Mary'z Lebanese Cuisinse (Washington)

I'm glad to have a Lebanese restaurant nearer to me than Aladdin, although Aladdin is more of a self-serve than full service like Mary'z.  They have been on Richmond in the Galleria area for many many years, just soft opened on Washington yesterday.  At the Ricmond location they have packaged pita bread, whereas the Washington location has fresh bread made in their stone ovens.  I wouldn't think I would prefer the packaged bread, but it happened to be softer than the fresh bread and easier for me to eat.

There were 4 of us plus a toddler.  We ordered in a family meal like fashion and we girls got the hummus, tabouli, and falafel appetizer and the guys got the meat sampler.  The guys also ordered tabouli and a green bean dish for their appetizer so they actually weren't able to finish their meat sampler they had so much food.  I thought everything was great, but my falafel was different than I was used to.  The outside was crispy, but the inner was very soft and airy, which was different.  We were really full by the end of the meal, but they brought us out free baklava, which was nice.  They also brought out strawberries for the baby, which was super nice.  We thought the staff was great.  We'll be back here for Lebanese food!

Weights + Measures (Midtown)

I've been sort of waiting for WM to open for some time that I lost track until I saw a client/friend comment on their visit and I was so excited, I made it there within the week!  The interior looks like a cross between True Food Kitchen and Canopy.  A very open, casual, clean, refreshing, kitchen like space with mid century furnishings.  We're finding out they've been open for 2 weeks and our server does seem a little new.  WM has Sourdough Bakery near the entrace, great display of pastries, I want to eat it all!  But, you know I got to watch my girlish figure, so I only ordered two, the raspberry linzer and the chocolate croissant.  The raspberry linzer was sweet and tasty, the chocolate croissant was ok.  Nick and I decide to share so we can try more things...so, for our main meal, we shared a butter lettuce salad and a sausage pizza.  The salad was ok too.  The pizza was tasty, but it was a little limp to pick up, probably because of the sauce.  It was good, we both liked it.  For dessert we ordered the chocolate flourless cake which our server highly recommended.  I don't typically lean towards desserts that are chocolate, but I'm glad we listened to him because it was amazing!  That cake was just delicious!  Super super good!  I liked it all, great experience, I would definitely go back...after all, got to try all those mouth watering pastries they have!

Oporto (Midtown)

Well...what can I say...it's gorgeous inside!  I already had a great opinion of Oporto Richmond, but this one...eye candy!  Absolutely beautiful.  We were sat in a booth, love the booth!  The interior had a mid century, retro modern look to it.  Super handsome interior.  I thought the menu was a little hard to read, so we let our server drive, which we would have done anyways.  He seemed super excited about that and ordered the following items in order of the pictures above...Bife a Portuguesa (hangar steak/fried egg/potatoes), $14.  Pao com Tomate (wood fired grilled/tomato pulp/sumac), $6.  Queijo de Cabra (goat cheese/walnuts/basil & tomato sauce/garlic bread), $10.  Crab & Avocado Crostini, $14.  I recommend all of these dishes, they were great.  I was surprised the crab had a nice freshness too.  I don't prefer crab, but here it was great, with a little sprinking of lemon.  The Queijo de Cabra, Avocado Crostini and the Pao com Tomate were my favorites.

Of course we also got dessert, his recommendation was the lemon pastry and the bread pudding, in that order.  So, we got both.  I didn't care so much for the bread pudding but the lemon pastry was nice.  I probably could have had 2 of those to myself!  Sorry, no pictures of the desserts, as we gobbled them up!  Great service, great food, love the atmosphere!  Another quick mention...I didn't realize the food here was Portugese, and didn't know the other Oporto was as well.  I figured it was all similar to Queen Vic, which it is not.

