Rustika Cafe & Bakery on the SW Freeway

Eat here for a homemade lunch in a casual setting. I eat here often because it is a reliably good lunch spot with a big menu in a central location (Greenway Plaza area). They serve delicious salads, assorted Mexican dishes, omelets (try the "Ike special" with everything tossed in or the "BP special" with a mole spill), soups, and sandwiches. I ordered my favorite today: the chicken salad salad (not a typo). It is a very generous scoop of fresh, homemade white meat chicken salad, made with just the right amount of crunchy celery and mayo, atop a huge bed of house salad. Tossed into the mixed greens are mandarin orange sections, sliced tomatoes, and toasted slivered almonds. Their house dressing is tangy, a bit sweet, with a slight kick. Accompanying the salad is a lightly toasted, thick slice of their delicious homemade wheat bread. Rustika is a bakery, so they know how to bake bread. They also make incredible cookies, pastries, and cakes. If you order the #2 lunch combo, which is a cup of soup, half sandwich, and salad, you get a free cookie. Rustika's food and style is comforting, with mismatched silverware and plates, real glass drinking glasses, and an occasional table cloth and high-backed chair. Almost like being in someone's home, which makes it a special place.

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar on Alabama

Eat here, especially on Sunday nights. We love their lusciously succulent and tender prime rib, which is an excellent value with their "Sunday Night Dinner Special" at $37.95 (or just $29.95 during the month-long promotion in January!) Wait until you hear what it includes: your choice of a Caesar, wedge, or house salad, any side dish on the regular menu, a 12-oz thick cut of prime rib (nice and rare, if you like it the way we do), and dessert. And everything is full sized. They serve warm, crusty whole grain bread with two different spreads, and include three dipping sauces on the side of the prime rib. We generally share one of these dinners and order an extra salad, since the portions are huge. Tonight we didn't even have room for dessert, so we took it to go. And to add to the great value, you can get an extra $25 savings toward your next visit if you complete the short online survey using the code on your receipt. So tonight, we used our previous visit's $25 savings, which meant our two glasses of wine were essentially free. You can also save 20% by buying gift cards at Costco that can be used at any time. Sunday nights are very busy here, for good reason. The restaurant is well managed, and the service is usually quite good, despite the crowds. Our food was served at the right pace and everything was hot and delicious. Sunday night at Fleming's is my favorite way to say farewell to the weekend.

E Tao in the Galleria

Eat here for possibly the best Chinese food in Houston. Asian friends of ours, David and Suzanne, turned us onto this hidden gem in the Galleria (on the second floor near Nordstrom) last year and we've been back many times. We feasted here with them tonight, and boy, what a treat. They ordered mostly from the Chinese menu on the last two pages (there is an English translation, so have no fear.) We started with everyone's favorite steamed Shanghai soup dumplings, which must be handled delicately so as not to burst the thin dough wrapper and lose the delicious soup inside (which we managed to do a couple of times!) The scallion pancake appetizer was tasty and crunchy. My favorite main dish was the fried brown rice with soft shell crab, pine nuts, and fish eggs (#187). It was incredible. Don't let the fish eggs scare you. They were very tiny orange beads that added crunch to the rice, which had superb texture and flavor. The crab was lighted breaded and crispy. We savored huge stir-fried prawns in a ginger sauce (#181), the just right slightly chewy ho fun (flat rice noodles) with tender slices of stir-fried beef (#116A), the flavorful stewed eggplant with diced chicken, and tofu with snow pea shoots (which you won't find on the regular menu). We tasted the special XO sauce, which isn't a sauce at all, but rather a crispy topping of fried minced garlic, hot peppers, black beans, and crunchy white noodle strings. Wow! Terrific and very spicy. The menu is extensive and moderately priced, so the next time you are craving Chinese food, come to E Tao for an exceptional, authentic meal.

