Subject: Restaurant Reviews

• This Week in Café: VIN

  August 22, 2007

• This Week in Café: VIN

  August 22, 2007

• $13 at Fu’s Garden in Rice Village

  November 30, 2007

• Going Big in the Bay Area with Cullen's Upscale American Grill

  April 8, 2008

• Everything Old Is New Again

  Darby's flashes back to a gentler time

  August 26, 1999

• Dining by Demographic

  Fleming's Prime Steakhouse serves up excellent renditions of the nation's most average food and wine preferences

  February 6, 2003

• Christmas Eve Dining, Without the Duck Heads

  Want to take the family out for a nice meal tomorrow night so someone else can wash the dishes for a change?  Worn out from holiday shopping and don't want to cook dinner?  Or have the Bumpus hounds destroyed your turkey and you're looking for an alternative? Never fear!  There are plenty of restaurants open on Christmas Eve, several of which have special menus for the night.  Below are some of our suggestions for a delicious Christmas Eve dinner that doesn't include duck he

  December 23, 2008

• Rich Stuff

  May 8, 1997

• Grade A

  August 7, 1997

• Letters

  May 14, 1998

• Four-Star Fun

  February 18, 1999

• Dish

  November 4, 1999

• And the Survey Says...

  November 18, 1999

• Downtown Attraction The Grove

  March 19, 2009

• The Tastes of Textile

  March 12, 2009

• On a Budget at Bistro des Amis

  January 15, 2009

• Variety Abounds at Cafe 121 Chinese Restaurant

  September 11, 2008

• Brain Food

  You may puzzle over the menu at Robert Gadsby's Noé, but you'll love the clever chow

  July 21, 2005

• Voice: Tastes Great, Less Filling

  The food at Voice in the Hotel Icon is fabulous. Too bad the place is such a rip.

  July 10, 2008

• Denny's Adopts Rock Bands

  The diner chain now serves up a little rock on the side

  June 5, 2008

• Simposio

  An old favorite has opened at a new location, but is its upscale Northern Italian fare still worth the price?

  January 17, 2008

• All about Eve

  Our guide to the city's best New Year's parties

  December 27, 2007

• Reef

  Chef Bryan Caswell is putting a new spin on Gulf red snapper and serving up some fish you've never heard of

  September 6, 2007

• Nino's

  Nino's turns 30, and Houstonians want gelato with their Italian birthday cake

  March 29, 2007

• Bacon, Eggs and Barbera

  Treat yourself to Mediterranean-inflected breakfast foods and some of the most amazing wine deals in town at Catalan

  November 9, 2006

• Catch the Wave

  Lance Fegen's "New American Surfer Bistro" is like, epic, dude!

  September 28, 2006

• New Year's Eve Guide 2005

  Where to tuck it in -- or let it all hang out

  December 29, 2005

• Bling-Bling Bordeaux

  At Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, flashing your wad is the whole point

  December 22, 2005

• Spy vs. Spy

  Our restaurant critic gets busted at Gravitas, so we send in our counterintelligence team

  October 20, 2005

• Crispy Muc, Tender Bo

  There's a thrilling new Vietnamese restaurant on Bellaire with a menu that reads like a mystery

  September 29, 2005

• Letters

  August 18, 2005

• Best Indian Restaurant

  September 23, 2004

• Salad Days

  La Colombe d'Or

  September 2, 2004

• Monica Hits Midtown

  Pope's new restaurant is flat-out brilliant

  March 11, 2004

• Terrible Ciao

  A tide of jamlike red sauce splashes over the cuisine at Terra Bosco's

  February 19, 2004

• Best Indian Restaurant

  Restaurant Indika

  September 25, 2003

• Best Place for a First Date

  Backstreet Cafe

  September 25, 2003

• Forbidden City Food

  Sometimes when a Chinese waiter says "not for you," he's right

  November 7, 2002

• Is Zin In?

  Zack Ateyea gives up the ghost of continental cuisine and bets the bank on a California red

  October 3, 2002

• Best Malaysian Restaurant

  Malaysia Restaurant

  September 26, 2002

• Truth in Advertising

  Daniel Wong's Kitchen

  May 2, 2002

• Better By Design

  Seven months and $3 million later, the eatery at the Four Seasons emerges even better than before

  March 21, 2002

• America's Volume Dealer

  The Zagat Survey spits out large amounts of data, not informed criticism

  June 21, 2001

• Treat Mom Right on Mother's Day

  Mother's Day is quickly approaching, and if you've already made plans to take your dear, sainted mother out to a lovely meal on Sunday...wonderful! You're ahead of about 90 percent of us. Make us all look bad, why don't you? If you're like the rest of us, you're probably still trying to decide on a place for mom and the rest of the family to enjoy a meal. Need a place that's kid-friendly but still nice? Looking for something different from the same old routine? Adventurous enough for

  May 6, 2009

• Upcoming Events

  Photo by Troy Fields Pizza at Bistro Don CamilloThe heat is already on this summer, so take advantage of the cool air conditioning and the cool deals going on at some of your favorite restaurants. Fleming's Steakhouse will be offering special deals starting June 23. The summer prix fixe menu features a choice of appetizers, entrees and side dishes such as chilled potato-leek soup and broiled sea scallops that are well-balanced for the steamy weather outside. The prix-fixe menu is $3

  June 19, 2009

• Room At The Inn

  Photo by Katharine Shilcutt Canapes with house-made chevre and garden herbsAs the fourth course of the meal was set in front of me, I marveled at its elegant construction but was more struck by a far subtler thing: Every ingredient in the dish had been plucked fresh from the organic garden outside, no more than a few hundred yards from where I sat, that morning. The first course of tomato salad with house-made chevre and the second course of risotto with sweet basil puree and homemade re

  June 29, 2009

• Upcoming Events

  Photo by Katharine Shilcutt Pimm's Cup, on the menu at the Reef-Anvil cocktail pairing dinnerRecession diners, get those forks at the ready. Yelp Eats! is here. The online review site -- perhaps best known for local restaurant reviews -- has started its very own Restaurant Week called Yelp Eats! in which popular area restaurants will be offering $25 prix fixe dinners from July 20 to July 26. Each restaurant has created a special three-course menu for the week, featuring popular item

  July 17, 2009

• Washington Ave. Revisited

  July 30, 2009

• Lingering Over Lunch: Rioja's

  Photo by Robb Walsh​Fine dining establishments are suffering in these days of the downturn. But as we've mentioned many a time before, the best restaurants in the city have some of the choicest lunch specials. Bistro Don Camillo's business lunch, an appetizer, entrée and dessert for $18.95 is quite a deal and so is Tony's "Greenway Special," soup or salad, stuffed chicken and dessert for $17. Da Marco usually offers a helluva spread for $25. But one of my favorite midday feasts is the $1

  August 13, 2009

• Branch Water Tavern: The Best New Restaurant Not Open Yet?

  ​Branch Water Tavern at 510 Shepherd will be a new American tavern with outstanding whiskeys, microbrewery beers and one of the hottest chefs in the city behind the stove. CIA grad David Grossman used to cook at Gravitas and Reef. Before that, he worked with the legendary Alfred Portale at Gotham Bar & Grill in New York. Gotham Bar & Grill pioneered the casual, cocktail-centric tavern style of fine dining 25 years ago in New York. According to a press release I received, Branch Water Tav

  October 14, 2009