Review: House of Blues in Houston

The Rundown:
The City: Houston
The Place: The House of Blues Houston
The Day: Saturday
The Time: 5:00 P.M. - 6:30 P.M.

The Review:
Planning to take in my first American soccer game and enjoy some Houston Dynamos, my friends and I thought it might first be appropriate to try and find a decent place to eat, somewhere fun and without too much fuss. This led us to the House of Blues, earlier than when their music gets going and at a lull in the day. Located in downtown Houston, getting cheap parking isn't the easiest thing if the parking meters are filled up, and that provided an initial obstacle. Still, it's not the House of Blues' fault that the city doesn't know how to zone their properties. We arrived in a small party of six, and were quickly seated, given the lack of diners at this hour.

Pictured: Empty.

I understand it gets much more lively during the evening, once the music is going, but I did not mind the laid back nature of the afternoon, allowing for a quick dining experience. Let me first go on the record discussing their drinks: A Jack and Coke I ordered. Mind you, I only had one, preferring to keep the bulk of my alcoholic indulgence for beer at the Dynamo Stadium. However, my drink was not too pricey. In a city that serves these for anywhere from six to ten dollars, I felt eight dollars was fair, and though the drink was not incredibly strong, I did not feel cheated on the alcohol served in mine.

Alcohol. The source of, and solution to, all our problems.

The House of Blues is a large venue, with more than enough space for a raucous evening filled with multiple diners. A huge screen at the front allows diners a chance to catch the game if there are no bands up, and an assortment of booths, tables and bar seating allows for multiple options suited to anyone's style. The lighthearted portraits and wall paintings give the House a lighthearted feel, while the open seating arrangements allow for a real sense of openness. Paired with the perfect lighting and wide open windows that allow for the natural light of the outdoors, and you have all the makings of a wonderful dining ambience. It feels fun and lively, and I can only imagine that gets better when the House is in full swing.

Really, it makes me want to come back for dinner service.

But let's talk about that all important, critical component: The food. Those of you that follow my reviews know my standards for excellence. I love a good meal, because, truly, who doesn't? I ordered a traditional ham and cheese BLT with a side of fries, nothing too complicated but perfect for a sunny afternoon just hours before the start of a soccer game. First up? Presentation. Although serving fries in a cup borders on pretentious, House of Blues makes the tray work. The side serving of cucumbers may seem extraneous, but it helps balance out and divide the dish against the large portions that are the BLT itself.  Overall it's about as interesting a presentation as you'll see on a traditional dish, and it looked appetizing. The fries didn't look like they were strewn about in a greasy lump and, thankfully, they weren't. The fries were golden, slightly browned, with just enough crispness. The flavor was perfect, with just enough seasoning and no sense of burn from too much application. But what are the sides if the main dish isn't any good? It's difficult to mess up a BLT, so let's tackle how House of Blues composed this dish.

The bread was toasted perfectly, always a good start. No sense of running juices that would have made it go limp or soggy, and the sandwiches held together perfectly. The bacon was cooked just crispy enough, not burnt, while the layers of cheese and meats are done perfectly. There's no sense of mess, of your sandwich falling apart. The sandwich is served in two towers, so initially it's hard to see that you pull them apart to make four separate servings. Initially I was perplexed about how to actually fit the damned thing in my mouth, but using my Sherlock like intuition I figured out the meal came apart into four portions. Perfectly sized, perfectly held together, great crispness where there should be and excellent layering of cheeses and meats. My only disappointment, where House of Blues fell short in their meal, was in the chipotle sauce. The BLT is such a simple dish in so many ways that the addition of a chipotle flavoring really intrigued me and would have brought the entire meal together with the right application. Unfortunately, it was so lightly applied that I got almost no taste of it. Remember, these are rather thick servings, so you want to apply enough that the sauce enhances the flavors without overwhelming them. Sadly I almost missed the flavor of it entirely during the first half of my sandwich. It was almost as if it had been applied only to one half of the sandwich. When dealing with thick, hearty portions, it is advisable to apply sauce just slightly more liberally. If I walk away unable to taste it on half the sandwich, that definitely indicates uneven application.

Houston baseball. We know how this will go.

 Still, for overall ambiance, pleasant service, fantastic fries, a good drink and an almost great sandwich, I can certainly recommend the House of Blues. I keep going back to those fries, but they were surprisingly excellent, and the sandwich missed the mark by just inches. What a shame. Still, a very good meal in a great setting with great staff. Here's to next time, House of Blues.


