Dutch Bros Coffee

Drove by another Dutch Bros, and decided to try drive thru instead.

This one has the zipper type drive thru lines (2 merge into 1), so picking the shorter line seems to be advantageous. 

Then a staff came out and took my order, and then I can pull up to the window after I paid.  

I got the Cookie Butter Iced Latte. And upon first sip, it does taste like the famous cookie butter. 

It has espresso, cookie butter flavor, milk, and Soft Top.  Soft Top is their signature sweet and fluffy cream  on top.  So if you get a regular latte, you get foam from the milk.  Cold drinks you don't because foam came from steamed milk.  Here the Soft Top is like a half texture of whipped cream, but drinkable and thicker than a cold foam.   Pretty delicious.

If you're a fan, download their app and you can order online, so when you drive thru, they just match your order so their staff can start preparing and you'll be on your way with a beverage. 

Dutch Bros

at the Rice Village

2301 University Blvd

Houston, TX 77005

https://www.dutchbros.com/locations/tx/houston/2301-university-blvd

 

Urbe

Lucky to be back to Urbe for Happy Hour. 

Love the funky designs that honor Mexican heritage, but also its diversity amongst the country. 

Ahh, they already set up their ofrenda for Dias de los Muertos. 

Got the mocktail, which has cucumber, lime, mint, passionfruit, sparkling water and Tajin. Not sweet at all, it's pretty refreshing. 

Elote Asado - Mexican street corn with aioli, cotija cheese, and Tajin pepper.

Little corn tortillas with cheese, squash, corn.  Very yummy. 

Little tostada has mesa chip at the bottom, guacamole, radish, cheese it's pretty delicious. 

Mini taquitos, chicken taco with salsa on top, crema queso Fresca on top.  One of my favorite. 

I like going to Happy Hour here, you can try so much at a happy hour pricing.  Of course, coming here for a full meal is also good.  They've renovated since I've been here a couple years ago, and everything is brighter, there's more seating both high top or table.  It's very inviting.  And now that the weather is so nice, definitely try to enjoy the weather at their patio. 

Didn't have any issue with parking.  You can see if businesses nearby are closed and park there.  Or they do have valet.  Otherwise, plenty of parking on the side of the building in the open lots. 

Urbe

1101 Uptown Blvd

Ste 12

Houston, TX 77056

713-726-8273

https://www.urbehouston.com/

 

Ngoc-Lan Bakery

Saw on IG these cute little buns, and decided to go check them out. 

The bakery is literally in a corner of the L shaped shopping center, so go to the very corner, you'll see them.  They are on the outside of the center. 

The case have all these colorful buns. 

They have some sweet and some savory.

I picked 3, and they were saying they got a promotion of buy 3 get 3 free, I just can't eat so many, so 3 it is. 

This one is red bean bun - steamed. 

You cut it apart, you can see the filling. 

This cutie is adorable.

Inside filling is Black Sesame. 

Then we have little piggy.

Inside is ube filling. 

As you can see, they have all sorts. 

So basically, the buns are all in the fridge.  So by the time you get home, you're supposed to wet a paper towel, wrap the bun and microwave for 30 seconds.  The trick works, it's nice and moist, not dried out at all.  My only complaint is the flavor for the filling, it's too light.  It's like a hint of the flavor, not strong enough for my liking.  Unlike the ones you get during dim sum. 

Ngoc-Lan Bakery

on the outside of Hong Kong City Mall

11205 Bellaire Blvd

Ste C14A

Houston, TX 77072

832-646-3555

https://www.instagram.com/banhbaongoclan/

 

Creamery Teahouse

Went to grabbed a drink at Hong Kong City Mall. 

Saw this place...

and I was sold on having Sugarcane Juice. 

The Regular size is 16oz, so it last me a while.  It's nice, all natural, not too sweet, I also didn't add anything into my drink, so it's nice and pure.  Would you try it? 

