D’Amico’s Italian Market and Cafe

I’ve had this place on my radar to try for a while now and finally got the chance to go with my mother in law while the boys where out tonight. D’Amico’s opened up a new Katy location which is in a perfect area to do some walking, shopping or let the kids play on the green areas afterwards. The inside is nicely laid out around the market counters and the tables are spaced so you don’t feel like you are on top of the person next to you.

We started out with a glass of wine while we snacked on bread and looked over the menu.

I ordered the Chicken Piccata $14.99 and my mother in law ordered the Veal Piccata $17.99 (sautéed in a lemon butter white wine sauce with artichoke hearts, served with linguini marinara). The meal also comes with your choice of house salad or Caesar salad.

Where do I begin? The Caesar salad tasted a little watered down like they didn’t dry the leaves and mixed in a tiny spoonful of dressing so of course it looked like it was dressed, but it wasn’t. Mother in law liked the House salad and said it was nice and creamy and not under dressed. As for the chicken piccata….the sauce was good, they just needed more of it. You don’t see artichoke hearts in the dish all the time so that was a nice touch. I didn’t care for it being sautéed I like the fried coating that is usually on the chicken. The marinara sauce on the pasta was another item for discussion….It had a tin/medicine taste to it. I’ve never had a sauce this bad. I suggest requesting their other pasta sauce over this one. I added so much parmesan and red pepper flakes and it still didn’t kill that awful taste.

Would I come back? I usually like to give a place 2 visits so I’ll be back one more time. I should have gone with the popular Crawfish Ravioli people on FourSquare raved about. As of now I’m not itching to run back.

Maggiano’s Little Italy

By far one of my favorite Italian restaurants has to be Maggiano’s Little Italy! The portions are huge and they have that dark rice wood feeling inside with the waiters dressed to impress. Since it’s further in town from our house we don’t get there as often as we would like. Not to mention you feel like you have to roll out of the restaurant with the huge portions they give you. I strongly recommend the Family Style menu it’s the most bang for your buck and never ending dishes. Usually we’ll order an extra round of each course then package it up to go.

While we waited for a table to clear we ordered a round of drinks at the bar. I got a lemon drop martini and D ordered a Catcher in the Rye (Knob Creek Rye, Luxardo Marashino, Simple Syrup, Old Fashion Bitters). I have to say his cocktail was amazing and I’ll be switching over to that next time we go!

Once our table was ready we headed into the dining room and started our order with Calamari Fritte $11.50 (Crispy calamari, served with marinara sauce) and Mozzarella Marinara $9.50 (Breaded mozzarella, served with marinara sauce). It’s our guilty pleasure, but oh is it worth it!

We ordered a Maggiano's Side Salad $4.95 each (Iceberg and romaine lettuce, crumbled bleu cheese, crispy prosciutto and red onions. Served with our signature house dressing.) It wasn’t the usual salad we get and love which is the chopped salad. It was my fault and I was mainly distracted with our child that just woke up from a nap. It was ok, we just love their chopped on better.

For the entrée we ordered the Crab & Shrimp Cannelloni $17.50 (Roasted red peppers, Asiago cheese sauce and seasoned breadcrumbs) and Chicken Piccata $16.50 (Chicken breasts sauteed with capers and lemon butter with angel hair aglio olio) as well as the Fettuccine Alfredo $14.95 (Fettuccine tossed with garlic in an Asiago cream sauce). We planned on only eating half and taking the rest home so don’t judge me for ordering so much haha. First of all the cannelloni is worth whatever they charge because it just melts in your mouth. I’m drooling just thinking of how good it was!! Of course everything else was really good too, no complaints.

You can’t leave Maggiano’s without ordering the N.Y. Style Cheesecake, Seasonal Fruit $7.95 (New York style Ricotta cheesecake topped with fresh berries and whipped cream). Truth be told all of the desserts we’ve ever had there are amazing. We got this to go and I forgot to take a picture of it for you.

It’s worth every penny to eat here. If you sign up for their email list they send out a free appetizer or dessert. It varies from when I’ve seen friends sign up.

