Jinya Ramen Bar

Jinya Ramen Bar

After one of our Texas Showdown meetings, we all headed for a team dinner at Jinya Ramen in Downtown Houston.  This was the second location in town, the first being out by Nasa.  The chain is originally from California, and is pretty highly regarded.

I ordered a combo, which is not necessary unless you're a big eater.  This was my first meal of the day so I went for it.  This was just a basic salad with miso dressing.  Nothing too fancy about it.

There are different options for the combos, karage, among other items can be chosen.  I went with gyoza.  Not bad, tasty, standard appetizer fare.

Here is the main course.  I went with Tonkotsu Black.  I think I've had this more often than not when I go to either of the two locations.  I've tried a couple of other flavors, but I always end up liking this one more.  What makes it different from other Tonkotsu recipes?  I have no idea to be honest.  The broth is thick and tasty, the noodles are done well, the pork & the egg are done well.  I really love the nori sitting in the bowl.  I always save it at the end once its totally sopped up the broth, its amazing.

I've been here enough times to know what I like and don't really need to experiment.  I'm hooked on Tonkotsu ramen, so its always going to be Tonkotsu Black whenever I go to Jinya.

Ramen Jin

Ramen Jin

Ramen Jin was one of the first ramen shops to open up in Houston, and it's been a while since I last ate here.  I figured it was time to give another shot and see if I liked it any better than last time.  Vicinity wise, it's right off Westheimer and Wilcrest, across the street from Nippon Daido and Genjis.  Definitely a prime location for such a restaurant.

 

For starters, I went with takoyaki.  They have all the usual appetizers, gyoza, karage, and this dish.  Most places tend to give out 5 or 6 pieces, so the 4 I got here is a little less than average, but since I was by myself it wasn't a big deal.  The food was very tasty though, nice and crispy outside, soft and not too chewy inside.

The main event though was the ramen.  I got my favorite tonkotsu ramen as usual.  So to start with the positives, the pork belly was excellent, noodles were ok.  The not so positives, broth was not very tasty, like it looks like its full flavored and creamy, but its kind of an illusion.  Like it was kind of tasty, but watered down.  Definitely not the best I've had.  The rest of the dish, the egg was meh, the veggies were fine, but how would you mess that up?  Overall, not good, which is about the same way I felt about it when I ate there last time when it was only them and Tiger Den.

I don't know if I'll ever come back here since there are so many other ramen shops open now.  But those that are interested in trying it, I deem this as a spot you go to if you're in a hurry and really just want some kinda noodles.

Mellow Mushroom

Mellow Mushroom

It's been a month or so since I've added a new entry, but I've definitely been eating.  I'm going to put some of them up this week while I'm not so busy.  First up is a pizza chain called Mellow Mushroom. More of a higher end pizza joint, this place boasts a fresh made pizza with a huge variety of ingredients.  That also means it takes longer for your pizza to bake.  But there are appetizers and a full bar to take your mind off the wait. 

Speaking of appetizers, gotta go with the stuffed portabella at a place called Mellow Mushroom.  Packed with cheese and veggies and topped on a leafy salad, this was a packed starter that should be shared instead of eating solo like I did.

Main course, the pizza.  Came in three different sizes, the personal, regular, and large.  This right here is the personal size.  The pizza itself was probably enough for me, but with the appetizer I only hate half of the pie.  I ordered the house special, which pretty much is the works or supreme at other joints.  It was definitely better than your normal pizza, but you're also definitely paying more.

Overall it was a good place, the pizza was definitely good, the appetizer as well.  Others have told me that I should try the pretzel next time, and I wouldn't mind trying out a different type of pizza.  

Samurai Noodle

 Samurai Noodle

This Seattle chain opened up their Houston branch a while ago, and quickly became one of my favorite ramen stops.  While it's debatable for many as to which ramen reigns supreme in town, this is my blog so I don't care what other people say.  

For starters, the takoyaki at Samurai Noodle has always been one of my favorites.  Its texture is a crispy & lightly fried exterior, with a soft creamy interior surrounding a chewy piece of octopus.  Covered with onion and Japanese mayo, its a great dish to get your appetite ready for the main course.