Urban Eats (Washington)

On my first visit last week, I was really impressed.  I liked how the interior was set up, not sure if anyone actually buys the grocery items.  These kind of stores seem really hard to sustain, but I hope they do well.  I love the decor, very industrial, rustic,  handsome, it has a really nice feel inside.  There's so much to look at, I think I could be here for an hour and still not be done exploring.  They have shelved items, cheesse, smells like there could be cured meats somewhere, and obviously baked goods.  So much to look at!  There's a more casual sitting area downstairs, but upstairs is where the restaurant is.  Nice looking patrons here, maybe the hipster crowd?  It's a full house for lunch.  We sit down and I ordered the tuna salad and Jimy got the chicken salad.  He also ordered the eggplant appetizer and an order of french fries.  I thought everything was good, but I didn't finish my salad, which is kind of rare.  I liked my whole experience from the food to the atmosphere.  Staff was great too, very helpful!

My next visit, I took a friend, his first time.  This time I ordered the tuna sliders since he was getting the cowboy.  I was impressed that the tuna sliders didn't taste fishy at all.  I find most don't get a tuna burger right all the time.  I enjoyed it.  Again, I enjoyed it and Jay liked his burger.  They have a great outdoor patio with a great view of the skyline, which would be geat to use these days because the weather is awesome!  Also, one more tid bit, the parking is kind of a pain.  But overall, I like it and it's a great lunch spot.

Dak & Bop (Museum District)

As I mentioned some weeks ago about my ending my mission to find the best fried chicken until the next fried chicken joint popped up...well, that time has come.  Dak & Bop is a Korean inspired fried chicken restaurant.  It's a small shop.  Long wait.  Lots of cool, young, hip people eating Korean Fried Chicken.  They have basically 3 options: wings, drumsticks or tenders.  I was confused by the "drumsticks" and thought that would be like wings but the legs.  Needless to say, we had a extremely large order.  We got the combindation 14 wings and 8 drumsticks combo with half and half sauce (soy garlic and spicy), $30.  Then we got an additional 6 wings soy garlic wings, $8.  We also ordered the Kimchi fries, which wasn't on the menu.  And we got the mac & cheese and the asian coleslaw.  I thought all the sides were ok.  And you end up eating them all because it takes so long for the fried chicken to come out, you basically devour all the sides and don't really have much room for the main course.  I had about 6 wings.  So did the guys.  The wings were actually pretty up there on taste.  Not your average fried chicken.  The skin is nice and crispy and sweet.  Tehy were pretty good, but there was no way we were going to finish it all.  We took all the drumsticks home and the next day, they were even more tasty!

So overall, I thought it was a fun experience.  The true test to all of these fried chicken places is if I go back for seconds!  We shall see...

Drexel House (Highland Village)

I had visited Drexel House for the first time months ago and totally forgot to blog about it.  So here it finally is!  We visited on a Saturday for a mid day snack after reading an article on their revised menu.  On arriving we really liked the atmosphere.  It was a little cold and seating inside was full so we were directed outside and it was just a little uncomfortable, but ok for the most part.  We thought the service was pretty bad.  We were rotated through 3 servers and finally the third server actually brought out what he said he was going to bring out.  We did like the Kale salad and the cheese plate.  The bread was ho hum, but I did like the selection of cheeses.  Overall, I did like the place and will be back.  

Woodbar (Montrose)

From the owners of Shade and Canopy.  They have a small bar bites menu and I was told a dinner menu, but we just stopped by just for wine and cheese.  Doesn't this cheese plate look awesome?  The cheeses were ok, the bread was fantastic as well as all the other fun items, jam, nuts, honey, grapes, super great and delicious.  I got the Red Passione and loved it!  Super full bodied and fruity, I loved loved it!  It's a cute place, they also have pastries and coffee during the day.  Also, Woodbar is connected to Canopy.  I do plan to revisit for the daytime goodies!

Happy New Year!

A low key evening with a few friends, dinner at Vinoteca Poscol and drinks after at Sonoma Wine Bar.  Doesn't my friend to the very left look crazy?  She's really not, well, maybe just a little.  Happy 2015 all!

Holley's Seafood Restaurant & Oyster Bar (Midtown)

Amazingly delicious, from the oysters to the Blackened Grouper down to my upside down cake...I was really impressed.  I have just 3 words...mm...mm...mm!   

