My girlfriend and I are heading to Houston Wednesday to see Itzhak Perlman play with the Symphony. This is a slightly less casual event than normal for us. Anybody have dining suggestions?

Assuming you're looking for somewhere appropriate to your symphony duds, I'd recommend 17 ( http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaura...sv3045.asp ) or Artista ( http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaura...sv2684.asp ).
Both are close to the Jones Hall (Artista's actually in the Hobby Center -- perfect for shows there, but still only few blocks from Jones Hall).
Artista is by the Cordua family (the Churrasco's / America's people, if you're familiar with either of those restaurants), and has a number of same/similar dishes as their other places. I love their "Churrasco" steak, and my wife the vegetarian loves their various fried veggies and starches. Everything on the menu is good; one of my favorite restaurants (in fact, probably my actual favorite restaurant).
Seventeen's an upscale "new American"-type place. Try the black truffle mac and cheese. I've only been their once since they replaced chefs about a year and a half ago; felt there was a bit of a drop-off but the new guy had been there less than a month.

Other options that aren't as close include Reef ( http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaura...sv4632.asp ) and Ibiza ( http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaura...sv1793.asp ) in Midtown.
Reef was named best seafood restaurant by Bon Appetit in 2008. Definitely a place to consider if seafood is your thing.
Ibiza's another "new American"-type place, and their original schtick was they would be a wine bar/restaurant and sell wine at retail prices; they never really lived up to that but the wine prices are still good and overall it's a somewhat cheaper than my other recs, and the food is very good.

This thread reminds me how seldom I get to downtown Houston any more.

If you don't mind traveling further from downtown you can head down Washington (west) to the TC Jester intersection. Catalan's is there (http://catalanfoodandwine.com/). I believe it's run by the same folks as Ibiza. They make a great effort at sourcing locally produced/growth food, and they put together some great dishes. I'd also suggest checking out this website for restaurant info: http://www.29-95.com/restaurants

All the choices that have been suggested so far are good (though I personally am not as much a fan of Reef as many others). On Westheimer, just west of downtown, are Mark's (New American) and Hugo's (interior Mexican) and D'Marco's (Italian, considered by many to be the best restaurant in Houston). If you want to go very high budget, there is Textile, a New American pre fix restaurant in the Heights (where the menu is set, so dinner will take a good chunk of time). Houston has a lot of great restaurants.

Thanks for the suggestions! I passed on JOwl's comments before I saw Owl-88's and Barrett's. So we have reservations at Reef. I'll try to keep some of these others in mind for the future.

Just as a side note, being out of the area - I went to Hugo's when in town for the Texas Bowl (met some friends there). Very nice atmosphere and food. There was definitely a range of attire in the place - from jeans on up to more dressy. Not sure I saw anyone in really fancy stuff, but I'll defer to others on the range of attire.

Enjoy your evening.

I know Brennan's burned down during Ike, but has it re-opened?

(11-02-2009 05:41 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  I know Brennan's burned down during Ike, but has it re-opened?

Not yet. They are still working on the structure of the building, it seems, so it doesn't even look like they're close.

My faves are Shade in the heights and Ruggles (the original) I know, i know... but I like it

Cool Gravy. If you want to try out the whole Houston faux-urban thing that I love, the light rail is ideally positioned to get you to the symphony (Reef is one block from the McGowen stop and Jones Hall is about 5 blocks from the Preston stop). The weather is perfect for it right now, as long as you can work something out with the valets at Reef.

Barett, that's a great list you put out there. Da Marco is my wife"s absolute favorite restaurant in Houston. Dolce Vita (the "pizzeri" by the Da Marco people) is awesome if you order and share their plates tapas-style.
But I admit I was disappointed by Textile. While the food was quite good and I love a fixed menu with wine pairings, the service was a little weird and it was overpriced. I loved Tycer's old place Ares (although I still can't get over them banning French wines in 2003); Ares was spendy but it wasn't stratospheric like Textile. We actually spent a bit more at Textile than we did on dinner once at French Laundry, and the experiences do not at all compare.
Mark's is great though; I don't know why I always seem to forget it.

Hambone - I like the original Ruggles in Montrose too, and Ruggles Bakery in the village has some good sandwiches. I can't believe the Montrose one still hasn't opened back up since Ike.

JOwl, you absolutely nailed it when it comes to Textile. My wife and I have been twice, and while the food/wine are good, the service is spotty at best. It's interesting you mention French Laundry because it seems that Tycer is going for a Thomas Keller vibe in terms of excellence and attention to detail, but the service needs to be impeccable if Textile wants to play in that league. (I've never been to French Laundry, but my wife and I have been to Per Se in NYC a few times.) I agree that the experience at Textile does not compare; granted, our times at Per Se were about twice as expensive as our times at Textile. A Thomas Keller meal is an experience, while my last time at Textile I was just annoyed by the service. I wholeheartedly agree that Ares seemed better somehow. My hope is that Textile just improves on its weak points; I admire its ambition.

JOwl... iirc, the owners were in a messy divorce at one point... they each owned one of the satellites and shared the original... so that may have something to do with it. OR I could be completely wrong

Wow, the fact that this discussion of outstanding restaurants was occasioned by a trip to see the world's most renowned violinist says a lot about Houston.

As many of you know, I spend a lot of time in both Houston and Austin. This thread underscores just two of the many great things which Houston has and Austin doesn't -- a few other obvious items being major league sports, a major international air hub, and (ahem) a first-class private university. To me, every single one of those items is more important to my enjoyment of life than having a bunch of bars with live music. But obviously, that's just me.

I do not mean to denigrate Austin. As medium-sized cities go, it may be the nicest in the country. But Austin is not one of the largest cities in the country, while Houston is. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of city.

I'm late to the party, but if there's any Mexican food in Texas (across all categories) that's better than Hugo's then I haven't found it yet.. My wife and I visited Da Marco and Hugo's this past weekend and I preferred Hugo's hands down.

(11-05-2009 07:09 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  Wow, the fact that this discussion of outstanding restaurants was occasioned by a trip to see the world's most renowned violinist says a lot about Houston.

As many of you know, I spend a lot of time in both Houston and Austin. This thread underscores just two of the many great things which Houston has and Austin doesn't -- a few other obvious items being major league sports, a major international air hub, and (ahem) a first-class private university. To me, every single one of those items is more important to my enjoyment of life than having a bunch of bars with live music. But obviously, that's just me.

I do not mean to denigrate Austin. As medium-sized cities go, it may be the nicest in the country. But Austin is not one of the largest cities in the country, while Houston is. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of city.

A) When did Texas stop paying their players.

B) If you're unimpressed by the arts in Austin, you're not looking. Already this season we've seen excellent performances by the Takacs Quartet and the unusual trio of Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer. We'll be late to homecoming next week (Sorry George) because we're going to a talk by Art Spiegelman and R. Crumb, one of only 5 such talks being done. In the spring its Gilberto Gil, Jose Carreras, and the BPO's Wind Quintet. And for all of this we've been no further back than 8 rows and had no end of butt-kissing -- certainly more than I would expect our measly $100 donation to the UTPAC would warrant (maybe its because they have to look out at the DKR-Memorial palace across the street from Bass Concert Hall.

Restaurants I'll give you. That's what I miss about Houston.

And Houston has great resident artists, but for the touring arts, Austin certainly does not come up short.