Houston

Eugene’s Gulf Coast Cuisine, Houston, 12/26/22

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exterior – 1985 Welch Street, Houston, TX, 77019

Eugene’s Gulf Coast Cuisine is named for the owner’s (Kyle Teas) father, Eugene.  Kyle Teas was born and raised in Houston and grew up eating Texas Gulf seafood and wanted to acquaint more people with the cuisine and thus he opened Danton’s Gulf Coast Seafood Kitchen in 2007.  When the Mockingbird Bistro space became available about a year ago, the restaurant moved and expanded the menu as well as the seating.  They stress serving fresh and seasonal fish, many cooked with Cajun influence.  The old school large place is in the River Oaks area with plenty of parking.  The staff is super friendly and helpful but also very professional and efficient.  In addition to their menu, they had nightly specials and discounts for happy hour snacks and drinks.  The food was delightful and I would easily recommend this place as one to visit when in Houston. Continue reading →

Nancy’s Hustle, Houston, 12/24/21

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exterior

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. Continue reading →

Hugo’s, Houston, 11/22/17

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entrance
entrance

Hugo’s is a large Mexican restaurant with tons of seating at tables as well as bar seating and party rooms.  They have a huge wine list and you can see the bottles displayed in the cabinets showing on the second floor balcony.  There are actually a number of wines from Mexico on the list.  Staff is friendly and directive in your ordering.  They make a lot of variations of margaritas which are put in a shaker and shaken and poured tableside.   Unfortunately our waitress was not skilled on filtering the ice coming out of the shaker and so my glass was filled with so much ice there was no way not to get your nose wet when drinking.  It also meant some of the drink got passed back to the bar and diluted the mixture an unpleasant amount.  At the price of these drinks I would steer you to wine or beer.  The menu at lunch offers the appetizer plates at 2 for $22 which is a good deal as they range from $10 to $15.  Also, they don’t serve chips and salsa so you might want something to snack on before the plates arrive.   Continue reading →

Cockscomb, San Francisco, 3/2/17

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IMG_6969
Exterior

Cockscomb is a medium sized place with an open kitchen. Downstairs seating is at tables and the counter and there is an additional dining area on the second floor.  A small bar is located below the balcony from above.  Tables are bare wood and the open kitchen, which has a wood grill, takes up one wall of the downstairs.  We were there at lunch but dinner features a much larger menu.   There is no salt, pepper or ketchup on the table but most of the food was seasoned well enough you don’t miss it. There is soft background music.The main attraction seemed to be their veggie burger which is supposed to taste and look just like beef, but that was not an option we selected.  Service is friendly but fairly slow and disorganized.  The kitchen people really hustle but the waitstaff spent more time working on tickets than getting the food served on a timely basis.   Continue reading →

B & B Butchers & Restaurant, Houston, 5/21/16

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Exterior
Exterior

B&B Butchers & Restaurant is a large place with a downstairs nice dining room and bar and an upstairs more casual room, another bar and a rooftop area that had live music the Saturday we visited. Their brunch menu included many of the items on the dinner menu and added in ‘brunch food.’ The room and dress of the staff felt like they wanted upscale dining but then they used some paint chipped cheap carts to wheel your entree to the dining room. The attempt to dress up the cart with a white cloth failed to cover the beaten up history of the device. The waiter was enthusiastic about what we should order but my overall impression was of overpriced average food. Continue reading →