Texas Star Oyster Bar at Texas Station

VERDICT: Good clam chowder and decent fish and chips....that is it for what you should order.

We went to Texas Star Oyster Bar at Texas Station again last night.  Greg actually asked me halfway through the meal, "Why do we keep coming here?"  Feeling like I was going to vomit later from the food settling in my stomach, I had to reflect.

The good points:
1. It's cool.  It's a fun little, open seafood eatery.
2. The clam chowder is exceptional.
3. The fish and chips are decent.
4.  I assume that if you like raw oysters, that the oyster are good.  I can't vouch for that though, because yuck, raw oysters are disgusting!

The bad points: 
1.  The service is slow, especially during the day when there is only one server.  Let me make that clear the slow service is not the servers, but the fact that they like to keep it understaffed. 
2.  They're expensive for everything other than what you should order (which is the clam chowder and the fish and chips.)
3.  I had the gumbo.  It was unlike any gumbo I've ever had and filled with some spice that I detest, that usually I only find in bad Chinese food.  It was this spice that made me vomity and push the plate away after a few bites.  Greg insists that it was bad crab.  So maybe bad crab is a spice.
4.  Greg had a boil with shrimp, corn, mussels and clams.  The mussels and clams were sandy.  HELLO?!  Did someone miss cooking 101?  Twenty minutes soaking them live in fresh water is all it takes and all that sand goes away.  Also, the shrimp were overcooked, making them extra chewy.


Four good points and four bad points, I guess it is a wash.  I'll have to try it again.  I just wish they would revisit their menu.

Lemon and Mint Marinated Chicken Thighs - Recipe

Very flavorful, cheap and easy.  Even pleases people who don't usually like chicken thighs.

Mix marinade of
4 large smashed garlic cloves ground into paste with 1 1/2 tsp of kosher salt
1/2 cup packed chopped fresh mint or other fresh herb (flat leaf parsley if you are poor)
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Juice of one lemon (about 3 tbs.)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup olive oil drizzled in while wisking

Put salt rubbed chicken thighs (about 4 or 5) into marinade for 1/2 hour to overnight in fridge.  You can use with skin or without, with bone or without, just adjust cooking time.

Cook on medium heat with heavy weight on top (eg. another frying pan with heavy things in it) for five minutes.  Remove weight and cook for another 5 minutes.  Turn over, replace weight and cook until done, 4-6 minutes.

Gobi Jhalfrazie - Recipe

OK, this is a basic Indian vegetarian dish, with cauliflower and carrots that tastes great over rice.  As is normal with Indian food, it is spice heavy.  If you like Indian food, you must invest in some garam masala.  You usually can find it cheap in import stores.  It tends to be overpriced in supermarkets.  You can make your own, by combining a lot of different spices (pictured below).

I like this recipe because it is made with things that I almost always have at home (I've included possible substitutions that I've used).  The only odd item is the cauliflower, which can be substituted with any vegetable.  This recipe tastes good as is, but tastes better the next day reheated.

3 tbs. canola oil (or olive oil)
5 cloves coarsely chopped garlic (or if you prefer a 2-inch piece of chopped ginger or garlic and ginger!)
2 large yellow onions coarsely chopped
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbs. ground coriander
5 or 6 large peeled and thinly sliced carrots
1 head of cauliflower, cut into medium sized florets
1 Serrano chile (with or without all of the seeds depending on how hot you want it)
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup ketchup to add sweet flavor if desired
1 can of tomato sauce (or preferably two ripe tomatoes cut into medium dice) (whichever you choose will dramatically alter the recipe, so essentially this is like two recipes in one)
1 1/4 cup frozen peas
1 cup water

In a dutch oven, cook garlic (and ginger) over medium-high heat for 30 seconds in oil.

Add the onions and 1 tsp salt.  Cook until edges are brown, about 5 minutes.  Add coriander and stir for 1 minute.  Add carrots, cauliflower, and chile.  Cook, stirring often for 15 minutes.

Add garam masala, cayenne, ketchup, tomato sauce (or tomatoes), peas, 1 tsp salt, and the water.  Simmer and cover for 5 minutes.

Agave

UPDATE: Now closed for business....color me shocked.

VERDICT: This restaurant looks great, but doesn't deliver good food.

First, I should let you know that I ate here for free.  I used a Groupon that I paid for with credit.  You see every time someone signs up with Groupon through the highlighted links and then ends up buying a Groupon, I get a $10 credit.  Don't click on the ads on my blog, but rather click on the Groupon links.  It's free to join and I have to say that it is a lot of fun too....do it, do it, do it...I want $10.

Anyway, the restaurant itself is impressive although an unfortunate shade of pink.  The unique architecture is further marred by the addition of TV's playing sports over the bar.

I immediately knew that I wasn't going to like the meal by the menus.  The menus have what appears to be a cover made out of copper.  That seems all well and good, but copper is not something you want to touch before eating.  Don't believe me?  Take out a couple of pennies and hold them in your hand.  Now smell your hand.  Gross, huh?  If you have a good sense of smell then you are going to smell this every time you raise your fork to your mouth if you don't wash your hands after handling the menu.  I am of the opinion that if you don't have a good enough sense of smell to notice this then you probably aren't a very good cook.

