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A casual note here and there of our experiences dining out inside the loop.
VOICE - Hotel Icon - August 2009
Well, for my Anniversary this year I had my heart set on the Palm but it didn't happen. We ended up getting an awesome deal on a nice hotel downtown and spent the evening there. We thought we'd walk around downtown and end up at Birra's or something but the rain was coming down and we were dying from hunger so we stayed in the hotel and got into their restaurant called VOICE - WOW - so glad we did!
 
VOICE is participating in the Houston Restaurant Week which means a limited menu of the best recipies with money going to the Houston Food Bank and we were very impressed. We got complimentary drinks (plus room upgrade on already discounted room) from the hotel. The Voice's HRW menu is $35/person.
 
I had the carneroli risotto appetizer which is the best appetizer I've ever had.  My wife had what looked exactly like a cappacino but was a mushroom soup (w/truffle foam, porcini powder). It tasted great but not as good as mine. I could have had more of the risotto for supper and been fine with that. For a main cource we both had the pork loins which were pretty good. They had some sweet tasting veggies underneath the pork which we are trying to identify but they looked like tiny clear capers - yum.
 
To finish up my wife had the warm chocolate cake w/chocolate sauce and caramel sea salt ice cream.  I had the strawberry rhubarb crip (pictured below).  Very good. All of that and our bill was around $80.
 
Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
 
Hotel Icon is a pretty nice place which I would recommend to anyone if you can get the discounts we got - a very enjoyable anniversary!
Da Marco - November 2008
I honored the anniversary of my wife's birth tonight by taking us out to a restaurant that some critics are calling Houston's number one italian restaurant.  DaMarco's is on Westheimer between Sheppard & Montrose. But this was definitely a gift to us both.
 
The meals are usually 3 course and after much discussion I settled on a large open face ravioli which was covered in cheese, truffels, and egg yolk. Unbelievable. My appetizer was a proscuitto & fig & jam salad which was unique and, of course, I ate every bit. I didn't have a last course, just some extra spinach and then later a dessert. 
 
I was fine with the smaller portion and was feeling I made an exceptional set of choices - until I tried my wife's veal chop - whoa. It was quite good and surrounded by favorful polenta. That followed her appetizer of black norcia truffel risoto...mmm.
 
We had a bottle of wine and also desserts. I had panna cotta which is like a cooked block of cream covered in sweet saba which is cooked grape syrup. My wife had a chocolate and fruit dessert which had light meringe cookies with some chocolate gelato scoops on top. They actually wrote Happy Birthday to her in chocolate on the plate in better handwriting that I could probably muster with a ballpoint pen (and I have a degree in graphic design).
 
The whole thing set us back a couple hundred but it was all worth it.
 
 
Crapittos - August 2008
For our Anniversary and to celebrate becoming debt free (except for a 15 year mortgage) ahead of schedule, we went to Crapittos, a wonderful Italian restaurant in the Highland Villiage area of town. It was first class all the way.
 
We splurged on a bottle of good wine, an appetizer, the main event and, of course, dessert. The appetizer was a tomato with some cheese, spices, vinegar & oil etc - nothing too grandiose except it must be hard to find tomatos that were that good. The bread was very good with some olive paste that we cleaned up on.
 
My wife ordered the 16oz Crapittos Signature Veal Chop. Perfectly cooked it had this Roquefort butter sauce on it that I kept wanting to steal from her plate. She also has asparagus and mashed potatos, both of which I had as well along with my 10oz Griilled Angus Filet. It was cooked perfect. Wow - great stuff.
 
For desert I had the Italian Creme cake -cannot be described except delicious. My wife had an Esspresso Chocolate Truffle topped with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.  Frank Crapitto himself dropped by and asked us how we were doing. He kinda looks like Santa except not as fat. He said the truffle was the best dessert they had.  The ambiance was good - not a noisy place, nor a stilted uppity atmosphere. Wait staff were friendly.
 
The only downside we can imagine to this place is the expense. It was little over $200 after tip for the two of us - (including the $100 of wine we drank) and after they gave us the desserts free as an Anniversary gift. But this is someplace special that I would definitely recommend to anyone (and I'm still debt free)!
 
The big photo on this blogs homepage is from Crapittos.
Check it out: http://crapittos.com/
Ratings by Fajita
Lupe Tortillas (http://www.lupetortillas.com/) would probably top my list of tex/mex restaurants in an average price range but if you gotta have fajitas right now (sometimes we get in moods like that), I thought it'd be interesting to rank these places according to their fajitas:
 
1) Pappasitos (http://www.pappasitos.com/) - The butter sauce puts these over the top. It tickles your throat going down and later when you're just thinking about it.
2) Lupe Tortillas - A very close second if not tied for first.
3) Tealas
4) Guadalajaras
5) Ninfas
     :
Goals for Restaurant Reviews
These are some topics that I recommend we mention in our restaurant reviews:
  • The class that it is in - upscale, everyday, etc...
  • The type of cuisine - Italian, Mexican, etc...
  • The typical cost per person
  • The atmosphere
  • The service
  • Overall opinion of the restaurant - value and experience
  • A link for more info where possible

...but there are no rules to this except for us to enjoy it!

-BU

Strip House - February 2008
A very good experience. The food took center stage here - an american steak house. We were given a teaser upon sitting down consisting of a small cup of soup - potato with cheese and seasoning. It was about the size of a shot glass so it was just to keep us in check while my well done New York strip steak was cooking. We also ordered apetizers and drinks. All was way above average in my opinion.
 
Strip House Steak
 
We normally don't get to eat in this nice of a place however we received a gift certificate and although the bill ($150 for two people) exceeded the gift certificate, we were happy to pay the balance - good food!
 
If you're easily offended you may want to avoid this place because there is some burlesque type photos but it was tastefully presented overall and the wait staff were not overly attentive. Thumbs up...
 
 

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