05.11.08
Restaurant Review: Cullen’s
There’s a new high end restaurant open in the Clear Lake area, something we’ve been missing here for a long time. Cullen’s has been open for a little more than two moths and has already gained much attention, setting itself apart from the relatively pedestrian cuisine in the area. So is Cullen’s just a product of an effective hype machine or is it really worth your time and money? Read on the find out.
Before going, reservations are definitely recommended. On the night we were there, the wait for non-reservation holders was over an hour. i tried calling the number found on their web site, 281-481-3463 but after serveral tries, all I got was an answering machine. I happened to find another number in their advertisements, 281-991-2000 and immediately got a live person. So if you’re trying to make a reservation, try the latter number.
I have to say, our evening started out with a dubious beginning. I had made reservations for 8:00. When we arrived, parking was ample and valet parking is available if you really want the full service treatment. We got to the restaurant at about 7:40 and I was told that our table was still being prepared. I wasn’t really bothered by this since we were early, so we started the wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. Complicating this was the fact that the waiting area and the small lounge/bar off to the side didn’t seem to have any air conditioning (and on the hottest night of the year to date in Houston). We were finally seated at 8:45, about 50 minutes after we arrived. Admittedly though, we had decided to visit on probably the second busiest night of the year (the day before Mother’s Day, the busiest being Mother’s Day itself).
So far, I wasn’t really impressed. Once we sat down though, my view completely changed. Within seconds of our sitting down, the waiter was at our table (for some reason, this scores big points with me) and gave us a “wine list”. Now, this is where my inner geek gets to come out. The wine list was actually a touch screen tablet PC with a wireless connection so that you can see inventory in real time. You can search their wine collection by several different criteria: from winery to grape type. We settled on the cheapest bottle of Merlot which came out to $40 (disclaimer: I’m not a wine snob, even though I play one on TV).
Now, this is where Cullen’s reached a level of service that I’d never experienced before (disclaimer: this was the first time I’d ordered an entire bottle of wine from any restaurant). A person who was not our waiter (I assume he was the sommelier) brought out our wine. Upon popping the cork, he saw that there was sediment on the cork, told us that this bottle was no good, and went of fetch a fresh bottle. A few moments later, he appeared with a new bottle, and upon opening that, still wasn’t satisfied with the quality. So he went to fetch a decanter with a filter. As a side note, this is where I launched into Wine-Snob-Poser mode as taught to be by my tech lead at work and general Wine God. Sniff cork, tilt glass, look, swirl, smell, taste. Joe, you would have been proud: I had no idea what I was doing, but (in my mind anyway) I looked damn cool doing it (even though I may have looked like a complete tool).
“Ok”, you’re asking, “but what about the freaking food?” We started with the crab cake ($19) and unlike any crab cake I had before was composed of about 98% crab. Seriously guys, bravo. For the main course I ordered the Coffee something-or-another Roasted Duck ($26). In general, the portions are smaller than I was used to (by Texas standards) but the food is rich enough to still be filling. The duck itself (disclaimer: the entirety of my experience with duck is the the form of Peking Duck) tasted a little gamy than I thought it would and not quite done right. I would have preferred for it to be more seared on the outside and a little more rare on the inside. The real star of the dish was the side of mashed potatoes with artichoke and some kind of meat I wasn’t able to identify (I’m pretty sure it was some kind of pork). I’m pretty sure it was laced with crack because as soon as I was done, i wanted more.
For desert, we had the chocolate platter of death (ok, that’s not the real name, as you can tell I’m not too good with remembering dish names). Everything was outstanding but what really stood out on the uniqueness scale was the brownie topped with Habanero ice cream.
I’ve probably written more than I should have here already, so what’s the final verdict? The bill for the evening, for three people, came about to be around $150 and that’s including wine, desert and a pre-dinner “Oh god I’m bored to death” drink, which isn’t too bad for what you get. For most of us, that’s probably a bit steep to do every weekend. But for special events and entertaining gusts, I would definitely recommend it. And I for one, can’t wait to try out the rest of th menu.