Archive for the 'Dining and Entertainment' Category
Where’s the best Pizza?
July 12th, 2010 categories: Dining and Entertainment | views
There are numerous criteria in which you can judge pizza including its … crust, style (NY, Chicago, deep dish, brick oven), toppings (variety, quality, quantity, distribution, proportion), value, and the atmosphere its served in.
Where’s the best pizza in the Spring Texas area? In my opinion, the best all around pizza is served at Grotto’s.
Grotto’s pizza is baked in a brick oven and the result is a crisp yet soft crust. Crisp enough to have some crunch while yet soft enough that you need to fold the pizza for the first couple of bites to prevent the toppings from falling off. The toppings are evenly distributed and balanced so that one ingredient doesn’t over power the rest.
During Grotto’s Happy Hour which is Monday – Friday 3 – 7 pm the pizzas are $6 which is an excellent value for a high quality pizza. The happy hours prices are only honored in the bar area. The atmosphere is friendly and upscale. But if you are looking for a place to have a romantic, quiet dinner this is not the place. As the restaurant can get quite loud during peak dining times.
In the Spring Texas area, we have enough pizza joints both chain and local establishments to satisfy whatever your personal criteria are for the best pizza. You can find out the favorite pizza of other Spring Texas residents at Yelp.
Due to the FTC regulations requiring bloggers to disclose any freebies or payments they receive for reviewing products I include the following:
Disclosure: Grotto’s has not paid me to write this post about their pizza nor have they promised me free pizza or drinks.
Read also:
- Who has the best cheese fries?
- Where to get great oysters on the half shell
- Who has the best Mexican food in Spring Texas?
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Who has the best cheese fries in Spring Texas?
January 24th, 2010 categories: Dining and Entertainment | views
Cheese fries have to be the best pig out and comfort food of all time. They probably have a gazillion calories and a high percentage of fat content but they are so good that I don’t know how anybody could resist them. At least not all the time.
If you are going to eat cheese fries you want them to be really good otherwise they are just wasted calories. A good example of wasted calories is Sonic’s cheese fries. Their cheese fries are limp fries with a small amount of cheese sauce on top. After you have eaten the first layer all the cheese is gone and all that remains are fries. Even the fries with the cheese are not that good.
So who has the best cheese fries in Spring Texas? Cheddars. Before Cheddars opened its doors for business at 21001 Interstate 45 in Spring Texas in spring of 2009, Outback Steakhouse had the best cheese fries. But that was in the past and now the best cheese fries are at Cheddars.
What makes Cheddar’s cheese fries so great? For starters, you get a lot of cheese fries for a very reasonable price of $5.99. But price isn’t everything. If they don’t taste great, it doesn’t matter how reasonable the price is.
The fries part of the cheese fries are crispy and thin but not too thin like Steak n Shake’s fries. Next they are covered with two types of melted cheese. Not cheese sauce but melted cheese. Plus there is enough cheese to have cheese with the first layer of fries and the bottom layer of fries. Then they are topped with crispy bacon and served with ranch dressing.
Crispy fries with enough melted cheese to cover all of the fries with crispy bacon and ranch dressing makes Cheddars the place for the best cheese fries in Spring Texas.
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Where to get great oysters on the half shell
December 6th, 2009 categories: Dining and Entertainment | views
Oysters on the half shell … it seems either people love them or think they are slimy inedible objects. I am one of those people who love, love, love oysters on the half shell.
Finding reasonably priced and good oysters on the half shell in Spring Texas is not quite as difficult as finding a pearl in an oyster but its close.
My search for good oysters on the half shell has ended with my recent discovery at Pappadeaux. On the criteria of taste, size, and price, they receive all “10″s from me.
The oysters are the right combination of silkiness and grittiness and are accompanied by the traditional cocktail sauce and a ponzu sauce. Their size vary from small to large. The Texas gulf oysters are currently on Pappadeaux’s menu at a can’t be beat price of $3.95 a dozen. A great price especially for the quality of the oysters.
