Mein

So, heard about the latest in Chinatown...

Heard alot about it, and seeing that they claim themselves to serve everyday food that is originated from Canton, thus Cantonese cuisine.  That said, looking at the menu, it is covering more Southeast China/India/Thai.

Coconut Water with meat, it's not fresh, it's from frozen....

Beautiful wall art of a Chinese woman from the 40s, and Chinese stamp character, cover the entry way to the washroom.  

Real gate and door of Hong Kong apartment's door.  Even the way it's decorated is pretty common.

We ordered the Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice.  It's funny, years ago, only poor people can afford to eat salty fish.  Now, it's so hard to find salty fish that it has become a delicacy.  Sadly, this dish, there were a few pieces of chicken that were no cooked, so we quickly abandoned it.  Some parts of it was more cooked than the other, so we ate those.  I'd like that they put enough salty fish in there.  Some places, they put enough for smell but hardly any to eat.  So, from that aspect, it is a plus.  The minus would be the not cooking it all the way part.

Then we had the Crispy Egg Noodle.  Growing up, we called them bird's nest.  Because the noodle fried stiff to hold the veggie and meat inside like a bird's nest.  The sauce, however, is super awesome.  I highly recommend this dish.  We basically cleaned the plate on this dish.

Overall, the service is very westernized, as is the atmosphere.  The only difference is that this is in the heard of Chinatown as opposed to not. The same restaurant group represents Tiger Den & Aka Sushi.   So, you can tell the decor is very similar, very dark and themed very heavily into the wall art to accentuate the segment of culture it is representing.

As to the food, I see the Chef de Cuisine, aka See Fu (meaning Master) of the kitchen is Cantonese, and he looks like he designed the dishes.  The execution however, was not done well and they should've overseen that.  I may come back for another shot.  I will say, I am disappointed that for Cantonese place they don't serve better dessert or beverages.  The menu seems to be all over the map of Southeast Asia, and it's not really what they billed themselves out to be.  So, we'll go back in the future and see what improvements they made.

Mein

9630 Clarewood Dr

Houston, TX 77036

713-923-7488

http://www.eatmein.com/