For an entry-level taste, try lunch or happy hour. The chef’s wife, Anupama, runs the front of the house with warmth and aplomb. It’s all carefully done, from classics including an opulent dal makhni (black lentils cooked overnight with ginger and spices) to newer ideas (a scintillating chutney tasting), to apt cocktails and wines dispensed from an inviting little bar. The chef’s Rajasthani roots show in game dishes such as a smoky braised-rabbit korma or grilled venison chops sauced in a rich, russet rogan-josh style. Here he sends out such distinctive dishes as Kolhapuri Chicken in a coconutty gravy that combines finesse with fiery heat or fragrant biryani steamed under a pastry lid, with meaty jackfruit at its heart. ![]() 1620 Westheimer 83 įill up on more of Alison Cook's award-winning food writing: subscribe to the Chronicle.Ĭhef Sunil Srivastava has opened his dream restaurant in Upper Kirby: a gleaming glass box with plush seating and a display kitchen with tandoor oven front and center. Coming soon: an upstairs tasting-menu room. An excellent cocktail bar, some of the city’s best service and a captivating wine list administered by two Master Sommeliers make this a compelling destination. They’re part of Riccio’s fruitful collaboration with pastry chef Shawn Gawle, whose desserts and pastries are full of surprises. And wow, the pizza! High of crown, stretchy-crusted with a bit of chew, these pies might be Houston’s finest right now. His blistered green bean salad, charred leeks with buttery bread crumbs and grilled hen of the woods mushrooms - swooshed in satiny preserved-lemon-and-egg-yolk emulsion - were three of my favorite dishes last year. This suave, well-capitalized project on Westheimer’s restaurant row boasts a sprightly Italo-Basque menu from chef Felipe Riccio, whose pastas have spring and whose salady apps and vegetable dishes have spark. No, it’s not just another Italian restaurant. ![]() The dining room at Rosie Cannonball (Julie Soefer / Julie Soefer | Houston Chronicle) Better yet, in one frisky leap, the Blind Goat stretches the notion of what contemporary Houston Vietnamese cuisine can be. It all feels fun and refreshing - a shove against the boundaries of where and how serious food can be served. Want wine or beer? Hop across the aisle to Bravery’s excellent wine bar. The Vietnamese pizza - based on two sheets of charcoal-grilled rice paper, to be cut apart with golden scissors - is an entertaining idea Ha brought back from her last trip to Saigon, where “all the kids” were eating it. Her dishes are a revelation, from the simplest, meaty pork-belly skewers to spring rolls swaddling Grant Pinkerton’s smoked brisket, slivers of green apple and a stealth crunch of eggroll skin. Now she’s home in a counter setting at downtown’s sleek Bravery Chef Hall, supervising a talented young crew that looks like 21st-century Houston. Ha competed (and won) “MasterChef” as “The Blind Cook,” wrote a well-received cookbook and traveled the world for the State Department as a culinary ambassador. ![]() Pork belly pizza at The Blind Goat in Bravery Chef Hall (Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer | Houston Chronicle)Ĭhef Christine Ha’s palate is so keen, her ingredients so carefully sourced that her affordable new Vietnamese gastropub fairly shines.
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