Coppa (Number 84)

My journey down Alison Cook's top 100 continues on, and this time I found myself at Coppa on Washington.

Impressed?  Not so much.

I definitely had high hopes for Coppa upon our arrival, but unfortunately, they definitely fell flat.  Despite that, I feel like I would be doing everyone a disservice by not starting this post by saying I am 100% Italian and I have grown up around AMAZING Italian food my entire life.  Growing up around so much homemade deliciousness kind of makes you an Italian food snob, so my taste buds might be a little biased.  You should definitely try it out for yourself and see if you like it.  If I had it to do all over again, I probably would have went with a pizza.  At this point though, I would venture to say this might have been the worst Italian food I have ever tasted. 

I made the mistake of ordering the Gnocci made with oyster mushrooms, sage, rictotta, mushroom broth, and the ONE thing that sents me over the edge of grossnes...TRUFFLE OIL.  Yuck!  I HATE truffle oil.  I think I was so consumed by the fact that they had Gnocci {which I heart so much!}, that I ignored the fact that it was in truffle oil.  It was disgust!  It was not just in the truffle oil, it was swimming in it, and the gnocci was grilled!  Who grills gnocci?!?!  My brother ordered the chef's "signature" dish, Speghetti Carbonara, which in my opinion was just OK.  I really wanted to like it, but it just didn't happen for me.

I would definetly like to know if any of you had a better experience!    

Over all, I give Coppa TWO stars.  This Italian girl was NOT impressed.

Cuisine: Italian

Entree Price Range: $$-$$$

Where: 5555 Washington Ave.

Phone 713-426-4260

Website: copparistorante.com

Roost (Number 59)

This week, I had the pleasure of having an old friend from elementary school in town from Minnesota.  Each time she comes in, we try to get together with our moms and have a little mother/daughter dinner, just to catch up and talk about old times.

We usually go to dinner at one of our normal restaurants [Juanita's], but since I took the "Alison Cook Restaurant Pledge," we decided to try one off her list instead!  I left all the decisions up to Susanne, [I mean...she is the guest, right?] and she chose Roost.  Roost is a little, bitty, almost hole in the wall restaurant in the heart of Montrose.  The atmosphere is super casual, even giving off a hidden treasure kind of vibe.  The only complaint that I had about the location was the temperature.  IT WAS HOT!  They could definitely stand to crank the air up a little!  Despite that, everything else was great.  The owner and chef, Kevin Naderi, even met us at the door, taking our drink orders while we waited.  The whole time we were there, I felt like I was on an episode of "Top Chef," waiting for the next unexpected, yet delicious dish to come out for me to judge!

The menu was REALLY short, and it changes every three weeks or so to reflect what is available in Houston at the time.  This seems to be the trend in Houston restaurants right now.  Although the menu was short, there was enough of a variety of items, that you could find something that you liked.  They even had one vegetarian dish for all my non-meat eating friends out there!  If you go, I do recommend that you start your meal with the roasted cauliflower...IT.IS.TO.DIE.  I'm not a fan of cauliflower, and I loved it!

Overall, I give them four out of five stars.  I loved the atmosphere and the food was great!  

Cuisine: American
Entree Price Range: $$
Location: 1972 Fairview St.
Phone: 713-534-7667
FB Page: www.facebook.com/iloveroost [they don't have a web page at this point]

Underbelly (Number 6)

This weekend, we celebrated Ashley's birthday with a little dinner at Underbelly and a little dancing at South Beach.  The highlight of the night was definitely the dancing at South Beach!  I have to say, for the first restaurant on my Alison Cook restaurant adventure, Underbelly was not what I expected.  The atmosphere was great...It was very industrial with an in house butcher shop and open kitchen.  In the main room, there was community dining with large picnic tables and in the side room, there were smaller, more intimate tables.  Despite the more intimate setting, the acoustics were TERRIBLE, and it was extremely hard to hear even the person sitting right next to you.  HUGE pet peeve of mine when dining out.    


The restaurant was started as an attempt to "tell the story of Houston food," but I guess our ideas of "Houston food" are very different.  I am by no means a chef or food critic, but I know what I like, and this was not my style of dining out.  The menu starts with something like..."To share, or not to share," implying that the portions were "family size," but NONE of the items that we ordered turned out to be remotely close to family size.  In fact, the waitress suggested that we get two entrees per person!  WHAT?!?!  We all tried a little bit of eat person's food, and the only one thing that I was truly blown away by was the "Lambburger Helper."  It was really good, and if it's on the menu the night that you go [the menu changes based on what is available locally], you should definitely try it!  


At this point in time, I give Underbelly two out of five stars.  I'm still hopeful though!  I would love to visit them again and have great experience!


Cuisine: American
Entree Price: $$-$$$
Location: 1100 Westheimer
Phone: 713-523-1622
Website: underbellyhouston.com

Alison Cook's Top 100

Most people don't realize this, but Houston is one of the number one cities for dining out.  We have great restaurants with great chefs all over the city.  Recently Houston Chronicle food critic, Alison Cook, chose her top 100 restaurants in Houston for 2012.  Looking over her list, I realized the restaurants were not just upscale and super expensive, they were actually all very different.  There were upscale restaurants like Vic & Anthony's to food trucks like Good Dog Hot Dogs and everything in between. 

As I continued reading, it occurred to me...I must try each and every one of these restaurants!  I shared my idea with a few friends, and they were all up for the challenge!  Next step was choosing our time frame.  Can we dine out at this many restaurants in one year?  Hmm...There are 52 weeks in a year and 100 restaurants on the list...If we went to each one in one year that would mean that we would have to go to at least two restaurants per week.  That was a little much, so I decided to give us two years to try each and every one and in no particular order.  That's getting together and trying one restaurant a week.  We can totally do it!

Please stay tuned for our adventure, and I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on the restaurants that we visit! 

So, without further ado...to see Alison Cook's Top 100 Houston Restaurants for 2012, CLICK HERE!