More specifically, our server highly recommended the grouper and man, was he right...it was so delicious!  Jodie got the gumbo, I did not try that since it had shellfish in it.  But she also tried my grouper and thought it was delish.  For dessert, the funny thing is, we told our server we were going to skip dessert because we were going to check out Dolce Delights next door.  Our server told us not to waste our time, their desserts were mediocre at best and highly recommended the upside down cake and I'm so glad he was super opinionated because it was even better than he made it out to be....mm...mm...mm...  If you're a seafood lover, you have to try Holleys!  

The Chicken Ranch (Heights)

Ok, I lied.  I said I was done with my mission to try the best fried chicken, but after hearing about this new fried chicken joint called The Chicken Ranch, I was sucked back in.  I have not been into fried chicken since I was a child.  So, it's been awhile and there is no love lost, but still, I don't mind trying some amazing fried chicken, you know, for old-times sake.  

There's quite the hype for this small fried chicken joint.  I haven't really read any actual reviews, but lately in the last week, I have seen a lot articles, highlights, etc.  So, I make it a plan to visit today with my family, but due to work schedules, am only able to take my stepson.  He's on board with it, what 13 year old doesn't like fried chicken?  It's in the north part of the Heights.  Limited parking spots.  It looks exactly the way the photos portray it.  No frills, no pizzazz.  You come here just for some good ol fried chicken, not for the atmosphere or presentation.  

We put in our order for the Dolly Special (2 chicken breast), $10, some mac n cheese, mash potatoes, creamed corn and the okra & tomatoes.  Observing the kitchen, it's  four guys, one handling the orders and check out, one battering the chicken and dipping in a flour and a liquid concoction, one at the fryer, and one helping to put the orders together for customer pick up.  The staff is nice enough, and my curiosity is growing more and more.  We finally get our order and dig in!  Ethan takes the first bite of chicken and I ask him how it is and he says, "it's crispy".  I ask, "crispy is good, right?", he says, "it's really crispy".  I try it for myself and I think the crispiness is really nice.  I'll be honest, it's not as good as I was hoping, but it's better than most of the chicken I have tried in the last few months.  He liked the mac n cheese.  I thought the mash potatoes tasted like real potatoes, which was nice and the creamed corn was pretty good.  The okra & tomatoes weren't bad.  Overall, a decent meal.  I ask Ethan what his rating was, he said 3.5, which is higher than his rating for Birdhouse.  I give it a 3.5 as well.  Nice, decent  joint for some crispy fried chicken.  This time I think I am officially good with my fried chicken mission.  

Tout Suite

I love it!  It was love at first sight!  In one week I had 2 people mention Tout to me so I had a light breakfast planned and I really liked my avocado on sourdough, add egg.  It was creamy and surprisingly very tasty, good subtle flavors.  And the decor, what can I say I love everything about it!  I couldn't believe I was just now hearing about this place, 6 months after they opened.  But then, I was told it was the same owners as Sweet in City Center and then I remembered...I had heard they were going to open, but it was so long ago, and just a mention that I totally forgot about it.  Love love it, you have to go try it.  The atmosphere is super awesome, modern, rustic, cool, industrial, warehousey, everything people love these days, super cool place!  And it also made me finally think...maybe something really cool is going happen on this side of town.  It's a definite must try and a place I will definitely return to.

Excuse my photos, I forgot the Nikon so had to defer to my camera phone...I will be back to shoot better photos, until then...

Bosta Wine & Coffee

Love this wine & coffee bar...well at least the atmosphere.  The pastries were not so great, but it was at the end of the night, we gave them a pass on this visit.  The coffee was pretty good, but as you an see foam art needed some work.  Matt made some crass comment about what it looked like, I'll spare you the details.  I will definitely be back, after all it's next to the Museum cafe, which is another place on my list of to dos.  This place does remind me of one of my favorite coffee shops in NYC, La Columbe!  Maybe, why I like it so much.  I'll have to visit again and test their goodies again, until then...

