Yatra

Yatra, the latest *hip* addition to Houston's Desi food scene, is less of a culinary *journey* than a road journey. Yatra sits smack in the middle of Downtown Houston, perhaps in an effort to distinguish itself from its Indian restaurant peers...or perhaps to avoid the usual Hilcroft diners. In any case, the prime real estate seems to translate to upscale prices and small, hip portion sizes. Neither of which I find appealing. But we'll let you judge for yourself. Here's the list of what we had:

Saag Paneer – Two words: greasy and bland.

Shrimp Vindaloo – apart from the small portions, this dish was quite good. Nice heat and spices and lots of tomato flavor.

Chicken Tikka Masala – The biggest disappointment of the night. It had the consistency of the tomato basil soup at La Madeline...but with peppers for added heat, but not much heat.

The Roganjosh and the Thai Chicken curry (which perhaps should have been a red flag) were both dull and bland.

I firmly believe that a sign of good Indian food when the food makes you sweat. Just a little bit. Here, not a bead of perspiration even on Gopaul's forehead.

Bottom line, Yatra is more about looking hip than about food. So if you're searching for great, authentic Indian food, you should probably journey on.

If this restaurant were a Bollywood movie, it would be:

Mujhse Shaadi Karogi

Salman Khan + Goa = nice packaging, but there really isn't much else to this film. Pretty actress, beautiful beach, hip music, and yet another love triangle (this time with two guys interested in the same beautiful girl). None of the characters have much charm, Salman adds his usual greasiness, and the plot, well, it's rather unimaginative and hard to swallow.


Yatra Brasserie
706 Main Street
Houston, TX 77002

La Sani

The name of this restaurant (loosely) translates into “Like No Other”, and we can say without any hesitation that La Sani has disappointed like no other (so far).

We arrived during lunchtime on a Sunday and decided to try their buffet as our faux-blonde pigtailed waitress didn’t have much input as to what to recommend from the menu. As the buffet was not extensive, we decided to try a little bit of all the available foods. The $9.99/person lunch buffet was a strange mix of bad chinese food and oily pools of curries reminescent of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Here's what we found on the buffet:

Chicken Corn Soup – It’s egg drop soup with small chunks of chicken. Uninspiring.
Grilled Chicken Boti – A little on the cool side (temperature wise), this chicken had a nice black pepper tone to it. It was decent, but didn’t hold a candle to the chicken karahi (below).
Mutton Pulao – This rice dish had a good undertone of beef mutton which is cooked along with the rice. The rice made an excellent complement to the chicken dishes, but the mutton was much too gamey.
Chicken Karahi – The unexpected star of the buffet! Not overly cooked and very tender. Tasty, but greasy!
Nihari – While standing at the buffet, we asked one of the patrons about this dish: "Excuse me, is this beef?" "Yes, no wait. No. I think so." Not sure what to think, we went ahead and tried it. While this item was tender, it was unclear whether we were eating chunks of beef, lamb or goat.
Goat Keema (minced) – Very strong flavors of black pepper and coriander. Also doubles as a breath freshener.
Chicken Chow Mein – The taste was funky. Never mind that chicken chow mein is being served at a Pakistani restaurant… it just tasted wrong.
Aloo Bhujia – A greasy, fried potato dish that worked very well with the dry, cold chicken boti.
Chana Masala - Surprisingly mild and dull.
Naan - Warm and fresh, but unremarkable.
Fruit Trifle – A mysterious gelatinous goop consisting of canned fruit cocktail and an unknown substance.

We expected more from this one time 2003 Best of Houston Pakistani restaurant winner, but we were let down. The disappointment continued to the very end with their Lipton tea posing as chai.

If this restaurant were a Bollywood movie, it would be:
Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?
A C grade movie starring the greasy, over-rated Salman Khan who, despite his hunky looks or perhaps due to his hunky looks, can't seem to manage to break out of playing the same character over and over again. Here, Salman Khan plays a heart-throb heart doctor (* rolling my eyes * OH please! *) caught in a Bollywood-style love triangle. Like the disappointing buffet, I watched this film at Bollywood 6 Cinema feeling miserable and trapped til the end.

La Sani
9621 Bissonnet St
Houston, TX 77036
(713) 270-4040