Restaurant Review: Oxheart

Friday night my bestie Liz and her sweet boyfriend, Jav, came into town from Austin. They were here for a friend's wedding on Saturday, but came a night early and stayed with us! Fun! Fun! Since they are hip Austinians who are in on all the kewlest trends, we tried to impress them by taking them out to Houston's newest, greenest restaurant, Oxheart. Finding this place was a little tricky- it's located in the artsy section of the Third Ward, no parking lot and no sign.

I loved the look of the place! Very minimalist with exposed lights and brick. And this place was tiny! There was the bar, which looked directly into the kitchen and then about 8 tables, and that was it!


Good Lookin' Austin Friends! If you are going to try a new place, it's best to do it with fun, easygoing people, and we chose wisely!


You can't see it, but behind us was a window box of lovely smelling herbs and a beautiful view of downtown.


All of their serving dishes and glass was kept on these shelves facing us. It was such a homey, intimate way to serve your clients.


A view of the cooks in their kitchen. These guys and gals were PASSIONATE about what they were making! Every dish came with a complete description, and since we were there so late, we got to see their end of the night routine: They all gathered in a circle, and yelled "Ball Game!!" while high-fiving each other. I tried it the other day with my students, and they spit on me.


Speaking of easy-going service, all the tables had their own silverware drawer, and so you picked up your own utensils with every dish. The menu consisted of three tasting menus: Liz and I got the 7-course, and the the guys got the 5 course, so that way we covered most of the dishes.


The meal got off to a bit of a rough start with a few dishes that seemed more art than food. This little beauty was pureed fish cream with snap peas surrounded by mushroom tea. Why they couldn't just call it mushroom broth, is not for me to know. This dish did not get finished.



The meal did start to improve with the addition of carbs and butter. The mini pretzel balls were perfectly crunchy and gooey on the inside. The waitress did tell us that the pretzel balls are most peoples' favorite dish. I think it might be time to go back to the drawing board if the bread basket is the best thing at your restaurant. My personal favorite was the Grouper. It was seasoned perfectly and sauteed to a lovely crisp. I would've been perfectly happy with extra-large portions of just the grouper and the pretzels.


And in case you are thinking, "Dang girl! You had 7 courses and still wanted an XL portion?? Allow me to give you a to-scale picture of the actual size of these dishes. Doesn't the plate of root veggies above look large and in charge? Please note picture below:



Yep, same dish with pointer finger included for scaling purposes. And yes, I do have plump, root-look fingers, but you still get the idea.




After 6 courses, I was ready for dessert! James got the carrot cake- it was ok. I got the chocolate dust with creme fraiche(sp?). It was actually pretty good- imagine a very pretentious Oreo cookie- the kind of cookie that would look disapprovingly at you as you eat it, knowing full well all the trans fats and artificial ingredients you are about to digest.



And just in case there was still any doubt that this place is uber-earth friendly, our bill was delivered . . . entwined in a twig. Sigh.

So what did I think overall? Since you are dying to know? Like any new place, it's got potential, if they can work out a few kinks. I think chefs can get overly excited about the philosophic and the aesthetic, and sometimes sacrifice taste (i.e. mushroom tea/fish cream dish).
But I would love to visit again in the fall, especially since the menu is seasonal, and see what's up over at ol' Oxheart.