The Raw and the Cooked

UCHI 

904 Westheimer
Houston, TX 77006

http://uchirestaurants.com/houston/

Burpette writes:

After months of begging a reticent Big Burp to take me to Uchi to use the $100 gift card that he so thoughtfully gave me for Christmas, I stuck to my guns and prodded Burp to finally make reservations for Uchi tonight.  Uchi is super popular, and by that I mean that when Burp called early this afternoon to make reservations for tonight, a Tuesday, he was told that we could eat at 5:00 pm or make reservations for next Wednesday at 6:00 pm.  Since we are not quite ready for the Early Bird Special and reruns of Matlock, we decided to try our luck and just show up for seats at the bar.

What luck!  We arrived at ten till 6:00 pm, and were told that we could either grab a seat at the bar or take a seat on the cocktail patio and wait for something to open up at the sushi bar.  We couldn't find a seat inside, so we went out to the patio for drinks until something opened up.  

The cocktail patio is charming, the only problem being that an afternoon thunderstorm had just dried up, causing my heels to sink into the little puddles that were formed under the pebble strewn patio floor.  We ordered a nice Willamette Valley Pinto Noir called Siduri for the reasonable restaurant price of $47.00 a bottle.  To our surprise, a friendly server brought us Grilled Edamame finished with olive oil.  I've never had grilled edamame before, and I have to say that it adds a char nice flavor.  We were also served candied pecans dusted with sea salt which did not suck!

Approximately 28 minutes later, we were seated at the sushi bar and introduced to our own sushi chef for the evening, Patrick.  Hot towels for our hands and a palette cleanser for our mouths were brought out to ready us for our Uchi experience.

Even though we ordered after the happy hour had ended, wonderful Patrick offered us the happy hour price for our order of Spicy Crunch Tuna Roll with Sweet Chili Sauce and Aioli and our Pitchfork Roll with Miso Tamari Sauce.  Did I say amazing Patrick?  

Spicy Crunch Tuna Roll with Sweet Sauce and Aioli

 

Pitchfork Roll with Tamari Sauce

If you are not a sushi person, may I suggest the Pitchfork Roll?  It is in a word, awesome.  If you are a Beefy Mc Beeferton lover, you will appreciate the big beef taste in these little beef rolls.

Big Burp also ordered the Ham and Eggs Roll, which prompted him to exclaim, "Where have you been all of my life?!?" to his pork belly, aioli, and tamari sauce roll.  It's like bacon sushi!  What the what?  I sampled the Sake Toro Sushi topped off with salmon roe.  Oh yeah!

Another friendly server came bearing Flash Fried Brussels Sprouts in a Sweet Chili Fish Caramel, courtesy of the wonderful folks of Uchi.  Hell-o Salty Goodness!  

Who is this benevolent Uchi?  Why is he/she so generous?  Who cares!  Keep it coming!

Next up was the Hamachi Nabe, a traditional Japanese comfort food like a seafood rice stir fry in a clay bowl.  A raw egg is cracked into a bowl of rice, perfectly cooked yellow tail, bonito flakes and soy which are mixed together in front of you to form the paradisaical rice bowl of your dreams.

Hamachi Nabe

When Burp's rather loud exhortations prompted our neighbor at the sushi bar to chime in with, "If there's a better restaurant in Houston, I haven't found it", we knew he was right.

...............................................................................................................

Wait there's more!

We ordered two glasses of bubbly, refreshing Cava to accompany our pre-dessert and our dessert.  We selected Brie Ringo, a tempura fried brie with an apple chutney, served on a sweet potato crisp for the "pre-dessert".  Big Burp's reaction, "It's like Heaven was shot down out of the sky and harvested for us, lightly fried and served on a sweet potato chip".  And this from a man who drug his feet taking me to Uchi for the past 4 months!

Finally, we wrapped things up with dessert, Fried Milk.  The fried milk is actually pastry cream that has been frozen,  rolled in corn flakes, frozen again (a couple more times) and then fried, served with chocolate mousse, chocolate powder, iced milk sherbet and wafer-thin chocolate cookies. It's like grown up milk and cookies, but like no milk and cookies that I've ever had.  
 

Milk and Cookies

That extra little synergy of flavors goes a long way to making this possibly the best meal that I've ever had.  We drove home with the top down in a food coma!

Now, sitting at home in a comfy pair of yoga pants and my ancient Psychedelic Furs concert tee, braless, serene, I am able to reflect on our dinner at Uchi and put it in its proper perspective:  If he wasn’t getting lucky earlier, he certainly is now.  Ladies, it’s Uchi for your coo@#ie!

Big Burp writes:

I'm going to have this big, dippy smile on my face the rest of the night.


Burp Factor:  Euphoric