MHL Learns to Restaurant Crawl

It seems like every weekend a new restaurant is opening it’s doors in the Washington Avenue area of Houston. Hey, this MHLer is definitely not complaining. And it’s easy to see why — the Washington area continues to be this city’s hottest night spot and has emerged as the newest incubator for Houston’s culinary scene. It was for this reason why MHL was so excited to join along for a Washington Avenue Restaurant Crawl hosted by Living Social Adventures Houston.

If you’ve never been on an organized restaurant crawl before, the concept is simple. Get a bunch of hungry, open-minded people together and visit multiple eateries that are close to each other, sampling small portions of food and drinks along the way. On this particular afternoon we would be visiting three Washington Avenue restaurants — Soma Sushi, Max’s Wine Dive and Les Givrals Kahve —  three wildly different eateries.

Our first stop was at Soma Sushi, an ultra hip sushi bar and restaurant. After joining the group of nearly 30 “crawlers”, we were served our first two dishes of the day — a Crazy Irish Man roll and a Man Made roll. The Crazy Irish Man roll was a tasty combination of salmon, tuna and avocado that is fried in a crisp tempura batter and drizzled with a special “soma” sauce. The other, the Man Made, was a fresh roll of spicy salmon, lemon, avocado, and cilantro. Of the two, the Crazy Irish Man was the clear crowd favorite. In addition to the two rolls, we were also served three samples of Japanese sake and received a crash course in everything sake by the house expert. Who knew there was so much to sake beyond dropping it into glasses of beer and chugging away?

On the next stop of our culinary adventure, we found ourselves squeezed into a booth near the back of the urban-chic, Max’s Wine Dive. The brick laden interior of this narrow wine and comfort food eatery was bustling with young professionals enjoying glasses of wine from Max’s huge selection (makes sense) and surprisingly, at least to me, some damn good food!

The three samples served to us were Pulled Pork Nachos, the chef special of the day, Chicken Drumettes with a kickin’ Chipotle Honey, and their Pan Borracho, a savory bread pudding. Although each offering was tasty in itself, the Pan Borracho, or the Drunk Bread, is likely going to be my next food obsession. Sourdough bread and prosciutto soaked in a white wine custard and baked with three of my favorite cheeses — gruyere, provolone and parmigiana reggiano. *drool* Simply said, it was like the best macaroni and cheese dish you will ever taste but without the macaronis (not coincidently, I was told Max’s has an amazing mac and cheese dish).

Following the food tasting, we enjoyed samples of a bold Beringers red as well as a refreshing white chardonnay while admiring the pieces of local artwork that adorned the restaurant walls.

Our last stop of the day was the French-Vietnamese cafe, Les Givrals Kahve. The trek over required a death-defying (mild exaggeration) dash across Washington Avenue just as traffic was picking up for the night. It was then why I realized why each crawl participant was asked to sign a waiver beforehand. Jeebus!

The uber modern cafe presented us with a sampling plate that consisted of a chicken Banh Mi Slider, a traditional Vietnamese, shredded chicken sandwich served in a mini French baguette and a Pork Spring Roll. Although the restaurant was successful in providing a clean and tasty spin on traditional Vietnamese fare, I felt myself missing and wanting the gritty, imperfections of truly traditional Vietnamese banh mi and spring rolls. Unfortunately, the cocktails served with our samples literally left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe my taste buds really just wanted more Drunk Bread? Soon enough taste buds, soon enough.

The event culminated with a fun-filled spring roll rolling crash course and contest. A contest that we were definitely robbed in! C’mon, a spring roll with the peanut sauce on the inside?! That’s next level, Iron Chef stuff right there! But I digress. Despite the loss, we left the cafe with our heads held high and our stomachs stuffed. And as we waited to walk back across Washington, we talked about how much fun it was learning to “crawl”.

If you are interested in experiencing this restaurant crawl down Washington yourself, there are still several dates to register for! Visit the following link for more information.

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