The main course, as always, is Tonkotsu ramen.  I always end up coming back here just for this dish.  Tonkotsu ramen w/extra rich broth.  Its very basic, but very good.  I used to prefer getting spicy miso, or crazy duck garlic extra egg blah blah blah versions of ramen.  But after eating the authentic stuff in Japan, I've grown to appreciate just the simple tastes.  That said, Samurai Noodle has the closest taste to what I had in Tokyo with this dish.  

But like I said, this is my blog, so this is just my opinion.  There are plenty of ramen shops in town, and even more coming soon.  However, Samurai Noodle is still my go to shop when I'm just really wanting a good bowl of ramen and don't have to guess if its going to satisfy me or not.

Gatlin's BBQ

Gatlin's BBQ

Monday for lunch I was near the Heights area, and treated myself to one of my favorite BBQ joints, Gatlin's BBQ.  Widely considered to be one of the best in town, I absolutely love the fact that its only about 15-20 minutes away from me off Ella near the 610 loop.

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If it's barbecue, then I have to get the brisket. The fattier the better for me.  I'm sure everything else on the menu is awesome as well, but I'll stick to the brisket!  The fried okra was fine, and the creamed corn was really good for the sides, but the brisket is the obvious star here.  Thick, moist, and just melts in your mouth.  I preferred it plain without the bbq sauce, and their sauce is actually really good.  This plate right here cost about $14, not too bad, definitely worth it.

Sometimes there can be a long wait for the lunchtime crowd, but they also sometimes sell out.  I've yet to try Killen's BBQ out in Pearland, but Gatlin's is no slouch.  One day I'll try some of the other offerings, like the ribs, sausages, pulled pork, etc., but if you can only have one thing, definitely try the brisket.

Shake Shack

Shake Shack

The east coast burger joint finally hit the South with their new location in the Galleria.  After reading tweets and posts about the place I finally decided to try it out.  I met up with my buddy @WTHamad and waited in line(not too bad, maybe 10-15 min).

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Since Hamad was a veteran from their other locations, he pretty much steered me in the right direction.  Granted I had already made up my mind from the online menu, he swayed me towards getting the shake.  I got the Shake Stack(the cheeseburger combined with their mushroom burger), cheese fries, and holiday special peppermint shake.

Hamad suggested the smoke shack, but I'm happy I stuck with this shake stack burger.  It was a cheese burger topped with a fried portabella mushroom stuffed with cheese.  It definitely blew me away.  Another cool little detail is how the bun is closed on the bottom so it doesn't leak out.

So overall, the burger was amazing, the fries were solid, and the shake was good.  Its probably a little much to get all of that for one person, next time I'll probably skip the shake.  Its still pretty new, so expect lines, but it wasn't that bad of a wait and the food comes out pretty quick.  Definitely worth trying out, especially if you love burgers.

Polonia

Polonia 

So I stumbled upon this Polish restaurant as I was looking for something to do this afternoon.  Its pretty much one of the only restaurants in town that offers traditional Polish cuisine.  Since the only Polish food I've ever had was at a festival, I decided to try it out.

Bread w/Garlic Butter & Pork Jelly, Complementary Tomato soup.  Between 11am-3pm, Polonia offers complementary soup, it varies by day.  The tomato soup was pretty good, the bread was fresh, the pork jelly was interesting.

For the entree, I asked the waiter what they would recommend.  He told me the cabbage rolls were popular, as were the perogies.  I took his advice and ordered some of both.  You can either order a full plate of pierogies(9 count), or just individually.  Pierogies basically remind me of boiled dumplings.  There were three different kinds they gave me since I had no idea what to order.  One was cheese & potato, one had beef, and the other had sauerkraut & mushroom.  I think my favorite was the cheese & potato.  The cabbage rolls were ok, kind of bland compared to the pierogies though.

I decided to try their fruit pierogies for dessert.  I think its an acquired taste.  The boiled cooking process didn't seem to really enhance the flavor of the fruit stuffed dumplings.  Rather, it kind of made it bland to me.  If it weren't for the whip cream that accompanied the dish, I don't think I could have finished eating it.

