Alison Cook

This Week In Food Blogs: Should Food Trucks Get a Fair Shake?

29-95: Montrose mainstay Gratifi -- the newly rebranded Ziggy's -- received some much-deserved love from Houston Chronicle critic Alison Cook for its extensive burger menu, in particular the Gaucho burger. "The Argentinian-themed El Gaucho is one of those specialty burgers that succeeds beautifully ... More >>

Sitting Pretty

Houston's 10 Best Patios

Openings & Closings: Time for El Tiempo's Big Debut and More Crawfish in Chinatown

Are you in this for the long-haul? Good, because this week was chock-full of restaurant news -- and most of it happy news. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a long post, starting with recaps of a few stories from earlier this week. Ryan Rouse and Brad Moore of Grand Prize Bar in Montrose and B ... More >>

This Week In Food Blogs: Camp Brisket and Nutty Frenchmen

Washington Post: The latest out-of-state paper to tackle Houston's bustling food scene is the Washington Post, in which writer Martha Miller visits a handful of our most popular restaurants and describes the city as "Silk Road meets Texas Bravado." Sarah Rufca at CultureMap called Martha's summation ... More >>

This Week in Food Blogs: Masters of Meat and the Problem with Corn Smut

Eater Houston: I love useful maps, and Eater Houston's recent "heat map" of the city's best brunch destinations is just that. Old favorites such as Fountain View Cafe and Hugo's mingle with newer hot spots like Boomtown Coffee. CultureMap: Equally useful is Sarah Rufca's map at CultureMap of the 10 ... More >>

This Week In Food Blogs: Where Does a Cameroonian Fish Restaurant Hide in Houston?

Cookmundo: Former EOW contributor John Kiely has a blog of his own, Cookmundo, and it's our featured food blog this week. I love the tagline: "Simple awesome food for the new cook," which also means you know what to expect out of Kiely's posts. Amateur cooks, let Kiely be your friendly guide to cook ... More >>

A Fire at the Broken Spoke

Roy de la Garza on what's next.

Openings & Closings: New Locations for Pappa Geno's and the Great W'Kana

The restaurant that Eater Houston called the most anticipated opening of the year is here, so anticipate no more: The Pass & Provisions had its soft opening on Wednesday night and will be open for business this weekend. No surprise there, as the two-in-one restaurant from Seth Siegel-Gardner and Ter ... More >>

Three Houston Restaurants Top Bon Appetit's Best New Restaurant List

Oxheart, Uchi and Underbelly have a lot more to crow about after last week: The three restaurants -- two of which have received rare four-star ratings from Houston Chronicle food critic Alison Cook -- have been named to Bon Appétit's list of the nation's 50 best new restaurants. Even more flatteri ... More >>

This Week In Food Blogs: Bycatch Gets Bigger and Brownies Bring Doom

CultureMap: Houston Restaurant Weeks starts today, and celebrated earlier this week with a kick-off party at Momentum Audi. The Houston Press was not invited (was it something we said?), but luckily CultureMap was there to cover the event and remind folks that, above all, HRW is about raising money ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs

Urban Swank: We're leading off this week with a new [to us] local food blog, Urban Swank. And coincidentally, the latest post is on one of the 2012 Burger Bracket Final 4: Bernie's Burger Bus. Of the tried-and-true food truck, Urban Swank says: "You can pretty much guarantee that if you ask someone ... More >>

Fratelli's Authentic Italian Cuisine: Culinary Surprises Abound in a Northwest Houston Shopping Center

Insalata di Pere.​Houstonians are a funny bunch. Those that live in the suburbs have no qualms about traversing the city for a nice meal, while most inner-loopers balk at the idea of dining anywhere that requires logging more than eight minutes of freeway time. I belong to the second group, an ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Eatocracy: CNN's food blog has partnered with Food & Wine to announce the 100 n ... More >>

Openings & Closings

​Earlier this week on Twitter, the Chron's Alison Cook noted disapprovingly that Rico's Luchadores had experienced a makeunder: "There goes the neighborhood: Rico's Luchadores has ditched the wrestling theme for more tasteful 'Frida' motif. Say it ain't so." Indeed, Rico's has been transformed ... More >>

The Fries at Lola

​At the end of August, the Chron's Alison Cook released a top ten list of her French Fry Hall of Fame. The fries at the places on the list I have been to, I totally agree, are the city's best. The fries at Little Big's are indeed "remarkably consistent." And I agree that the sticks o' potato a ... More >>

Meeting Spanish Village For the First Time

A bowl of queso is all you need some days.​I made the acquaintance of Spanish Village (4720 Almeda Rd.) for the first time last night. For a lifelong Houstonian, this might seem odd and perhaps a bit heretical, but the truth is that I'd never before set foot inside the old Tex-Mex joint just s ... More >>

A Comprehensive Guide to Houston's Food Blogs

Cartoon does not reflect reality (most of the time).​In a city as large as Houston and with as many culinary options as we're blessed with, it's no surprise that the food blogging community here is large and diverse. Say what you want about food bloggers: that we're arrogant, obtrusive know-i ... More >>

Openings and Closings

Losing our Voice.​Although it technically isn't a closure, it's the end of an era for Voice, the critically-acclaimed restaurant at the Hotel Icon. Chef Michael Kramer is leaving as the hotel has decided to take the restaurant in a different, slightly less upscale direction. It's a huge blow f ... More >>

Ain't No Feud Like A Food Feud. Or Maybe There's No Feud At All

​Cleverley Stone is a Houston food institution. Of sorts.For some, she's a lively, well-informed foodie who offers great discounts and tips on her blog, on a weekly radio show on CNN 650 AM (Proposed Station Motto: You've Probably Never Heard Of Us), on local TV morning shows and on her Twitter.Fo ... More >>

Ain't No Feud Like A Food Feud. Or Maybe There's No Feud At All

​Cleverley Stone is a Houston food institution. Of sorts.For some, she's a lively, well-informed foodie who offers great discounts and tips on her blog, on a weekly radio show on CNN 650 AM (Proposed Station Motto: You've Probably Never Heard Of Us), on local TV morning shows and on her Twitter.Fo ... More >>

Openings and Closings

This week features not only restaurant closings and openings, but reopenings as well. The first of those, as expected, was Cafe Le Jadeite (1952 West Gray), which reopened this past Monday. Despite the fact that the name and decor have remained the same, the owners and the menu have changed. B4 ... More >>

El Jardin

A New York Times story on Tex-Mex left a lot of Houstonians wondering, "Why El Jardin?"

Valentino's Seafood

A Texas shrimper is finding out how hard it is to run a seafood restaurant in Houston

Lafayette's Legacy

Denis' Seafood House outclasses the competition

Mudbugs: The Dirty Truth

The dirt on crawfish

Diner's Notebook

Old & New

Diner's Notebook

Restaurant-Go-Round

The One That Got Away

Diner's Notebook

Diner's Notebook

Diner's Notebook

Hot Plate

The Year of Living Anxiously

Are We Having Fun Yet? Or is it just the jangly buzz of advanced urban stress syndrome?

Nutcracker Nosh

Neo China ... or Not

Crab cri de coeur

Hot Plate

Letters

Hot Plate

The Raw and the Cooked

Conversion Experience

Hot plate

Hot Plate

Hot plate

Hot Plate

Fast French

Houston Haggis

Hot Plate

Neo-Mom Food