CLOSED

We were really look­ing for­ward to eat­ing at Robert Gadsby’s new restau­rant Bed­ford, in the Houston’s Heights area. Along with Mon­trose and the hip part of Wash­ing­ton Avenue, Houston’s Heights is one of the top areas for new inno­v­a­tive cuisine.

First Visit

We were long­time fans of Chef Gadsby’s cook­ing from his time at NOE. The ini­tial entry way into the Bed­ford is west coast chic. The restau­rant was packed so our antic­i­pa­tion grew even more. On our first visit, we opted for the reg­u­lar seat­ing over the Chef’s table, which looks like a sushi bar with a small kitchen in front.

Please, every­one keep in mind: Yes, there is some con­fu­sion going on among the servers. This restau­rant is new and the place was packed, but the ser­vice was friendly. We already have a our favourite server — she knew the items on the menu (how they were made, what the key ingre­di­ents were), had rec­om­men­da­tions with expla­na­tions, and took great care of us.

The restaurant’s look is accept­able, but it will def­i­nitely remind you of a hall­way in a hotel-a lit­tle bare and noth­ing that really estab­lishes an ambiance. The addi­tion of a few pic­tures, more art with spot light­ing would help to cure this. The waitstaff’s uni­forms were untucked shirts rem­i­nis­cent of barongs or jan­i­to­r­ial uni­forms. We were informed by our server that the uni­forms would be chang­ing. Thanks — this is a good idea.

Mimosa Salad

The food was what we expected — great. The quail was per­fectly sea­soned and ten­der. The duck pasta was so deli­cious — bal­anced flavours of duck, with­out the greasy taste that turns some non-duck eaters off. The top dish had to be the papaya chicken salad. If you’ve eaten Robert’s mimosa salad at NOE, you will be famil­iar. This one dish should be given to every­one. It is absolutely delicious!

They ran out of lamb, that night –so I missed out. Look­ing into the kitchen, I saw lamb dishes com­ing up every 5 min­utes or so. The tel­licherry crusted tuna was also good. I rec­om­mend avoid­ing the shorts ribs. They are just “ok” and you can get short rib any­where in Hous­ton. We ordered 2 dif­fer­ent desserts. I espe­cially liked the Indian cheese donuts, but the bread pud­ding was so-so. Cap­puc­ci­nos tasted hand made and not from a cof­fee machine.

Duck Ravi­oli Salad

———————————————————————————————————————————

Sec­ond Visit

On our sec­ond visit, we decided go for the deep tracks. We went with the Chef’s table or what Bed­ford calls “Table One”. I thought sit­ting in the bar chairs would be hard for 2.5 hours. To my sur­prise, they were fine — even after 4 hours.

Our meal began with an amuse-bouche of a sweet corn­bread topped with a gar­den veg­etable but­ter. It was a good start. I think if you are inclined to do a tast­ing menu, be clear on whether you want to include wine or not. The servers will assume you want wine if you do not speak up.

Rec­om­men­da­tions

• A mixed seafood soup with broth, arti­chokes, striped bass, shrimp, sun-dried toma­toes, potato, and lemon. This was one of the best soups I’ve ever had. Very sim­ple taste and spirit warming.
• Steamed egg cus­tard, with black truf­fles. This was the biggest sur­prise dish of the night. Per­fect bal­ances of earthy truf­fles, salty egg and kuzo.
• Duck roulade. This is a must try for duck meat lovers.
• 3 meat (bison, elk, and lamb) ravi­oli was flavour­ful and hearty. The pasta was per­fectly al-dente and the meats’ tastes came together well, with­out and one meat over­pow­er­ing the other and no gamey taste and all.
• The duck ravi­oli with scram­bled eggs and truf­fles was my favourite dish. I could eat a entire meal of this. I hope this one gets on the main menu — highly rec­om­mended! I’ll be backor the duck and cook­ing classes.

Mako Shark