Ninfa's Galleria

In a galaxy long long ago, Ninfa's in the Galleria was by the skating rink.

Now you can find them at the corridor by the Nordstrom entrance.  Conveniently, they partnered with a pizza place and has this huge space, but you can still get seated and order dine-in.

We got queso, because it's not a Mexican food experience, if there's no queso.  Sadly, today's queso was a tad runny, ok cheesy, but too runny for my liking.  I mean, if I have to kill some calories, might as well be what I wanted, right?

I got the Spinach Enchilada, it has your Monterrey Jack cheese on top with the ranchera sauce with a side of rice.  Typically it comes with beans, but since I'm not a beans person, they were nice enough to switch it to rice for me.

Service was slow, but given that the mall doesn't have any 'proper' Mexican food, and I use that term loosely.  That's pretty much your option.  Lord knows, no one wants queso from Chipotle, so you can forget about that.   Sadly, it's a matter of convenience, not a matter of taste.

Ninfa's Houston Galleria

5135 W. Alabama 

Houston, TX 77056

713-877-9730

E-Tao

Finally get to come back to E-Tao.  Did I ever tell you that means cure of the stomach?  The owner once told us that's why he named it E-Tao, kinda neat and thoughtful.

One of MUST-GET from here is Xiao Long Bao - Shanghai Soup Dumplings.  Have I ever tell you the story that the owner had brought in Chinese chefs from Toronto to train the chefs here how to make these?  That's a true story.  Now, the chefs are old hand at this and have done a fantastic job.  This was a business lunch, and my lunch companion was thoroughly impressed not knowing the story, now that he does, he was even more impressed.

This is dry stir fry of rice noodles and beef.  It has enough 'wok' into the dish.  It was nice and piping hot.  To top it off, the entire dish is cooked evenly.  It can be a dish of its own.  Combo of noodle, but the rice flat kind.  Soy sauces of several kinds, beef and various veggies (i.e. carrots, scallion, sprouts).

I love that they have this location inside the mall.  They while they do accommodate the fusion taste buds, they can also take care of the authentic Chinese taste buds as well.  I love this place.

E-Tao

inside Houston Galleria Mall

5135 Westheimer Rd

#7295

Houston, TX 77056

713-965-0888

North Italia

I always liked to go to North Italia.

Even for lunch time, it's a good idea to make a reservation.  Trust me, you won't be sorry for that.

Got my Arnold Palmer, I just love how they look before I mix it all up.

Zucca chips - if you get anything from here, it has to be the Zucca chips.  It is sliced zucchini and lightly fried.  You feel like you're eating something healthy, why not?!

I decided to get the Prosciutto pizza.  It obviously has prosciutto on it.  goat cheese and fig and arugula.  The whole pizza was on gluten free crust.  It's basically the crust is baked and they added the toppings after.  As you can see, none of them were baked into the pie.  It is personal size, but I would say that I basically ate half of it and decided to pick on the other half.  I love goat cheese and fig, MUST. FINISH.

Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, if you go there on a weekday, a reservation is highly recommended and trust me, if you do, you won't be sorry.  Lately the weather is nice and you can request to sit outside and enjoy the weather.  Parking is also convenient, you pull up to the garage on the side of the restaurant and there are escalators that get you to your car, easy peasy.

I will say, service has always been good, this time was a tad slower and I'm chalking it up as our server is somewhat new.  Otherwise, no issue with hostess, servers, or food.

North Italia

1700 Post Oak Blvd

Ste 190

Houston, TX 77056

281-605-4030

https://www.northitaliarestaurant.com

Aqui

Finally gotten a chance to visit Aqui.

It is over by Lower Westheimer, and their space is very posh.

Here's my posh drink at the bar.

This is Elderflower Fizz, quite refreshing in the afternoon.

My only complaint is that they weren't able to smoothly transition my tab at the bar to the table.  

We got the Mushroom Salad, for me, who like mushrooms, this is a very flavorful mix.  There peanut, cilantro, Thai Chili sauce as dressing.  Not too spicy, the mushroom has been tossed in a pan and mixed in with the greens.  Very lively.