Overall the dining experience was good.  The waitstaff was very nice and helped me order since I had no idea what to get.  The savory pierogies were all very tasty and flavorful, kind of kind a boiled version of empanadas.  The "sweet" ones, not so much.  Next time I'll just get the cheesecake.

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Agu Ramen

Agu Ramen

Another ramen branch invades Houston.  Originally from Hawaii, this is the first of 2 planned Houston locations.  Like Ramen Bar Ichi, Agu is also in their soft opening with a limited menu.  This review is kind of a to be continued because there are items from their regular menu that I really want to try once they open up the full selection.

I was almost about to order the gyoza, but something told me to try the chicken karage.  I'm glad I did, this was even better than the karage I had at Bar Ichi.  In fact, here in Houston, this was probably the second best karage I've had besides Oh! Yaki Snack Attack(RIP).

While I was on a high from the awesome karage, it kind of came crashing down with the ramen.  There wasn't anything bad about it, but it wasn't quite as impactful.  The waitress didn't really know the new menu items, but its new so thats expected sometimes.  I ended up getting a shoyu jidori instead of shoyu tonkotsu.  Which is not my favorite because to me it just tastes like soy sauce and noodles.  When the have their full opening I'll hopefully get to try their tonkotsu instead.

There wasn't anything particularly bad about the ramen, it just wasn't my taste.  I'm looking forward to going back and trying a different ramen style, and hopefully their pork dishes.  They have some other interesting items I want to try, the curry sounds tasty as well.  So lets just say this review is more of a work in progress.

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Mascalzone

Mascalzone

My brother in law introduced me to this chain when they opened their Westheimer location.  This one is in the Heights off Shepherd near I-10.  Its originally from England, and is known for their fresh made pastas and pizza.  

When it comes to Italian food, I'm a huge sucker for lasagna.  I love pasta, spaghetti, linguine alfredo, etc.  However, when I see lasagna on the menu, I just can't help ordering it.  The first time I had it at the Westheimer location was pretty mind blowing.  The second time, I ordered it to go, but it was close to when they were closing.  When I heated it up later that night, it definitely wasn't the same.

So with that first awesome taste, and the second not so great experience, I went to check out their second Houston location for the rubber match.  

So of course you get started off with some bread.  The garlic knot was really good.  Beware of the orange sauce, it pretty spicy.

For an appetizer, I got the Melanzane Alla Parmigiana, which is basically baked eggplant and tomatoes covered in mozzarella.  Even if you aren't a fan of eggplant, this dish might make you change your mind.  Everything just kind of melts together into a creamy delicious mix of flavors.  Size wise its basically a main course especially for vegetarians, but a good size to share as well.

Now the main course is lasagna.  Classic, but not totally basic.  Mascalzone's recipe is a little bit different from what I'm normally used to when it comes to lasagna.  While most recipes tend to be just ricotta cheese and meat in between the layers of pasta, Mascalzone uses a bechamel sauce as well.  It seems to make the lasagna have a smoother and creamier texture.  

Mascalzone is a little pricier than your average Italian place like Olive Garden or Collina's.  However, their dishes have a more unique flavor to them which makes it more enjoyable in my opinion.  This wouldn't be an everyday haunt for me, but definitely a once in a while treat when I'm craving Italian food.

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Mikoto

Mikoto Ramen & Sushi Bar

Friday, I went to Mikoto Ramen & Sushi Bar to try out their new all you can eat menu.  This was my second time eating here, but the first time wasn't memorable.  When they first opened, I was pretty happy to see a ramen shop opening up really close to me.  But it was kind of lackluster.

This month Mikoto began offering all you can eat sushi off the menu.  There's another place that offers the same service, Sushi 9, closer to Katy.  For lunch its $12.99 and dinner for $22.99.  Both options are cheaper than Sushi 9.

It was pretty crowded for lunch, but it was also a Friday, and a holiday.  There are two menus you can order from, 1 for appetizers, and 1 for sushi.  In order to cut down on waste and ensure freshness, they limit how much each person can order per serving.

The sushi was not bad, nothing really special either.  I assume there's a better expanded menu for dinner, but staples like salmon and unagi are there.  You are limited to 10 pieces, I'm not sure if that meant total, or per item...

Spicy tuna roll was fairly standard as well.  You are limited to 2 rolls per person for each order.  No spider roll made me sad.

