POST Houston

We went with family to see it as a tourist attraction, and it absolutely delivers on the food.  Basically the place is a food court featuring some of the best chefs in Houston.  We had food from Soy Pinoy (James Beard nominated chefs), ChopnBlok, Golfstrommen (one of Alison King's favorites), Johnny Good Burger, Thai Kun and Rollin Phatties.  All of it amazingly good and worth the price.

During the day the food court is the real attraction.  The rooftop garden is nice but was warm even on a pretty nice spring day.  The view of the city from there is amazing.  There are a lot of small vendors selling jewelry and clothing, but not super special.  You come for the food.

The prices are high, but I would beg to differ with those who say they are outrageous.  An average entree around the food court is $20+, but that's not far out of line with a good food truck.  

I found this to be a really accessible way to get top-notch cooking.  We would go to a fancy restaurant and order from a menu maybe once a year, if that.  At POST you can walk up to a counter and order something made by some of the most talented chefs in America.  And you can sample from several of them at once, rather than committing to one place.  It's a work in progress and I think it will get better as they finish the vendor spaces.  Parking is indeed an issue, it's a pretty small lot and kind of expensive.  The website recognizes this and lists many options for parking nearby.  Not perfect but absolutely worth the experience.

My Yelp Review

El Sitio Food Truck

This is a unique food truck in the Plaza De Los Food Trucks behind the Gosling Express.  They recently changed their hours to open earlier in the day, so I stopped in to try them for lunch.  They serve seafood but the star of the menu is birria.  I have never been to a place where you can get birria served so many ways.  In tacos or a burrito of course, but also on a pizza, in ramen soup or with pasta.  I ordered mine with linguine, accompanied by a horchata agua fresca and their tres leches cake.

The birria pasta came with thin spaghetti rather than linguine that day, but I prefer spaghetti anyway so that was fine.  The pasta was cooked perfectly.  So was the birria--very tender and moist, with the juice providing a fine sauce for the pasta.  Onions and cilantro optionally included--I had some and it was great.  You get a huge portion that could be split two or even three ways, or save some for a future meal.  It would reheat well.

The tres leches cake was a very good example of one--it was attractively presented in a small cup, with a dense cream (Mexican crema?  I think so) topping and a little caramel drizzle.  The cake was well soaked and it was nice and sweet.  Again, shareable.

The horchata was served in a cute souvenir plastic cup.  It had a cookie crumble rim put on with horchata syrup so you could drink it kind of like a salted tequila glass, but sweet.  That presentation didn't quite work--it came with a lid that would not quite fit with the coating on, and it made the outside of the cup sticky.  Good idea but maybe try something else.  It cost $8, which made me want better execution.

But that's a minor complaint.  The people were very nice and the food was overall quite good, and you can't find anything else like it around here.  Definitely worth coming out for a try.

The Plaza De Los Food trucks continues to develop--the owners are in the process of adding quite a lot of covered seating, filling in part of the center area that really wasn't being used.  It might have enough seating now to support the average of 10 food trucks that park there.  But there still isn't enough parking, and I don't know what else they can do to fix that.  Also wish it had a social media presence...

My Yelp Review

Fresh Kitchen Comfort Food

I've been meaning to try this place for quite some time.  It is tucked between a clinic and the 9 Round boxing fitness center, where Very Fresh Clamatos and Snacks used to be.  There's even a bit of overlap in the menu and overall vibe, so if you liked that place you'll like this too.

I got a 3-protein 'Ohana Poke bowl with Guajilla shrimp, regular shrimp and salmon, and all the veggies and toppings on a white rice base.  They'll put it on brown rice, cauliflower rice, quinoa or salad for you too.   It was an impressive pile of food.  I accompanied it with elote (a cup of corn) and a jarrito non-alcoholic cocktail (Fresh Kitchen is BYOB).

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  The experience was all-around enjoyable.  The owners were there that day and are wonderful folks, incredibly enthusiastic about their product.  All of their sauces are homemade, and they are impressive.  I had a combination of Ponzu sauce, Bam-Bam sauce (hard to describe, but think of a spicy mayo with great depth of flavor) and creamy sesame sauce, and it went very well with that load of toppings.  It would have been good for three meals, but I ate it all because it was so good.
  
  The elote was also quite delicious, I had a combination of white and sweet corn.  It's a fairly sharp flavor, lots of lime juice, and very satisfying.
  
  Their specialty drinks are a lot of fun and well worth ordering.  I had the jarrito, orange, grapefruit & lime juice mixed with grapefruit soda in a Mexican clay mug with a chamoy and tajin rim.  Their chamoy is also homemade.  It was a wonderful complement to the meal, and you get to keep the clay cup!  I would say that trying one of their specialty drinks is a must.
  
  On the menu, under Micheladas, you will see that one of the ingredients is "petroleum".  This is not a misprint, and it is not made by one of our fine local energy companies.  Though it does in fact look like motor oil!  It is a family recipe for a sauce that tastes like a combination of Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce.  The owner brought a sample and I tried some in the elote, and it complements it well, but go light--just a few drops will give it great depth.
  
  Family businesses require some patience.  The shop wasn't open when I arrived at noon on a Saturday, though the owners were there within a couple of minutes and ready in 10.  The bathroom was clean and ready.  The place is tiny, but there's a table inside and two more outside to eat there if you want.  Overall it is absolutely charming and something you really should try.

My Yelp Review