This is Sisig Tacos.  Since we had some Sisig at Underbelly.  Wanted to compare a bit.  The meat is good, the onion is fresh.  My only complaint is that they put some mayo in the mix and thrown off the taste buds.

Here we have Tuna Kililaw - it has coconut, heart of palm, jack fruit, cilantro, and tuna.  The fish is very fresh, but it was too coconutty for my taste.  

This is Banana Leaf Chicken, it is literally individually wrapped in banana leaf.  The problem with that is you can't use a fork to push it all down.  You have to painstakingly take them off the skewer one-by-one, then pull them one by one.  Ours were a little too toasted, so it was sticking together.  You get a side of rice and sauce.

This is their Hamachi Crudo.  Yellowtail with jalapeños and nuoc mam (aka fish sauce).  Typically, I love Crudo dishes.  This one however was a tad more fishy in taste than I'd like, and not the fish sauce type fishy, as in it may not have been the freshest of yellowtail.

This is me, pretending to have great artistic photographic skills.

This is their Tapioca Dumpling, which has ground pork inside, peanut, and salted radish.  You actually get these type of dumplings at dim sum.  Frankly, the skin covering it may not have been see thru, but taste about the same.

We decided to check out the Eggplant Tacos, eggplant, onion, cilantro and the sauce was really what made the dish.  Unfortunately, I forgot to jot it down.  If you happen to see it, order it and check it out.

Madai - Japanese Seabream, wasabi, shiso pepper bits, and thin slice of pear.  It was very nice, the seabream was seared and it taste very nice and very sashimi like.  One of my favorite.

Was very curious about the Fois Gras - which is on toast with coconut jam, kalamansi jelly (calamondin is a tiny citrus fruit),  and pandelsal (Filipino bread roll) aka my toast.  

Ensaymada - It's a mini ball brioche with brie inside and manchango cheese shred on top.  I wanted to like this very much, it was very hot inside and the ball brioche was ok.  As much as a cheese fan that I am, it is only ok for me.

Kalamansi Tart  - It has the kalamansi citrus, toasted coconut along with the ice cream, and slices of meringue fluff. 

It is very artsy composition, and the mix of it all is very good, and surprisingly light and not filling.

Overall, the service is great.  Their claim to fame is their chef Paul Qui, while I totally respect that he is a Top Chef and a James Beard award winner, the chef himself weren't there. Though the experience was not bad, but alot of people over hyped it a bit.  Not all dishes hit it out of the park, which I expected from all the accolades and the price.  It is a mix of Southeast Asian cuisines, and some were great and some were alright.  It is a unique dining experience nonetheless.  My main disappointment was that they did not have uni the night we were there... 

We got there when they open and it's not as busy as they made us to believe when we made the reservation.  It was interesting, their valet person was not there when the restaurant open.  Mid meal, the hostess came over and asked for our car keys and gave us a ticket.  That's just poor etiquette.  I don't even mind paying the valet, even though it was complimentary.  But, the guy was late, I'm eating, you coming to ask for my car keys, is just weird.  They should've left diners be, or ask for some kind of cash in exchange for the parking.  But for them to interrupt a meal, that's just put an awkward air mid-meal.  The hostess tried to be nice about it, but there's just no going around an awkward situation.  Just poor etiquette on their part, next time, just gave it up.

Aqui Houston

520 Westheimer Rd

Houston, TX 77006

713-360-7834

http://www.aquihtx.com

Azuma Sushi & Robata Bar

Went out for a quick lunch.

Ended up at Azuma on Kirby.

Start with an Iced Green Tea.

Vegetable Tempura, let's face it, we all got it for the sweet potato, but under the pretense of vegetable, we have to eat the other stuff...

Koi Roll - which is spicy tuna inside, salmon and avocado on the outside.  It's as simple and easy going as it comes, no frills.

Unagi handroll - there's alot of cucumber this time.  

