Special Out of Town Edition: American Grocery Restaurant

Sorry it's been so long, blog fans. It's been quite a year so far! We're building a house, still working full time, and basically trying to get our feet on the ground after the holidays. We did have some really good sushi at Kubo's and some pretty decent sushi at Sushi Hana but I honestly couldn't bring myself to write about fish again.

Last week, my husband was out of town and had a great meal, and I asked him to guest blog. So, without further ado, here's "The Husband Who Ate Houston" and his review of American Grocery in Greenville, SC. Enjoy!

Once I found out I had to be in SC for work, a co-worker told me that American Grocery was the best food he had eaten in a while. So, after a short (and quite pleasant) walk down Main Street in Greenville, I arrived outside AGR. The outside was fairly non-descript but inside the setting was classy and quite cozy. My waiter was quite helpful and friendly in a way that apparently most people in Greenville are -- which is to say they seem to genuinely enjoy talking with you.

I started off with a Pig on the Porch. This delightful little cocktail consists of bacon-infused bourbon and ginger ale. I had to say this was one of the best cocktails I have had in some time. The bacon flavor in the bourbon made it finish off quite smoothly and with just a hint of bacon on the palate.

For starters, I had the crispy pork belly. I had seen pork belly cooked on Top Chef before but had never had the opportunity to actually taste it. I must say this was the highlight of the meal and one of the best foods I have ever eaten. It was crisp without being tough (I could, and did, cut it with my fork). The pork belly tasted like the most flavorful bacon I could imagine and yet was so tender it was almost like eating a steak. The dish also came with crisp apples, grits, and pecan-bourbon maple syrup. The grits were perfectly cooked -- and I'm not even a huge grits fan -- and the syrup was absolutely amazing. (You might note that AGR loves three things: (1) local meats, vegetables, and beer, (2) bacon, and (3) bourbon. I can get on board with all of these things.)



Next, I had the Split Creek Farms Goat Cheese salad with a mustard vinaigrette. Now, I think mustard is a fine condiment but I wasn't crazy about it being on my salad. It wasn't bad -- but not great either. The pecans in the salad were very well done but, in the end, it was just a salad.

Finally, for the main course, I had a Confit of Local Rabbit with baby carrots and hunters sauce. The rabbit was tender, tasty, and the outer skin just a little crispy. Overall a very good dish. My only complaint on this dish was the farro verde -- which I thought distracted from the simplicity and tastiness of the rabbit more than it added.



If you are ever in Greenville, SC and you want an excellent meal from start to finish, definitely make your way down to AGR -- you won't leave disappointed.

Ra Sushi

We love sushi. We love trying new sushi places. And we love Ra.

The space itself is cool. We stopped in on a Sunday afternoon, when business was slow and service was fast. However, I'm sure that this place is very busy (and probably very fun) on a Saturday night. I could see this being an awesome place for a party or an after-party.

We started with edamame and some very good sashimi. Everything was fresh and well-prepared.

The real standout, however, was the crispy spicy tuna. These tasty little babies took a while to cook, but the wait was worth it.



It's a spicy tuna mix served over fried rice balls with a spicy-sweet chili soy sauce. Everything on the plate worked well together and had a purpose. They tasted like sesame, hot chilis, fish and deep-fried wonderful. I could honestly eat these all day, but they (thankfully) limit the portion sizes so that you leave feeling satisfied and not over-full. Otherwise I could easily see myself rolling out of there.

Vida

When I made my reservation for Vida, I received an email from the manager asking if it was our first time at the restaurant, and offering us a free queso. Super-nice first impression, and things only went up from there.

Vida is located in River Oaks, near the world's best Target (seriously, I love it). The decor is beautiful: jewel tone walls, nude art, and an absolutely gorgeous bar. This is the "sexy" part in "sexy Tex-Mex."

We started with very good/strong margaritas. Us ladies got orchids in ours. Gimmick? Yes. Pretty? Yes.



Our queso, though free, was bland, but my tempura shrimp tacos were very good. The shrimp was crispy and not at all greasy, and served with a nice cool slaw and a cute little mound of brown rice. Pretty to look at too.



The most remarkable thing about Vida is how low the prices are. My tacos were $14, and I got a LOT of very good food in a very nice setting for that money.

So let's see ... beautiful decor, friendly staff, good food, low prices ... and yet Vida was practically empty. It was a Saturday night and only 4 other tables were occupied. I don't get it.

Please, please eat at Vida. I do NOT want to see this place go under. There are plenty of places to get good Tex Mex in Houston, and plenty of places to get upscale Spanish food in Houston, but Vida is filling a unique need: upscale Tex Mex. And they're filling it well. GO!

Hunan Garden

I'm tired. It's a Monday, it's cold, and I'm trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to talk myself out of eating every candied pecan that I made for my husband. With all that in mind, I'm going to keep my review of Hunan Garden simple.

Pros: The website is VERY nice. Online ordering is extremely easy, and the food arrives quickly. Our delivery person was very nice and had no problem getting through the gate or letting us pay with a credit card. These are things we actually worry about, after a lifetime of bad delivery experiences.

Cons: The food is very basic. I know that I also described Yao's as basic, but the difference is that you can taste the quality of the ingredients at Yao's. Simple, traditional Chinese food is good if it's well made, but this sadly wasn't. Everything was pretty bland and tasted the same. Worse, we paid the same amount of money for take-out from Hunan Garden as we did for a sit-down meal (with drinks) at Yao's. For the price you can do a lot better.

Oishii

And the greater Houston sushi tour continues ...

Two Saturdays ago, the husband and I stopped into Oishii for one of their (very inexpensive) lunch specials, 9 pieces of sashimi for $8.95. Seriously. Nine pieces, for under $9.

Remarkable.

The sashimi is exactly what you would expect for $9: basic selections of tuna and whitefish chosen by the chef, not every piece is perfectly cut, and some pieces are better than others. Nothing was terrible, and a few of these little bites were actually very tasty. It was all served by friendly and efficient staff in a clean, well-decorated space.

I've always said that there are some things that you shouldn't buy on sale: condoms, LASIK and sushi. I take that back (at least for the sushi). You should probably still pay full price for the other two.

Special Out of Town Edition: In N Out Burger (Dallas)

Those are good burgers, dude.

The Tasting Room

Ah, wine bars. At some point my husband and I must have grown up, because we stopped doing this and started doing this instead. Cool with me, as long as we end up at a friendly and accommodating wine bar. Unfortunately, we didn't find The Tasting Room to be exactly what we were looking for.

It all starts and ends with the service. We were seated in the back of the bar, near the private wine storage lockers. Not exactly an ideal spot, as the waiters had to ask us to move every time a patron requested a bottle from their locker. When our (first) waiter approached, he immediately asked "How long have you been here?", which leads me to believe that sometimes customers seated in this area get ignored or forgotten. We did.

At some point our waiter left and we got another one. Not that anyone introduced him to us. He just showed up and started taking our orders. Eventually he disappeared too, and we had to flag down a busboy to get our check. During the brief period that we had a waiter, he wasn't a good one. He kept removing the wine list from our table, which makes no sense if he wanted us to continue to order. At one point he forgot to bring one of our friends his drink. When we asked for it, he snapped "I thought you said no!! Alright alright!"

Bizarre.

One good thing did come out of this strange situation: the very sweet manager saw us being forced to move for the umpteenth time, and provided us with a complimentary glass of wine and a nice cheese platter.



This tiny act of charity is the only reason why we would return to Tasting Room. After that kind of service, you really need a shot.