Provisions

My friend Julia and I decided to have some girls time sans baby.  She picked Provisions, which I've been meaning to try.

They are located in the old Gravitas place, but cut in half... food is definitely up to par.

Here's my Arnold Palmer, it's a little too tea and not sweet enough.

We shared their Cesare Wedge salad, of course there's Anchovy on top, but it doesn't taste fishy at all.  If anything, it taste very lemony.

We also shared their Tuscan Kale pizza.  At first, I was very skeptical about kale on pizza, but the mix with the spicy sausage really did the trick.  I must've ate all of my half so quickly that could've finished the entire thing.  But we needed to save room for...

Dessert, of course!  This is their Neapolitan Chocolate Mousse Cake... I love how they serve it in the little jars and you can see the layering.

The top is filled with dipping dots, you know, those ice cream you get from a stand at the mall.  Except this is made in house with freeze dried strawberry.  The middle is chocolate mousse cake, layered with caramel cream, and the top is the ice cream.  The goal is to take your spoon and take all the layers in one bite, and it was a great idea!

At the end of the meal, comes the check.  Instead of the folio, it comes into a sardine can, a clean one of course.  The idea is great, just that my credit card won't fit it very well.  But cute idea!

I would suggest you make a reservation no matter what time of day you go.  They do have parking in the front, side, and back, but not alot.  If you go at lunch time, you shouldn't have trouble parking.  But at night that might be an issue, but no worries, they have valets, or you can try your luck on the street, just make sure you read the signs.  My next goal is to go to Pass, and make a little comparison.  

Provisions

807 Taft Street

Houston, TX 77019

713-628-9020

http://passandprovisions.com/#/provisions

Tiny's No.5

Met up with a friend for lunch during the week, since we don't get to do that often, we also picked a place she'd never been.

While I've been here numerous times, I never come here during the week in the middle of the day.  I usually come here for brunch... not a proper lunch.

I had the passion fruit Arnold Palmer, it's quite tasty.  You don't really taste the tea at all.

This is the Frenchman, which has beef, pesto sauce, goat cheese and sliced tomato inside and I got a side of sweet potato fries to go with it.  The sandwich is super nice, the bread is made in house, and you can tell the difference.  The pesto enhances the meat and made the bread taste super delicious.  I would say if we don't have the filling just the bread and pesto, they can get away with it.  Definitely worth trying.

Even though Tiny's No.5 is hidden in the middle of the neighborhood, people knows about it and does make the trek to come out there.  So during lunch time, don't be surprise you can't find a parking spot or a table.  Luckily, people do rotate through quickly, and that's not a problem, but you have been warned!  Unfortunately, they do not have the shuttle service during lunch time.  But for evening, if you walk here and want a ride back, they do have a golf cart that drive you back.  Or you can check out one of their bikes and return it the next day.

Tiny's No.5

3636 Rice Blvd

Houston, TX

713-664-0141

http://tinyboxwoods.com/tinys_no5/home.html

Hong Kong Cafe

For a casual afternoon snack, I'd like to go to Hong Kong Cafe for a quick meal.

Don't forget, kids, they only take cash.  You've been warned.

For something different, I got the red bean (adzuki) drink with milk.  It's not quite a drink but not quite a dessert, definitely sweet and refreshing. 

French Toast Hong Kong style.  They basically have a sandwich, battered, fried and you have this slice of butter and pour some syrup over it.  YUM!  There's also a variation where between the sandwich, they'd put peanut butter in the center.  Once they battered and fried, the center get all gooey and it oozes out, pretty tasty!

The meal also came with fried chicken wings... pretty self explanatory.

This whole combo cost $5.65.  To recap, you get a drink, something as an 'entree' and chicken wings.  For less than $6 where can you find something that's filling?  You can't!

Hong Kong Cafe

9108 Bellaire Blvd, Ste A

Houston, TX 77036

713-772-9633

Kata Robata

Now that I'm done with pregnancy, needless to say, the first thing I do is to go back to my sushi ways...

Since I already did the HRW earlier, I felt like we can have proper sushi for once. 

Sunday afternoon, happy hour: Spicy Salmon roll for $5.  We went to town!

Also on happy hour menu: Kobe Beef Taco, they use corn tortilla, which is actually very good with the citrus flavors.

From the left: Amberjack sushi, Tamago (egg), Chopped Scallop.  I only find that amberjack comes easy at Kata, and very few place else.   So, I really don't mind putting up the extra cash to get some yummy amberjack.

