Restaurant: Zelko Bistro

705 E 11th S
Houston, TX. 77008

For big poppa's bday, our day together concluded with dinner at Zelko Bistro. I had read a lot of great things about this place and had been intent on trying it out for a while. Jamie Zelko's restaurant, like many others popping up around Houston, focuses on seasonal and local fare. The place is pretty small and doesn't take reservations for dinner. We arrived around 6pm and were able to get a table right away. Soon after though the place did start filling up rather quickly. There's a small tin of complementary focaccia bread at all of the tables that I thot were okay. Not great. I'm a huge bread eater and didn't find myself tearing through it. I really like the fact that they put glass bottles of water on the table. I know it's the servers job to handle refills but sometimes it's just better to be able to refill your own glass than to get upset over your glass being empty cos you have a lazy server. Our server was great and still refilled our drinks for us. For apps, we had the parmesan fries tossed in white truffle oil and bruscetta. The bruscetta wasn't so great but the fries were some of the best I've had in Houston. Mos def at the top my list. I think I've been comparing other fries I've had to these fries ever since my visit here. For our mains, big poppa had the fish tacos and I ordered the captin's fried chicken where captain crunch, one of my fave cereals is used in the batter/coating. It had the perfect crunchy texture with a slight sweet taste to it and the chicken breasts were cooked just right. A week later Mochi and chacco also treated big poppa (and me!) to Zelko Bistro's. I liked it so much that I wanted them to try it. I know they were in agreement on how good the fries were but I'm not sure how much they liked their entrees. I did taste what they had but I can't remember what I thought. I think it was just okay. I ordered the captin's fried chicken again and liked it just the same. I heard that for brunch, they use this chicken for their chicken and waffles. I think I need to go try out their brunch STAT. The week before I ate their with big poppa, the Food Network show Meat & Potatoes were here filming some of the food for the show. I find the host of that show really annoying and never watch it but maybe I'll watch it just to see Zelko's on the telly.

*food in order of appearance*
bruscetta - hummus, feta cheese, olives, red peppers, shallots, basil, parsley, garlic
fish tacos - cilantro mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, pineapple salsa, sweet plantains
parmesan fries - crisp house fries with parmesan, parsley, white truffle oil
shrimp & grits - sauteed shrimp, apple bacon, white cheddar polenta, green onions, garlic, sweet agave soy
blue crab cake - jumbo crab, frissee, diced tomato, green onion, sweet soy, thai chili sauce, crispy potato
ribeye - all american beef, chimichurri sauce, seasonal vegetables, yukon mashed potatoes
captin's fried chicken - farm chicken breast, yukon mashed potatoes, green beans, shallot jam, pea shoots
funnel cake
carrot cake