I decided to go safe.  I got the carne asada burrito.  It was flavorless and the meat was extremely chewy.  The brown beans were dry, undercooked, and bland.  I could only finish a small portion of the burrito before giving up.  I would much rather have Roberto's.  Greg got a taco sampler and found he couldn't finish his tacos either.  While he enjoyed the tacos "Al Pastor" (with pork), he couldn't finish the potato and portabella taco.

I've noticed that the people that like this place tend to talk about the cocktails a lot.  I'm thinking that you have to be drunk to like this place.  This barely missed being on my "Worst of Vegas" list, solely because the chips and salsa were good.

Martinis

UPDATE: Martinis is now out of business. 

VERDICT: Come here to talk about your 6-figure deal, not for amazing food.

I got a Groupon for Martinis.  It cost $15 for $35 worth of food.  I didn't even know where Martinis was, but I saw it was near and thought I would give it a try.  I'm all about the Groupons, I recommend all Vegas people take advantage of them.

First, Greg and I noticed the large amount of "luxury" cars in the parking lot.  I'm talking about cars that aren't bought because they are nice, but rather bought to show wealth.  At least, that is what I think of Mercedes and BMW.  They certainly aren't bought because they don't break down and let's leave it at that.

When we entered at around 6:30, we were faced with a crowded bar area.  I mean packed with loud "successful" people, trying to talk louder than each other, as they discussed about how much money they have in some sort of money-fueled mating ritual.  These were the type of people that use phrases like "six-figure deal", "team building", and "after this, I'm going to the gym".  Greg, of course, wanted to leave immediately, as did I.  However, I didn't want to be stuck with a Groupon that I already paid for.  I didn't want this to be a lesson learned about pre-buying food. (Groupon is great...try it, I get $10 if you use my links and buy something).

Luckily, someone was there to assist us to the dining room, which was separated by a wall with fireplaces from the yuppie-packed bar.  The restaurant area was nice and sufficiently separated from the din.  She said that if we waited around, the live music was going to start later.  This only made us want to finish our meal quickly and leave.

We had the pork and shrimp dumplings.  They were good, but only came with 5 tiny dumplings for a substantial price.  I had the flatbread pizza. Among its toppings were pepperoni, Greek olives, and jalapeños.  I love jalapeños, but with the olives, the pizza was too pickle-y.  I ended up taking them off.  Greg had the shrimp scampi, which he reported was good, but the shrimp was slightly overcooked.

All in all, it was good, not great and a little spendy.  A place to see and be seen, which is just not my scene.

Mimi's Café

VERDICT: Bring your own butter...better yet, bring your own food.

I don't get this restaurant at all.  What is it suppose to be?  A family restaurant?  A French restaurant?  A New Orleans restaurant?  Because it fails with all of that.  The menu consists of rather bland café fare.  There is Chicken Cordon Bleu on the menu.  Rather than actual Cordon Bleu, it is deep-fried chicken served with a bright yellow mustard sauce that they have the guts to call Dijon sauce.  The room we were in was decorated as if we were in a New Orleans café, ironically painted with the names of fun, Cajun dishes that were not on the menu. 
I ended up getting the ravioli...I know, I know, how French is that?  The sauce would made Chef Boyardee seem gourmet and the ravioli seemed fresh from the freezer. We went with Greg's mother, who I refer to as the Dairy Queen.  She became absolutely disgusted that they didn't serve real butter with the bread.  It tasted as if it was Promise, a butter substitute..  You may remember her bringing her own butter to the Tournament of King.  She, after finishing with her unbridled disgust, decided to bring her own butter with her on any future trips to Mimi's Café.  I, on the other hand, was not offended by the butter substitute, but will not be returning to Mimi's ever again, with or without my own butter.

Paymon's

I love falafel, but I never get to have it.  Greg always chants, "Falafel is awful."  Partly because he likes the rhyme, partly because he knows it annoys me, and partly because he hates falafel.  I was super excited when he suggested Paymon's for lunch.  He tends to avoid Mediterranean restaurants, because he always says, "Isn't that whole area a little iffy?"  Paymon's serves what I think of as non-threatening food from a foreign country.  Nothing is very strange, falafel is perhaps one of their stranger things on the menu.  Everything is amazingly overpriced.

Greg had the pastitsio, which is basically bland Greek lasagna, something that I could never get excited about.  I had the falafel which had really large patties.  I prefer my patties smaller and crispier.  The fries were just superb though.  I could go to Paymon's for just the fries with their strange mustard like fry sauce.

The thing that pissed me off though is when we ordered a pot of tea.  They have a great selection of tea to order from, but when we asked if we could split a pot of overpriced tea, we were informed that it wasn't allowed.  Really?  Everyone has to get their own POT of tea...not a glass, a pot.  You can't split a pot of tea.  What a joke of a restaurant showing that they really just care about ways to make money!

Paymon's, by the way, is the restaurant that gets called in about on KNPR constantly.  Whenever they have a food critic on, people call in and rave about Paymon's.  It got the point that people at KNPR usually mention that they will not be taking calls about Paymon's and that Paymon's is just all right of a restaurant.  The people that called in about Paymon's apparently were over-enthusiastic employees.