Pappadeaux’s has two locations within 12 miles of my house in Spring Texas. Because of its upscale atmosphere my favorite of the two location is the Woodlands location at 18165 I45 Shenandoah TX 77385.
Just before I slurped them down, I took a photo of one of the two dozen oysters I enjoyed on our recent visit to Pappadeaux’s. The photo was taken with my iPhone so the the picture does not do the oysters justice.
Great oysters on the half shell at Pappadeaux is another reason to live in Spring Texas.
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Due to the new FTC regulations requiring bloggers to disclose any freebies or payments they receive for reviewing products I include the following:
Disclosure: Pappadeaux’s has not paid me to write this post about their oysters nor have they promised me any free oysters. Bummer!
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Who has the best Mexican food in Spring Texas?
July 24th, 2009 categories: Dining and Entertainment | views
I have heard that to true purists there is a difference between Mexican and Tex/Mex food, but this Gringo certainly does not know what it is. What I do know is what I like and what I like are cold, frozen margaritas, crisp chips, chunky red salsa, creamy green salsa, tasty fajitas, and loaded nachos. These are the criteria by which I rate all Mexican restaurants.
I can not claim to have eaten at all of the numerous and I do mean numerous Mexican restaurants located in and around Spring Texas but I have eaten at enough of them to know which are the best.
Here’s my list of the best Mexican / Tex/Mex restaurant for each of the following categories:
Best Happy Hour: Chuy’s- $3.50 Margaritas and a FREE loaded nacho car from 4 – 7 pm weekdays is why Chuy’s has the best happy hour(s).
Best Creamy Green Sauce: Chuy’s - If you like ranch dressing with a kick this addictive sauce is for you.
Best Red Salsa: Pappasitos
Best Chips: Chuy’s
Best Frozen Margaritas: Chuy’s
Best single chip Nachos: Pappasitos
Best bar atmosphere: Gringo’s
Best Fajitas: Pappasitos – The meat is so tender it almost melts in your mouth.
Best overall Mexican restaurant: Pappasitos
Who do you think has the best Tex/Mex or Mexican food in the Spring Texas area?
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FREE FOOD at Chipotle
June 12th, 2009 categories: Dining and Entertainment | views
The new Chipotle restaurant at 10905 Louetta on the North side of HEB Vintage Market is getting ready for its grand opening on June 19th, 2009.
As a business promotion and to introduce itself to the community Chipotle is going to give away FREE FOOD on June 17th. The particulars on the FREE FOOD are an entree, chips, and a drink for everyone that stops by on June 17th from 11 am to 7 pm.
Chipotle’s FREE FOOD promotion sounds like a great way to introduce its products to the people. But wait didn’t another company have a similar promotion recently that back fired?
Yes. That’s right. Just last month to introduce its new grilled chicken KFC ran a FREE FOOD promotion on the Oprah Winfrey show. The only problem was the demand was much greater than KFC had anticipated and they stopped accepting the coupon for the FREE FOOD. The promotion turned into a PR nightmare for KFC.
On two separate occasions, Rick and I went to a local KFC restaurant in Spring Texas to redeem our coupon for FREE FOOD and on both occasions we left hungry. On the first visit we were told the wait was over one hour so we left. On our second visit we were told due to overwhelming demand KFC was no longer accepting the coupon. Again we left without any FREE FOOD and we have not been back since.
Our Spring Texas Real Estate blog is not nearly as popular as the Oprah Winfrey Show so I figure it is safe to spread the word about Chipotle’s FREE FOOD promotion. But if due to overwhelming demand you don’t receive any free food, please still use our real estate services and don’t boycott us.
As for Rick and I, we are going to wait a couple of weeks before visiting Chipotle’s new restaurant and when we do visit we will just pay for our food. So there will be no FREE FOOD for us this time. Wait a minute, come to think of it we didn’t get any FREE FOOD at the last FREE FOOD promotion either.
