My last dinner at *17 was good, but stopped quite short of being great. Despite several execution mistakes, I was looking forward to seeing the menu evolve. Alison Cook’s positive review in June made me think it was time for another visit and the Houston Restaurant Week seemed like a good opportunity. End the Hunger, right?
Not quite.
By the end of the night I was wolfing down Whataburger chicken strips on the hood of my car at a local Shell station. Judging by the comments around the table last night, I wasn’t the only one who left *17 hungry that night.
Amount of food isn’t always important. Despite the number of dishes, Tenacity dinners trend on the lighter side, but given the quality of the cooking and ingredients no one seems to mind and people keep coming back. Trouble is the food at *17 just isn’t all that spectacular to begin with, so leaving hungry just adds insult to injury.
The amuse might have been the best thing I ate at *17 that night. Not that it was particularly special, but it was better than the rest of the meal. First course was the roasted tomato soup, which nearly everyone at the table ordered because was (supposedly) served with pork belly. The soup wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. A marginal improvement at best on the Campbell’s original, which might have been much better had the advertised pork belly actually made an appearance.
Main courses were rather institutional. The halibut was not of particularly high quality, not was it cooked well enough to get the best out of the fish. The portion served to Ruthie had broken in half, but somehow made it out of the kitchen anyway, which is indicative of the level of attention the kitchen pays to detail. The smear of “corn pudding” seemed like a feeble attempt at creativity, but tasted flat and added an unpleasant sweet overtone to the dish. I did not try the NY Strip, but most people at the table agreed it didn’t taste much like a strip.
There are plenty of high end hotels in Houston, but the restaurants attached to them deliver a largely a sub par experience (Voice is a notable exception). If a restaurant like McCrady’s located in a small market can overcome the departure of Michael Kramer by bringing in a rising star chef like Sean Brock, surely well funded hotel restaurants in Houston can do the same by bringing in top culinary talent that can raise the game. So far that hasn’t happened.
*17 will continue to do decent business, but it’s going to remain a slightly above average hotel restaurant at best. If you plan to go there for the Houston Restaurant Week, save yourself the trouble. Head straight for Whataburger and donate what you save directly to the End the Hunger network. The chicken strips are actually quite good and you won’t find yourself cursing the chef for screwing you out of pork bellies. (<– my homage to Robb Walsh)
Misha… I loved this honest review.
ah guy? i give seconds and often leave the extras on the table. what about your crispy fish skin and i asked if you wanted another peice of pork belly…
rr: you are a very gracious host! i wasn’t complaining:)
Mwahahaha! I almost picked *17 now I am glad I waited to see the reviews. Man, pissing off the foodies during restaurant week doesn’t seem like a great marketing strategy.
My wife and I dropped into Voice last night for our Restaurant Week Reservations. After Walsh’s raping and Alison’s kind words, we really didn’t know what to expect. I’ll just take you through it.
The Restaurant Week menu advertised an amuse bouche from Chef Kramer. It never came out of the kitchen, unless they considered the bread bowl with butter, olive tapenade, and roasted garlic an amuse bouche. Both types of bread were stale and hockey-puckish. All in all, not a big deal, other than the semantics of what actually constitutes an amuse bouche. Whatever.
More troubling were the first courses. Well, mine more than my wife’s. I started with the truffled mushroom cappucino. It was served in a coffee mug and topped with a savory whipped cream. It turned out to be overwhelmingly salty. So much so that I couldn’t eat it. The other first course, a summer corn risotto was fine, not mind blowing or anything, but it definitely trumped my ‘cappucino’. What bothered me more than anything was that properly seasoning food is a fundamental of good cooking. It wasn’t like they made the soup to order. The fact that it was a salt bomb shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone in the kitchen unless no one tasted it before it left.
Second course was short ribs for me and sous vide pork tenderloin for my wife. I’m slowly becoming frustrated by restaurants who feel like they need to sous vide EVERYTHING. Some things work with this cooking method and some don’t. Last year at Restaurant August, Besh did a sous vide preparation for shortribs that he first seared, and then tossed in the water bath at 145 degrees for, I think, two or three days. Shortribs are a tough piece of meat, I can see how they can benefit from this cooking method. They were unbelievably good. Last month in Sonoma, we ate at Madronna Manor in Healdsburg. One of the courses was sous vide lobster. It was dreadful. And now, sous vide pork tenderloin. This dish at Voice was an extremely unappetizing shade of light gray. As a whole, it was really tough to get over the way the dish looked. My shortribs were fine, but pretty heavy for the middle of summer in Houston.
