Masraff's

Masraff's

1735 Post Oak Blvd.

Houston, TX 77056

masraffs.com

Yelp

Masraff is a seafood centric eatery in Houston.  It's pretty nice and reminds me of a high end steak house like Mastro's.  Dark walls and furnishings, soft lighting, waiters fully suited up, white linens, heavy leather bound menu, large wine list.  This is not your every day meal but for The Annoyer and I, we made it our Monday night dinner.

Garlic Seared Calamari oyster mushroom, shaved onion, cilantro, soy reduction
The calamari was very tender and the sauce was tasty.  I didn't quite like how the calamari was lightly floured and pan fried and then sauced.  It kinda ended up a mushy exterior.  Overall, a good dish but not quite refined.

Pan Seared Foie Gras bosc pear, toasted brioche, red wine reduction
The foie was seared nicely.  The brioche toast was a bit too thin for that hunk of fat and soaked through pretty quickly.  The pear and red wine reduction were necessary to cut through the richness.  Not the best seared foie gras but not bad.

Read more »

Slapfish

Who doesn't love lobster anything?  Slapfish serves up lobster rolls and other seafood themed eats just steps away from the beach in the heart of Laguna Beach.  The original location is in Huntington Beach, which, for people like LoMa-Linda and BigHead Talks-A-Lot, would be like hiking it to Mongolia on a camel.  Since moving to OC, the driveable radius for these guys has like shrunk to 5-10 miles.  Laguna Beach is actually outside of their limits, but the temptation of lobster outweighed the inconvenient drive. 

Chowder Fries house cut fries, chowder, bacon

No surprises here.  It's fries with chowder and bacon.  I think they need to work on their fries, which were a little lackluster, the same way In 'N Out fries leave me wanting more.

Traditional Lobster Roll 100% real lobster meat, warm butter, lemon, mayo

So much potential!  Alas, their "100% real lobster meat" was 100% crappy legs and claws.  If you've ever broken down a lobster, you'd know how difficult it is to extract any meat from those 8 scrawny legs.  In the end, that meat is not worth your time and effort.  At Slapfish, it's very much worth their time and effort to charge you almost $20 for meat that would normally get tossed in the garbage bin.  I'll give it up to them for keeping the dressing pretty light and not dousing the whole thing in mayo.  The roll was soft and buttered to a crisp.  It was my favorite part.  I really wanted to know where I could get some for myself.  I tried making lobster rolls once, but the hot dog buns really killed any potential my 100% tail meat lobster roll was going to have.  The side slaw was quit enjoyable and brought a little bit of crunch and some nice acid to the plate.  Those chips coulda been crispier.

Read more »

Little Goat

Stephanie Izzard's first restaurant, Girl & The Goat, is probably one of the hottest tickets in town since it opened in 2010.  Reservations are still hard to come by and sometimes can't be snagged even months in advance.  I dined here some time ago and was very pleased with my meal here, though I feel like there are plenty of other restaurants in Chicago that are just as tasty, if not tastier, and a lot easier to eat at.  Anyways, Triple F and I needed a place to brunch at and even though Chicago had many other stellar offerings and Buff Bear only gave it a lukewarm recommendation, we were intrigued by Little Goat, mostly because of our good experiences at Girl & The Goat.

Little Goat is more like a diner, which means more typical American fare like burgers, sandwiches, eggs/bacon, pancakes, biscuits/gravy.  But, this is Stephanie Izzard here right?  Everything's got a twist.

Breakfast Spaghetti 'N Clams 'N Crabs eggs, parmesan, pork guanciale, bok choy
We were intrigued by the possibilities of this dish but SEVERELY let down.  Don't order this.  It's frankly BAD.  I guess they took spaghetti and fried or baked it with cheese to make this giant carb conglomerate sitting in a pool of clam broth? topped with all that stuff above.  It was difficult and messy to eat.  It tasted fishy.  I didn't understand what was going on here.  FAILURE.

Read more »

Papa Haydn

Papa Haydn is a restaurant that falls on the many different lists of "Top Portland Restaurants."  It's probably misleading because the food really isn't all that good.  I think the "must-try" eats at this restaurants is the desserts, which unfortunately isn't all that good either, unless you like cake.  I have a sweet tooth, but when it comes to cake, you'll get a *shrug* and an "eh" out of me.  I'll eat it, I'll probably enjoy it, but it's not something I usually seek out.


French Onion Soup herbed cruton cap, gratinee of asiago, parmesan, gruyere cheeses
I needed something hot and warm on this blustery gloomy Portland afternoon.  I've never really had an onion soup that I loved, but I went for it anyways.  The soup itself was pretty light despite all the caramelized onions.  The cheesy crouton baked on top wasn't too overwhelming.  Sadly, my soup was kind of lukewarm and somehow didn't all come together.

Croque Monsieur Black forest ham, imported Gruyere cheese and mustard-mayonnaise grilled on Parmesan coated bread, cucumber salad
Our waiter recommended this as one of their signature and most popular dishes.  It was just as described, a cheesy crispy mess of salty ham and cheese.  The bread was a bit too crispy.  The cucumber salad was in need of dressing.  Overall, I wasn't too impressed.

