Mondays are for bringing you a restaurant review.  Today, we stay in Houston.

What’s my favorite restaurant in Houston?  It’s Haven.

Below are some excerpts from a recent Houston Press: Eating Our Words write-up.

This is the best bread you will ever eat! Ever!

“…Afterwards, I sat down and focused on consuming quail. But first, Chef Evans brought out some of that spectacular yeast bread with course salt. Good luck finding better bread out there, you won’t. It’s super soft, piping hot, and topped with a course, locally-mined salt that brings this bread to a different stratosphere of taste.

I resisted consuming the entire mini loaf of bread, and before I knew it, out came the garlic veloute. The sauce was poured over a soft quail egg, and mixed with tiny pumpernickel crumble. I popped open the egg with my spoon and mixed all of the ingredients together. It was a perfect harmony of flavors, as the sauce and egg yolk melded together nicely, and that pumpernickel provided the perfect little crunch.

Next, I sampled the quail—served with jalapeno sausage dressing and green tomato golden raisin chutney. The dish was beautiful and tasted even better. The simply seasoned quail was tender and played off nicely with the tomatoes, which, if you closed your eyes, would swear you were eating apples. How Randy got those tomatoes to taste so sweet is beyond me.

Like with any good Thanksgiving meal (that’s what this dish reminded me of), I mixed all the elements on my plate together. A small piece of quail, a little dressing, some raisins and tomatoes, and a dip in the demi-glaze—this created a perfect fork-full of food. I was happy.”

Everything on the menu is done well and creative.  The food, along with the restaurant setting, are absolutely beautiful.