Live music played on a grand piano in the lounge area provides a little old school atmosphere. A classic take on chicken parmigiana featured plenty of gooey cheese and a slightly sweet tomato sauce. Highlights from a recent meal included a hamachi appetizer that gets a little crunch from a squid ink rice chip a dry-aged, bone-in ribeye that had an appealing funk and a squid ink campanelle loaded with blue crab and served with rich uni cream sauce.

Named for the Italian word for “marble,” the restaurant serves an enticing mix of shareable appetizers, freshly made pastas, Italian-American classics, and dry-aged steaks - all paired with cocktails and a mostly Italian wine list. They’re less formal reviews than a guide of what to expect along with some suggestions for what to order (and what to avoid).Ītlas Restaurant Group, the Baltimore-based company behind River Oaks District seafood restaurants Loch Bar and Ouzo Bay, has opened this Italian steakhouse in the Montrose Collective mixed-use district. Write-ups are based on actual experiences dining at the listed restaurants (sometimes more than once). It also more established spots like one of the city’s best modern soul food restaurants and a salad concept that’s winning fans in West U.Īs always, these are roughly ordered by the priority I would give to trying them, but all of the entries on the list have something to offer. This month’s list includes the Montrose steakhouse that’s packing in diners, and the buzzy, New York City import that’s a smash hit in The Heights. Regardless of the reasons for the diminished quantity of new openings, it provides an opportunity for this column to include a few worthy establishments that had previously flown under the radar. Blame the rodeo, maybe, or simply note that some sort of pause needed to happen at some point.

Finished? Take your bill up to the front register to pay.After a frantic end of 2021 led to a busy beginning of 2022, the last couple of months have seen a slight slackening in the pace of restaurant openings. Dim sum is served all day and into the night, and the kitchen does well by its standard Chinese cooking, too. It’s such unusual items that bring me back, such as fragile, crinkly-edged tripe, lightly pickled and strewn with green chile and scallion. And the kitchen is solid on everything from silky-soft rice-noodle rolls (cheung fun) to bright-green Deep Fried Bitter Melon Balls, sweet and slightly bitter and exuberantly glutinous.

The big family crowds are lively to the max. The down-to-earth room is colorful and fun, with its paw-waving lucky cats and its pictorial menu mural. Yeah, cart service is festive, but I still prefer checking off my choices on the menu at this Chinatown dim sum staple, then waiting to receive my goodies hot from the kitchen. Salt and pepper chicken wings with green chile at Golden Dim Sum TODD SPOTH, PHOTOGRAPHER / TODD SPOTH / PHOTOGRAPHER Show More Show LessĪLISON COOK'S TOP 100 RESTAURANTS: See who made the cut, and who's in the top spot, only on The main dining room at Golden Dim Sum TODD SPOTH, PHOTOGRAPHER / TODD SPOTH / PHOTOGRAPHER Show More Show Less 5 of6īean leaf dumplings at Golden Dim Sum TODD SPOTH, PHOTOGRAPHER / TODD SPOTH / PHOTOGRAPHER Show More Show Less 6 of6 Steamed shrimp dumplings and lotus-leaf rice at Golden Dim Sum Dylan Aguilar / Contributor Show More Show Less 3 of6īaked BBQ pork bun, lotus-leaf rice and hot tea at Golden Dim Sum Dylan Aguilar / Contributor Show More Show Less 4 of6 Pork ribs on rice rolls at Golden Dim Sum Dylan Aguilar / Contributor Show More Show Less 2 of6

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