Fielding's Wood Grill, Eleven XI & Funky Chicken

The Houston Chronicle's Alison Cook ventures out to the Woodlands for recently opened Fielding's Wood Grill and awards the burger and boozy milkshakes spot an impressive two stars. "What keeps me coming back is those burgers. The smoky note of the house-ground Texas Angus patties that spurt meat juices when you bite into them. The wood-grilling conjures up the great outdoors, and the patties meet their match in house-baked buns, gorgeously griddle-bronzed, that are springy enough to last and sized precisely right, so that meat and bread are in balance."

The Houston Press visited Eleven XI this week, and critic Kaitlin Steinberg enjoyed the fun play on Southern Americana. "The whipped potatoes and grilled asparagus are nothing out of the ordinary, but the meat itself, a boneless mound of short rib that falls apart into tender shreds with the touch of a fork, is sweetened with mushrooms sautéed in a cherry-cola syrup. This sneaky whimsy (You didn't think you'd like purple grits or Coke in your short rib, did you?) is most apparent on the brunch menu, where Bryant shows off his love of Southern food with an upscale twist. Instead of a corn dog, you get a meaty smoked sausage dipped in barely sweet pancake batter."

More reviews: Carla Soriano writes about Bradley Ogden's Funky Chicken in this UrbanSwank review, stating that the non-funky place serves up less-than-healthy but delicious poultry: "Although the funky fried chicken leaves no traces of grease, it's obvious that it has a lot of grease in it, thus qualifying it as proper, heart-warming comfort food. It is damn good." H-Town Chow Down pays a visit to the recently re-birthed Bennigan's.