RDG + Bar Annie

We went to RDG+Bar Annie with a large group of my coworkers. One of them recently started a new job, and this place was his choice. I have to say, it wasn't a bad one. RDG is great for celebrations, with its luxe interior and very large drinks menu. But, as should be obvious from the website, it's a nice place. It lends itself to a quiet, adult type of celebration only -- something we understood, but some other patrons did not (more on that later).

We started with the Bar Annie nachos with red chile beef. These nachos looked a lot prettier than your standard bar fare, but they still offered all the meaty satisfaction of regular nachos. They were fun to eat and there were plenty for everyone at the table to enjoy. Recommended.

For dinner, I had the chef's special snapper. This was also a very pretty and satisfying dish. The fish was perfectly cooked and arrived with very good mashed potatoes and green beans. No complaints here.



Service was standout. Our waiter was polite, friendly and extremely professional. He had lots of helpful suggestions and obviously knew his menu well. Check-plus-smiley-face for that.

So with good food, nice decor and impeccable service, you might wonder why I'm not more excited about RDG+Bar Annie. The truth is, it's not really the restaurant's fault. It's that the people at the table next to us were EXTREMELY intoxicated. I'm talking loud speeches, ladies-falling-out-of-their-shirts, men-yelling-curse-words intoxicated ... and they arrived that way. The problem was, no one at the restaurant seemed to want to do anything about that, and there's where they lost me.

RDG+Bar Annie is decorated and staffed like a fine dining restaurant. Their prices certainly are on-par with other fine dining restaurants. So, I think, patrons have the right to expect a fine dining atmosphere. A fine dining atmosphere usually doesn't include loud drunk people making announcements to the entire dining room. If RDG wants to be a "fun" bar and allow people to act like that, that's fine, but they should market themselves that way (and drop the prices considerably). If they want to be "The Best Steakhouse in Houston" then this kind of behavior should not be tolerated.

Convivio

Last year around this time I blogged about Table Seven. It's gone now. I'm not surprised; the food just wasn't fabulous. While I hate to see a local restaurant go under, I'm glad that we got the chance to experience its replacement, Convivio.

Tapas is one of our favorite concepts, and the menu at Convivio did not disappoint. We ended up trying quite a few of these little dishes: braised oxtail montatido (which was served on bread); prime sirloin with beer sauce (also a montadito, served on bread); chorizo croquettes (pictured above); foie gras (pictured below); and the meatballs. To wash all that down we had a bottle of Spanish red wine, chosen off the enormous wine list which is cleverly presented pasted to an empty bottle.

Both the food and drink menu are so large that there really is something for everyone. Because we sampled so many dishes, I'll break it down as quickly and succinctly as I can:

Braised oxtail: a little stringy but very flavorful. The portion was much larger than expected; what arrived was more akin to an open-faced sandwich than a canape.

Prime Sirloin: by far the best dish of the night. Sweet and savory, nice sized portion, very tender meat.

Croquette: nothing to write home about. Not enough chorizo flavor, oddly sweet filling, and I couldn't really tell what went into the dipping sauce, but I didn't love it. Skip.

Foie: not the best foie we have ever had (that was August), but still tasty. Probably because foie is ALWAYS tasty. Worth a shot, if you know and like foie and want an inexpensive fix.

Meatballs: our waiter recommend them. Good standard fare. Tasty sauce and arrived very quickly. I could see this being popular with a large variety of people.

Our server was sweet, competent, and happy to offer suggestions (particularly in choosing the wine). Unlike its predecessor, Convivio had a healthy crowd, and I have a good feeling that it's going to make it.

Skyline Deli

The Skyline Deli is located in the bottom of my building, but I have avoided eating there, as I heard a nasty rumor that the manager refused to let an employee take food home at the end of the night, but forced her to watch the manager throw it out instead. That kind of waste and spitefulness was enough to make me lose my appetite. However, I forgot my lunch on Tuesday, and I was desperate. It was Skyline or the Burger King across the street, and I went to Skyline for convenience. Poor choice.

The workers at Skyline can best be described as surly. They wanted nothing to do with me; I had to ask for my diet coke three times, and was never once met with a smile or a thank-you. Oh well. Maybe being forced to throw out leftovers does that to people.

However, after sampling the food, I'm not sure why anyone would want to take it home. I got two pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes and white gravy. The potatoes and gravy were fine, which is good, since they were all I ended up eating. The chicken was so greasy it was practically inedible. Add to that the fact that I asked for -- and paid extra for -- white meat and ended up with a thigh and a leg (NOT white meat) and I was not a happy camper.

I didn't take a picture, but trust me, the internet's not missing out on much.

There are a lot of things about my job that I don't understand. I don't understand why people leave the disposable toilet seat covers on the seat after they use them. I don't understand why the difference between "reply" and "reply all" is so confusing to some people. But more than anything, I don't understand how ANYONE manages to choke down a lunch from Skyline Deli every day -- but some people do.