The Final Call:
Facilities: 5/5
Staff: 5/5
Service: 5/5
Drinks: 3/5
Food: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Review: Black Walnut Cafe at Rice Village

The Rundown:
The City: Houston
The Place: The Black Walnut Cafe at Rice Village
The Day: Sunday
The Time: 1:00 - 2:00 P.M.

The Review:
Once again on my blogging adventures, and again on the often times Quixotic adventure of trying to find a good church to attend, I recently found myself being invited by a local church group to The Black Walnut Cafe in the Rice Village area. Rice Village, one of the nicer, charming areas of the city, is home to a number of restaurants, bars and stores. Of course any store catering to the British is immediately an area of town I'll be visiting.

The Black Walnut itself doesn't sit on Rice Boulevard but is instead just a street back, where yet another impressive array of stores, bars and restaurants all sit cozied up to one another. I'm not sure I can level this as a criticism at the restaurant, but the parking situation in Rice is atrocious. Despite all it has to offer, it's difficult to find a place to saddle your car so that you can actually enjoy the area. Then again, this is Houston, and the lawmakers of this city don't seem to actually care whether anyone shops around here.




To get this out of the way, The Black Walnut is, undoubtedly, a pleasant place to gather and sit. Though slightly crowded on this Sunday afternoon, the owners have done a wonderful job of making sure the area is well lit with natural light instead of fuzzy interior lights. Windows empty out on the streets and fill the restaurant with just enough sun. A long stretch of seating lines the back wall while bar stools and tables sit along the main dining area, and tables can be brought together quite easily for larger parties. The Black Walnut has a good problem in this respect. So many people want to eat there, that they struggle slightly to accommodate the numbers given a simple problem of size. The rich wood, so beautiful, and the slightly antique styled chairs provide a quirk and charm to the restaurant that makes it a lovely gathering place on a sunny afternoon.



From the point of entry there's nobody to greet you but the front of store is easily located directly ahead of the entry, with a number of menus just off to the side and some popular dishes and drinks chalked on the boards above the order area.




There are a delicious number of pastries presented up front as well, there to delight the eyes and tempt the tongue. However the first point of confusion emerged at this point, since it becomes confusing to order if you've never been to the Black Walnut. There are two signs that say "Order Here". However, you're actually only supposed to order at the first, while the second is for pick up. This had to be explained as my companion and I struggled to find a place to actually get a lunch requested. Not a massive stumble, but at least a hiccup.



A rather minor one of course, but then, we haven't actually discussed the food. I ordered what it labeled on the menu as the "Thirteen Coins". Oh dear, what could that possibly mean? A quick examination quickly presented it as a sandwhich, almost a club, though with a greater variety of meets and an interesting bread to top it off. To quote, from their online menu, it is a composition of "Cajun Turkey, honey ham, hard salami, provolone, red onions, tomatoes, lettuce, pesto La-chac-la bread, tomato savory dressing, served warm".

That last bit is good for a chuckle in retrospect. Here's what my meal looked like as it was served.





Keep a close eye on that bread. As far as sides go, the fries were well seasoned, though perhaps slightly overly so. When I eat a fry, the aftertaste of the seasoning shouldn't be so strong that I need to take a drink of water to cool my throat. However, better a well seasoned fry than a bland one, and even despite the over-seasoning it wasn't offensively done so. The crime on those fries, though, had nothing to do with the seasoning and everything to do with the taste. Slightly cold, not mushy but not crisp, almost limp. It felt as if they'd been sitting on the plate for a few minutes before the sandwhich was brought to the window for plating. Unfortunate.

Still, not extraordinarily bad, just not as good as I was expecting. Here's the real kicker. Remember that bread? This is what it quickly became:



What a soggy mess. Kudos to the restaurant deciding to use so many different ingredients, but the choice of bread creates a disaster as the diner tries to actually eat the damned thing. At times I wondered if I shouldn't grab a fork and go at it like a salad. The chefs at Black Walnut Cafe need to decide to go with either a different bread for this sandwich, or a different method of presentation is less bulky portions, because this simply won't do. Mind you, La-chac-la is merely their fancy way of saying flatbread. I noticed my neighbors sandwich in normal toasted bread was staying together quite nicely.

