Uchi

It sure has been a long while since I've been to Uchi.

As usual, we try to get the Sake Social and linger thru dinner time.  That's so fun, you get some dishes at discount, sure to get a decent seat and enjoy the food and company at the same time.

Eggplant Nigiri, I know people look at me like a crazy person, but their eggplant sushi is super good. It is grilled, not too mushy, and it has this lemon curd for taste, not too zesty or zingy.

This is the Sake Social sushi maki: avo maki, which has avocado, fried shallot and yuzu kosho (don't know what that is but it's good).

Machi Cure, one of my standard go-to.  It is: smoked yellowtail, yucca chips, marcona almond, pear.  The trick is to put all of that on the chip in one bite to get the full taste of all of them together.  

This is my first time trying the fried yucca, which is like a fried sweet potato.  The sauce is the green goddess sauce which works well with the starch. 

This is Kori Kaki, which is a fancy preparation of oyster.  It has cantaloupe and green tea mix on there.  All I can tell you is that is the most refreshing oyster I've ever tasted.  It's not too sweet, but it is so fresh and refreshing that I slurped the juice.  Wish they make that mixture for drinks... no kidding.

The top is the Uchi-viche, which has salmon, cilantro, avocado, hot pepper, and a Vietnamese sauce of nuoc mam, which I have no idea what that is, but it tastes good.  On the bottom left is the red sea urchin, which was super smooth.  And the Oyster on the bottom right.

This is the Negi Hama Futomaki, which has yellowtail, cucumber, negi and tamari sauce.

This is the gyu kare, which is short ribs (that melts in your mouth), cherry tomato, peanut, cilantro.  So good...

The hamachi nabe - which is hot pot rice with yellowtail, rice, soy broth, and egg yolk on top.

They mix it all up for you, so that the egg yolk will cook, the fish, broth, rice mix nicely.  By the way, the rice is cooked in this pot, which explains the bottom of the rice has bonded together, it was by design, not overcooked.

Spider Roll

Taraba Kanpyo - Alaskan King Crab (super fresh, by the way), summer squash, and wildflower gastrique.  You again combine all of the ingredients into one bite to taste all the flavors.  And let me tell you, the crab has been soaked in butter that keeps you wanting more.

Haru Tataki - which is cauliflower 3 ways, pureed, grilled and pickled.  Our favorite was grilled, then pureed, then pickled.

The famous Fried Milk - chocolate ice cream, with chocolate cookie crumble with ice cream, toasted meringue and little ball of fried (what seems to be) condensed milk.  Oozing with yummy goodness.

Peanut Butter Semifreddo, it has apple miso dot sauce, peanut butter flan like pudding, ice cream with crushed peanut and raisin.

Entire meal did take close to 2.5hrs to eat.  As usual, for those who are not familiar, they do tapas style size but the dishes don't all show up at the same time.  They come in courses one by one.  Luckily, we have a very enjoyable group and the time just flies.  We all were commenting how you felt like you ate so much but yet not needed to be rolled out of the restaurant.  That's a good feeling.  If you ever wanted to go, make reservation ahead of time. If not, show up at the open and you can definitely get yourself a seat at the bar, which serves the full menu.

Uchi Houston

904 Westheimer Rd

Houston, TX 77006

713-522-4808

http://uchihouston.com/