Rice University’s Student Newspaper — Since 1916

Friday, March 29, 2024 — Houston, TX

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TBO Fusion bring hip Japanese cuisine to Houston

(01/28/15 10:11am)

Since its opening in November, Tea Bar and Organic Fusion, also styled “TBO Fusion,” has made it clear that the operative word in their name is “Fusion.” The hip Westheimer location has a tea bar, and it does serve an extensive list of tasty milk teas and smoothies, but the real reason to visit is TBO’s affordable and creative takes on sushi, ramen and other Japanese specialties. The menu is dotted with unconventional and trendy additions like Taiwanese popcorn chicken, sous-vide short rib and sashimi with honey wasabi aioli and truffled ponzu sauce. Many of the experimental dishes are imperfect, and unfortunately, some of the menu’s most interesting inclusions are best left unordered. Nonetheless, the food at TBO Fusion makes for an exciting and eclectic meal.



Houston chefs battle it out for prestigious Eater blog awards

(12/03/14 9:49am)

The national blog Eater announced the winners of its annual Houston restaurant awards this past Monday. The awards honored restaurants and chefs in six categories: Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, “So Hot Right Now” (recognizing restaurants with a high level of trendiness), Bartender of the Year, Saddest Closing and “Stone Cold Stunner,” recognizing restaurants with especially impressive decor. Nominees were selected by local food critics and the final winners determined by votes from the blog’s readers.


Oishii serves sushi staples fit for any budget

(11/19/14 9:41am)

Inexpensive sushi is too good to be true. Sushi isn’t a food that you can cut corners with. As a result, some bargain sushi spots can be nightmares, leaving customers hungry, unsatisfied and, in particularly unfortunate cases, ill. With this in mind, Oishii’s $1 per piece sashimi and $4 rolls seem suspicious. However, in reality, Oishii proves to be neither a hidden gem for cheap eats nor a place to completely overlook, especially by students on a budget.




Etoile: classics with a certain je ne sais quoi

(10/22/14 12:53pm)

When our waiter described the night’s special as salmon in beurre blanc, a typical and often unexceptional mainstay of French cuisine, I had my misgivings. It seemed like a waste of a special to add such a common dish to a menu that already contained escargots, foie gras, coq au vin and beef au poivre, to name only a few of Etoile Cuisine’s most traditional plates. But while Etoile specializes in the most common of French dishes, chef Philippe Verpiand’s meticulous preparations make the food uncommonly good. The coq au vin, often boiled into oblivion by less savvy chefs, is simmered to a succulent tenderness and served with enoki mushrooms, which lend the dish a lighter feel than the usual cast of cremini and portobellos. Even the profiteroles are freshly baked and delicate, a testament to Verpiand’s attention to detail.


Going meatless at Houston's top meat shop

(10/08/14 8:54am)

Since opening in 2012, Chris Shepherd’s Underbelly has arguably been the quintessential Houstonian restaurant. The menu, which boldly proclaims, “Houston is the new American Creole city of the South,” even won Shepherd a 2014 James Beard Foundation Award for its seamless integration of Houston’s many ethnic influences with traditional southern techniques. Shepherd is perhaps best known for his butchering and charcuterie which, at Underbelly, are embodied by an entire aging room and back-of-house butcher’s shop devoted to butchering, curing and aging the house meats. Shepherd’s expertise is nearly unquestioned in the realm of pork, beef and all things red meat. But in light of the growing number of gourmet diners and chefs moving away from the heavy use of red meat, I wanted to sample the menu without any la viande meats to see if Underbelly’s appeal could be as broad as its influences.


Menil Collection to launch Bistro Menil with cask wine

(10/01/14 9:27am)

The Menil Collection will open its namesake restaurant, Bistro Menil, just north of Richmond Avenue by the end of this month. The bistro aims to be Houston’s first large-scale cask wine bar and will also serve craft beer, along with a range of familiar European and American dishes. Greg Martin, former chef of Café Annie and Taco Milagro, will lead the kitchen, while Sean Essex, who previously worked with Jackson and Company Catering and City Kitchen Catering, will head the craft beer and cask wine programs. 


Pax Americana Proves Inventive, yet Inconsistent

(09/24/14 9:47am)

When I asked our waiter whether he preferred the lamb or swordfish, he told me, “That’s like asking me to pick a favorite kid.” Then, as only a father could, he described every last detail of the two dishes to help me make my choice. At Pax Americana, the new modern-American restaurant on Montrose, the passion and talent is evident. The entire wait staff has an exhaustive knowledge of the quickly-changing menu and Chef Adam Dorris (formerly of Revival Market) brings an adventurous approach uncommon for a restaurant touting itself as “American.” 


Savory Spice Adds Nuanced Flavor to Rice Village

(09/17/14 10:04am)

The average customer could feel a bit overwhelmed entering the new Savory Spice shop on Times Blvd. in Rice Village. Looking for sea salt? Will that be regular or smoked? If you’re looking for smoked, would you like it smoked with hickory, alder wood or chardonnay oak barrels? Questions like these could plague the casual shopper, but for discerning gourmets looking for unique spices to enliven their dishes, the Savory Spice shop will seem a remarkable addition to the shops at Rice Village. 


Pasha adds Turkish spin to Middle Eastern favorites

(09/03/14 11:23am)

Pasha stands in a converted house along University Boulevard on the outskirts of Rice Village. Though the quaint Turkish eatery may look uninteresting from the outside, inside, red walls decorated with paintings and china set the backdrop for a much more charming meal than the restaurant’s dirty awning and neon signs would have you think.