Baby A’s

While in Austin sight seeing we decided to try out the highly raved Baby A’s.

They have huge patio areas. Here’s just one of the indoor covered patios they have.

Their salsa was really good and their chips had a nice flavoring to them.

The cocktails here are worth the stop. The food not so much so coming back is a hard call, because if I did come back it would be for a drink and not the food. It’s almost like that food you get because you’re drunk and hungry, but you can’t remember how it was the next day.

The fajitas where not good, which is hard for me to say because usually you have half of it good. Sizzling Fajitas $22.99 (Beef or chicken choose corn tortillas for gluten free. Roll your own tacos with our beef or chicken fajitas, cooked with bell peppers & onions. Served with refried or charro beans, rice, guacamole, cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo and flour tortillas)

D ordered a bowl of their famous tortilla soup. It was watered down and didn’t have much to it. The chicken in it was good, but you have to watch out for bones. $5.75 (Marinated, slow cooked shredded chicken, sliced avocado, monterey jack cheese, spicy chipotle sauce over corn tortilla strips. Seved with homemade mexican rice, fresh cilantro, onions and lime.)

D fell in love with the Spicy Cucumber Margarita. It’s strange and has a little kick to it, but he had 2 and couldn’t stop talking about it.

I read a lot of people rave about the Purple Margarita, which they limit you to 2 for a reason. This thing will kick your butt once it sets in. It’s really good! I also got a coconut margarita which I could drink all day long on the beach or by the pool.

Like I said I won’t go back unless we are grabbing a drink. There’s plenty of other amazing restaurants to eat at in the area that are better than this.

Akashi Sushi

 I had a girls night at Akashi Sushi Fusion Cuisine to catch up with an old friend and decided to try out a new sushi place. A neighbor had been here and said it was really good, but the prices where on the high end. After reviewing their menu, they have a huge selection of Japanese and Chinese dishes as well as a fusion. Since we where meeting up for drinks we just tried a couple of rolls.

The interior is well done and they really like the blue lighting. I thought the seating was laid out spacious enough and I like that they had a lot of seats at the bar area as well.

Lady Gaga $12.45 (Yellow tail, tuna, avocado inside, spicy tuna, spicy salmon, white tuna, jalapeno on top, served with jalapeno sauce & spicy mango sauce)

 

Valentine Roll $10.95 (Crunchy spicy tuna avocado inside, wrapped with fresh tuna)

 

Chilean Sea Bass Roll $13.50 (Grilled Sea Bass, asparagus, avocado, served with eel sauce, wasabi sauce and honey miso sauce). Loved this one!!

Hawaiian Roll $9.50 (Inside Spicy crunchy scallops, on top with mango, avocado, masago)

Jimmy Changas

We recently had a new Tex-Mex place open up near us called Jimmy Changas. I was a little nervous trying them out because their website looks more like a Chucky Cheese kiddo place, but I was pleasantly surprised how nice it was inside. They are really kid friendly which is great, but you are surrounded by nice blown glass and modern fire places.

We snacked on salsa and green sauce while we looked over the menu. Both where really good so we where off to a good start.

For drinks I ordered the Calpyso Punch $8.76 (amaretto, cruzan spiced rum & 151 rum blend with pineapple juice, rocks, grande) This was really really good! D got the Changa rita $6.54 (sauza 100 anos tequila reposado, premium liqueur, tropicana orange juice and lime juice). It was good but not the best one we ever had. I would love to try more cocktails, but the prices will add up quickly. 

D and I shared the chicken and beef fajitas for 2 $26.39. (sizzling hot fajita platters with sautéed bell peppers & onions -- served with Spanish rice, choice of charro, refried or black beans, fresh guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream and housemade flour or corn tortillas.)

I would definatly come back and try some of their other items on the menu and their playground looks fun to for when my son gets older.

Babaloo International Café & Bar

In the upper right hand of this picture is Babaloo International Café & Bar. Hubby happened to find a Groupon so we decided to try this Spanish tapas restaurant out. I wasn’t sure what to expect on a Saturday night. They offer live music Friday and Saturday’s which starts at 9:30pm. We didn’t get to see it because we where there from 7:30-8:30pm. The place is a good layout and a little on the dark side.