Grotto on Westheimer

Eat here for reliably good Italian food. It is noisy, popular (translation: you may have to wait for a table), and a lively atmosphere that makes it a fun favorite of ours. The food has maintained its high quality over the years, serving delicious fresh pastas, chicken, veal, pizzas, salads, and lots more. We never can resist the fabulous hot-out-of-the-oven focaccia and the crisp-on-the-outside soft-on-the-inside Italian bread in the bread basket. We inevitably fill up on the wonderful breads, which leaves little room for the rest of the meal. We shared a generous order of fried calamari, which featured a few plump ones uniquely stuffed with herbed ricotta cheese. Yum! Then we shared an Italian chopped salad that featured grilled chicken, provolone, salami (instead of the menu's prosciutto), chopped egg, Gorgonzola, extremely crisp bacon, and chopped iceberg lettuce. This is the lazy-man's special, since everything is diced up into tiny pieces, with no cutting and little chewing required. Service was excellent, as usual, with very attentive waiters who paced the meal leisurely, as we preferred, and bus boys who refilled our water glasses unobtrusively throughout the meal. The sweet, crunchy biscotti and Italian flag cookies that came gratis with the check added to the sweetness of this impeccable evening. Bravo, Grotto!

Eduardo's Mexican Restaurant in Stafford

Eat here for down home Mexican cooking, next time you are cruising through Stafford. Tonight, business took us out to this suburb about 20 minutes from the Galleria. Eduardo's was convenient, so we stopped there for a quick dinner. I learned it has been in business for 17 years, and now I know why. The food was delicious, hot, and fresh. The chunky salsa was homemade, packing plenty of heat. The chile relleno was outstanding, surpassing the quality of any of the major chain restaurants in town. The cheese-stuffed poblano pepper had just the right texture--not too firm and not too soft--and was topped with a homemade ranchero sauce that was mild, yet flavorful. The rice was authentic and tasty; the guacamole was loaded with fresh ingredients; the refried beans tasted the way they should. The menu features the traditional fare (except there were no salads), plus four homemade "soups for the soul", as the homey, hand-written signs on the walls advertised. The look of the place is endearing, with the feel of an outdoor taqueria created by decorative barrel tiled roofing covering the bar and kitchen sections. The place is loaded with sombreros and colorful decorations hanging everywhere that give it a warm, fun, family atmosphere. Prices are very reasonable and the service excellent. Worth a special trip? Maybe, when you get tired of eating at the big, noisy chains.

The Union Kitchen on Bellaire

Eat here for lunch, not dinner. That's because the lunch menu is quite extensive and moderately priced, and the atmosphere is light and airy. Dinner, on the other hand, is not nearly as nice an atmosphere as many other comparably priced restaurants around town, and the menu is not as appealing. Getting back to lunch, today I dined with 9 women friends celebrating 2 birthdays, and each of us enjoyed our dishes immensely. My Kobe beef burger was superb, served medium rare as requested, and topped with Swiss and fresh mushrooms on a whole wheat bun. My companions had delicious wraps, sandwiches, salads, and soup, all of which were generously sized and made with the freshest ingredients, such as the grilled chicken and avocado sandwich served with tomato and swiss on ciabatta, homemade lentil soup with herbs and vegetables, and a grilled chicken paillard salad with sundried tomatoes, olives, and parmesan served over arugula with a white balsamic vinaigrette. One thing amazed us about our waiter: he took each of our orders and didn't write a single thing down! We were very skeptical and couldn't imagine we would be getting what we ordered the way we wanted it (you know, "dressing on the side", "medium rare", "wheat bun"), but low and behold, we did! Hats off to our memory whiz of a waiter. The Union Kitchen has become our new home for our birthday luncheons.

DiMassi's Mediterranean Buffet on Kirby

Eat here at half price, come hungry, and don't expect any atmosphere. We had a Groupon for half price-2 dinners for $12, including soft drinks, so we decided to try it. The extensive buffet featured the typical Middle Eastern dishes. We sampled the hummus, baba ganoush, fatoosh, tabouli, and marinated mushroom salad with spinach, onions, and bell peppers--they were fresh and good, but nothing special. Next we tried the grilled veggies (yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, and onions), which would have been a lot better if they had been hot, the yellow rice pilaf, which had very little flavor, and the baked cauliflower, which had just been set out on the buffet and was fresh, hot, and delicious. There were three chicken dishes to sample, including baked chicken pieces, seasoned chicken breast chunks, and batter fried chicken legs (kid pleaser). The shwarma (lamb and beef) was very tasty and freshly carved off the spit. The pita was piping hot with a great fluffy texture, but bland. There were also crispy baked pita chips. Dessert included cut up fresh cantaloupe and honeydew, rice pudding, sweet and flaky baklava, and honey-drenched coconut pound cake. After this meal, we rolled home!

