BiBiJo

Went back to HMart, not for grocery, though I can use some of those import coffee that has a cute packaging.  I came back for lunch.

I was there for bibimbap, but ended up with bulgogi rice.  So, decided to try out Bibijo in the side.  I'm basically eating my way down the each of the food stall there.  

Sadly, the bulgogi wasn't marinated with the spicier sauce.  As a matter of fact, the upper right corner's sauce is for the spice.  The meat didn't have the 'heat' to it at all.  It's pretty much mildly marinated meat, rice, turnip, carrot, cucumber, and sprout.  Of course, it was accompanied by miso soup.  It was kinda disappointing because my taste buds were ready for something with a 'kick'.  It's ok, next time go back to ask for more clarification.  And they were right, don't touch the bowl!  It's a stone bowl, keep heat very well, so well that the rice at the bottom get stuck to it.

Bibijo

inside H-Mart

1302 Blalock Rd

Houston, TX 77055

713-568-9511

Little Liberty

Late lunch on the weekend, went back to Little Liberty.

I like going off peak time, always able to find parking.

Got me an Arnold Palmer, yum!

Got the Fried Chicken Slider, of course with the Buttermilk biscuit.  YUMMO.  There's of course fried chicken, which is never greasy.  Their house made pickle, and little mayo.  It was relish and hit the spot.  Of course, I can never finish the fries, so much food.  Delicious but lots of it.

The only thing about going off time is the servers never knew if that's their table or not because it's between shifts.  We had the hostess took and got our drink order, the manager took the order and another server deliver them.  So, there was a bit of confusion.  Another confuse thing I was curious about was they seated a party of 5 at the booths (4 adults and 1 highchair).  If you've been there, the booths are raised and the high chair is not.  So, basically, one parent is eating and feeding their child like a puppy and the kid is never part of the conversation.  That was just weird to me, especially there are tons of tables available.

Little Liberty

2365A Rice Blvd

Houston, TX 77005

713-807-7224

http://littlelibertyhouston.com/

Sozo

Been eyeing on the Japanese restaurant in BLVD for a long time, and its finally here.

Their website and the actual space is vastly different, so it does make me question about the food too.

Met up with a couple of friends for lunch.  If you go early, it's easier to get a table as it does fill up quickly.  I got the bento, and it is kinda like pick from column A and pick from column B to comprise your bento.

What I have here?  (clockwise) Top left corner: sashimi which had tuna, salmon and yellowtail, nice size and pretty decent size.   Some seaweed salad to go with the fried pork chop.  Nice orange for after your meal, California Roll, and a fried wonton.  Altogether, it is very filling as far as lunch goes.

My issue is that they had 2 server, one bartender, 4 sushi chef, one hostess, and one manager.  Our server was running all around, so much so that he worked up a sweat, really dripping down his face.  Poor guy.  His manager wasn't doing much to help.  However, the bartender stepped in and help with taking order and delivering food.  The service seems to be very disorganized, for instance, I ordered an iced tea, which I didn't get until after I'm done with my meal.  My friend added to her order, we truly waited for 15 mins because it's an add-on and it is outside of the menu.  To me, those are kinks that should've worked out by now.

I did get to check out the bar, which is very impressive and of course the place is very modern decor.  But take a look at the private room, you're stretching your head because they use fluorescent light in there.  I looked at Yelp before heading out, and was curious why every one gave the place such high ratings.  The fish is good but not supremely fresh.  Service is subpar and the decor doesn't feed you.  So, not quite sure about the hype.

Sozo Sushi Restaurant

1700 Post Oak Blvd

Ste 250

Houston, TX 77056

832-659-0613

http://sozosushilounge.com

The Dough Cone

So while running errand saw a new ice cream truck...

What is a dough Cone?  Well, the side said something about Nutella, you already got me there.

The owner is super nice and was telling me all about the cone.  Though it is doughnut type base (think Turkish doughnut) shaped like cone, it is baked not fried.  And the outside has cinnamon sugar to help give it a crunch.  The cone is not thick like a donut, just thicker than a normal waffle cone you're accustomed to.

