Constantly Disappointed

Apologies to my sister, but I'm about to go on another rant about how good the restaurants were in Houston. When I moved to Austin in 2003, "The restaurants in Houston were so much better" was my constant refrain. Austin was good for two things: cheap Mexican food and really expensive food (although even the really expensive food didn't usually live up to its hype).

However, Austin was 1/8 the size of Houston, so I could generally cut it some slack. But now I'm in Chicago -- the big city -- and with the exception of one restaurant, I have been consistently and thoroughly underwhelmed.

Tonight was yet another case in point. The apartment I was going to rent fell through, and I spent all day running around town looking for something else. At 6:30, tired and annoyed, I decided to stop on my walk home and treat myself to a meal. I was going to stop at the cheap sushi place (yes, it's underwhelming, but it's also cheap), but on a whim, I decided to do Indian at Hema's Kitchen, a restaurant that I had read good things about.

I was impressed by the ambience when I walked in - it wasn't anything fancy, but was attractive and pleasant. (In fact, it was painted the exact color of orange that my last two yoga studios were painted - is this a special Indian hue? And if so, where do I get it, because it would go great with my living room furniture.)

Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. Three people stopped to take my order, leaving me confused as to who my server actually was. I started by giving one my order for masala tea and drank it while I looked over the rest of the menu. The tea was refreshing, but a little light on the masala.

I wanted a meat dish, so I decided to go with the lamb, as it is more typically "Indian" than chicken, and ordered the aloo along with some naan. The entree was $12, which seemed a little pricey given my surroundings, but I figured I'd have enough to take home for tomorrow's lunch. I opened my book, and waited for my food to arrive.

And waited. And waited. 60 pages later (okay, I'm a fast reader, but still), the lamb came out -- in a pathetically small dish. The naan, however, was huge, so I rolled with it, until I tasted my food. The cut of meat was cheap and poorly cooked. The bread was dry. The only thing that held the meal together (literally) was the aloo gravy, and even that wasn't so great.

Once I was served my food, no one checked on me again until I flagged down a server and asked for the check...which was added up incorrectly, so I had to wait while it was fixed.

Sigh, another restaurant to mark off the list. Not too many restaurants are on the list. Granted, I've been unemployed most of the time that I've been in Chicago, so my budget is limited. But that's exactly what was so perfect about Houston -- you could get great food there without spending a lot of money. Is Houston the only city where that's the case? Or do I just need a better guide to Chicago restaurants?

Posted by bethdeth at August 7, 2006 06:13 PM