Are you ready for a disaster? The next hurricane to hit the Houston area, or some other event?

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, many parts of our area were without power for days. It could happen again. Learn how to prepare for a disaster, and how to make the most of the non-perishable foods to keep on hand in your emergency kit.
Celebrity chefs, including David Grossman (Fusion Taco), Jonathan Jones (El Big Bad), Travis Lenig (Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette), Kate McLean (Tony's), and Kevin Naderi (Roost, Lilo & Ella) will be on hand to compete to create the best dish from the non-perishable foods typically found in a disaster preparedness kit.
Media judges (including yours truly) will select a winner based on taste, creativity, and presentation.
But this event offers even more than the cook-off: Examples of emergency response equipment, disaster preparedness information, and exciting giveaways, including free picnic blankets for the first 50 attendees.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
11am - 12:30pm
Market Square Park (Downtown Houston)
301 Milam St.
(map)
Come join us. What you learn may save your life, or at least help you survive in style.

This week we're excited to introduce another guest blogger. Dr. Tom Nguyen is an active member of the Woodlands Area Foodies group, and one of the most knowledgable foodies I've met in years. He's constantly on the move trying new and different places, and he recently visited one of Houston's most written-about restaurants, Oxheart. Here's Tom's take on this media darling:

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Finally had the chance to check out the hottest restaurant in Houston. Hailed by everybody from the local press to New York Times, wanted to check out the talents of Chef Justin Yu.

Oxheart. (Photo: Kent Wang)

Located discreetly in gentrified EaDo (east downtown), Oxheart is in the building where Latin Bites used to be. Look for a place with 2 wooden doors at a corner. Walking in felt like walking into somebody's small loft, no formal host/hostess, but one of the waitstaff running around will greet and seat you. Definitely a casual atmosphere.

We get seated at the kitchen counter where all the action's at. Decor is pretty cozy, again, like you're in somebody's loft rather than a restaurant. First thing I notice, cats everywhere. Chinese lucky cats (Maneki-Neko) to be exact. At the counter, there are drawers near where you sit which contains utensils and napkins. You are expected to get these yourself.

Menu consists of a tasting menu, a seasonal menu (meat) and a garden menu (no meat). Food is locally sourced from wagyu in Wallis near Eagle Lake to veggies from Atkinson Farms in Spring. We order all 3 menus.

Details of the dishes follow. (Photos by Tom Nguyen)

Heirloom carrots cooked in onion bouillon with raw/caramelized carrots, carrot top fritters, speckled trout lettuce. The fritters and carrots in onion were good. Everything else so-so. The pile of green paint in the middle tasted like paint.

Winter citrus (I think oranges) in soy milk/bitter almond custard, fennel, and aloe. This tastes like tofu with ginger syrup dim sum, pretty good.

Radishes poached in whey, kyo-na zuke (pickled/salted collared greens), chrysanthemum leaf, homemade butter. Reminds me of tabouli. Tastes terrible without that butter

Flaxseed bread with homemade butter.

Mesquite-smoked Gulf Cobia with red savoy cabbage, and a roll of mustards and pickles. Good dish. The mustard/pickle rolls are similar to the ones I've had at Fukuda for their shabu shabu.

Layers of scarlet damsel and harukei turnips on top of kombu (kelp) served with farm egg. Terrible dish.

Charred zamboni raabs wrapped in kohlrabi with elephant garlic emulsion and cured gulf blue runner. Translation: Chinese broccoli wrapped in a string made of turnips with a garlic dip. As pathetic as this dish looks, this was incredibly good and one of my few faves here.

Wagyu sirloin, beef sausage, beets, and offal sauce. The sirloin was not tender, terrible. Sausage was meh, lacking in flavor. The burnt beets were good, like bacon. The ketchup made of organ meats was kinda weird. Made this dish look bloodier than it should've been.

Stew of fermented vegetables, fermented kale, crispy braised kale, and horseradish dumplings. It's like a cross between a fermented vegetable stew I can get readily at Xiong's on Bellaire and the kale from Olive Garden's Toscana soup. I couldn't finish this dish.

Homemade butterfingers. Picture a slightly saltier Butterfingers. There were 2 other desserts before this, but my wife was angry about me taking pics since nobody else in the restaurant was doing this. Mine was a honey cake with honey-soaked carrots...soooo good! Wife and kid had chocolate mousse, Olive oil ganache, and pickles. They loved it, I hated it, felt like I was eating a bowl of Cocoa Puffs except
I wasn't going cuckoo over it.

