A Fork in the Road: Lucille's (Houston, TX)

There are a few Southern restaurants in the Houston area and the Museum District Lucille's shows some promise in the category.  Chris Williams has created a menu from life experiences...spending summers with his grandmother cooking and traveling after graduating Le Cordon Bleu in Austin.  Williams traveled to Portugal and discovered the cooking of fresh fish and coincidentally, I began to have serious thoughts of attending culinary school after having a similar experience at Apeadeiro in Portugal.  His unique Southern cuisine does not include a heavy take on the dishes, rather a lighter approach. 

Fried Green Tomato appetizer with spicy aoili.  I wasn't blown away as I like the tomatoes a larger, but the bite-size chili biscuits were delish.

I was completely blown away with the entrees.  Blown away.

Purple nailpolish courtesy of Lauren Levicki

If there is one dish you should get on the menu, get the pork & beans.  This is not your typical sweet, saucy pork and navy beans, rather a hind shank with lima beans, English peas, black lentils agrocdolce reduction (in this case, an Italian sweet sauce).  The braised meat fell right off the bone and was truly sensational.  Very forward thinking when it comes to Southern dishes.

Equally exceptional was the fish fry.  A whole fish facing you with sweet basil succotash and fresh greens.  Like the pork, the fish could be pulled off the bones.  I fancy this presentation and eating with your hands!

Less successful were the oxtails with sweet potatoes.  I find oxtail difficult to eat when not prepared in a stew, but on the bones.  It ends up being alot of work for little reward.

The go-to Southern mac & cheese side

The desserts needs an entire makeover; so much so I didn't even like the bites  I had :-( and the presenatation was inconsistent from the first part of the meal.

The bread pudding was missing the vanilla-y gooey, bread in addition to the hard topping, but had the caramel.

A strawberry shortcake that I don't know could be considered as such.  Dry, tasteless cake with stems on the strawberries?  No, no, no!  Get a pastry chef in there!

Lucille's is the type of place I want to see succeed.  It has family history, Texas history, family values, passion and soon...an outdoor backyard with food and drink!