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Pizza Fusion OPENS at Vintage Park
January 28th, 2009 categories: Dining and Entertainment | 465 views
On a recent Tuesday evening, Rick and I visited the newly opened Pizza Fusion at Vintage Park. We specifically chose a Tuesday evening because on Tuesdays and Thursdays Pizza Fusion has a $7 bottle of wine promotion. And these days the price of wine in a restaurant usually runs $7 a glass NOT a bottle.
At 7pm, we arrived hungry for pizza and thirsty for cheap and hopefully good wine. What we were not expecting was a packed house. All of the tables were full and so were the seats at the bar. But since we were determined, we gave them our name with hopes of a seat opening up within 30 minutes. To keep our minds off the delicious looking pizza, we departed to run an errand. Upon our return, the restaurant’s tables were still packed but we found several seats available at the bar and we quickly proceeded to snag ourselves a place.
We asked our waiter / bartender about the $7 bottle of wine special and he said they have Red and White wine available. Since we were going to have pizza, we chose the Red wine which was a Merlot. Then our waiter provided us with a menu and asked if it was our first visit to Pizza Fusion. We said “yes” and he proceeded to tell us the Pizza Fusion story. And boy did we have a lot to learn.
The owner of the Pizza Fusion frachise at Vintage Park is Chris Toman, a local Klein High School graduate. As the story goes Chris wanted to open his own business and Chris’s wife is passionate about recyling and organic foods. Thus the idea came to Chris to try to integrate his wife’s passion into his new business. Chris did his research and decided to open a Pizza Fusion franchise which is the first location in the State of Texas.
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Fish City Grill OPENS at Vintage Park
October 16th, 2008 categories: Dining and Entertainment | 491 views
The other night my husband and I decided to try the Fish City Grill for dinner. The Fish City Grill is located in the recently opened Vintage Park.
All summer long we have been eagerly awaiting the restaurants (Brix Wine Cellars, Cheeburger Cheeburger, Fish City Grill, Shogun Restaurant, Mia Bella, Peli Peli, and Pizza Fusion) to open their doors for business in the Vintage Park shopping village. Currently Potbelly Sandwich Works, Cheeburger Cheeburger, and now Fish City Grill are all open.
Fish City Grill is the first restaurant to open in Vintage Park’s Piazza. The Piazza was designed to be reminscent of an Italian shopping promenade with dramatic landscaping and fountains to be enjoyed by diners dining al fresco.
About the restaurant ….
My first impression of the interior of the restaurant was “this has a warm cozy feel”. In addition to a small bar with pendant lighting and a couple of TVs, are 10 booths and 10 tables. There was sufficient room between the booths and the tables to carry on a conversation without the diners at the next table hearing every word.
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Recently opened Vintage Park announces Summer Events
July 29th, 2008 categories: Dining and Entertainment, Events and Activities | 347 views
Vintage Park, an upscale town center shopping center, announces its first Summer Events schedule. On the following Saturdays, August 2 and 16, September 13 and 20 from 4 – 6 pm enjoy live music plus additional entertainment for the kids at Vintage Park.
The recently opened Vintage Park is located at the HWY 249 and Louetta intersection in Northwest Houston. Careful attention to detail has been paid in the construction of the Mediterranean architecture structure including hand-laid pavers, stone columns, clay tile roofs, and hand painted murals. Read the rest of this entry »
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55 Degreez Wine Bar opens in Spring TX
March 10th, 2008 categories: Dining and Entertainment | 343 views
Without any fanfare and only a large Now OPEN banner, 55 Degreez Wine Bar has quietly opened in Spring TX. I was immediately curious about what was behind the darkened windows of its mysterious store front.
After I walked in and was able to adjust my eyes from the bright sunshine to the darkened bar I was amazed. I thought for sure that I had just been transported from Spring TX to a hip, cool wine bar in downtown Houston and the lack of a TV told me that this was NO sports bar. Read the rest of this entry »
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Area Chef competes on Food Network’s Iron Chef program
January 24th, 2008 categories: Dining and Entertainment | 17 views
Kent Rathburn, the chef at Jasper’s in the Woodlands, Texas, has just completed one of the most stressful shows of his life. The local chef recently competed in the Iron Chef America program on the Food Network. Read the rest of this entry »
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