HRW: 17

This is Houston Restaurant Week night #2. Tonight's pick was 17 inside the Alden Hotel (formerly the Sam Houston Hotel). It's part of downtown that's being revitalized.

The hotel is definitely shi-shi, the waiting area of the restaurant is the lobby, where they were happy to get my friend a drink while she's waiting for me. At first I thought 17 was because it's on the 17th floor, I kinda figured that that's their rooftop, where they frequently have weddings. But, turns out 17 is because back in the day, there would be 17 different lines of trains converge in Houston, that's why they named it 17. There's a better story on the menu, so, go try it and read it for yourself.

Anyway, we were offered the prix fixe, and as it turns out, it also serves as a preview for the new executive chef, Chip Hight's, fall menu preview. I find that very exciting and felt very exclusive. It's nice to preview anything before it became dime a dozen, so I applaud that.

We also had a very good waiter, Diana, she remembers what we ordered and explain the pairing also very attentive. While the pairing was not my thing, most of their wine were too dry for me. She brought over this amuse-bouche where it's corn sorbet with lime segment. The corn sorbet was good, but once you had the lime segment, which was dipped in salt, you definitely need the sorbet to tone down the salt and lime zesty-ness.

For starter, I had the Seared Peach with Salmon that came with crème fraîche & micro greens. The weird part for me, and also very unexpected was the salt around the plate. The Salmon with the salt worked ok but I wasn't sure with the peach. Turns out, if you mix it w/ the creme and the greens, add the peach, the salmon and the salt, that's actually works. I'm not a cook, can't tell you why it works but it does. I was sorta expecting a small piece of salmon, but it was done in tartare style over chopped peach, that was interesting and not bad either.

My friend Steve & Krista happened to get their Coastal Napoleon which was fried green tomato, gulf lump crab, remoulade sauce & micro greens. They managed to get a nice consistency of chips on the tomatoes, and put the crab meat in between the tomato slices. It's a nice little sandwich.

As for entree, we all had the deconstructed beef wellington, it was tenderloin, roasted radish, bordelaise with wild mushrooms. My oh my, let me tell you. The sauce is to die for, there was a small piece of pasty over the beef, and together with the sauce, it's just delightful. I love it. Of course, what I like about the dish too is the small piece of something, not sure if that was truffle or fois gras over it, but it was delish.

For dessert, all of us got something different. I had the peach souffle, which is totally not like the traditional souffle I had expected. It's only the top half, but was done in more of a meringue than a true souffle. I would have to say, though, when you cut into it, it doesn't deflate, it is like a pillow that lets you cut in, and it'll bounce back. The 'peach chips', it's more like drizzling of peach bit, there's no real piece of peach around, but you can taste the essence.

17
in Alden Hotel
1117 Prairie (at San Jacinto St.)
Houston, TX
832-200-6888
http://www.aldenhotels.com/17.php