medicalstudent

In response to Trish's disdain for Texas food, I've decided to start a new thread on Houston restaurants. If there's any restaurants aneyone else want to hype up, post here

well, there's your first problem

If you had told me that in the first place, I would've recommended some different pho restaurants for chicken pho. Pho Binh is a decent place for chicken pho, good enough that it converted my vegetarian friend to go back to meat, now all she eats is steaks Pho Da Kao is supposedly known for chicken pho, but I never tried since I prefer beef.

Italian food here isn't as good. The only one I used to really like was Pappa LaRosa when it used to be on Westheimer with their wonderful collection of shoes from the Houston Rockets mid-80's era (think Akeem [before "Hakeem"] Olajuwon, Sleepy Floyd, Don Chaney). They're in Sugar Land now and I don't think it's as good as it used to be. Buon Appetito on Holcombe near the Med Center is pretty good. I believe it's more Sicilian style though. Interesting atmosphere to say the least.

There's so many different types of BBQ, it's hard to appease everyone if you're used to a certain type of BBQ. There's some good places, but you'll need to drive up to Austin or towards Dallas for great places. BBQ in Houston is so-so, but I do like the Mikeska franchise (even though Columbus and El Campo is crazy-far from Houston).

Chinese food is good. Try Sichuan on Bellaire @ Ranchester. The Szechuan food there is authentic and just as good as the food I've eaten at some Szechuan restaurant on St. Mark's in Manhattan or the ones I've eaten in Shanghai.

Paella is pretty good over at Tio Pepe's in the Bellaire triangle. Good Spanish food.

German restaurants are so-so in Houston, but there's a really good one on Lake Conroe called Kaiserhof.

Star pizza is good, but that's Chicago-style. If you're used to the NY-style pizza, well, I'm still looking too

Korean food is pretty decent here. Just hang out in K-town up in the Long Point/Memorial area. Just make sure you eat with a Korean friend. Otherwise, you'll get ripped off on the amount of meats and kimchi.

Japanese food here is excellent and IMHO, on-par with the restaurants I frequented in Manhattan. There's only 5 authentic Japanese-owned sushi restaurants and I'll rank them accordingly: 1) Sushi Jin 2) Nippon 3) Kubo's 4) Teppay. Sasaki has Shabu-shabu, but it doesn't taste very good compared to the ones in NYC or LA.

Thai food is decent here, but I'm still looking for one as good or better than Nud Pob on Comm Ave across from Boston University.

Niko Niko's seems like everybody's fave for Greek food, I think it's ok. Personally, I prefer Droubi's or Schwarma King on Hillcroft or Phoenicia on Westheimer for some good schwarmas and baklava. Issam (FAS2K on Lone Star) makes a mean falafel

Indian is good here. I love Mayuri's on Westheimer near Galleria. Sitar is really top notch over in the Woodlands. I hear rave reviews of an Indian restaurant off 249 near Willowbrook (forgot name), so I'll need to check it out.

I could go on and on

Chickwithastick

SWEEEEET!

I do eat beef, just not from asian places because it's usually not to my liking. Actually... the only beef I ever really get out is hambergers or Texas Land and Cattle.


For NY style Pizza, I have found that Russo's NY Pizza is the closest you can get. The owner is from NY. There's a bunch of them all over the city, and they're pretty good.

For Indian food, I like Shiva. There is one up in West U, and one down here in the land of sugar.

For Thai food, I go to Thai Cottage, but I'm sure it's not authentic... I am just addicted to their Red Curry Chicken... OM NOM NOM NOM

Messican I go to Lopez's I love it... It's definitely not authentic, but it's still good.


I think the main issue right now is that our Kitchen is being redone so we have been eating out a ton for the past 2 weeks. We have run out of places to go. Also... things I would normally eat in NJ aren't available here... Like a GOOD chef's salad. In NJ you can go to ANY pizzeria and order one and it would be awesome. Also... Italian food in general. I have no problems making my own, but right now that's just not possible.

medicalstudent

One thing I've always tried to do, pick up a free copy of The Houston Press and look at the list of restaurants to check out. I've had pretty good success using it. It has so much variety if you're tired of eating the same stuff: Caribbean, Ethiopian, Malaysian, South Indian Vegetarian, Cajun, etc...

I'll have to check out Russo's. You should check out Buon Appetito. It's not quite like all the other typical Italian restaurants here.

Shiva's decent as well as Bombay Brasserie, both in Rice Village. I like Mayuri just a bit more. They have good mango lassi and naan.

Next time you're in Boston, look for Nud Pob. After eating there, all Thai restaurants taste like ass

Lopez is my fave for Tex-Mex. Real authentic Mexican may be a bit hardcore as I'm sure Arrey can attest. If we do a northside drive again towards Lake Livingston, I'm going to suggest eating there as the final destination next time.

The German restaurant I mentioned has a decent chef's salad. Read all the reviews on b4-u-eat and seems like everybody raves about the salad. I thought it was ok, but I wouldn't necessarily drive 40 miles for like some of the posters would. If you like Asian salads, the salad at Kubo's is very good IMHO.

Chickwithastick

If we do a Northside drive, I'm bringing the scuba gear.... I wonder how much I could fit in the S

We used to live in such an AWESOME area of town. We lived off of Richmond between Buffalo Speedway and Kirby. Everything was right there... but that's where my car was stolen.... I guess we had to give up the central location for the garage and MUCH larger place.

Speaking of which... anyone wanna buy a condo in that area??

s2kmiami69

miami flyby whats up chickwithanapjuannnnnnnnnn...

second2none

I don't think will like any of the pho ga places you mentioned Tom. She likes only lean cuts of meat. Any fat on the meat is a no go for her. I check Houston Press from time to time and also these links.

http://www.chron.com/entertainment/dining/
http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/

As for bbq, I think they just recently opened a Rudy's up by the woodlands. Pretty good bbq! Since you said, beef is still an option. Try out these steak houses. Vic & Anthony's, Del Frisco, Fogo De Chao, and Capital Grille. Pappa's burgers has pretty good burgers. There's more but I'm having a brain fart at the moment.

Rsxtype-s

for indian/ middle eastern food, these white people places (shiva, kirans, etc) are wack. For the authentic, hit up kirkwood/hillcroft area, or just straight down hillcroft. Bijans is pretty good, as well as Darband. They have authentic kabobs, and their shwarma's/ falafels >*.

Cafe goo goo yen is pretty good in sugarland for chinese.

and im a fan of gringo's when it comes to tex mex!

5plusjuan

TACO NAZO FOR MEXICAN TACOS ON THE NAWFSYDE FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tsanhd

all this food talk got me hungry, Im craving crawfish!

Chickwithastick

OMG speaking of white people food...