Mellow Mushroom's Great; Blu Isn't

Press critic Katharine Shilcutt is impressed by Houston's first outpost of the Mellow Mushroom chain. Despite some service hiccups from the young-looking staff, Shilcutt writes that she wants to try every pizza on the menu and appreciates the restaurant's large selection of locally brewed craft beer. "I dove just as eagerly into my friends' pizzas that night, all of us glad to share: a Buffalo Chicken pie with a flourish of Frank's Red Hot sauce amid the chicken and blue cheese debris, and a Thai Dye with curried chicken jutting out brightly from a field of tomatoes, cucumbers, basil leaves and a red spiral of sweet chile sauce." [Houston Press]

Unfortunately, Chronicle critic Alison Cook wasn't impressed by Asian fusion restaurant Blu. She awards zero stars to chef Junnajet Hurapan's Sugar Land restaurant due to the overwhelming sweetness she found in several of the dishes she tried. "The Massaman short rib curry for which he is celebrated was too sweet for me to eat more than a few bites, although the beef was nicely braised. ... Wok-tossed noodle dishes had similar sugar problems. I applauded the intricate and distinct textures of Jett's pad Thai, the classic rice noodle dish; but I deplored the fact that I had to ask for extra lime segments to balance out the dish so it wasn't too sweet for me to eat." [Houston Chronicle]

The Blogs: A light week overall, but this post from Daniel the Gluttonous Chinaman is a good reminder to visit Confucius Seafood in Chinatown for its budget-friendly lunch specials.