Cuchara, Local Foods, Witchcraft and Oxheart

Chronicle critic Alison Cook awards three stars to Local Foods, the gourmet sandwich shop that's a sister restaurant to Benjy's. While the prices range from $10 to $13 for a sandwich and two sides, Cook explains why she calls Local Foods one of Houston's best restaurants. "The quality is all in the details here. The 'Local Foods' designation isn't just trendy farm-to-table window dressing. It's real. Everything from the spectacularly textural Slow Dough breads to the farm eggs to the leafy greens involved is sourced in the Houston area .... And the results of this smart approach to ingredients have the stamp of sandwich greatness: The whole, in each case, is greater than the sum of the parts." [29-95]

Houston Press critic Katharine Shilcutt visited Cuchara, the Montrose restaurant that dubs itself a "Mexico City Bistro." While she's charmed by the atmosphere and the cocktail menu from former Anvil bartender Chris Frankel, there are dishes on the menu she didn't enjoy. "I enjoyed the Creole flavors of the huachinango — two pieces of fat, fluffy red snapper in a tiny, cast-iron skillet — on my first visit, the fish covered with a traditional Veracruz-style sauce of tomatoes, garlic and onions. But by my second visit, the sauce had become far too sweet, lacking the necessary depth of any saltiness from olives or capers to balance it out. And neither time had the sauce been spicy, as expected." [Houston Press]

THE BLOGS: The Leader Eater thinks the whole burgers and craft beer thing is a little overdone in the Heights but admits that Witchcraft is offering a solid product. From a little farther off the beaten path, Aaron from PocketFork pays a visit to Oxheart, which he compares to restaurants such as Relæ and In de Wulf, where chefs Justin Yu and Karen Man spent time as stages. It's high praise from a diner who's been all over the world.