dear houston restaurant week
www.houstonrestaurantweek.com
So last year this came and went without much of a to-do as far as I was concerned. For some reason I missed this great opportunity to try different places and sample a little of this, a little of that for a fairly affordable price.
I decided this year I would not make the same mistake.
My first chance was granted me by J for her birthday dinner. She sent out an email requesting everyone weigh in on where to go…I guess I’ve been to more places than I thought, b/c most of the places people were talking about trying I had already been. (but I am counting business lunches, so I don’t know that that’s the best judge of a restaurant but..)
It was decided to go to Mark’s. Now I’ve been to Mark’s before and despite everyone saying ‘How Amazing!’, I was not impressed. It’s not even on my top 100 restaurants list. We did go for a lunch, and the soup I had was decent but the main course was simply unappetizing. It had shrimp in it and I don’t think I’ve ever had more fishy and poorly cooked seafood in my life. I was pretty sad about it at the time (I do take my food seriously) but when the group decided to go, I figured I could give it another try and keep my opinions to myself. Besides the party wasn’t about me, I could eat anything for this friend.
We got to Mark’s a few minutes after our reservation time, but some of the group had already arrived and was seated. It took awhile to get everyone settled. I’ll give you we were a decent size group, 16 I believe, but the service was disappointing. Half the table got drinks right away, the end I was on waited another 10-15 min before having ours delivered. When it came time to order, I steered clear of anything with shrimp with it and thought I should be good.
I had the foie gras and quail appetizer. Overall it wasn’t terrible, nothing amazing either though. I tend to rate my food relative to other restaurants and Tony’s foie gras surpasses this one by a wide mile. The quail was pretty tasty, and the teeny tiny drumstick they had fried was excellent. But one teeny tiny drumstick does not a meal make. Others in our group ordered the salad, and the lobster bisque. The salads were, well, salads. And the lobster bisque was…you guessed it, fishy.
The main course was pretty good, I ordered the beef and veal – both were flavorful but I had trouble deciding which was which. I’ve never seen veal of the color that the meat on my plate was, so either this is something new or it wasn’t veal. (I may not be a chef but I was an Agriculture major at A&M so I do know my animal insides…gross, I know.)
My meal wrapped up with a lemon tart, it was refreshing but tasted more like a key lime pie…and I wasn’t the only one that thought that.
It took at least 30 minutes for the waiter to even attempt to close the check. A dinner that started at 8:30 lasted until 11:45. I found that a little unusual considering we’re all pretty fast eaters, the only lulls were while we were waiting…waiting on drinks, waiting on ordering, waiting on food, waiting on our checks. I guess for not having any real expectations it wasn’t a complete failure, but I was saddened that the food stayed sub-par as far as I am concerned.
Mark’s, I will not be back.
So last year this came and went without much of a to-do as far as I was concerned. For some reason I missed this great opportunity to try different places and sample a little of this, a little of that for a fairly affordable price.
I decided this year I would not make the same mistake.
My first chance was granted me by J for her birthday dinner. She sent out an email requesting everyone weigh in on where to go…I guess I’ve been to more places than I thought, b/c most of the places people were talking about trying I had already been. (but I am counting business lunches, so I don’t know that that’s the best judge of a restaurant but..)
It was decided to go to Mark’s. Now I’ve been to Mark’s before and despite everyone saying ‘How Amazing!’, I was not impressed. It’s not even on my top 100 restaurants list. We did go for a lunch, and the soup I had was decent but the main course was simply unappetizing. It had shrimp in it and I don’t think I’ve ever had more fishy and poorly cooked seafood in my life. I was pretty sad about it at the time (I do take my food seriously) but when the group decided to go, I figured I could give it another try and keep my opinions to myself. Besides the party wasn’t about me, I could eat anything for this friend.
We got to Mark’s a few minutes after our reservation time, but some of the group had already arrived and was seated. It took awhile to get everyone settled. I’ll give you we were a decent size group, 16 I believe, but the service was disappointing. Half the table got drinks right away, the end I was on waited another 10-15 min before having ours delivered. When it came time to order, I steered clear of anything with shrimp with it and thought I should be good.
I had the foie gras and quail appetizer. Overall it wasn’t terrible, nothing amazing either though. I tend to rate my food relative to other restaurants and Tony’s foie gras surpasses this one by a wide mile. The quail was pretty tasty, and the teeny tiny drumstick they had fried was excellent. But one teeny tiny drumstick does not a meal make. Others in our group ordered the salad, and the lobster bisque. The salads were, well, salads. And the lobster bisque was…you guessed it, fishy.
The main course was pretty good, I ordered the beef and veal – both were flavorful but I had trouble deciding which was which. I’ve never seen veal of the color that the meat on my plate was, so either this is something new or it wasn’t veal. (I may not be a chef but I was an Agriculture major at A&M so I do know my animal insides…gross, I know.)
My meal wrapped up with a lemon tart, it was refreshing but tasted more like a key lime pie…and I wasn’t the only one that thought that.
It took at least 30 minutes for the waiter to even attempt to close the check. A dinner that started at 8:30 lasted until 11:45. I found that a little unusual considering we’re all pretty fast eaters, the only lulls were while we were waiting…waiting on drinks, waiting on ordering, waiting on food, waiting on our checks. I guess for not having any real expectations it wasn’t a complete failure, but I was saddened that the food stayed sub-par as far as I am concerned.
Mark’s, I will not be back.