The location is inside Hong Kong City Mall, at the beginning of the food court section of the mall.  And they have some seatings right in front, in case you are buy some snacks, you can grab a seat.  There are elderly guys that hang out at the food court playing Chinese Chess (Xianqi), so that's kinda neat.  

Creamery Teahouse

11201 Bellaire Blvd

Ste A13

Houston, TX 77072

https://www.instagram.com/creameryhouston/

 

William Price Distillery

Went to William Price Distillery in the Heights.

Didn't realized they are on the backside of d'Alba on the same block.

I got a mocktail - Not A Ranch Water - it has grapefruit juic, lime, and Topo Chico, mixed. 

Here's their list of cocktail and anything w/ stars can be done as a mocktail. 

William Price Distillery

970 Wakefield Dr

Houston, TX 77018

713-364-9225

https://www.williampricedistilling.com/

 

Yard House

Came out for a group dinner at Yard House. 

Parking on Saturday night is crazy, so please read the signs. There are plenty of parking garages, but not all spaces are free. 

I got the Black Cherry Refresher - it's pretty good.  Not too sweet and nice to have different flavor than the plain Pellegrino. 

This is the Ahi Tuna Crunchy - it's seared blacked tuna, greens, slaw, crispy wonton strips, and soy vinaigrette.  The thing all came into all tossed.  

I will say, it was easy to get a table on a busy night, so I'm grateful for that.  But because it's Saturday night, the servers were running around like chickens without heads.  I think we only seen our server once, where she took additional order and gave us straws.  Otherwise, our food didn't all come together, some how, food that was order after the first batch came out the same time as the 1st time ordered, but somewhere in the middle something easy was delayed for a long bit.  It didnt' make too much sense. 

I will say, to split check was easy, we did note that for our server, and when she didn't come back to check on us, we located one of the table kiosk and took care of the checks ourselves. 

Yard House

800 Sorella Ct

Ste 116

Houston, TX 77024

713-461-9273

https://www.yardhouse.com/locations/tx/houston/houston-city-centre/8325

 

Shabu Zone

Went back to Shabu Zone for brunch. 

On the weekend, I like to get there right before peak hour.  That's to guarantee a table.  For party of 6 or more, you do need to make a reservation for that. 

Alright, to start, I like to get the Tonkotsu soup base, since it's pork broth based, it makes it more flavorful and more textured. 

Then go over to the salad bar and load up!  I've got frozen seafood (oysters, squid, fishcakes), mushroom, veggie, vermecelli, dumplings and more.

Then we got the protein, Waygu belly, Prime Rib, Chuck Eye...

Pork Belly & Chicken

Pork Loin, Prime Rib, Lamb.

Not pictured, sauce bar, make your own sauce.  Banchan bar where you get raddish, kimchi, and other pickled stuff.  Ice Cream bar, where you scoop your own add your fixin's, or fruit.

So, apparently, when you sit down, they have a 2 hour time clock on the table.  Not that you don't get full quickly when you start stuffing your face, but we did go under that timeframe. 

All in all, for a group meal, this works, because we each have our own pot and we can choose our own soup base.  One friend can take super spicy, while I'm a total wimp.  We all shared the meat, and got our own veggie, noodles and seafood.  Overall, it's an easy group meal place. 

Shabu Zone

11201 Bellaired Blvd

Ste 2

Houston, TX 77072

https://shabuzone.com/

 

Tiny's No. 5

It's been a while since I've been back to Tiny's No. 5.

They definitely has the aesthetics down, very cute and very pleasing. 

I got the St. Vincent Mocktail - it has cucumber, lemon, mint, and elderflower tonic water.  It's pretty yummy.

We got the meat and cheese board.  It came with warm flatbread, 3 kinda of cheese and 2 types of meat.  It also has grapes and hazelnuts too.  Very delicious. 

This one is my favorite, it's Fried Green Tomato with their house made Jalapeno Ranch dip, I am addicted to it. And it also come with their housemade Jalapeno jam too. 