Birdhouse (Heights)

Formerly known as "Boil House", since crawfish season is over.  We're not so much into fried chicken, but I would like to try some amazing fried chicken once in my life.  We decided this was going to be Saturday's dinner spot.  I had sort of low expectations, but definitely hoping for the best.  It looked like most of their patrons take advantage of the drive-thru option.  There's not much seating anyways, maybe 4 tables outside.  We ordered the family pack (8 pieces of chicken) to feed us 4 and broke up the 2 large sides into 4 small ones, choosing mash potatoes, okra, bulgar salad, and coleslaw.  I thought the sides were ok, but the chicken was a little disappointing.  The skin was super crispy which was nice, but the overall taste was just ok.  We all concurred, 3 of us giving it a 3 and the 4th person gave it a 2-3.  Before this year, I hadn't had fried chicken in years, I don't even like fried chicken, never crave it.  But because of this 13 year old in the house, we have had fried chicken 3 times, and somehow I have been on this mission to have the best fried chicken!  Total fail and now all this chicken tasting has pushed me over my limit and I'm officially done with fried chicken for now.

Dosi Restaurant & Soju Bar (Korean)

I had no plans or interest to visit this restaurant for the fact that I heard a non Korean owned it, but then I saw it advertised somewhere, heard someone mention it, and decided, ok fine, I'll give it a try with someone that's a fan of Korean food.  If anything, it'll be interesting to see what it's like, especially the food.  

I decided on a whim to visit on Friday and went ahead and called for a reservation at 8pm for 830pm and they took it!  We arrived and it was a pretty small place, but I liked the decor.  The wall of pickled jars, I thought was precious.  There were maybe 8 tables of patrons, probably  making it half full and an empty long bar-like section, maybe a community area?  

They bring out a complimentary, very small jar of Kimchi.  Surprisingly, I really liked it.  I like my Kimchi ripe and it was perfect.  Apparently, they have "aged" stuff, so I tried that too and didn't like that so much.  It didn't taste aged, but just really tart, but not spicy and tart.  The first two dishes I really enjoyed, a lot!  It was the Kale chips with tapioca & yogurt (mm...that yogurt) and the Yam Pancake, I think is what it was?  I really enjoyed all the flavors and textures, just really good and tasty.  I could have had another 2 of those dishes!  The next three dishes were ok to good, which were the Lamb Collar with Rice Cake, Street Dumplings, Black Bean Noodles.  The Street Dumplings were actually not bad, but the other two I thought didn't have enough flavor.  We also ordered the Mango Blended Soju, which was fun.  

Overall, I enjoyed my visit, it was a creative take on Korean food.  Matt liked it very much and wants to put this on the list for dinner spots...he's got almost 2 years of  Korean food experience now...he's almost an expert...not really.  I was impressed with the Kimchi and that's always hard to get right as a non Korean.  If you're looking for fun, creative, Korean inspired, do try Dosi.  If you're looking for traditional Korean food, go to Bonga!  We'll definitely be coming back for those Kale chips and Yam Pancakes!

Coppa Osteria (Rice Village)

I really like Coppa, but have only been to the Washington location.  But, they have recently closed.  I read something about that location being cursed or something.  The good news is there is another one, Coppa Osteria in the Village and it's actually really nice, my first time.  It has a similar vibe to the Washington location, but it seems nicer.  Food seemed the same to me, which is great!  I usually get the Spaghetti Carbonara and a salad.  This time I added the Burrata Pomodoro, which is sliced marinated tomato, mozzarella, arugula and ciabatta bread, really enjoyed that.  Another new dish for me was the mushroom pizza and the arugula salad, which I thought were both really good.  I guess this will be where I enjoy my Coppa dishes...I don't mind the drive.  

MF Sushi (Galleria)

There's a lot of talk about MF Sushi.  Specifically that the food is really good.  I know they were around some time ago and then had a fire incident and just recently reopened.  So, I'm finally making a trip after a friend said to me that he thought MF Sushi was better than Uchi.  That got me high tailing over there!  On arriving to MF Sushi, I didn't totally love the presentation of the restaurant.  You know, I'm all about atmosphere and food.  I judge the whole restaurant.  I didn't really love the interior, the lighting was too bright and the interior was just kind of unimpressive.  We finally get seated and we really like our server, she gave great recommendations, some out of this world, but most were just decent.  Our favorites were the kobe beef and the maddai nigiri...sooooo good!  You have to try these two if you try anything at all.  The sashimi was great too.  But, we felt all else was just ok, which included all the rolls, miso soup and salad.  I would definitely go back for the sashimi or nigiri, but for me, Uchi is still an overall better experience, food and atmosphere...just my opinion.

