Nara Restaurant (West Ave)

Nara is a new Korean and Japanese fusion restaurant in the West Ave shopping center off of Upper Kirby, in the old Katusya space.  I have been very interested in making a visit since I first heard about it.  But, you know wedding, honeymoon, and I completely forgot about it.  Well, since we've settled in, Matt and I have decided to implement date night and this past Friday was our first.  It was an automatic...Nara! 

So, if you didn't know, I'm Korean.  So, naturally, you would suspect I would be more critical of a Korean restaurant.  But, I have every intention of being open minded, but still, I am influenced by my experience of Korean food.  When you walk in, you can see the old Katsuya's presence, just a bit.   There's still the large open spaces, sushi bar in the center, and bar to the right of the door.  They have revamped and it does look great.  I decide I do not want to do any sushi since I have had Uptown sushi's sushi.  You know, since Nara is the same owner as Uptown Sushi, chef/owner Don Chang.  We mostly went with our sever suggestions, the Shiseto peppers, rice cake with oxtail, bibeembap, steamed buns with short ribs, steamed buns with chicken, mimi chicken salad, the kimchi, and the green tiramisu.  Our favorites were the rice cake with oxtail, bibeembap, and chicken salad.  I like the crispyness of the rice cake, sauce and the oxtail.  It had a nice texture and tasted great too.  The bibeembap, mixed rice with fried egg was pretty tasty too, and the mimi chicken salad just tasted light, I really liked the dressing on it, light soy based vinegar sauce.  The kimchi was bland, it just wasn't ripe enough.  But, if you aren't used to kimchi, you probably wouldn't notice.  The green tiramisu was pretty good too.

I thought the menu was a little slim and a lot of Uptown Sushi's presence on it. It was probably only the appetizers, salads, and main entrees that seemed new.  The staff has this Uchi-like presence about them, this team work style and explanation of foods type environment.  I heard people complaining about the portions of the dishes.  Our sever explained it was like a tapas style, small sharing plates.    We were stuffed by the end of dinner for two.  We ordered about 9 dishes and it came out to $140 including 2 glasses of wine, which isn't bad.  I think if you keep an open mind and keep in mind it's Korean/Japanese fusion, you'll have a nice experience.  Overall, we liked our visit and it was a great place for our first date night.

The Good Dog Hot Dog Visit II

I cannot tell a lie...I actually visited again before the wedding, this time I had the real dog!  It's all Matt's fault!  He said he read something where it had opened with great reviews and he really wanted to go visit...grr...I was trying to be "good"!  I didn't put up much of a fight, though.  I'll tell you, it's not a place you want to go if you're watching your girlish figure.  We ordered a salad to try to balance the meal...the salad...probably worse than the dogs!  We also got the homemade chips, ugh!  Really, I didn't like anything other than the dogs.  The girl who took our order said she loved the new curry dog, I didn't care for it so much.  The guac dog is still my favorite!  You should go visit, it's really the best dogs I've ever had.  In the meantime, I'm going to try to stay away from Studewood.  Happy eating!

Good Dog Hot Dog Open!

I'm excited to report, The Good Dog Hot Dog is finally open!  I don't know about you, but I have been waiting anxiously.  On my first visit, which was before the wedding, I was still trying to be "good", but I really wanted to visit, so I took Jay, his first time, and decided to get a tofu hot dog.  It's actually ok, but I prefer the real dog.  It's one of my favorite guilty pleasures.  I love the guac dog, sooo good.  If you haven't tried TGDHD, you must, must, must!  Look at these delicious dogs! 

Poparazzi Popcorn

You know...I love me some gourmet popcorn!  Once someone sent me a big 3 gallon tin of gourmet popocorn, caramel to be exact...it was probably the best gift I've received!  Well...almost.  So, I did some researching and found this gourmet popcorn shop and I was wowed.  They have so many flavors!  I'm a simple girl, so I purchased a mini bag of the buffalo wings and ranch, vinegar & salt, add pickle, and the chicago style (my favorite) caramel and cheese.  I think I was won over by the new flavors, buffalo wings & ranch and vsp!  They were, omg, so tasty!  I can't wait to g back for more!

Torchy's Tacos Heights

I love it!  I am very happy about this new opening in the Heights!  It's a rather large space, with nice outside seating...and ample parking...unlike some other location, namely Shepherd.  Yum, look at these dishes.  My Fried Avocado taco looks like it's two, but it's really only one.  Love this place!

 

btw, who's that cutie patootie opening the door?  :)

Kunjip Korean Restaurant (Korea Town/NY)

By word of mouth, the best kimchi fried rice I have ever had. The kimchi soup and bibeem bahp were good too, probably not the best I have had, but really good overall. Super crowded, but very efficient! We ordered while waiting and our food came as soon as we sat! So good, we went twice on my 7 day trip!