If you're ever on Bissonnet and you're hungry, go to Burger King. Or there's some gum stuck to the ground in our parking lot. Seriously, you're better off -- and you won't have to pay extra for any particular color of gum.

Soma

I'm not going to lie: we wanted to try Soma because we liked the name. Say it aloud: SOOOOMAA. It's fun, and guess what: so is the restaurant.

The menu at Soma is HUGE and very creative. We started with some fun custom cocktails and two pieces of yellowtail with foie gras and Asian pear jam.



Unfortunately, these little pieces weren't particularly easy to eat. The fish was so tender that a chopstick easily cut through it, leaving us with small pieces of fish and large pieces of foie to eat separately. A great idea, but the execution just wasn't perfect.

Another fun idea was the Crazy Irish Man roll. I wish I could remember what was in this little baby; the menu on the website said it has shrimp, but I know that's not true, because my husband is allergic to shrimp and he shared it with me. All I know is that it's green, it's nowhere near traditional sushi, and it's one of the most delicious fried foods I've ever had. And I love fried food.



We also had some yellowtail sashimi. It was fresh, clean, and a good balance to the otherwise insane meal.



Oh, and we had sake. Lots of sake.

Service at Soma was friendly (with the exception of the hostess, who may have been having a bad ... life) and accommodating. Our waitress happily split the bill and gave us plenty of time to examine the massive menu. And although the decor is chic and the food is delicious, the prices aren't too bad either -- this is truly upscale dining that anyone could (and should) enjoy.

Because you can't eat out ALL the time ...

I'm hosting a Tastefully Simple party tomorrow night. What is Tastefully Simple? It's a company that sells delicious,SUPER easy-to-prepare drink, dip, cake and snack mixes through the mail. Everything is very inexpensive and shipping is actually pretty fast. Plus a lot of the items would make great holiday, wedding or housewarming gifts.

If you're interested in ordering online, go to their website, click on "Shop Our Products" and use the Host Lookup to search for my party. Let me or my consultant, Denice Eliades, know if you have any questions. And act fast -- Denice will keep the party "open" for a while, but I don't know how long, so I recommend ordering before the end of the weekend.

And tell your friends!

360 Sports Lounge

FOOTBALL SEASON!! My husband lives for it, and I live with it. Thankfully there are cool places like 360 Sports Lounge to watch football. 360 has everything you could ask for in a sports bar: lots of (big) TVs, friendly staff, plenty of beer, and of course good food.

My husband, some friends and I stopped in to watch the Cowboys play on a Sunday afternoon. The place was packed, as there was also a Texans game on, but the doorman let us have a "reserved" table by the door. We ordered a round of beers and some classic football snacks: sliders, onion rings and the above-pictured buffalo wings. Nothing was amazing in a this-is-where-I-want-to-have-my-last-meal way, but nothing was bad either. I did think that the onion slaw on the sliders was a little too sweet, but I really liked the breading on the onion wings, and the wings were perfectly spicy and very large.

I think I can best "review" 360 by saying this: we're going back this Sunday to watch whatever game is on. If it's too crowded, we'll go somewhere else, and no one will complain. But if we can fit, then we'll eat at 360 -- and we'll have a good time.

Blue Fish

My husband recently got the amazing news that he is no longer allergic to scaled fish. We have spent the past few weeks celebrating by eating as much fish as physically possible. One stand-out find from this quest for fish is Blue Fish, an upscale sushi place a few blocks from his office.

Blue Fish
has plenty of parking, but requires that customers use their (free) valet service, which seems a little silly and unnecessary to me. Once inside, patrons are greeted by a very calming and elegant atmosphere: a neon-blue bar area, taxidermied schools of fish on the walls, and cool music on the sound system. We felt a little under-dressed in our tee shirts and jeans, but our friendly and extremely efficient waitress didn't seem to mind.

We decided to do some sashimi and a couple of appetizers, along with martinis from the bar. The small plates menu is impressive, but we eventually settled on kobe beef potstickers, Peking duck cigars, and edamame. It seemed like a lot of food, but the service was stand-out fast; we had a table full of dishes within 10 minutes of ordering. Everything was good, but the real standout was the tuna.



This tuna was perfect. Just ... perfect. Simple, clean, and incredibly fresh, this was the type of dish that immediately sells you on the entire restaurant. There was nothing to complain about otherwise, but even if there had been, it would have been forgiven and forgotten once the sashimi arrived. Amazing.

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention dessert. Usually desserts at Asian restaurants are very simple and not particularly good, but we were (somehow) still hungry at the end of the meal and decided to go for it. Our waitress suggested we try this beautiful concoction of fried wontons, custard, ice-cream (we went with cinnamon) and fresh fruit. I think the picture says it all:



This dish was exuberant and fun, and tasted like the delicious love-child of fried ice-cream and creme brulee. Try it -- it will change your mind about Asian restaurant desserts!