Dessert was our favorite. My wife had the chocolate icebox pie with 5-spice ice cream. It wasn’t brilliant or anything but it was tasty. Mine was effectively molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. It tasted fine as well–actually reminded me of a dessert that I use to get at a draft house in college; for what that is worth.
Service was pretty disappointing. It was mostly unnatentive. We poured our own wine all evening, and continually had to flag down wait-staff for utensils after each course was served. After dessert was served, and the runner left, I whispered to my wife to just sit still and see if anyone notices that we don’t have anything with which to eat our desserts. After about three or four minutes of staff continually walking by our table, I went ahead and asked for spoons as my wife’s ice cream turned into more of a creme anglaise.
I’m not sure if these restaurants phone it in for restaurant week, but this is the second time we’ve been burned while trying new places. Maybe, if we really expect eat well and be treated decently, we need to avoid them all together during this charitable week. Are we expecting too much?
Thoughts?
I just wanted to say that I love the fact that you have an entire category devoted to “soapbox.”
And…yeah. I should’ve gone with you to Whataburger.
Hello,
I like your blog. Whataburger is classic. I have two friends who always have to go straight to Whataburger from the airport when they come into town. I am not a foodie or anything, but I know what I like. Is there a sushi restaurant you recommend? I like The Fish a great deal, but I am looking for something new. Price is no object. Thanks to whoever responds!
Misha,
Have you tried Noe? This is my favorite Houston Restaurant. This is also attached to the Omni off of Woodway and Post Oak. Check it out.
Shannon
Shannon: I missed Noe when Gadsby was still at the helm and have not heard much about it since then. Kind of wish it was open for lunch, since my wife has low tolerance for fancified restaurants.
MrOldSixth: It’s counter intuitive, but I do not believe restaurants take the Restaurant Week seriously enough to provide a good experience, so I do not expect much from it food wise.
misha,
I am terribly sorry about your bad experience at 17. Just a couple of things: first of all, why would you judge a restaurant by one experience Do you have any idea what it takes to run a hotel restaurant? Do you think it is the “in thing” to eat in a place one time during restaurant week, then thrash the entire experience. Why don’t you try dining again, and try getting a tasting menu? . The blame for this experience definitely goes straight to the chef, and he does not deny it. I still think you just don’t get it. Because someone travels around and eats at a bunch of different restuarants, all of a sudden they know everything there is to know about food. It is much easier for someone to eat and talk then it is to actually run a restaurant. The fact that you had whataburger tells me that you don’t know food. This is the reason why bloggers have a bad rap with chefs. Having no idea what goes into the work, but more than willing to knock it down.
Seriously, bad experience aside, try it again. Get a tasting menu, let the Sommelier take care of you and then write about it.
commis
Commis: I don’t deny that you may have a point or two. Your culinary vision may be way over my head. And I stand by my assertion that Whataburger makes some fine chicken strips, so I am guilty of having less than aristocratic tastes on occasion. But do you think it’s realistic to expect your customers to know how to run a professional kitchen before they are allowed to form an opinion about your food?
One bad experience, especially during the restaurant week, is not a true measure of a restaurant. Anyone can have a bad night. But I am not a restaurant critic. I write about things that happen to me and what happened to me that night wasn’t entirely pleasant. Most of restaurant business is earned through word of mouth. My post is no different than any other customer telling his friends that a restaurant isn’t worth the effort.
I tried ordering the tasting menu when I came by for my first visit (yes, I have been more than once), but wasn’t allowed to. We tried our best to convince the waitress that we are OK with one person in our party having fewer courses, and that the rest of us (three total) fully intend to give the restaurant as much time as necessary to serve the entire tasting menu, but the waitress said the chef wouldn’t allow it. Disappointing, but not the end of the world. In any case, I tried. Really. Here’s what I said after that my first dinner:
http://www.tasty-bits.com/index.php/2008/05/11/17-keeps-on-chugging/
http://www.tasty-bits.com/index.php/2008/02/03/new-team-at-17/
Should I go back? I am not entirely sure. If I do, my wife won’t be able to eat because there isn’t a single vegetarian entree on the menu, so it will be a rather awkward evening. And I still won’t be able to order a tasting menu, because the entire table must get one. Then I’ll write about it and people will label me a food n00b because I didn’t order the tasting menu.
Seems like a lot of trouble to go through to get a good meal, which I am naive enough to think I deserve just because I am paying customer. What do you think?