So my review of Black Walnut Cafe? Mixed, honestly. I understand they were busy on a Sunday afternoon, and the price at 12 dollars is reasonable, but you're still asking for some basics from your meal. Warm fries. Not oily and limp. And bread that doesn't fall apart because it's too tin and soggy. It's a damned shame considering the appeal of the restaurant, and in the end the food defines what you are as a restaurant. Much like the crowded interior of the cafe, the food is just sort of a confused mess.

The Final Call:
Facilities: 4/5
Staff: 5/5
Service: 4/5
Drinks: N/A
Food: 2/5

Overall: 3/5

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Houston, TX

Dining Review of Ruggles Bakery

The Rundown:
The City: Houston
The Place: Ruggles Bakery
The Day: Friday
The Time: 12:30 - 5:30
The Review:

The end of a hard week of work means a chance for me to catch up on some writing, stretch my legs and go for a minor bit of adventuring. By adventuring I, of course, mean eating, as finding a new place to dine is one of the simple pleasures I enjoy in life. A return to the area of Rice Village happened with some trepidation, considering the rather stodgy appeal of some of the locations I had visited. Today though, I was in for a treat.



Ruggles Bakery sits toward the tail end of the strip, a bit away from all the hustle and bustle. Its position may put it farther away from the busy street of Kirby, but it works well, if only because that means there's a decent parking space to be found. This might not be true throughout the entire day, but it's a welcome change of pace from the meager one or two spaces afforded at some of the other locations on this street. I swear, it makes one wonder how so many people can cram into this small space.

At any rate, by this time I've settled on Rice Village being the sort of coffe and wine version of Austin's 6th Street, a sort of walk-and-enjoy area where you can skip between coffee hourses and small cafes as opposed to bars. Ruggles, though, is a place you can go and settle in for the day. The first thing to note about the place was that, as opposed to a few other locations in the village, Ruggles is actually welcoming. A warm and simple wooden interior matches a quirky front banister that provides a personal touch. Instead of tables covered in table cloth, they're simple wooden affairs. No pretensions of wine cases deck their walls, but instead an open view of the kitchen gives you sight on the food being made.



The front display case shows off their talent with an assortment of baked goods, but my primary concern was lunch. At eight dollars, the Roast Beef Sandwhich sounded like a good deal. Paired to a two dollar Black Bean Soup and a dollar drink, and it all came out to about 13 dollars. Perhaps a bit high for lunch, but take away the soup and you've got something much more modest. Besides, for most people the sandwhich will do nicely all on its own.

I have to say, the Black Bean Soup is a bit underwhelming. It is, without question, soup. Textureless, save for some bits of tortilla chips and a dollop of sour cream, they could work a bit on its composition. Perhaps keeping a bit of the bean in the bean soup would serve to give some life to the dish. It's tasty enough, but nothing to write home about. A good Black Bean Soup can actually be hard to nail down, and I think Ruggles is a bit off in its execution.



However, the big draw was the sandwhich itself. Placed on an onion roll with rolling cuts of beef, doused in au jus, with a smattering of onions, it was a treat. Too much onion and the sandwhich risked being overwhelming, and samea goes for the juice. Several times it bordered just on the edge of enjoyable tolerance, but in the end it was pulled off quite nicely. Large portions, filling and tasty, I can't speak highly enough of it.

Perhaps I should have had some of the cofee at this cafe, but instead I contented myself with a brownie and chocolate cookie. I would suggest that, perhaps, the cookies be kept warm. Otherwise they sort of just sit on display, growing hard and less appealing, especially if you're eating toward the tail end of the day. However, the brownie was delicious, and moist, so no complaints.



The staff was courteous, happy and smiling, at least when I arrived there at noon. I can't say what their temperments were like once the larger dinner crowds started to flock to the bakery, but I felt quite welcome, not only by measure of the staff but by the overall design of Ruggles itself. It's a nice break from the stuffy attitudes and unfriendly service that seems to have fit into some other parts of the Village. Although some of the food was only average, their big hits, the sandwhich and brownie, were quite delicious. I can deal with a cup of bland soup, but nobody should ever botch Roast Beef.
An excellent place. Do yourself a favor, and make this the place you stop by when you're visiting the area.

The Final Call:
Facilities: 4/5
Staff: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Drinks: N/A
Food: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Houston,United States