Barcelona Wine Bar

Went to check out a wine bar around Montrose.

This was located on Westheimer near Shepherd.  This space used to be an antique furniture shop.

They serve Happy Hour 4-6p but sad to say, there's not too many specials to make HH worthwhile.

Best thing on that list was the seasoned Marcona Almonds.  They are good with a beverage.  The name of the game here is tapas, but if you're hungry enough, they do have large plate to cure your tummy.

I did a mocktail version of Bees and Bays, that works out because that's the lowest alcohol content out of their list anyhow.  It has lime, salted honey (never had that before), and sparkling water.  They skipped the bitters.  But this is one of the few mocktails that are not sweet.  Most people's version of a mocktail is mojito with no alcohol, but what you really get is a bunch of sugar.

Our server recommended the Spinach Chickpea Cazuela, they mushed the chickpeas and added to the spinach, it has an added texture.  Not as thick like a casserole as he described but it's not a bad filler tapas type dish.

Of course there's the Patata Brava - we just had that over at MAD.  I think the taste here is less intense.  It's more mild, good flavoring and not super overwhelming spicy.  Though I did feel like we were over drowned in aioli sauce.

This is Crispy Brussels Sprouts - definitely is crispy with a hint of lemon vinaigrette and you can see a little pepper there, but it's not spicy.

Got the Beef Empanadas as the server recommended, and it comes with red tomato sauce, which feel like the ones you add on pizza but with a little bit more texture.  Inside is all ground beef, definitely super filling. 

Grilled Pulpo - octopus and over potato. It has mojo rojo sauce which goes well together.  I do love the flavor and not too chewy and even the manager was recommending it.  It was not gamey, which means it's still fresh, and the flavoring is good.  Comes to find out the chef is also a fishing hobbiest and what's great about them, is that they would know how to treat/cook seafood.

Overall the food is not bad, if you're here to drink and eat, I think you can definitely order more.  But at best, 2-3 dishes per person is a good mark.  Then you share can maybe do one more here and there.  That said, they have steak dishes, paella, and salad on the menu.  

Parking, there are street parking around the area, but if you're familiar, you need some patience for that.  If you valet, the cost is $5 per car, so bring some change. 

Barcelona Wine Bar

1731 Westheimer Rd

Houston, TX 77098

713-878-3355

https://barcelonawinebar.com/location/houston/

 

Sonoma Wine Bar

Went to Happy Hour with the girls at Sonoma.

There are a lot of menus there, but worth going thru to get a something good out of it.

Started with Popcorn with Parmesan and Ancho Chili.  It's a good chat and snack.

Got the Pepperoni Pizza.  That's pretty good, wouldn't mind having another one.

Top: Bruschetta - not as good as I had hoped.  Having it in a jar is messy and don't get even amount of tomato and sauce.

Bottom: Baked Artichoke Dip, I don't mind ordering larger size on that one.  It's great, and the serving size for Happy Hour is too small, so fork up the money and get the larger one.

Sorry it got sideways, this is their 3 cheese charcuterie board.  It has 3 kinds of meat, 3 kinds of cheese, 2 bread, 1 cracker, honey, olive, and pickle.  It is a lot of food even there's 3 of us eating all of this. 

Happy Hour here gotten easier, not sure if its because we picked a weekday, and finished 2 bottles of Moscato.  The staff are attentive and it is great to sit and catch up with friends over snack and wine.  Just remember to order by 6pm.

Sonoma Wine Bar

2720 Richmond Ave

Houston, TX 77098

713-526-9463

https://www.sonomahouston.com

 

Mutiny Wine Room

This will mark the 2nd time that I've been out to a restaurant.

This time, we're at Mutiny Wine Room, thank to a fellow mom's recommendation.

To start, we ordered the Coastline Board

It has a side of shrimps.

Salmon, bread, olive, sardine, and pickled veggies

Also some asparagus and smoked trout dip with caviar on top.  It's pretty decent.

I got the Cacio e Pepe. This dish is like risotto except with longer grain rice.  It is topped with an softly poached egg at 63 degrees.  Cacio e Pepe is really Cheese and Pepper.  The cheese is in the sauce, which they used pecorino cheese.  You see pepper on the dish there.  They had these crispy garlic flakes that reminded me of the fried onion from the casserole.  Overall, not too empowering, it's has definitely cheese flavor, just that I wish there's more and have some meat to it.