This is a new roll that I tried: Rising Sun, which has yellowtail and avocado in the middle, peppercorn tuna on the top, it was flavored with truffle vinaigrette.  I'm addicted to truffle anything, so needless to say this is good no matter what, but the roll itself is very good just with the yellowtail and peppercorn tuna.  I will definitely get this again.

Sunday afternoons are always a good time to go to Kata.  You don't have to get a reservations and definitely get a spot for a good meal.  Quality never  waver just because it's non-prime time.  The service is great no matter what time it is.  Their specials changes as the fish comes available or the chef decided to create something different.  However, if you do go during prime meal time, I highly recommend a reservations even if it's for the sushi bar.

Kata Robata

3600 Kirby Dr. Suite H

Houston, TX 77098

713-526-8858

http://katarobata.com/

Etoile

At first I thought Etoile had a HRW lunch menu, turned out they only had brunch, not lunch.

Oh well, been meaning to go there and give it a try anyway, so no biggie for trying lunch.

I've been on this Arnold Palmer kick, so had to order one... not sweet enough though

For starter, I had the lobster bisque.  I can definitely tell there's liquor in it, but can barely taste the lobster.  I also much like lobster bisque that has some meat to it.  I got spoiled by Pappadeaux.

I got the Prosciutto Sandwich, it comes with a cute little bowl of fries...

Cross section of the sandwich, it has mozzarella, dried tomato, prosciutto, basil and arugula.  Very tasty!

For dessert, I got the apple tart.  It's so beautifully made.  It's gorgeous.  Also tastes good, but just pretty to look at.

This space used to be a smaller scale cafe, so it's not exactly big, so you definitely should make a reservation.  Everything is high class to a T, so I would advise dressing up a bit.

Etoile

1011-11 Uptown Park

Houston, TX 77056

832-668-5808

http://etoilecuisine.com/

HRW: Eleven XI

This is one of those 'much anticipated' places I wanted to try.  Eleven on West Gray, located at formerly Bibas One A Meal's house... they definitely re-did everything to up-scale the place.

For my first course, I chose the Grilled Oyster, which is really liked the Baked Mussels you get at sushi restaurant, except the fillings were bacon and cheddar filling.  The piece of oyster was tiny... 

For second course, I had the Ceasar Salad, which has parmesan cheese and prosciutto crisp, which is much like slices of nicely crisped bacons... but I'm sure it cost more.

For intermezzo, I had the cucumber water, which has salted rimmed but the taste is more sour than refreshing as I had thought it might be.

For the entree, I had the seared scallop risotto.  I loved the scallop, the risotto has this cream sauce on it.  But I think I'd like the risotto to be more flavorful to my taste.

Since the HRW menu doesn't come with any dessert, which I'd much rather forgo the intermezzo than skip dessert.  But I got one anyhow.  This is White Chocolate Macadamian nut bread pudding with ice cream and caramel sauce.  It is actually very delicious and not overwhelming.  The bread pudding with the ice cream together was a perfect match.  Highly recommend it.

The place is nice, they have some tables that are a bit tight, so when you make a reservations make sure you specify your preference.  It was weird for HRW restaurant not to have dessert, but I'm glad I got the 'off the menu' dessert.  Also, they have shoe string fries, which was very delicious, great for happy hour.  Apparently their mussels and fries is their signature dish, so give that a try.

ElevenXI

607 West Grey

Houston, TX 77019

713-529-5881

http://www.elevenxihouston.com/ 

PF Chang's

We needed a quick bite, so I got the Singapore Street Noodle, gluten free style.  It tasted pretty good, but it's definitely nowhere close to the real deal.  You get less 'wet' with the original and more meat.  PF's gives you more veggies which I guess we all need it some times.  Again, how you can tell it's gluten free is that they use different plates than normal dishes.  So, if you get an all white plate, that's for the normal dishes.  The plate with their logo, means it's gluten free.  

Also, don't be shy to ask for gluten free fortune cookie on your way out, sometimes the servers are so used to grabbing normal fortune cookies that they don't pay attention.  They kept the GF fortune cookies in the manager's office.  Shhh... you didn't hear it from me. LOL

P.F. Chang's

Highland Village

4094 Westheimer Rd.

Houston, TX 77027

713-627-7220

http://www.pfchangs.com/Locations/LocationDetail.aspx?sid=1600&checked=1