In general, I was not too impressed with the plating of the dishes. Wasn't bad, but I was expecting a more whimsical take on plating like at Pass&Provisions.

Many of the dishes were reminiscent of common Asian dishes. The raab was nothing more than Chinese broccoli. The kale soup had fermented vegetables commonly used in many Chinese and Vietnamese soups. The soy/almond custard was not too far removed from the tofu/ginger syrup snack found at many dim sum restaurants.

The menu is heavily focused on vegetables which can be a problem if you're a carnivore like myself.

With all the fanfare of the restaurant, had a hard time whether to consider it fine dining? If it's to be considered as such, I would've expected the service to be on par with The Pass, Triniti, or Mark's as opposed to say Dolce Vita for instance.

The price of the menu is very reasonable. Food wasn't bad at all, but wasn't blown away. While Oxheart is putting Houston on the national map for American dining, I don't see what all the buzz and hype is about. Pass&Provisions has a much better repertoire IMO.

My wife's assessment: glorified Souper Salad. Ouch...

Oxheart | 1302 Nance Street, Houston 77002 | 832-830-9592 | oxhearthouston.com

Oxheart on Urbanspoon

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Tom Nguyen grew up in SW Houston and currently resides in Conroe. He's been eating escargots since he was 2. He describes himself as the typical Asian who photographs everything he eats and proclaims it to the Woodlands Area Foodies. He's also a BBQ snob who's been known to carry Corkscrew BBQ brisket in his pocket, and a pho nazi, Tom also likes to walk around with his shirt off, and hates balut.

In the breakneck-paced Houston food scene, new restaurants often appear, get hot, cool off, and ultimately disappear in a matter of months. Universal foodie acclaim doesn't prevent this vicious cycle -- witness the demise of media darlings like Feast and Bootsie's.

Certain parts of town seem to present even more challenges. Inner Westheimer has tremendous competition. The Heights has archaic liquor laws. Downtown can offer a strong lunch business, but is deserted on weeknights, and this combination has thwarted great restaurants like Samba Grille, Laidback Manor, and other high-profile, critical success stories.

Yet some restaurants endure, and do so for decades. Instead of embracing the hottest food trends, they find a formula that satisfies their customers, and they refine and perfect it.

A textbook example is China Garden, located downtown across the street from the Toyota Center garage. China Garden has been serving Chinese-American food for lunch and dinner from this location since the 1970's, and we've heard reports of good food from trusted friends.

We ventured downtown for lunch to try to find out why China Garden has thrived so long in the tough downtown restaurant market.

Stepping inside was like stepping into a time machine set to 1985. The space is charmingly dated, with nary a window to be seen in the main dining area.

And yes, that's a bar in the dining room, something we don't normally see in today's sanitized concept restaurants.

Service was charmingly old-fashioned as well. Regulars were greeted warmly by the staff, and newbies (like us) were made to feel welcome immediately. The house was full, and the staff was in constant motion, efficiently serving the hungry crowd.

Guided by a friend's recommendation, we tried two different classic choices - sweet and sour chicken, and spicy chicken, AKA General Tso's. Somehow we resisted the throwback Chop Suey that was the first offering on the lunch menu; some childhood memories are best left unrevisited.

While we were waiting, a small basket appeared without explanation, holding something handmade and fried.

We bit in, and discovered the China Garden version of hushpuppies. These were bite sized versions of the fried biscuits that used to be found at every Chinese-American restaurant, but that we've not run across in many years. They were tasty and slightly heavy.

Our entrees appeared shortly. First up was the Spicy / General Tso's Chicken.

Served on the classic dragon-pattern dishes, the slightly crispy breaded chicken pieces were tossed with onions, scallions, and small mild peppers, then dressed in a brown sauce with a confident bite of freshly cracked black pepper. Not spicy by modern standards, it was flavorful with only slightest hint of heat. Served with a barebones but tasty scoop of fried rice and a gigantic old-school egg roll, this dish was considerably superior to the generic stuff served at most Chinese-American spots. The sauce had slightly softened the crust, but enough stiffness remained to make it a very enjoyable lunch.

Next up was the sweet and sour chicken.

This dish was less complex, and less successful. The sweet and sour sauce was more like a honey glaze, with no sourness to be found at all. The chicken's breading had gotten soft and lost most of its texture; we suspect a large batch had been sitting in the sauce for a while. If you like sweet chicken dishes you may enjoy this, but we found the spicy chicken to be a much more satisfying dish.