Chicken Sandwich poached breast, cherry preserves, smoked mozzarella, crispy Walla Walla 
onions, arugula, bacon aioli, rustic bun
Leave it to Dumpling Man to order something so ordinary as a chicken sandwich.  When asked how his sandwich was, he just shrugged.  Enough said.

Read more »

Little Big Burger

Since moving to Portland, I've had the strangest cravings for an In 'N Out burger.  It's only strange because I never crave In 'N Out.  I probably eat In 'N Out on only one occasion, on my way to Las Vegas.  I think I'm probably craving it because I know I can't have it.  In an attempt to find a delicious burger, we stopped at Little Big Burger after walking to the restaurant we actually wanted to eat at and found it closed.

The menu is simple enough, very In 'N Out-esque

Rootbeer Float tillamook vanilla ice cream, barq's rootbeer
I'm not a huge fan of rootbeer but I like ice cream, so I agreed to trying this out.  It tasted like a rootbeer float.  Enough said.

Read more »

The Water Grill (DineLA)

DineLA descended upon the hungry citizens of Los Angeles last week.  For $26/$34/$44 (depending on where you dine), you are offered a pre fixe dinner menu from a wide variety of restaurants throughout LA.  My previous experience with DineLA has been really hit and miss.  Locanda Veneta was superb, but Craft was stinkin'!.  Sometimes Dine LA may not be reflective of a restaurant's true quality because you may not necessarily be offered the best things off the menu or the restaurant gets lazy and does a half ass job (ie Craft).  So I made reservations at various restaurants hoping for the best, but not surprised if I got something average.

The Water Grill seems like a restaurant that has been around for ages.  As you could imagine, a well established restaurant serving more traditional American cuisine doesn't generate much buzz in the food community.  I was hoping the food would quell any doubts I had about dining at a place nobody talks about.   Besides, Amanda works here, and I was very much impressed by her sous chef skills.


Amuse Bouche spicy tuna
Served on ice cold spoons, the amuse was a singularly harmonious bite of perfectly brunioused accoutrements and tuna wrapped in a thin cucumber slice.  It was refreshing and clean with well balanced light flavors.

Read more »

Mother's Bistro & Bar

I like brunch.  I don't love brunch.  Aside from Norma's in NYC, I can't say I've had a mind blowing experience when it comes to this very popular meal.  Granted, most of the places I've tried are not in the same price range as Norma's so it may be an unfair comparison.  I've done Doughboys, Blu Jam Cafe, Toast, etc.  My problem is that when I eat brunch, I never order the brunch items.  I love the idea of pancakes and waffles but cannot stand to have that as my meal.  I'd prefer to have that as dessert, but then that just seems excessive.  So this time I compromised and ordered my sweet with a side of savory.

Mother's Bistro is a pretty popular brunch place in Portland.  There are few restaurants that have hundreds of reviews on Portland Yelp, Mother's Bistro just happens to be one of them.  It's actually quite a big place with multiple dining rooms.  I couldn't tell if they served different things.  In any case, we came at ~1pm on a Saturday and were seated immediately. 

Fresh Oregon Blueberry Pancakes made-from-scratch tender cakes, local berries, pork apple sausages
After hearing our total order, the waitress suggested we order just 1 pancake instead of the standard 2.  We were like "Don't worry, we'll be fine."  Uhh, maybe we shoulda listened.  The cakes were huge!  They were also PERFECT.  Soft, fluffy, with just the right amount of chew.  My favorite part were the fresh blueberries.  They were large, sweet, and full of berry flavor.  Most of the time, blueberry baked/breakfast goods tend to have very tasteless berries.  These were the complete opposite.  They totally made the pancakes.  The sausage were whatevers, but it was nice to have real meat in the meal. 

Read more »

Farm Cafe

If you haven't noticed by now, I am a proud carnivore.  How can one live without meat?  The juicey tenderness of a perfectly roasted chicken?  The marbled succulence of a cut of rib eye steak?  The hearty homey taste of your mom's pork stew?  I won't even delve into seafood.  It's safe to say, I could NEVER live as a vegetarian.  I probably would not date a vegetarian either.   Sorry vegetarians, it's nothing personal!

So as I was looking at Farm Cafe's menu online, I noticed there were no meat dishes.  Fish, shellfish, yes, but meat, no.  I looked at the pictures on yelp and I saw pictures of chicken.  I still don't understand the deal with Farm Cafe, but I think they only do certain days with meat.  While Dumpling Man welcomes vegan/vegetarian places with open, unprejudiced arms.  I, on the other hand, look at those places with a disgruntled, dissatisfactory cold shoulder.  But it's Portland, and maybe I just need to embrace the Portland ways.  Who knows, maybe one day I'll be a crunchy granola tree hugger.

Clams & Mussels sauteed in golden ale, garlic, butter, red chilli flakes, served with grilled bread
I won't say too much about this dish, except that it was solid.  The seafood was fresh, the broth was delicious, the portion was generous.

Read more »