For dessert, I got the Horchata Flan with mini churro and dulce de leche.  I will say the little brown poo looking things are not poo, they're chocolate-toffee texture.  So if you dip your churro with the whipped cream and grab that chocolate together, it's pretty decent.  

The flan is pretty decent, I can't tell if it is truly horchata, but it is cinnamon-y enough for me.  

What as not shown, a glass of wine (I actually had one) and bread basket.  The bread basket was a hit, it came with several varieties and with different spread.  I would recommend getting it.

Overall, food is good.  Disappointed that the wine list is limited.  By limited, I mean they don't have what I want.  I was surprised that they don't have a more full bodied white.  They truly just serve wine and water in terms of drinks.  Their interior is super cute, but if you're like me, who's uncomfortable dining indoors, they have a lot of tables outdoors in their patio, worth doing.  They have a mini parking lot, they also have a valet.  If not, you can park down the street and be sure to watch the signs.  

Mutiny Wine Room

1124 Usener St

Houston, TX 77009

https://www.mutinywineroom.com

 

Wine & Cheese Pairing Class

Saw a Wine & Cheese class a while back and finally gotten around to try them out.

Pretty reasonable: $20 for 2 hours.  They have a set up all ready to execute.

 They got a notebook for the class, a place mat to inform you which wine to go with which cheese, and then the list of wines you'll be sampling that evening.  Of course, some water and a bucket for you to dump your wine in case that's not your thing.

 So, what we learned is that you're supposed to take a sip, then take a bite of the cheese and then drink the wine again.  

Now, like all things, not everyone of the combo is a winner.  What I learned, the strong the cheese the fuller bodied the wine.  And amazingly, I'm not a Sauvignon Blanc person, under the right cheese and wine, I may be a convert.

Oh, and by the way, Champagne and Fried Chicken go together.  That's news to me.  So, next time!

 New for them this year, they also cater in the back.  Which is great, since the class starts at 6:30p, not a lot of people were able to grab dinner before class.  So, that's great that there's some food ready to go.

In any case, I called the store manager, and it is not uncommon that folks bring their own food, which we did and it did not interrupt or disturb our taste buds for the wine.

I sit right by a pole, but you can see that while we did not cover all the wine listed here, they were thoughtful enough to list them out for the class and encourage you to try.

My thoughts, for $20, 2 hours and 8 type of combos to try is pretty good deal.  While their class is in a box type style (meaning: everything rolled out from home office): they all have the same presentation, same type of cheese and same type of wine.  The wine itself may be varied depending on stock, I'm sure.  But overall the experience should be consistent whichever store you go.  

The material presented for a wine novice like me is helpful, so I have the concept of what pair with what achieve the best result.  I like what the teacher said, and that is, they are wine people, not cheese people.  But!  They do know how to pair your food with the right wine, and isn't that is what it's all about?!

Go check out one of their stores, they have a class every 2 weeks or so.  The class can seat up to 40 people.   It's fun to do it with friends for sure!

Total Wine

2617 W. Holcomb Blvd

Houston, TX 77025

713-666-7841

https://www.totalwine.com

HLSR Uncorked & Best Bites Part 2

Continuing from yesterday's Best Bites, more picture heaviness aka me rubbing it in your face that I ate all these awesome yummy goodness.

 I've never been to Dario, was curious what they've got:

 It is steak bites and mini crab cake.  The crab cake was good, the steak was a tad too salty for my taste.

 Hotel Icon's Line & Lariat also showed up...

 They have fried quail with slaw over barbecue sauce, the sauce has some tang, but tons of spicy... hmm... 

 Awesome specialty chocolate by Cacao & Cardamom.  Each of their little chocolate is like little pieces of art.  Of course, they are delicious and delicate too.

 Ritual represents!

 They have a cute mini bread bowl with seafood bisque.   Sadly, it was great on looks, not so much on taste... from what my friend told me they are better at grill than soup.  Maybe in person they are better, since they don't exactly have a full kitchen here.

 Lobster Bisque from the Palm.

 Sadly, I think they've been sitting out too long, there's a nice thick layer of skin on top.  And it was too thick for my taste.  I was told there are real pieces of lobster meat at the bottom.  I'll just take her word for it.