As we were taking the photos of the food, our waitress came by with a smile, asking why we were photographing our food. I honestly don't think she'd seen that done before, which is an amazing concept in 2014, but this reinforces the fact that China Garden is well off the map for critics, bloggers, and the majority of foodies.

That's a shame, because there's a lot to like at this Houston classic, as the busy lunch crowds attest. If you like Americanized Chinese food, give 'em a try.

China Garden | 1602 Leeland, Houston TX 77002 | 713-652-0745

China Garden on Urbanspoon

As our readers know, Houston's vibrant food scene isn't limited to Tex-Mex, BBQ, and burgers. As our nation's most multicultural city, dining options span the list from African to Vietnamese, with pretty much everything in between.

And Vietnamese is a big deal here. Houston is home to one of the nation's largest Vietnamese communities, and these immigrants have brought the delicious foods of their culture along with them. Vietnamese restaurants thrive in Houston, and range from tiny mom-and-pop pho shops to thriving local chains like Kim Son.
Imagine our surprise when we got a note from Houston's home-grown upscale burger empire, Beck's Prime, talking about the Banh Mi sandwich they were adding to their menu. We received a generous invitation to visit any of the Beck's locations and sample this interesting new offering (along with a couple of others).
Burgers and Banh Mi. If that's not 21st century Houston casual dining, I don't know what is. But we had to wonder how good a Beck's Prime banh mi would be. To determine that, we put together a crack tasting team and ventured over to the Woodands' own Beck's Prime location.
Befitting this multicultural offering was our multicultural team, consisting of your humble editor and real estate guru / celebrity foodie Huy Dang, the man behind the stunning @uberbites Instagram account. His knowledge of Vietnamese cuisine far exceeds mine, and he has a very keen palate. He's also a sharp dresser, adding a badly needed touch of class to our dining party.
On a blustery February at noon we converged on Beck's Prime on Grogan's Mill in the Woodlands, skillfully avoiding the road construction that rendered the parking lot all but inaccessible. Even with the construction Beck's was doing a strong lunch business. Woodlands residents know their burgers, and Beck's are among the best. But we weren't here for the burgers.
Beck's staff demonstrated their usual flawless hospitality, and we ordered and grabbed a table. In short order the food came out. Front and center was the new banh mi.
Banh Mi at Beck's Prime

No, this is not your Aunt Thuy's banh mi. The traditional french loaf is replaced with one of Beck's signature egg buns, the fatty mystery pork usually found has been replaced with lean, chargrilled, generously-sliced pork sirloin, and the vegetables were crispy, very fresh, and freshly cut.

Biting into the sandwich revealed the bright, sharp flavor profile that defines the best banh mi. But the textures were very different. The rich egg bun didn't have the traditional chewy mouthfeel of french bread. The pork flavor was more prominent than in a more pedestrian banh mi, and a gentle kick of sriracha brought a garlicky heat to the sharp tang of the onions, cilantro, and jalapeño.
The result is a very good sandwich, although it's far from a traditional banh mi. Huy confirmed that Beck's had altered the traditional components, but he approved of the result, and nary a scrap of banh mi was to be found on either of our plates at the conclusion of the meal.
The second offering we sampled was another new pork sandwich from Beck's: Hickory Prime Pork. A far more traditional sandwich, it included the excellent sliced pork sirloin, pickles, onions, and Beck's house made hickory BBQ sauce.
This riff on the classic BBQ pork sandwich was much more traditional. The hickory BBQ sauce accented the rich pork flavor, and the classic pickle/onion accoutrements made for a very familiar sandwich. Our only beef (no pun intended) with this sandwich was the mildness of the sauce - a smidgen more heat (or a lot more heat, if you prefer weapons-grade sauces as Huy does) would bring this good sandwich to the next level.
All in all we were impressed by these new offerings from Beck's Prime. Over the years Beck's has offered not only some of the city's best burgers, but also very good non-burger offerings for those who weren't in the mood for mesquite-grilled ground beef. These new items continue that winning formula, and we predict that they'll both be popular all across Houston.

