Nancy’s Hustle opened in late 2017 on the east side of Houston and was named in Esquire’s list of “Best New Restaurants of 2018”.  It continues to garner awards and accolades.  The small innovative menu offers lots of small plates that are meant to be shared.  It’s a long space but most of the front part is taken up with a long bar that has seating.  The back end of the space is all small tables with a door that leads to the large patio outside. Lights are lowered and there is music in the background. Service was friendly and helpful with pacing good but reservations appeared to be a must, as it’s very popular.  We were lucky to be there with friends and got to sample a number of things.  Go if you can, it’s very good.

Facility and Set-up

 

Food

Nancy cakes with cultured butter, smoked trout roe and chives are talked about a lot in press for the place.  The delicious crumpet like breads are browned on both sides with a soft interior.  They can easily be opened in half or you can tear off little pieces and spread them with the tasty butter, roe and chives.  It’s a wonderful combination of flavors.

 

Spicy beef and butter dumplings were with sauerkraut, yogurt and dill.  The delicate dumplings are generously topped with dill and it’s also in the sauce.  The filling is a great blending of beef and seasonings and the sauce includes sauerkraut and yogurt.  It sounds odd but it comes off spectacular.  Little packages of flavor.

 

Roasted Brussels sprouts with tonnato sauce and parmesan were cooked perfectly.  Not too hard or soft, they were excellent and full of flavor.

 

Ricotta gnocchi were with roasted mushrooms, pecorino and tarragon.  It was a lovely tasty sauce that was perfect with the tender gnocchi.  Some of the mushrooms were toasted that added a good crunch.  Very flavorful and another great dish.

 

Grilled snapper was accented with greens, pine nuts and salsa verde.  This was one of my favorite dishes.  The fish was a luscious thick slab that was cooked perfectly and the delicious sauce and greens set it off wonderfully.  Excellent, amazing dish.

 

Cheeseburger was on a brioche English muffin with American cheese, pickles, red onion and chili aioli.  The bun is a cross of English muffin and brioche that makes a tasty bun but it was challenged to hold all the interior.  There are 2 nicely browned patties which are fairly tasty and plenty of cheese to add to the drips of sauce.  It was cooked medium and was good.

 

Hand cut fries were served with toum (Lebanese garlic sauce).  They were good crispy fries that were nicely seasoned.  A small bowl easily was enough for the 4 of us.

 

Parmesan and pancetta croquettes were heavily dusted with parmesan.  Inside was a more liquid center that reminded me of Bitterballen in Amsterdam.  They were plenty good but we were getting really full by that time.  In fact too much so to even order dessert, but I did snap a photo of the menu for reference.