I've never heard of Eurasia before, so that looked interesting.

The beef roll looked interesting.  Thin sliced beef wrapped with veggies inside... not much to write home about. 

So glad Julia told me to wait for the tartare... this is their all star dish!  Totally awesome, worth going to the place for.

Crave cupcake was giving their minis away by the box towards the end, they are yummy... but by this time, I was stuffed.... saving it for later.

Short Rib alla Milanese.... it was too heavy for my taste.

This is an interesting one...

Cheese Curds with Raspberry sriracha, totally not spicy, but pretty unique, which I've never had before.

From Weight & Measures, anything from their yummy bakery is good... nothing bad comes from there.

Enjoyed a very well balanced Reisling from Dr. Loosen, which I was super impressed with all 3 of their rieslings, but this one is the best one.

Izakaya, you had me at Uni.

Cute little tartlet, honestly did not get much of the uni flavor, but it's cute and is a popper size... om nom.

Dulce is more a specialized cake shop for occasions, but they brought it too!

Mexican Chocolate Très Leches, first of all, I love tres leches.  Second, it's chocolate.... amazingly, it doesn't seem that way when you first tasted it, but when you swallow, the pepper kicks in and you feel it going down.  It was a pretty neat experience.

By the end, we basically needed to be rolled out.  Apparently, if people abandon their table, you can have their center pieces.  A premium table (seats 10) cost $250pp, for regular reserved table it's $125 pp.  All funds raised are for scholarships, and everyone worked there are on volunteer basis.  

Honestly, we didn't really sit down much except for breaks in between.  Since the bites are small, you pretty much gobble up while going to the next line.  And they do have some bar table to rest a bit or get organize.  The experience, it's definitely neat.  They give you a collectible wine glass, so if people abandon theirs, you can get a set.  Valet is free, but of course you tip.  They now also have an uber section for waiting for rides.  

Better get your tickets early next year: 

http://www.rodeohouston.com/Visit-the-Show/Pre-Show-Events/Wine-Show-Auction

HLSR Uncorked & Best Bites - part 1

Warning, today and tomorrow's posts will be picture heavy.

By dumb luck, we got invited to Houston Livestock and Rodeo's Uncorked and Best Bites competition.  Essentially, we walk around, stand in line to get food and wine.  There's wine galore... on to pictures!

 At Patrenella's which they had bruchscetta. 

 Soup of some kind???

 Yummy French Toast from Snooze.

 Chefs busy preparing duck for everyone from Cotton Culinary.  Very moist.

 Many booths have very cute decorations.

 Bacon Mac and Cheese with a BBQ chicken slider.  The slider wasn't bad, but the bacon mac and cheese is awesome.

 Silvan Ridge's Early Muscat, good enough that I came back twice... so good!!!

 This ain't no ordinary chocolate, the is Hazelnut with Poprocks.  You really get the nuts and as you swallow, you feel the pop rocks, it was very unique and yummy by Mostly Chocolate.

 Never heard of Pupusa Bar, thought what the heck...

 Yummy toastata with pulled pork and green sauce, yummy!

 Then you have good ol' Brennan's with their specialty...

 Turtle soup!

 Was a little disappointed that Tiny Boxwood only brought cookies, not that I'm complaining, but they got so much great food features...

 Here's an unique one, it's corn bread with pork belly but the sauce was strawberry, which totally confuse my taste buds.

 Steak48 prepping for dessert....

 It has marshmallow top that they torch, then chocolate, crumb and cream layer...

 Even Sake participated, this is pretty tasty.

 Tradicao, brought yummy steak bites.

 Been meaning to try Cane Russo...

 Got the Arancini, which is risotto with mozzarella and bolognese... 

 Quite a few places showcase quail... is it making a come back?  It looked great, but a tad dry.

 For some fancy schmancy pants...

Didn't get much of pork flavor, but the apricot sauce is unique.

A lot of people get a ticket and skip getting a table, truly I can see why.  You walk around, eat some, wait in line, eat some more.  So, you don't really have time to sit down to eat.  Talk about all you can eat and drink.  Wine galore, sorry no beer.  And you get to take home the center pieces!

Houston Livestock and Rodeo

Best Bites

http://www.rodeohouston.com/Visit-the-Show/Pre-Show-Events/Wine-Show-Auction