HRW: La Colombe D'Or

Well, let's face it, I chose this place because of the
mansion, I know nothing about their food or their style, so I am there to 'eat the building'. Rather, to buy into it's ambience and the mystery from the years of driving by this place.

To me, this place always seems to be the cliche' shi shi type place attached to a hotel, known for doing weddings. Well, when you get this type of build up in your head, it's very hard to sit down and be disappointed. I sat down and the servers seems to be in a hurry by the servers. We sat down, and had a look see thru the menu. Their cocktail is about $9 a piece, and it's stronger than I'm used to, which I guess I'm getting my money's worth, if you want to call it that.

For the prix fixe, I had the French Onion soup, after all, they are a French restaurant. The soup wasn't the best I've ever had, I've had better at Ruggles Green. They had 2 pieces of bread in the soup, and a few strands of onions. The Gruyere cheese was thick alright, but doesn't mean it's flavorful.

The entree' they had a choice of Hazelnut crusted Chicken w/ angel hair pasta, fish of some sort and tenderloin. I chose the tenderloin with a wine reduction, and my friend had the chicken. It's sad to say, but I would've preferred the chicken. Not that my tenderloin was bad, but there was something about that chicken that is much more better tasting than my tenderloin. Like I said, it's not bad, just je ne sai qua.

Then comes dessert, I made yet another mistake. Traditionally, I order the creme brulee' that's my standard yardstick to measure the restaurant. But see, they offered poached pear, which sounded exotic with the red wine sauce and saffron. The pear came with sorbet, and to my disappointment, the pear was cold cold cold. In my mind, poached pear is warm, which would go well w/ the sorbet, but it wasn't the case. It was nice and cold. Hmm...

I like said in the beginning, the waiters weren't the most attentive for a restaurant like this caliber. It was a nice touch to have the owner stop by to say hello and ask how are things going, but the food and the service just doesn't make up for it. As a matter of fact, I wonder how they sustain business on a normal week, where their food is not up to the class as the place built up to be, and looks like their hotel suite portion was not being occupied. Well, we're really there to check out the building more than check out the food. But now, I know how uninspiring the food is, it just satisfied the curiosity.

La Colombe D'Or
3410 Montrose Boulevard
Houston, Texas 77006
713-524-7999
www.LaColombedOr.com