Beck's Prime | Locations all around town

Becks Prime on Urbanspoon

The Tet FESTival Houston 2014 is a fun, free, family-friendly event on January 25th from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Discovery Green that will showcase the Vietnamese culture’s food, dance and fashion in a Lunar New Year celebration.
Tet FEStival Houston 2014’s celebrity Pho Eating Contest will be held on Jones Lawn at 2 p.m.  This speed event will require participants to slurp NAM Noodles and More’s traditional pho with beef, brisket, meatballs, bean sprouts, rice noodles, beef broth, and all of the delicious garnishes including thai basil, bean sprouts, coriander, lime, jalapenos, hoisin sauce and sriracha faster than the competition. The contest will test celebrity contestants from the East vs. West to see who will be the “NAM Noodles and More Pho Eating Champion.”
After Ice Skating at the ICE at Discovery Green, attendees will be able to warm up with Pho variations at the NAM Noodles and More booth, as well as and a cup of the Vietnamese signature coffee, Cà Phê Sữa.  Traditional Vietnamese food presentations and fruit carving will be available throughout the festival grounds as well.
For more information, browse the festival website.

New York City's famed Le Cirque, named by Gayot as one of the Top 40 Restaurants in the USA, is bringing its show on the road, and Houston will be one of the stops this spring.  On April 13, the main dining room of the Downtown Club at Plaza will host this culinary classic.  Executive chef Olivier Reginensi will be overseeing the travelling kitchen.

Le Cirque's Creme Brulee (photo credit: Le Cirque)

The $150 prix fixe menu will deliver a three-course meal with wine pairings, and a copy of the biography of Sirio Maccioni, the founder of Le Cirque.  Featured selections will include Le Cirque favorites like filet of beef, tuna tartare, and porcini risotto, and of course their famed Creme Brulee will be offered.

For reservations, call 800-402-3933 or click here.

(via New York Times)

We love to eat.  We also love spectacular entertainment, and Cirque du Soleil is high up our list.  If you've never been, it's a circus like no other - visual spectacle, acrobatics, music, drama, and stunts that will take your breath away.

Cirque du Soleil is not your parents' circus.

Since Valentine's day is coming up, and we love our readers, we are offering a gift that goes straight to the heart.  We were thrilled when asked by Cirque du Soleil to sponsor a contest for our readers, giving them the chance to experience the upcoming OVO performance as our guest.  Two tickets to the upcoming show.

OVO by Cirque do Soleil is a headlong rush into a colorful ecosystem teeming with life, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop riot of energy and movement.  (Sounds like Washington Ave. on any Saturday night, but we digress.)  OVO opens on March 10 under the Big Top at Sam Houston Race Park.

Then our friends at Samba Grille sweetened the deal even more, offering dinner for two for the winners.  For the three of you who've not heard of them yet, Samba Grille is the brand-new South American restaurant located downtown in Bayou Place, offering both the traditional latin rodizio grilled meats, served churrascaria-style, and some fantastic composed dishes that have been wowing both patrons and critics since they opened late last year.

Dinner at one of Houston's hottest new restaurants.  Then one of the most spectacular shows you could ever see.  That's our kind of evening, and one we think any of our readers will excited to win.

There's no catch.  All you have to do is either leave a comment below, or e-mail our special contest e-mail address, ovo@binetix.com .  We just need your name and a method of contact - e-mail or twitter (make sure you follow @htownchowdown us so we can DM you).

The contest closes on Thursday, February 10; we'll announce the winner here on Friday, Feb 11.

The fine print:

Tickets are for the performance on March 11, 2011, at 8pm.  The contest is open to all adults, 18 or older.  Employees of Cirque du Soleil, Samba Grille, Binetix, or their families are not eligible.  One entry per e-mail or twitter address.

My first rule of dining is to order what a restaurant specializes in, or is known for.  That rule rarely steers me wrong, so I tend to follow it almost every time.  But recently I broke this rule.

Samba Grille is a new restaurant downtown, one I've visited before.  I really enjoyed their churrascaria; as a devoted carnivore, a variety of freshly grilled meats is something hard to pass up.  They also have some tempting seafood dishes, many of which I've yet to sample.

But I was on a quest.  One of the partners in Samba Grille is Nathan Ketcham, who happens to be a friend of mine.  Nathan and I used to eat lunch together frequently when he lived in the Woodlands, often at the late, lamented Tesar's Modern Steakhouse, which was home of one of the state's great hamburgers.

Nathan shares my passion for burgers, and he knows a good one from a bad one.  Now that Nathan is helming his own restaurant, I had to sample his hamburger.  Of course, his place specializes in the cuisine of South America, so my expectations weren't too high... but I figured Nathan wouldn't disappoint me.
So on a recent Friday, I picked up my lovely bride at her downtown office, and we drove over to Samba for lunch.  Parking was a snap (often an issue downtown) and we entered and sat down.  After a brief perusal of the menu, we both ordered burgers.  While we waited, we snacked on Samba's addictive cheese rolls.  In short order, the burger appeared.