Their ice cream, unlike the soft serve that is made from powder, theirs is really made from milk, vanilla bean, and sugar.  When you order a cone, he will first put an organic strawberry at the bottom of the cone to serve as a stopper.  Then, fill the cone with Nutella inside, yum!  Then pour on the ice cream.  It is really pure ice cream, you do taste the difference from say froyo.  Then, you get to put unlimited amount of topping and they are all from Whole Foods.  They have sprinkles (that, I'm not sure WFM sells), sliced almond, nuts, dried fruit.

So, I got sliced almond on top, it's less 'messy' as compare to the other options.  And he's nice enough to give me a color changing spoon too 'help'.  

So how does it taste?  Well, the ice cream is definitely more premium than say what you get from Baskin Robbins.  It's not quite gourmet like Cloud10, but the ingredients are as simple as it gets.  The owner was saying that his family runs an organic food business, so to him pure ingredients are very important.  He does get his stuff from Whole Foods, and he does read the labels to make sure they are good before putting it on the truck.  

Price point of $6.99 a cone seems a tad high, but seeing that he uses premium on the ingredients you'd understand the price point.  Kind of make me feel better paying that price.  If we were to go to Picugo  or Amorino for that size it would've been about the same price-wise.  I like to support local and small businesses, so definitely will come back to support.

Interesting tidbit, this truck was formerly Monster PBJ.  Yes kids, sadly Monster PBJ is off the market, as they focus on working on some retail aspect of their business, but have no fear, truck is going to to go use.

The Dough Cone

parked at Rice Village on Times & Kelvin (in front of formerly JoAnn's Clothing)

https://www.facebook.com/thedoughcone/

832-910-9643

Kung Fu Tea

Heard a lot about Kung Fu Tea, so finally got to try it.

I got the standard milk tea with tapioca.  They got quite a line there when I got there a little after lunch.  

To be honest, maybe I'm missing something here, but it's not the best tea since sliced bread.  What am I missing here?  The bubble are good, but again, not any different than some others I've tried.  People, please tell me what make this tea so special.

Kung Fu Tea

9889 Bellaire Blvd

#222

Houston, TX 77036

832-831-9288

http://kfteausa.com

Kata Robata

Went for lunch at Kata...

If you're lucky enough to catch them during Happy Hour, you get tons more yummy for cheap!

I got the roll, but I forgot the name of it.  Basically, it's beef, cucumber, and lettuce.  Not bad, something different.  But I have yet to have something bad there yet.  

Agedashi Tofu, I love it.  LOVE IT!

Chirashi, I love this too!  It's like a sampler of sushi, it's just separate of the fish and rice.  It has salmon, tuna, yellowtail, scallop, tamago (egg), shrimp, eel, crab, and couple more I don't know the names of.  

So my eyes were bigger than my stomach.  By the time I got to this part, I was pretty full.  However, there was an out of towner sat next to me saw how good this looked, he got the same thing.  Mine you, he came from New York, and somehow found out that Kata has the best sushi in town.  And when he got to his Chirashi, he was super impressed with how fresh everything is.  I'm so glad that I was able to make a good recommendation for someone that they appreciate and it's good.

Kata Robata

3600 Kirby Dr

Suite H

Houston, TX 77098

713-526-8858

www.katarobata.com

Mala Sichuan Bistro

Been meaning to come down here for a while, finally made it.

I've been to the Bellaire Location many of times, finally got to the fancy schmancy Montrose location.  This was formerly a Vietnamese restaurant, Mo Mong, but they totally revamped it. 

First of all, all of their dining seating is upstairs, versus, Mo Mong, you had seating downstairs.  The few seats they have downstairs is more for the bar.  But, you do have this awesome mural on their wall.  

Dry fried string bean.  It's nice and clean and fresh.

Mapo Tofu, which is their best item on the list.  I'd like it more if they add some meat.  Otherwise, it was just perfect on the spice, the consistency and sauce to tofu ratio.  It's a thing, just go with it.  The main reason is that when you put it on top of rice, it mix a perfect mix.  Talk about a yummy comfort food.

While the Montrose location is really convenient to me, I hated that it's more upperty than I'm accustom to.  For comfort Chinese food, having to make reservation is just not right.  While the service is good and the food is still good, the atmosphere is totally not the same.  For lunch, having way too much ambiance is not my thing.  I don't mind paying for the fancy but when you know where they came from, and you know you can do it for cheaper, it's just hard to justify it.

Mala Sichuan Bistro

1201 Westheimer Rd

Ste B

Houston, TX 77006

832-767-0911