bellagreen — Restaurant in Houston

Ruggles Green is our newest BYOB option. My husband had some preconceived notions about it and its taken some persuading to get him to try it, BYOB tipped the scale. The staff is very nice about opening the bottle for you and delivering it to your table with a bucket if needed. The cork fee I believe is $8?

There is a parking lot shared with a church next door and it can fill up quickly at peak times. So beware. Its also rather loud inside. Its usually packed with table crammed inside so that makes sense. If you want to have a conversation eat on the covered side porch.

The Food:

I have not had a bad dish here. There salads are plentiful with green goodness and creative ingredients. I recommend the Chicken Curry salad and the Fried Goat Cheese and Arugula salad. I've had the occasional chicken dish w/the smoked chicken and I love the spice. In fact I've subbed out regular grilled chicken for it on several dishes. One of my favorites is a daily special of ravioli, I've only seen it twice and the second time it was sold out. :( So it is THAT good.

I also LOVE their dessert. The Chocolate Creme Brulee Cheesecake is amazing! It is very rich so it works best after a salad. If you order it you should take advantage of the BYOB and have a nice port with it. Perfection. The Pink Velvet Cake is also a good choice it has the same silky feel of red velvet without the red dye taste.

Once caveat I have to mention is several times my dishes have been great but my husbands have not been. In particular he tried a meatball dish, It was turkey meatballs and they were terrible (dry and bland). Others at our table got the same thing and did not care for it as well. Most recently he got a salad special and was disappointed as well. It was rather bland and oddly mixed. That is what cost this review a star.

All in all a wonderful non-Italian...

It's always the energy that hits me first and I wasn't in the restaurant for anymore than a minute. The glaring and staring.. why??? I was excited to see about this mango ranch, my thoughts curious and my palate prepared to taste this unknown but possibly condiment of gold. I get home to open my bag, my burger, in order to dip my pinky, letting the curiosity dissolve into the pure release of ecstasy. But lo and behold, no mango ranch. In fact, no sauce at all (which, is more of an acknowledgment of 2nd place, than a complaint) and for minutes, I contemplated whether to return to the establishment, to give "the business" to whomever robbed me of this contentment, creating a void which will likely stand against all establishments of dining for the rest of my days. The veggie burger was delicious (after applying some of my spare sauce of barbeque). The mashed sweet potatoes were fair, there was a particular spice/pepper used that I feel did not honor the flavor of the dish, but they weren't bad.

We need to talk about the strawberry shortcake cookies. A highly-priced food at $7, these grainy, lifeless pastries fell very short of a delicacy, as the strawberries and whipped cream by themselves would have made for a more passable dessert. As it crumbled into my mouth, my thoughts drifted to feelings of dirt and sugar. Which aren't emotions, but the best assessment of the state I was in. An uninspired disappointment in my history of 3rd courses and I'm quite insulted to have been sold on such a tragic ending to my meal.

The burger was good and I didn't get sick. I suppose I need lower my expectations.

EDIT: Went again. The tacos and service were...

My fiancé and I tried this place for the first time today to sample their gluten free options. We opted for the wagyu burger, the cauliflower wings, and the fig and pig pizza. ~$70 including tip. Staff was very friendly at the counter. We waited about 20 minutes for our food, and when it showed up, it was room temperature. The cauliflower was a little warmer, but not by much. Also, it was weird that they brought everything out at the same time, since the cauliflower is listed as an appetizer. I figured they would have fired it before the other items. Anyway, the cauliflower was the best thing on the table. The gluten free bun on the burger was pretty good—soft, and not crumbly like most gluten free breads. We ordered our burger medium, but it came well done and dry. So. Dry. The bacon on it was crispy but it was definitely burnt on the ends. There were caramelized onions but no raspberries. Sweet potato fries were limp too. Overall, not good. The pizza looked nothing like it does on the website. There was no basil to be seen or parmesan, balsamic… just little tiny pieces of prosciutto and goat cheese. The sauce was quite sweet and did not seem to be fig jam but more like Thai sweet chili sauce. Gluten free crust was like a thin cracker, pretty good and would have been fine had it not been cold. Everything needed salt but funnily enough the salt crystals in the shaker were too large for the holes, so we had to unscrew the cap, dump some of it on a napkin, etc. Just another annoyance.

This is a great concept and menu, if only the execution and attention to...