Breakfast at Java Java!

I've heard of Java Java, but never tried.  I don't think I even noticed it until someone mentioned it as a brunch spot.  Finally, I get a chance to go this past weekend!  It's located on 11th street, once you get there you know you've seen it.  Parking is limited, we walk in and atomsphere is ok, I guess.  There's a good number of people, maybe only a handful of tables still open.  The decor/interior is uninspiring but, even at that I'm sure decor selections were intentional.  It almost looks like a Mexican restaurant and describing it as Austin ish is a stretch. 

I'm actually pretty excited after I see the menu.  They have a Breakfast combo that allows me to have eggs and half of a waffle.  Perfect for me!  I got turkey sauage and it also comes with a cantalope.  Matt got the same thing but with bacon instead.  I'm not expecting a whole lot, since, so far my experience has been pretty average.  I take a bite of my eggs, mmm...good actually.  Turkey sausage...mm...good, waffle, mm....good too.  Even the cantalope was good.  I thought everything tasted really good and quite surprised.  Everything was done well and I'm always a fan of just good, tasty food.  A definite go back spot!

Barnaby's Cafe

Thought I saw something somewhere say Barnaby's Cafe and decided it was not a new restaurant but a new way to describe the Barnaby's restaurants.  But then, I was in downtown and saw it and instantly wanted to go at that moment!  Instead I went a couple of weeks later.  Somehow Barnaby's always seems to trap so much noise in their restaurants, it's very loud!  I still like the atmosphere.  It's the corporate crowd.  Our food comes out and it's adorable as usual.  I thought my egg salad sandwich tasted more wet and more mayoee.  They also had their own homemade chips at this location, which I have not seen that before, but I think maybe it's because I usually get fries.  I only ate half of my sandwich, which is normal, but I just couldn't get myself to eat the other half as a snack later and now...I think I'm officially over the egg salad sandwich.  I would still go back though!  C'mon it's Barnaby's!

Torchy's Tacos (Shepherd)

Another place I have been meaning to visit since they opened, some ago, probably a year now.  They did that weird change of names before opening and I was just never really that interested in going.  I had heard they came down from Austin, heard that the location here wasn't as good as Austin, then I saw them open a locaiton in Rice Village...all this floating around in my head and still somewhat interested in visiting, but not a whole lot of motivation.  So yesterday, Matt, Eth and I decide we want to do something easy, casual, kind of maybe festive, good crowd, so I yelp and Torchy's comes up and we decide, eh ok, let's try it.

 

On entering, you walk in through the outdoor patio and it's actually kind of dark, not a whole lot of lighting.  Not as festive as I was picturing in my head, but not bad still a decent crowd.  The interior was simple, we walk up to the counter, there are these two guys with these really groovy afros.  The black guy pictured here helped us and he was super nerdy cool and was very nice and helpful.  I was leaning towards the Independent taco that had a ton of veggies.  I told our super nerdy cool helper I lean more towards veggies and not towards heavy meats, and he suggested I try the Fried Avocado.  I was a bit hesitant, but decided to order both, food picture #1.  (Fried Avocado on left, Independent on right).  He knew what he was talking about, the Fried Avocado was really good and had great combination of flavors wich a nice kick and textures, while the Independent was kind of bland tasting.  I had both on corn, but you can pick.  Each taco is $3.50!

 

Our helper says the top three listed on the chalk board are the most popular, which are Green Chile Pork, Fried Avocado and the Trailer Park.  Matt ordered the Green Chile Pork and the Mr. Pink.  He said the Green Chile Pork was amazing.  I tried his Mr. Pink (ahi tuna) and I thought that was good too, but we both thought the pork barbacoa was really good.  Our helper gives good advice!  Eth got just two plain beef tacos.  We also ordered the chips and salsa and it looked simple enough but was actually really good too, nices spices and flavors.  We all really liked the experience, overall food was great, environment was casual and the staff were great helpers.  Me gusto mucho!

Ruffles Green (Heights) Now Opened!

I hear mixed opinions about Ruggles Green Heights location.  I do like Ruggles Green, but had not tried the Heights location.  Going into the building, I like what they've done to the place.  It's bright, decorated well, and good patio space.  On the food, I have noticed they made some changes to my favorite Texas Warm Goat Cheese Salad. The sundried dressing doesn't quite seem the same, but it's still good, I liked it and would probably go back again.  Matt had the Chicken Tacos and said they were good, I tried and they were tasty.  I love corn tortillas!  Ethan had a burger and said it was good too...I'll have to take his word on it since I didn't try his.  We all did nibble on his fries which were fine.  I would definitely put it on my list of places to go to in the Heights.