 

We started off with drinks, D ordered a Mango Mojito $8 and I had their house made Sangria $5. As most reviews online said the mojito lacks the alcohol in the drink, you mainly tasted the mango and mint. Mine on the other hand was really good, my only complaint is that it could be in a larger glass.

 

We rattled off a list of tapas from the menu and got to tasting. We started with the Sautéed Calamari $8.50 (Sautéed calamari marinated with a coat of paprika seasoning, sautéed with extra virgin olive oil, fresh garlic and a good squeeze of lemon). Ok first off the calamari was overcooked and chewy. Second the sauce was the best part and there’s no mention of that in the description. You need the squeeze of lemon on there for sure for that touch of acid, because I’m 99.9% sure they didn’t squeeze any lemon on there. I probably wouldn’t recommend this dish.

Next up the Cuban Crab Cakes $8.50 (Cuban crab cakes wrapped in plantains, fried & topped with an avocado aioli). I happened to like this dish except for the fact it was not hot it was less then room temperature. D didn’t care for it as much. I’m not sure what made the crab cake Cuban, because it tasted like a normal crab cake to me. I would get this one again.

Next the Mini Beef Wellington $10.95 (Tender pieces of choice beef tenderloin sautéed with herbs and sprinkled with dry sherry, placed in a flaky puff pastry with mushroom Duxelle). Um I don’t know how to put this nicely, but I’m starting to feel like we are being served frozen appetizers from Sam’s Club! Another dish not hot and the puff pastry was soggy. Not to mention it’s totally not worth the $10.95 for 4 bites of meat which didn’t taste like choice pieces rather the ones that have that super meaty flavor that needs to be marinated out of it.

Moving on to the Fried Green Beans $5. You really can’t go wrong with these and they where served with a flavorful dipping sauce.

Last up was the Bacon Wrapped Scallops $9.95 (Scallops dusted with seasoned bread crumbs, wrapped in smoked bacon tossed with homemade bbq sauce). OMG come on!!!! Now I know I’m having Sam’s Club frozen appetizers and the sauce has to be KC Masterpiece! The scallops where just warm enough to eat. Horrible!!!!

For our last round of cocktails D ordered a Jack Daniels Fresca $10 (Jack Daniels Whiskey, Fresh Lemons, Elderflower Syrup, Muddled Mint Leaves, Sweet & Sour and a Splash of Sprite) I thought it was a really good drink that I would sit by the pool and drink. D didn’t care for it as much and said it had too much Sprite. I wanted their Holiday Martini they had advertised on the table, but was informed they where out of the main vodka used to make the drink so I settled on a Little Ricky Sampler $13 which was a choice of 3 mini martinis. The Tootsie Roll had rave reviews online so I chose that one, a Sour Apple Martini and a Lemon Drop. By far the best one was the Lemon Drop. I’m very picky when it comes to a lemon drop, but this one had a nice balance of sugar rim with just a pinch of salt in it and they make their own lemonchello which made the drink. I praised the bartender on that being one of the best I’ve had in a long time and he said it’s because of the lemonchello which he gave me a shot of.

Honestly I will not be going back to this place, even if you offered to pay. This is not the flash back to our magical trip to Spain I was thinking it would be. The only good thing was the lemon drop martini and fried green beans. Will see how long they stay in business I guess the hope to stay afloat by counting on people to drink and not realize the food is awful.

Double Horn Brewing Company

We had been to lunch at Double Horn Brewing Company before. (Click HERE for details) This time I could actually drink since I’m not pregnant anymore. I’m not wowed by their beer, but the food is still really good.

Since we where with another couple I didn’t do my normal “let me take a picture of your food before you eat it” speech so I just snapped a quick one of my dish. The DH Chicken (Grilled chicken breast, pesto mayo, lettuce, tomato, bacon and avacado served on ciabatta bread) was really good and moist. Of course you can’t go wrong with sweet potato fries. The sandwich is big and filling and worth a try!