Samba's burger has a strong Latin flair.  It's made from grilled sirloin, no doubt trimmed from the steaks they butcher in-house.  The beef is blanketed with buttery Spanish machego cheese.  To this they add crisp, smoky bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomatoes, and aji aioli, a spicy garlic sauce made with Peruvian peppers.  The burger was built on a soft, slightly sweet bun.  I'm a bit of a burger purist, so I vetoed the avocado, but I decided to try the aioli.

Biting into it, I was immediately impressed by the smooth mouthfeel and the balance of the burger.  Front and center was the flavor of the meat - a robust beefy swagger that really hit the spot.  I've eaten some very good burgers lately, but none have nailed the beefy flavor quite like Samba has done.  The counterpoint of the buttery machengo cheese added smoothness, and the heat from the aji aioli popped in a moment later, adding a spicy Latin counterpoint to the flavor profile.  Not only has Samba created a great burger, they've done so with South American flair.

The choice of ingredients was masterful.  The bacon's flavor was subtle, and the slight crunch was a nice contrast to the smooth feel of the beef and cheese.  The difference between good and great is in the details, and it's obvious to me that Nathan and Chef Cesar Rodriguez spent the time to sweat the details.

This is the burger I've been waiting for since Tesar's shut down.  Thank you, Nathan.

I came to Samba expecting to enjoy a good burger, but instead I found one of Houston's very best.  If you love burgers, go check 'em out.

Samba Grille on Urbanspoon

We've been keeping up with a new project opening downtown, and were excited to be invited for the Friends and Family preview.  Called Samba Grille, it's a Brazilian restaurant offering rodizio service, and it's located in the center of the Theater District in the Bayou Place center.

Walking in, we were immediately taken by the swank surroundings.  The Texas Avenue location is sleek and sophisticated, yet the warm Latin vibe makes it very inviting.  A well-equipped bar hugs the back wall of the room, and the tables and booths are placed in a multi-level arrangement, adding to the sense of intimacy and romance.  This is without a doubt a romantic restaurant - we expect it to be a very popular date destination.

(The only negative about the intimate, romantic setting is that natural light photos with the iPhone 4 didn't come out well.  Thus there aren't any food photos in this article. The paparazzi should find this frustrating, too.)

Lead by partners Nathan Ketcham and Estella Erdmann, the team behind Samba Grille is a strong one.  Chef Cesar Rodriguez is at the helm in the kitchen, and his experience with the Vallone organization has translated into the kind of smooth consistency that you rarely see in a new establishment.  Sommelier Marc Borel, previously with 13 Celsius, brings his studied approach to a carefully edited wine list, and he's fully up to the challenge of suggesting pairings with the broad rodizio and composed offerings coming out of Chef Rodriguez's kitchen.

Marc Borel, Nathan Ketcham, Estella Erdmann, Cesar Rodriguez
Photo credit: Chuck Cook / @Bitspitter

Let's look at what the kitchen brought forth.  (And remember, Samba hasn't even had its soft opening - the kitchen is just sorting things out at this point.)


First out was a Caesar salad, and it was a very auspicious start.  The romaine lettuce was deftly coated with a tart, briny Caesar dressing, sharp with plenty of bite and anchovy flavor.  Large, thin shavings of fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese completed the salad.  It was one of the best Caesar's we've had in Houston.

Next up was the vegetable plate, an artistically composed arrangement of flash-fried yucca, sauteed Peppadew peppers, sweet plantains, and thin green beans.  The careful handling exhibited by these veggies was impressive; the yucca was crispy on the outside yet fluffy and tender within; the Peppadews were sweetly spicy and not overpowering.  The plantains were rich and flavorful, and we dabbed a bit of the house chimmi-churri sauce on top.  The green beans were al dente and had a nice snap.

But the centerpiece of a rodizio is the meat, and Samba rolled out an impressive variety.  The presentation is dramatic - servers circulate with large swords impaling the savory chunks of meat and seafood, slicing off a portion as requested.  The servers displayed an uncanny ability to deliver the precise degree of doneness I requested, and seemed to magically appear just as I'd finished the previous portion.