Basically, food overall, there's no room for error.  It's either fried or rolls.  The margin of error is small.  The service however, hasn't been all that great.  Not sure if it's because I came after the lunch crowd, or changing of the guard, but I saw the guy filling up my water more than I saw my server.   Some might think that they're giving us room to eat, but truthfully, it feel let neglect sometimes.  Ok, that might be an exaggeration, but let's say they're not assessable during this dining experience.

Azuma Sushi & Robata Bar

5600 Kirby Drive

Houston, TX 77005

713-432-9649

http://www.azumakirby.com/index.php

Poke Inn

Driving down Beechnut and saw a new Poke place, curiosity peaked, thought we'd check it out.

They promote healthy eating, and the place is very simple and straight forward.

Very small picture of the menu.  You choose Small, Medium, Large.  Basically, that means one scoop,  2 scoops or 3.  Step 1, you choose your rice, which they have white, brown, and salad, or mix half and half.

Step 2: you choose your seafood which are tuna, salmon, octopus, shrimp, yellow tail, spicy tuna.  Step 3: choose your sauce, which they have spicy mayo, wasabi mayo, ponzo sauce, jalapeño, and house sauce and house spicy sauce.

Step 4: add your veggies, they've got, onion, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, edamame, masago, fried onion, crab meat, nori strip... just to name a few.

So, what did I get: I got white rice as base, salmon with house sauce, edamame, cucumber, seaweed, tobiko (caviar), nori strips.  How does it taste: it is good, fresh, could be more fresh.  The veggie and other mixes are decently fresh.  For $7.95, it's alot of food for a bowl.  I like to mix it all up and enjoy everything in one bite.  It is not super expensive for fresh seafood, since they are made to order, it is done quickly.  Very casual and decent food.  Worthy for a try.

Poke Inn

4848 Beechnut

Houston, TX 77096

346-240-4266

Bokksu

Another Bokksu review.

Last time the theme was KitKat, and this time, it is Glamorous Tokyo.  They have a theme for every month's box.  Let's see what's inside:

Lots of stuff in there... Upper left (clockwise): We have strawberry koala cookies (not sure if that's a special or not, since I haven't had those for a while and don't go looking for them at the Asian Grocery stores).  Sapporo Veggie Potato Sticks - very much like the other potato sticks out there, but I can fool myself for having something 'healthy'.  Cafe Latte Sticks from UCC - they're a well known coffee maker in Japan, this is an instant drink, which is not bad, but I still prefer their canned goods.  

Tokyo Rusk- see below.  Black Sesame Goma - see below.  The Pink & Brown package is a Chocolate wrapped Tea cookie.  It does taste like tea soaked cookie.  Silver package is Chocolate Banana Cobbler, it's a tad adventurous for me, but maybe another try would be different.  Chocolate Horn, which is much more like a mini chocolate covered cookie (supposed to go with the Latte sticks).  The yellow package are Maple Butter cookie, turned out that I don't like Maple on cookies as much as I'd thought I would.  The Green/Black/Red packages are Mini Fried Rice Cracker, which are a tad sweet because it has sweet soy sauce on it.  It's like a little mini popcorn bits.

This is the Tokyo Rusk, at first looking at the name, I thought it has to do with corn rusk.  Luckily, it has to do with almond.  It's essentially a slice of thin almond cookie.  It's not too sweet and you get slices of almond on there.

This is the Black Sesame Rice Cracker that is baked with soy sauce.  This does have a kick to it.  I didn't know and took a big bite, and crunchy and toasted.  Good for a mid-morning snack.

They have a Classic Box for $39 and a Tasting Box for $19 a month.  You can choose 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 12 months.  The more months you buy ahead the cheaper it'll be per box.  I just happened to forget to forget to cancel from the Kit Kat box, but glad that they sent this box.  From seeing the past box, they do have some neat snacks, it does last you a good month.  It is a pretty box to start for your Japanese snack adventure.

Bokksu

https://www.bokksu.com