Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino

Giacomo's. It's new. On Westheimer near Kirby. I've been wanting to visit and try this new restaurant, Italian, organic ingredients, wines, express dining. I got the Pappardelle al telefono - wide noodles with garlic & oil, cherry tomatoes, basil & mozzarella, $10.00. One of my dining mates got the tortelli di bietola ravioli - stuffed with swiss chard, ricotta, and goat cheese in sage butter, $11.00. The other got cotoletta di maiale alla milanese - pork loin chop coated in seasoned breadcrumbs, sautéed in butter and topped with frisee, fennel, and olives, $12.00. I had a bite of eaches, all the dishes were good, tasty. What I wasn't crazy about was the atmosphere or the funky odor...smelled a bit like an old house and a bit dark and gloomy inside, but the decor is updated and modern. I'd probably go back...not really. I'm big on atmosphere, there's enough good places out there for me to go back to something that's overall ok.

Weekend of Food

I frequent Tiny's at least once a week. The atmosphere is relaxing, food is good, energy good, but crowd and parking is ridiculous. It's enough to never step foot in there again! Anyways, everything I've tried here is good. buffalo burger, steak & avocado salad, turkey & avocado sandwich, frites, bread plate, and the infamous beet-it-burger, not for the faint of heart! The patty, beets and beans on a toasted wheat bun. I like it, but I like it mostly because it's healthy and it's actually not bad. I decided to have the orzo pasta, but the frites are tastier and go better.

It was Jodie's birthday so we had Crave's red velvet, the best, in my opinion. It's super yum. There's just something really magical about that top layer...mmm...

At Dolce Vita's, my second time. I asked our server to recommend their best pizza, he suggested the Margherita pizza, I had it, it's was just okay, and Margherita is my favorite pizza. I'm starting to think pizza is not Dolce Vita's forte. They should drop the "Pizzeria" behind their name. I will go again for the atmosphere, but definitely won't be ordering pizza this time. I overheard another patron saying the short ribs were awesome, maybe my next thing to order. They also have this bread appetizer I haven't had a chance to try, maybe next time.

Saturday dinner was at Bonga with the fam. I just noticed on Fearless Critic, they gave Bonga a 8.8 rating, top 12 out of over 100 restaurants under the category of "casual". Bonga is my go to Korean restaurant at the moment. Good dwen jang gigae, that's tofu bean soup.

Pizza at Dolce Vita

Ahh...Dolce Vita...hm...went by yesterday, turns out they really do have a great atmosphere. Warm lighting, busy, good crowd, food...well...not quite what I expected. I was thinking, it’s a pizzeria, I should try a pizza. Better yet, try the only pizza on the specials menu. My pizza had spinach, porchetta, some cheese, some marinara on a thin crust. Sounds good, not really. I’ll have to give it another try. My dining mate had the Pesce, it was undercooked, we sent it back, chef came out to personally deliever the new dish and apologized profusely, and waited till my dining mate took a bite, now that’s something you don’t see often. I’ve learned you can’t judge a restaurant on one dish alone and since I’m an atmosphere person and it meets my atmosphere criteria, I’ll have to give it another try. Great for small groups of friends, couples, double dating.

Monday Night Football @Shuck Daddy’s

So regularly on Mondays, the boys, me and reb eat bar food while watching football. Now the guys are probably the only ones watching, unless one of my fantasy football players are playing, but other than that, it's just to eat junk and be in a fun and high energy atmosphere. So usually we do steak night, one of my favorite things to do, but we've been throwing in different ideas to meet at, last night, Shuck Daddy's. I've been before, on opening night, didn't have much for me to eat at that time, but I've heard they've added to their menu. Happy Hour is 3-7pm Monday through Saturday. Mostly seafood, crawfish and fried stuff. Yesterday, I had the calamari, stuffed crab jalapenos, buffalo wings, and fish tacos. Fish tacos were bland, and I'm not usually a tabassco person, but it needed some flavor, so add tabassco and all was good. I think we were all unanimous on the buffalo wings, worst I've ever tasted. We couldn't get Lou to even lick them for a taste. Stuffed jalapenos were actually good, calamari was soggy. I also tasted the michelada, which is beer and bloody mary mix, that was eh too. I'm not quite sure how the place stays open. I think Shuck's problem is they do the minimum. People don't like minimum regarding food unless you have a rocking atmosphere. There was a comment about unattractive waitresses, that usually doesn't help a restaurant of that type either. I think I got the thumbs down for recommending Shucks, maybe it's different for crawfish and oysters, which I believe is their main thing.