Appetizers were your typical normal Japanese restaurant variety, gyoza, tempure, edamame, miso soup, etc.  The gyoza & tempura was good, not overly fried.  Can't say the same for the karage, it was terribly over cooked.

Once again the crab tempura was cooked well, but the squid was odd.  Like I would have expected it to be cut up like calamari.  Instead it was like a whole squid dumped in a fryer, then covered in a weird sauce.  It was kinda tough, kinda fried, kinda soggy... 

Salmon is my favorite so I had to get more, the tuna was good too.  But once again, standard stuff.

This was the last thing I ordered.  Typically, the last thing you eat leaves the biggest impression of the place.  If I hold Mikoto to that, then it wasn't very good.  This unagi cucumber roll didn't have a good cucumber in it.  It was overly sour, maybe even gone bad.  I had to pick them all out after I had a few.  The unagi was fine, but after about 3 pieces, I concluded something was wrong with the cucumber.  

As a whole, for lunchtime sushi $12.99 is a great value.  Taking away the dishes I didn't like, it was still worth the price for the sushi and appetizers I did like.  However, I think Mikoto still needs a little more time getting used to the all you can eat crowd.  Service was kinda slow and random.  I know they were busy, but if you're going to offer this kind of service you gotta know what you're doing.  Orders were constantly getting mixed up, they kept coming up to me with random trays of food asking if that was what I ordered.  They would get it right about 50% of the time.  If you just want to satisfy a cheap gorging of sushi and Japanese food, then this might be for you.  For me, I'll probably stick with Sushi 9, or Sakura Sushi Express for my cravings.

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Ramen Bar Ichi

Thursday, I went and tried out one of the new Japanese Ramen shops to open up in Houston.  Over the past few years we've had a big explosion of these kind of restaurants popping up in town.  From Tiger Den, to Samurai Noodle, Ramen Jin, Jinya Ramen, Ninja Ramen, and various sushi restaurants that expanded their menu to include the latest craze.

When I first got into eating ramen, I would deviate towards the crazy styles, or extra spicy.  After going back and forth to Japan for the Tokyo Game Show over the past few years, I've grown to appreciate the simple flavors.  Now I simply order Tonkotsu, and that's pretty much how I judge whether or not I like a place.

Which leads me to this post.  Seiwa Market opened a couple of months ago to much fan fare as it was only the second Japanese grocery store to open in Houston.  While they would go on to open up a curry and udon shop inside of the market, the announcement of a ramen shop got my attention.  That shop is Ramen Bar Ichi, and is currently in their soft opening.  For now that means a limited menu and lunch time service only.

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They have a deal where you order a meal, ramen or a rice bowl, then you can make it a combo with one of their appetizers and a drink.  It knocks off about $2-$3 so its a pretty nice deal.  I went with Tonkotsu ramen and chicken karage.

The ramen was very good, they used thin noodles, the pork was cooked just right, nice fresh onions, bamboo, and mushrooms.  But the main feature of any Tonkotsu ramen has to be the broth.  Ramen Bar Ichi's broth is no slouch, easily one of the better ones I've had in town.

The chicken karage was also very good.  Freshly fried yet still very moist and juicy inside.  It came with a mini veggie assortment, some picked, some not.  Could have used a dipping sauce in my opinion, but not totally necessary.  

Oh yeah about that broth.  If it isn't good enough to make you finish your bowl, then something ain't right.

Overall, I had a great meal at Ramen Bar Ichi, and I'm excited to come back when they hold their grand opening so I can try their full menu.  If you're interested in checking them out, they are located right next door to Seiwa at 1801 S Dairy Ashford Rd.

What this is

For a while now, people have said that I should start up a food blog.  I've never really kept up with a personal blog, and definitely not a food one.  I definitely love to eat, and try new things.  So I guess I'll just try and show what I like about places I go to.  I'm not a critic or a gourmet of any kind.  My dad exposed me to many different kinds of foods growing up, because he didn't want me or my sister to be overly picky about what we ate.  There are things that I can't or won't eat, but for the most part I will try anything.  With that all said, I will try out new places, revisit my favorite places, and document them in this blog in case people are interested in what I have to say or check out the places I go.