Guadalajara

Guadalajara is the latest establishment to open up in the Pavilion mall downtown, and they were doing a trial run at lunch today.  So we got to try anything we wanted on the menu for free.

Like the rich little piglets that we are, the five of us pretty much ordered everything on the menu.  For appetizers, we tried the ceviche, the guacamole, quesadillas, chimichangas, and other weird fried tex-mex foods that I can't remember.  It was all pretty average, except the quesadillas, which were really good, but seeing as how it was free, it was exhilarating.   I had this creamy poblano soup with a fish taco for my entree.  The soup was really good and spicy and the fish taco was average (although, I think I hold fish tacos to the standard of Berry Hill, so I'm generally pretty tough to please on this dish).  

The decor in the restaurant is bright and colorful, but the hues are kinda 70s, which makes me think it will look really dated in about five years.  I will likely go back to this place due to its proximity to my office, but I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to go downtown for dinner to hit it up.  

House of Blues

For post-election Wednesday, my coworkers and I had lunch at the brand new House of Blues in downtown Houston.  This place has kinda been a thorn in my side lately because there's loads of latenight traffic flowing into my parking garage as I'm trying to leave work in the late evenings, but it has also brought a great deal of excitement into my life, like when Jay-Z came the opening weekend and I imagined him hanging out in his wife's hometown with his wife, just doing their thing.

Anyways, that was all to say that this place has a lot of hype surrounding it (traffic, Beyonce, etc) so I was preparing myself to be let down by the culinary experience.  But let down I was not!  This food was right.  I had a crab/corn soup that was served with a sweet cornbread muffin.  It was sweet, you guys!  Then I had a shrimp po'boy that was served on super-soft bread (oh Holland...sigh) with salty fried shrimp, relatively dry but colorful coleslaw, and I subbed sweet potato fries for regular fries.  This shit was off the hook.

People around me were having catfish nuggets (like chicken nuggets), mac 'n cheese,  shrimp etouffe and pulled pork sandwiches.  All of these had nice and some adorable presentations.

The only bad part of the meal was the bill, about $30.  But don't hold it against this restaurant.  As a bunch of rowdy Obamamamas celebrating the election, someone mentioned a pitcher of margaritas to the waitress and no one shot it down.  So this is definitely an affordable lunch spot as long as you aren't celebrating the greatest election of your lifetime and one of America's proudest moments.  

YES WE CAN!

Potbelly Sandwich Works

If you like your sandwiches hot and drippy, you will like Potbelly.  

A Potbelly sandwich consists of soft warm wheat bread, a load of meat, a little bit of cheese, and then a veritable shmear of assorted olives and peppers.  The first time I went to this place, I thought, wow, that little bit of heat from the peppers is nice, a fresh take on a sandwich.  But this week!  Good Lord!  Those peppers were hot.  My lips were burning so hot after finishing that baby off it looked like I was wearing ball-buster-red lipstick.  It really made my day.

Google lets me know that my readers in DC and Minnesota will have no trouble finding a location near them, but my loved ones in NYC are going to have to venture out into the greater Tri-State area.  I'm not going to say its worth a 45 minute train ride, as only few things are, but, if you find yourself in the neighborhood and work up an appetite (knocking on doors, perhaps) you might find one in Philly and chow down.  

Striphouse

The Striphouse is a downtown business-oriented restaurant that is completely inappropriate for today's business world.  The walls are draped in pornographic images of the past, probably the 1950s.  Were there breasts in 1950's porn?  Because there are exposed breasts on the walls of this restaurant.  There is an aura aureola. 

[I'm sorry, but let's all stop and take a moment with that last sentence.  How great is it to read this blog?]

So even though it's kinda creepy to go there in mixed company, my co-workers and I ventured over when the newly-opened House of Blues was running a 45 minute wait for lunch.  I would have been happy to wait because it was Friday, but then I would have had to work all weekend.  Oh wait, I worked all weekend anyways.

Wow, this post has  a lot of personal asides.  Probably because reviewing steakhouses is boring.  I guess I just don't like steak.  I like the sides associated with steak though.  For instance, this place has great creamed spinach.  Maybe I will start getting veggie plates at steakhouses, although that's a pretty big professional risk at this point in my career.

Spencer's

Steakhouses and lawyers are like peas and carrots, perhaps because steak brings status without demanding too much skill.  

So, as a young attorney, I've been recruited at a lot of steakhouses in Texas.  My cardinal rule of eating at steakhouses is don't get fish.  It's not lighter and healthier than meat because it is swimming in butter.   It's generally just a bad version of whatever fish you were hoping to get (usually salmon). If you have to go to a steakhouse but you aren't that hungry, just order steak and eat a little bit of it.  

I switched sides of the table this week and became a recruit-er and then broke my own damn rule.  We started with some crab cakes and coconut shrimp that were really good, so I thought, shit, I'm gonna order some ahi tuna.  What a mistake.  It was disgusting.  And not just because I had just had really really good ahi tuna at Ibiza.  This ahi tasted briney.  And the texture was...raw.  The steak was really thick, so the  outside was chewy and overcooked and the inside was chunky and undercooked.  Very inconsistent.  I would take central market day-old tuna rolls over what I got at this place.  

So, Spencer's.  It has interesting architecture inside, the desserts looked good, apps were great, and lunch menu is reasonably priced.  Don't order fish at a steakhouse.