Mark's Restaurant

Eat here, but bring a wad of dough. We dined with another couple here tonight who were visiting from San Antonio. Mark's is their favorite Houston restaurant. Dinner was delicious. We shared everything, so we could all taste the menu items that sounded so appealing. We started with a lobster dish served over two types of noodles, with one large scallop in the center and two dipping sauces. Very tasty and colorful, and it seemed like it was a whole small lobster. I found the two different noodles rather odd, and would have preferred the one thicker pasta only. We then sampled the duck and venison ravioli with fois gras in a fabulous sauce. Next we ordered three salads: an heirloom tomato salad with very fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese and arugula; a saffron-laced pear salad with warm goat cheese, arugula, and candied pecans; and a winter salad with roasted beets, yellow tomatoes, barrata, and arugula. The salads were very attractively presented and tasted good, but when you call a salad a "pear salad", it should have more than a few tiny slivers of pear. For our entrees, we shared the breast of Muscovy duck, with blackberries and wild rice pilaf, and grilled shrimp with crab meat with a light, flavorful sauce. The assorted breads that accompanied dinner were excellent, with at least five different types. We had room for one dessert, which was a warm raspberry crumble tart, served with a tiny scoop of pistachio ice cream and a cookie. Quite a divine way to end the meal. While Mark's is rather pricey, the portions are adequate but won't provide tomorrow's lunch. To save a little money, you can purchase $100 in gift cards for $79.99 at Costco, but let's face it, this is a splurge meal. The atmosphere and service were top notch, so eat here and enjoy!

Eddie V's on Kirby ("West Ave")

Eat here, but bring a flashlight! Eddie V's is a consistently good seafood restaurant with dishes that are a bit out of the ordinary and that really work. For instance, the Kung Pao style calamari appetizer, consists of spicy, fried calamari, seasoned with soy and ginger, served over crispy rice noodles and toasted cashews. Served with chopsticks, this dish is generously sized to serve four as an appetizer, or in our case tonight, it was our entree. We also ordered an heirloom tomato salad to finish out the meal. My only objection tonight was regarding the lighting. You literally could not see the menu because the lighting was so dim. I observed many diners using their iPhone flashlights to view their menus. When I asked the manager about it, he said "corporate mandates the light settings". Well, corporate needs to visit and observe. I didn't experience this problem when dining at three other Eddie V's locations (two in Austin and one in West Houston at City Centre.)

La Vista on Fountainview

Eat here. Last night's dinner was delightful. We brought our own bottle of Jordan Cabernet to this popular BYOB restaurant on Fountainview between Westheimer and San Felipe. Amazingly, we didn't have to wait for a table, which was a nice surprise, considering we arrived at 7pm. It was warm enough to sit outside, but we judged it too humid. And who wants to sit at the edge of a parking lot anyway? The atmosphere inside was pleasant, although nothing fancy. Our server, Octavio, provided excellent service that was attentive and efficient. After perusing the menu, we ordered a few dishes that sounded good, even though they weren't entrees. We chose a medium sized garden (veggie) pizza, which we were able to customize (half with no olives, half with no eggplant) without any trouble, the goat cheese stuffed pepper, and the marinated tomato salad. Wow! The thin crusted pizza was weighed down with colorful fresh ingredients: mushrooms, tomatoes, red onions, bell peppers, sliced olives/eggplant, basil, zesty tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese. The unusual stuffed pepper dish featured venison sausage that was absolutely delicious. The marinated tomato salad had sliced artichoke hearts, sliced Romas, onions, black olive slices, basil, Parmesan cheese, and two large slices of their warm, fresh-baked and grilled bread to dip in the slightly sweet balsamic marinade at the bottom of the dish. Yum! These three dishes made a perfect meal for two, with some pizza to take home to savor for today's lunch. Prices are moderate, but with the small wine corkage fee of $7 per bottle, you can save quite a bit over comparable restaurants.