Pax Americana (Montrose)

We really liked it!  We felt like the food had a lot of depth, was interesting and tasted really good.  We had a great server that helped us navigate the menu.  So, for starters we got the Beef Tartare and Honeydew Melon salad.  Matt and I both thought the Tartare was good, but with the bread, perfect.  It needed it. The honeydew melon was interesting, I would never had thought to grill honeydew melons.  Matt didn't like that the melon skin was still on the melon, so he cut them off, but I liked the crunchy.  I was thinking this salad was going to be small, but it was pretty good size as you can see here.

So far so good, we're excited for the main entrees!  For our entree we got the brisket and lamb dishes.  Our server highly suggested the Lamb, but after tasting both, we both agreed that the brisket dish better, really good actually.  All I have to say is...damn!  But, you have to eat the greens with it.  It's a mixture of green onion, basil, mint, peppers, etc....really good!  

For desserts, by the time we got to the desserts, my allergies started acting up from the wine so I couldn't really taste the desserts, but Matt said the Fritters was his favorite.  I liked the texture of the figs, but I couldn't taste the flavors.  All in all, great, I have to say that brisket dish was so good, it really left an impression on me.  Other than the first bite of fat I had, which I spit out, the rest of it was marvelous!  

True Food Kitchen (Galleria)

I loved it!  Not all of it, but most of it.  Loved the interior, decor, clean fresh look.  Loved the menu, there were so many things that looked good!  I thought everything tasted fresh, like real ingredients.  We had the avocado dip, miso soup, I had the Mediterranean Salad with chicken and Jimy had the Chopped Salad.  I liked everything...but my salad.  My salad was just ok, but I did like the dip and the miso soup.  I can't wait to go back to try something else.  So far, I'm a fan!

Hearsay Gastro Lounge (Downtown)

Hearsay must have been on my to do list for the last few years and I'm just now visiting for the first time.  That's probably the longest check off I have to date.  The building itself has a ton of character.  It's a fairly small space, but super cute place.  I just love brick veneer on the inside of a space, especially if it's original.  For my meal, I just got a simple salad with goat cheese, add chicken.  It was fine, nothing special, but staff was great, and I hope to return soon and try something more extravagant, maybe.  The last photo is a piece I happen to observe in the stone implanted into the concrete in front of the restaurant...character.

Grace's (Upper Kirby)

This one has been on my to do list for several month's.  It has a great thing going for it, its location!  I hadn't heard much buzz about it, but because of its location, I would always make a mental note to check it out everytime I passed it.  It's the same family as the Carrabba's family, actually an homage to Johnny Carrabba's mom, I heard.  The restaurant is supposed to give you the feel of being in her home, our server "Louis" said.  When I walked in, I told Matt it was cozy like being in someone's house!

It wasn't really that crowded for a 5 month old restaurant.  We were told there was much more traffic earlier on.  Our server was the consummate professional!  He changed our napkins to black, matching my skirt, without me even having to ask!  That is attention to detail!  He was definitely a pro, you could tell he's an experienced server, but yet very friendly and engaging.  In honesty, I think we enjoyed him more than we did the food!  However, the food was great too!

I ordered the Wagyu burger "Gracie's Burger" with the Beer Battered Fries.  Matt got the Filet with Broccolini.  I had blogged about the Wagyu beef at BFD and someone had suggested I try the Wagyu burger at Gracie's and although it was good, it wasn't great.  The fries were great because they were crispy and seasoned well and surprisingly stayed warm the entire time, how that happened is beyond me. We also ordered the Garden Salad with the alternate vinaigrette and the carrot cake.  All really good, especially that carrot cake, with that warm giz drizzled over it!  We also got to try the Godiva freeze, pretty tasty, tasted like a frozen Bailey's Irish Cream cocktail.  Our experience was excellent!  If you go, definitely ask for "Louis"!

Sorry for the blurry photos, it's been awhile since I took the old Nikon out and I'm a little out of practice!