We got the Proscuitto & Fig, it has proscuitto, balsamic reduction (which they went a little overboard on that one), fontina cheese (which they had little of), fig jame, and arugala.  

So when they made our pizza, they also dropped it as they pulled it out.  So they had to remake ours.  And while that added another 10 minutes on top of prior that took took long.... more below. 

For dessert, we decied to share the donuts, which has alot of sugary goodness (cinnamon sugar, vanilla bean glaze), and the little jar has chocolate sauce to drizzle over it.  It is yummy though. 

So for dinner, I would recommend making a reservation, while not all the tables were full, it does get busy.  That said, we've sat down for good 10 minutes and no staff came to give us any water.  So I had to politely informed the manager.  Then, when our starter arrived, they just let sit instead of keep bring out the food.  So then we had the mishap with the pizza (where they let the pizza slide too far and went to the floor) so they have to remake it.  By the time all said and done the whole ordeal was about 2.5hr.  We added dessert, so that was us adding another 30 minutes, but for a meal like that, it shoulnd't be more than 1.5hrs.  So from the service stand point, this is the worst experience I've ever had here.  As good as the food is, I'm not sure I want to be back for the service. 

Tiny's No. 5

3636 Rice Blvd.

Houston, TX 77005

713-664-0141

https://tinyboxwoods.com/location/tinys-no-5/

 

Gelato Rossa

I saw on their social that they're open at 7am, and I happen to be going to the dr's that direction... 

thought I'd stop by.  To me, they were known for their Gelato, now, breakfast.

The pastries are small but the pricing is very reasonable. 

You can reasonably get a few of each, since they are small. 

I splurged for a latte, since they ran out of ice, she just did it with cold milk.  The coffee is not bad, and I would probably come back again if my timing is right. 

Cute little vespa out front. Don't forgeet that they also have a speakeasy in the back. 

Gelato Rossi

4564 Bissonnet

Bellaire, TX 

https://www.gelato-rossa.com/

 

Perseid

Locate inside a neighborhood by St. Thomas Univ, this is a cute tucked away restaurant. 

The restaurant is inside St. Augustine Hotel.  You go thru their couryard, which is nice and comfortable when the weather is nice.  

I got the Harvest Moon mocktail - it has Hibiscus tea, Yuzu, Pomegranate, and Ginger.  It's actually pretty good, not too sweet, nice and light texture. 

Of course, we want to start with bread service. 

Got a Ceasar Salad, never seen cruton that big before.  They do actually have anchovy in there.  It's surprsing, because it's not exactly the popular fish like to get. 

We got the Salmon Dip, which is a popular for the table.  It's salmon pate, with all sorts of herbs and spices, and their potato chips made in-house.  Highly recommend this one. 

We got the Branzino - It had a bouillabaise sauce, and it sits on top of veggies.  It's not the best branzino I've ever had, but glad I tried it to know. 

We got the Chocolat Gateau - they use high quality of chocolate, and the match it with banana cream ice cream.  Of course, the chocolate pudding came out hot, so the mix of the two is awesome.

Then we got the Beignets - so in my head, thinking yummy beignet + chocolate puddy = yummy goodness.  It's not that it's not a good pairing, but I didn't see that there's peach bits and vanilla inside these beignets already, so the peach/vanilla + chocolate was a tad much.  

The beignet by itself is fine.  It is a lot for dessert, I won't lie.  

After dinner, you can walk around the courtyard. A cross the bridge is the hotel bar, and you can have a night cap there. 

Ever since they have been mentioned by the Michelin guide, the place has gained popularity. So a reservation here is a must.  They do get popular for dinner, so if you want to try for brunch or lunch, that's also an option. 

Perseid

4110 Loretta Dr

Houston, TX 77006

832-844-0057

https://www.bunkhousehotels.com/hotel-saint-augustine/eat-drink/perseid