Pesce

3029 Kirby Drive713.522.4858

I think I really enjoyed my meal at Pesce... Can you believe it? Did you hear me? I liked eating at this Landry's restaurant. So here is the rundown: Great ambiance (especially at the kitchen bar), fantastic service, scrumptuous menu, touch-and-go execution of the very good recipes.

6:30 Friday night. Not a table available. So we sat at the best place in the restaurant: the marble bar overlooking the prep area for the oysters, soup and salad. Our way-to-busy waiter/soup chef took our order and brought out half a pound of crab claws and half a dozen oysters. The oysters were all foreign out-of-state today (not a Gulf of Mexico bivalve in sight) and tasted perfect!!!!! The liquor (read, "salted oyster juice" for you non oyster eaters) had perfect sweetness and saltiness. We got lucky though: the main oyster-shucker shucked our oysters. When we saw the dessert chef come to take over for a few minutes, he totally f**cked it up: he lost all the liquor while shucking and left pieces of the shell in the meat.

The crab claws were horrible. Overcooked and over-frozen, these things tasted like they came from Walmart's expired bin.

Rekha had the Mahi Mahi simply prepared with steamed vegetables and lemongrass sauce. The sauce was excellent. The Mahi Mahi was a bit overcooked. My snapper bestante with crab, hearts of palm, and shitake mushroom tasted outstanding. The flavors blended in so well, I lost track of my eating until I found the plate empty and myself sopping up the lime chervil sauce with the ever-present bread service.

For dessert I tried the coconut cream pie that tasted more banana than coconut. Rekha had the pear crostada that was clearly reheated, thus making the crust soggy. Their dessert chef has a steep learning curve to overcome to reach the standards set by the price and ambiance of this restaurant.

So for all my complaints, why did we enjoy ourselves so much? In addition to Rekha's excellent company, our stools overlooking the kitchen enhanced the excitement. Then came the perfect service. We never had to ask for anything. When we ran out of anything, it was refilled or replenished before we had to ask.

Pesce is a treasure. I just wish would figure out a way for the kitchen to execute to the possibility of the recipes, service, ingredients, and decor of the restaurant. In the end we had a great time, when we knew we were on the edge of having an experience.