Hearsay

I enjoyed working with the format I used on my last post, so I think I'm going to do something similar for this review of Hearsay. Cool with you? OK, good.

And away we go .....

Space: Hearsay is located downtown, in what I imagine may have been a townhouse or loft at some point. The decor is cool and polished, all hardwood and brick. Plus there is a low-cost public parking lot located about 15 feet from the front door. You can't really ask for more than that.

Service: there was a healthy crowd on the night we went, so I think our server might have been a little distracted. That said, we didn't want for anything while we were there. He just didn't seem to be around a lot, and we had to flag him down to get our check. Maybe things would have been better if we had chosen to sit at the bar and not a table.

Food: We decided to share some small plates. Below you'll find the salmon crostini and the duck quesadillas. We also had the beer-battered asparagus and seared yellow fin tuna. The stand out dish was probably the yellow fin. The fish was comparable to what you might find in any good sushi restaurant, and we both really loved the piquant little salad that came with it. The quesadillas were very good; the duck was actually in the form of sausage, and the portions were very generous. Small plate does not necessarily mean small food! I didn't really enjoy the crostini, which had a fishy flavor and a too-crisp bread that was tough to bite through. And although I appreciate the shout-out to a local beer, the asparagus were greasy, floppy and not very much fun.

Of course, this is a gastro-pub, so I would be remiss not to mention my cocktail. The one I tried was comprised of jalapeno juice, vodka, sugar and lemon. It sounds like it would be spicy (and the waiter warned me that it could be), but mine wasn't. What it was was refreshing and light, the perfect end to a hot summer day. Totally worth the money!

Overall, I liked Hearsay's atmosphere and it's inventive drink menu. The food was only fair, but in the end, a place like Hearsay probably isn't really about food. Go to drink and be seen; grab dinner somewhere else.

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.

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.

Absolve Wine Lounge

My husband and I had a Groupon for Absolve Wine Lounge, so we stopped in on a Saturday afternoon. We like Spanish reds, so we went with a mid-priced bottled from Rioja. The bartender approached our table and told us that he enjoyed another red wine (bugger--I didn't get the name!) more, and offered to give it to us for the same price as our Spanish red. We took him up on his offer and ordered some appetizers.

We started with a customer favorite, meatballs with marinara sauce.



These meatballs were pretty good -- moist and flavorful with a slightly spicy marinara sauce. They weren't as good as my meatballs (as my husband reminded me, I have a terrific meatball recipe, which I never use), but they were inexpensive, paired well with the wine, and certainly beat your typical bar fare.

We had the bruschetta at the same time as the meatballs. To be honest, it was a little bland. Skip it.



We were still a little hungry after the meatballs and bruschetta, so we decided to have some cheese. You get to choose three cheeses off of a pretty impressive list, which are paired with crackers, bread, assorted nuts, grapes and honey. We went with cheddar, cambozola (a blue cheese/brie hybrid) and something called the "Drunken Goat" (a goat cheese cured in red wine). Almost everything on the plate was lovely, although the Drunken Goat didn't have the red wine flavor I was hoping for. Choosing the cheeses and trying something new was fun.



The staff at Absolve could not have been more friendly or accommodating. There was one waitress and one bartender, and except for a dishwasher, who made a brief cameo in the restaurant, they seemed like the only staff on site. I don't know if they have an ownership interest in the place, but they certainly work like they do.

Absolve Wine Lounge is a great place to bring friends or a date. The atmosphere is very quiet and soothing, the wine list is impressive, and the food and the service complete the package. Even without a Groupon, we'll be going back. And that is quite a compliment from a family that loves its Groupons.

Porch Swing Pub

Yet another place I wasn't planning on eating ...

A small group of friends and I went out on Saturday night, looking for another bar that I had visited once before. Unfortunately the parking situation around that place was no good, so we headed to the Porch Swing Pub.

The seating at Porch Swing can't be beat. Outside there are two large, semi-covered patios with at least 4 big screen TVs. Inside, there is a very nice bar with some tables, pool tables, and more TVs. Even the ladies room was large and clean. This was definitely one of the nicer sports bars I've ever been to.

My girlfriend and I both had grilled buffalo chicken sandwiches.



The chicken was all white meat, with a slightly spicy sauce that was cooled down by lettuce, tomato and blue cheese dressing. Everything tasted fresh and well-cooked, and the fries were nice and crispy. Was it anything special? Not really. Was it good bar food at a very decent price? Yes.

Our server was a friendly college-age girl who was doing a very good job handling a large crowd. Everyone seemed well-meaning and happy, even when it started to lightly rain. My only complaint is that Porch Swing delivers exactly what it advertises: every TV had a college football game on, and therefore my husband and my friend's boyfriend were pretty much MIA the entire time. Overall, Porch Swing is a very nice college/sports bar with great outdoor seating, but it's probably not the place to go if you want to spend any time with your men.

Red Lion Pub

Full disclosure: I really like Red Lion. We've been there twice, and I already feel like it's my home pub. The people are friendly and the atmosphere is homey and welcoming. So if you expect this review to be anything close to unbiased, you're going to be quite disappointed.

As you might imagine, the food at Red Lion is mostly British pub favorites, with a heavy Indian influence. My husband and I enjoy making meals out of appetizers. Last time we were at Red Lion, we ordered two dishes off their "Nibbles" menu, the samosas and the baked tandoori chicken quesadillas. Thank goodness my husband didn't let me talk him into ordering three things, as the size of these "appetizers" was generous, to say the least.

The samosas were not as good as the one we tried at Blue Nile. The crust was different -- where the crust at Blue Nile was a flaky pastry, the crust at Red Lion was crunchier and deep-fried. The filling at Red Lion was also a lot spicier. Like I said, the portions were gigantic, making the samosas difficult to eat. I couldn't exactly identify what was in either of the dipping sauces, and I didn't love either of them. The samosas weren't horrible, but I probably wouldn't order them again.



The quesadilla was something we were ordering for a second time. We love the fact that this enchilada is built on a crispy pita instead of a tortilla, and the spicy tandoori chicken filling pairs so nicely with the carrot and cucumber "salsa" on the side. This is a very successful melding of Tex Mex and traditional pub cuisine. And it's more than enough for two.



We paired our nibbles with a delicious Belgium white beer on both visits. And on both visits we were treated to excellent service at the bar and in the dining room. Prices are a bit steeper for appetizers than at other places, but so are the portions. Red Lion is worth a little extra. It's an authentic, friendly, fun place that makes you feel right at home, no matter where you're from.