The "3 Pig Truffled Mac & Cheese" at Urban Eats is one of the best versions of the dish in Houston. The secret is a complex cheese sauce that includes Fontina, Gouda, Cheddar, Velveeta and cream cheese. Three kinds of pork join the show and turn it into a hands-down hit: bacon, pancetta (cured bacon that's not also smoked) and honey-glazed ham. There's only a small amount of white truffle oil, which thankfully allows the cheese sauce to shine. That's important, because the radiatori pasta (little ridged hunks of pasta reminiscent of radiators) is the perfect shape for capturing it.
Like a cover song, it's a good remake of a familiar tune. At Urban Eats, updated spins on the familiar are the stock-in-trade.
Urban Eats is an all-in-one bakery, espresso bar, deli (downstairs) and a bar and full-fledged restaurant (upstairs). It's one of many multipurpose eateries that have sprung up around Houston, including Tout Suite, Weights + Measures and Woodbar.
The selection of pâtés, Italian deli meats and cheeses on the first floor practically begs to be taken to a park for a picnic in the springtime air. Besides the gourmet goodies, there's a coffee and espresso bar, a bakery, and grab-and-go salads and sandwiches. A few booths upholstered in red hide in a cozy nook in the back and counter seating hugs the walls, perfect for diners seeking brief respite from the outside world.
There are fun ingredients for playing with at home, too, like multicolored pastas and truffles in red pesto. It's hard to tear yourself away from the gourmet eye candy. Allow for a bit of time after a meal for some indulgent grocery shopping.
The more formal restaurant is worth the trudge upstairs, though. The centerpiece is a big square bar that would be perfectly at home in an English pub. More booth seating lines the back wall, and there are tables in the aisles (which are a tad too close together). Double doors open up to the balcony patio outside, a boon during Houston's brief temperate seasons.
(In order to see the second floor, visitors do indeed have to be able to walk up the stairs. There is no elevator, and Urban Eats isn't required to have one since it makes its full menu available downstairs.)
Urban Eats's strength is also its weakness. It puts new spins on familiar dishes, but like a Top 40 station with a limited catalog, it uses the same play-list over and over again. That makes you wonder if the conversations during menu development went something like this: "If bacon is good, let's use it in ten dishes!" "People like sliders. What if we do nine different kinds?" "Everyone loves french fries, so let's have eight different toppings to put on them!"
Wait, isn't the "fries with stuff on them" trend over? That reached new levels of popularity at the peak of the gourmet-food-truck craze. It was a dish the trucks were able to execute in a limited kitchen environment, and the results, ranging from kimchi fries to fries with foie gras, sold pretty well. Then they started showing up on restaurant menus. Surely there's something else that can be done with potatoes.
The extensive list of "Bistro Pommes Frites," considered aloud, sounds like the line about shrimp from Forrest Gump: "We got plain fries, fries with bacon and cheese, fries with sausage, fries with brisket, fries with feta, and blue cheese fries with truffle oil."
We ordered the bacon and cheddar fries. The fries alone are pretty good -- shoestring-style potatoes that range from crispy to soft -- but neither the loose topping of cheddar and bacon nor the dish of sweetish bourbon barbecue sauce alongside added anything exciting.
On the sliders list, though, the hits just keep coming. The fried green tomato BLT strikes all the right notes. The soft pretzel buns, a thick slab of tomato and thick, crispy, smoky bacon make for pure harmony. The fried green tomato adds the right amount of moisture, and a spread of peach-pepper jam on the bottom bun lends a candied quality to the bacon.
Salads, on the other hand, just don't seem to be Urban Eats's forte. The "crisp breast tenders" on the fried chicken and pickled veggie salad were dry planks not worth eating. The pickled beets, carrots and cucumber started out as an interesting addition but were so ubiquitous that the sourness became tiresome. Flat, overly oily greens didn't help matters. The Brussels Toss was better but nothing to write home about -- a tossed salad of romaine and arugula with roasted Brussels sprouts thrown in to join the party. In truth, the simple little mixed-green salad with balsamic dressing that accompanies the sliders puts these entrée salads to shame -- at no extra charge.
