bench for outdoor seating now that the weather is nicer.

They have some awesome looking pastries.

Got a Matcha Oat Latte - it's actually thicker in texture than I'd expected, but tasted good.

Also got a blueberry lemon drizzled scone.  It doesn't taste like a scone at all but has the texture of one.  And it is delicious and filling.  

Next time I'm coming back for Fig-a-ma-jig, it looked yummy and get a real coffee.  There's a lot of chocolate and truffle goodies, also cakes too.  Definitely coming back for another try.

Merchant Cafe

1707 Post Oak Blvd

Houston, TX 

713-393-7113

https://merchantcafetx.com

 

Daido Market

It's no secret that I love coming to Daido.  

This is the one supermarket prepared meal that prepared restaurant quality food for pickup.

There are bentos, meals ready to go, popular Japanese dishes.

Not to mention sushi grade sashimi and uni ready to be picked up.

My go to usually is the Chirashi.  This is the 'bigger' bowl, and they do have a smaller bowl.  Since I was so greedy with the amount of fish in that bowl, I decided take the big one.  It is a great big lunch for the days you forgot breakfast in the morning.  It is for sure filling.

I also get the other lunches too, there are unaju (eel over a bed of rice), tonkatsu and tamago (pork cutlet with egg rice bowl), Curry over Pork rice bowl, and Gyudon (beef bowl).  One trip I pick up many meals for days... talk about stock up.

Daido Market

11146 Westheimer Rd

Houston, TX 77042

713-785-0815

https://www.daidotx.com  

 

Creamistry

It's been a few years since I've been to Creamistry.

Glad that they're still around, now that my kiddo can appreciate science a tad more than when he was little.

I got green tea ice cream with chocolate drizzle.  The flavor is pretty spot on.  It is not too sweet and definitely has the green tea flavor.  The milk is the key here, they have enough for the nitrogen to make it creamy, and it's definitely worth getting.  

The price point is high here, so as once in a while treat is ok, but probably not on my regular rotation.  

Creamistry

5000 Westheimer Rd

Ste 60B

Houston, TX 77056

713-750-9039

https://creamistry.com/store/Houston_52

 

St Arnold's Brewery

Got a chance to do a charity event at St. Arnold's.

I haven't been out there since they opened up the garden.  It has much more space and more open air space too.

Don't worry, the old building is still there... and boy am I glad that they expanded.  There's some lawn chairs for hanging out.  A mini maze for the kids to run thru.  Little garden with little sphere's for reading or leaping.  There's space for bocce balls and what not.  But more importantly, plenty more parking.  Not only the side of the garden, there's another piece of land down the street caddy corner from the building.  

Too bad I didn't have more time, otherwise, would've checked out their menu.  

St Arnold's Brewery

2000 Lyons Ave

Houston, TX 77020

713-686-9444

https://www.saintarnold.com

Xing Fu Tang

Got invited to a preview for Xing Fu Tang - a bubble tea place.

It's on the back of the shopping center.

As you enter, there's a giant screen telling you how they make boba fresh and of course the tea there.

For preview, they got Brown Sugar Boba, Boba Milk Tea, Dalgon Coffee, and Dalgon Boba Coffee.  

When they're fully open, they will have the bougie boba with gold foil.  That cost $13.86.  I was just hoping to try the Oolong tea flavors.

Next to the cash register is a stand to show off them making your boba fresh.  I think we missed the first half where they kneaded the boba dough and at this stage, they've been cooking it for a bit.

Cute wall decor, this is a drawer of fortune, you're supposed to pick one from the red bit on the side and pick the corresponding number with your fortune.

Here's a line of staff perfecting the process and drinks.

It's a bit dinner and a show.  Here, they're using blow torch to burn off the sugar for your drink.

For my Dalgon Coffee - they were perfecting the tip of the Dalgon coffee signature.

See!  There it is!

Here's the finished product.  

Another one in front of the logo for good measure.

So the boba at the bottom is nice and warm, and there's a ton of ice with milk and the coffee not top.  The trick is to stir everything together before drinking to get a good mix of it.  To be honest, it's actually pretty good.  Next time, I will ask for less ice.  But  the boba is very fresh.

So, what's the big deal?  There are a boba tea within stone-throw at any given time, especially in Chinatown.  Where this store is situated its literally within 4 to 5 boba places, so what make this place sticks out?

Their fame to claim is that they're famous in Taiwan. Be that as it may, I do appreciate that the boba are made in-house.  What you don't know is that smaller shops actually keep their unused boba for the following day.  You can taste it when its not fresh.  That said, there is a shortage of boba/tapioca.  Usually, shops order them from overseas, they make them, freeze them and ship them.  Since there is a bottle neck in transport of supplies, it is hard to get consistent supplies.  That said, there are supplies in Los Angeles that luckily perfected their machines to make a lot and started to provide supplies across the country.  Again, make, freeze, ship.  This schtick works because it is all made in-house, it's guaranteed to be fresh.  The only time it wouldn't be is if there's a shortage of raw material.  So, that's why it's a big deal.

Don't believe me, go try it yourself.  I am definitely coming back for the coffee and the other tea.  Keep in mind, they can lower the ice and boba level and not the sugar level because that's what the boba is cooked in, brown sugar.  So, they can give you less boba (also less sugar) or you get what you get.  They will be opened on Oct 16th.

Xing Fu Tang

9889 Bellaire Blvd

C-214

Houston, TX 77036

https://xingfutang.com