By Andrea Afra
Illustration by Blake Jones

There’s a ton of great restaurants in our town and while we don’t like choosing favorites, here are some of the FPH Staff’s local picks from our most memorable meals around town this past year.

Mala Sichuan Bistro– 9348 Bellaire Blvd
I get the Dan Dan Noodles– they’re kind of spicy, but they’re good. It’s like a traditional noodle dish, simple, and I get it either vegetarian or with beef. -Oz Galindo

Uchi- 904 Westheimer Rd.
I eat the same garbage all the time, but I had a really good meal at Uchi. They had this thing called a Ham and Eggs roll- it’s a sushi roll with pulled pork in it that you dip in egg yolk. -Mark Armes

Vinoteca Poscol– 1609 Westheimer Rd
I always get the bresaola because it’s made in house, and I order the cheeses as per the waiters’ recommendation because they always know what they are talking about. And I usually go for one of their specials because they’re always amazing. -Shadi Jam

Oishii- 3764 Richmond Ave
One of my favorite places to go is Oishii– I always get the sashimi and vegetable tempura. It’s always fresh, never has a weird taste to it, and they give you big portions for very little money. -Mariam Afshar

Asia Market- 1010 W Cavalcade St
I was sick a couple weeks ago and needed spicy soup, stat. Asia Market’s Tom Yum is a panacea for most non-belly related ailments. It’s temperature-hot and spicy-hot, tangy with a kiss of sweet. You can really taste the love, which is a must in a get-well-soup. -Andrea Afra

Pepper Tree- 3821 Richmond Ave
What are those little things called? Those little sesame-bean-balls, like the red bean chocolate or whatever. Those. -Blake Jones

Mezban Pak Indo Cuisine (and killer buffet)-6655 Harwin Dr #108
Everything was good. I can’t even remember what all they had, I just filled my plate with everything. -Ryan Ottea

H-Town strEats Food Truck- twitter.com/Htownstreats
I’m totally sneaking two picks in here. I was super-impressed by H-Town strEats back in February at the Lone Star Bazaar. Not only was the food cheap and ready fast, it was damn good. I had the deep-fried avocado taco and these steak nachos that have to be eaten to be believed—tender, masterfully marinated beef over these thick double-fried tortilla chips, held together by actual nacho cheese. Ridiculous. -Andrea Afra

Roost– 1972 Fairview St.
It was the braised short ribs on top of lentils. What I love about (chef) Kevin Naderi’s food is that he makes Middle Eastern influenced food without it being Middle Eastern. He takes the flavors of where he’s from and brings them here. I’ve never seen a hunk of beef on top of a pile of lentils anywhere.   -Dutch Small

Brasserie 19- 1962 W Gray St.
I had the grilled octopus appetizer and the rainbow trout Almondine, but secretly I ate some of (BF’s) steak…That. Was. Amazing. (I don’t eat steak/meat, that’s off the record.) -Ariana Katechis

Phoenicia (West)- 12141 Westheimer
I really liked the fried anchovies at Phoenicia on the west side. I didn’t know if they’d be good. They’re just like the ones in Lebanon—deep-fried so much you can’t even taste the bones. It was pretty dope. -Omar Afra

Earlier this month we here at Free Press Houston called attention to the recent trend of Houston restaurants being sued for failing to pay their employees. We tried to be understanding about it–hell, we even tried to be funny about it–and we hoped that a little public shaming would be the end of it. This isn’t rocket science after all: if a person works for you you pay them. End of story. Now we know that payment isn’t always an option in some businesses, that’s why tech start-ups use things like stock shares to attract employees. The problem is restaurants aren’t tech companies, there aren’t any stock shares to cash in after the big IPO and get back the deferred wages plus interest. We also know that in restaurants expectations are high and profit margins are incredibly thin and any attempt to increase the margins–like say cutting corners on the quality of ingredients–can lead to staff defections, loss of customers and closure.

We also know that, unlike retail stores, restaurants can’t reduce the amount of man hours to reign in costs. After all, you have to have x number of servers and cooks to keep up with dinner service. So how does a cash strapped small business owner make it through the lean times? It seems that more and more are turning to the idea of not paying employees, or alternately playing games with the money they pay employees. And it’s not just newcomers and celebrities that are making this consistently bad decision either. National food blog Eater has a post up about Houston dining landmark Tony’s being hit with a class action lawsuit claiming that for the last two years Tony’s management illegally required waiters to participate in a tip pool and then tried to claim a “tip credit”, the legal loophole that allows restaurants to pay waiters $2.13 an hour and claim that tips make up the difference.

The thing about a tip credit is that it’s tricky as Lisa Guerin at the legal blog Nolo.com explains: “Under federal law and in most states, employers may pay tipped employees less than the minimum wage, as long as employees receive enough in tips to make up the difference. This is called a “tip credit.” The credit itself is the amount the employer doesn’t have to pay, so the applicable minimum wage (federal or state) less the tip credit is the least the employer can pay you per hour. If you don’t earn enough in tips during a given shift to bring your total compensation up to at least the applicable minimum wage, your employer has to pay the difference.” Emphasis added.

Sadly, since many Houston restaurants don’t make up the difference in employee wages we expect 2024 to be a year filled with lawsuits. That is unless one of two things happen: the State of Texas passes some form of “tort reform” that will make it harder for waiters to sue their employers or  someone pressures Congress into finally getting around to closing that pesky loop hole that, you know, requires restaurants to pay waiters more than sweatshop wages–don’t laugh either is completely possible.

Fountain View Cafe
1842 Fountain View Drive
Houston, TX 77057-3004
(713) 785-9060

Andrea Afra’s food blog is at http://teethpicks.blogspot.com