The bacon-wrapped filet was a walnut-sized nugget of bacon-wrapped beef, deliciously smoky and peppery. The dark, earthy-sweet flavor of the bacon infused the filet, making for a very satisfying start.

Next up was the house-special sirloin.  This was a standout among the very good offerings - a rich, robust, beefy swagger, sliced very thin, yet were still juicy and tender.  We came back for seconds (and thirds) on this one.

Broiled shrimp came out next.  The large shrimp were nicely firm and cooked to just the right point; the delicate buttery herbal baste completed the preparation.

Large, baseball-sized chunks of filet mignon came out next.  Cooked to a beautiful medium rare, the flavor was gentle and delicate, a skillful counterpoint to the bold flavors of many of the other beef servings.

A real surprise were the bacon-wrapped chicken breasts.  A sweetly tangy apple flavor infused the chicken (no doubt the result of some slow, careful brining) and offset the peppery bacon.  Another dish we could have eaten all night.

Another surprise were the pork ribs, atypical for rodizio service.  Gently grilled, the dense, chewy pork provided a textural contrast to the tender, silky beef.

Speaking of silky, our final offering of flank steak was very unusual.  Prepared on the rare side of medium rare, it was almost supernaturally tender and luscious.  This cut of beef was even richer than the filet, and had a smooth mouthfeel that was totally unexpected.  We suspect some very artful grillwork here.

There were other rodizio offerings, but at this point were were simply too full to sample them.  I blame multiple samples of the sirloin; it was something we kept eating more of.

Samba's grand opening is auspiciously scheduled for Brazil's Independence Day, September 7.  Considering how well things were running during this sneak preview,  I have a feeling that it's going to be an event to remember.  We'll see you there.

(For another early look at Samba Grille, check out Phaedra Cook's article on Houston Food Adventures.)

Samba Grille - 530 Texas Avenue - www.SambaGrilleHouston.com

Samba Grille on Urbanspoon

Ever since they opened we'd heard great buzz about the Hubcap Grill, Ricky Craig's tiny burger joint nestled next door to the Alden Hotel downtown.  We visited shortly after they opened, but we were underwhelmed by the burger... it was good, but we weren't blown away.

Our foodie friends assured us that this was an anomaly, and we recently revisited to find out for sure.  A rainy Wednesday proved to be a great day to visit, because for once they weren't packed to the gills.

The Hubcap Grill truly is a tiny place.  Only a handful of tables exist inside, there are a few more on the now-covered outside patio.  We've seen the lines at lunch; savvy downtown burger lovers have turned this place into an institution.


During our visit, Ricky's dad was manning the counter, while Ricky and his cooks were in the back whipping up the burgers.  Ricky was gracious enough to give us a brief demonstration of what makes the Hubcap Grill's burgers special:

So how was the burger?  In a word: Spectacular.

Hubcap's style of burger is a thin, traditional fast-food-style burger, but the similarities to any fast food chain end there.  The beef is hand-formed, well balanced between lean and fat, and extremely fresh.  Ricky griddles it on a small, hot, well-seasoned griddle, and the result is a deliciously caramelized crust on a deliciously juicy patty.  The cheese is American, melted to an oozy flow of goodness, and the meat/cheese ratio is dead on.   The vegetables are cut in-house and extremely fresh, and the bun is custom made each day for Hubcap and lightly toasted.  The finishing touch on our burger were some soulful grilled onions, marinated overnight and lightly grilled, retaining flavor and moisture.

What impressed us most about Hubcap Grill's approach to burgers is the attention to detail.  Clearly, Ricky Craig is a chef who is passionate about burgers, and he has done his homework.  Everything from the meat to the condiments to the bun has been thought out and refined.  The fries are fresh, hand-cut and prepared using a painstaking process that results in some of the very best in town.  Even the beverages are carefully considered: Bottled soda instead of fountain, assuring that the flavor doesn't drift because the fountain is out of calibration.

We applaud Ricky Craig's approach to burgers, and his attention to detail.  And the proof is in the result.  We are proud to list Hubcap as one of Houston's Best Burgers, moving ahead of Christian's Totem as the best traditional burger to be found in Houston.

And we won't wait so long to go back.

As @kylejack pointed out via Twitter, Hubcap Grill's Burger Truck makes its debut tonight at the intersection of W. Gray and Montrose. Check 'em out.

Hubcap Grill - 1111 Prairie - Houston 77002
713-223-5885 - www.hubcapgrill.com

Hubcap Grill on Urbanspoon

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