Field & Tides — Restaurant in Houston

At first appearance there is a quaint homey vibe to the restaurant with an open door to the kitchen. Looking in there’s really nothing to look at but a narrow hallway to a partial view of a prep table. But there was plenty of kitchen noises coming from that direction. The appetizer menu looked interesting so we ordered the following: Pulpo: I was expecting a tender octopus. What I got was somewhere between a tough grill to medium texture depending on the thickness of the tentacle. There were micro greens on top which didn’t add flavor but perhaps more texture. The tentacles was served bare, sitting on top of onions and a thin layer of sauce. Eating the tentacle as it is was mostly bland with a hint of smokiness and sometimes a whiff of fishiness. I didn’t mind it but my colleagues felt it was off putting. I didn’t get the onions. It felt like an afterthought and the sauce could have come from my bottle of Thai chili sauce at home. Pimento Cheese Fritters had a nice crunch to it and the flavors were nice but I think I was thrown off by the molten texture inside. It was some parts molten and some parts stringy. However I did like it. The Artichoke was just a pickled artichoke dipped in batter and deep fried. They were okay. Kind of reminds me of deep fried pickles. The Deviled eggs were just good deviled eggs. The square crispy bacon was a good crispy bacon. I couldn’t tell the difference between the Berkshire and a normal pork belly. Simply because it was too small to detect a difference. Crispy oysters and Brussels. Oysters were topped off with a aioli. It was a pleasant bite. I didn’t touch the Brussels so I can’t comment on them.

I followed the apps with a She Crab Soup. I found myself comparing it to one I had in Savannah and this didn’t come close. I kept waiting for stronger flavors but it never came through. And I didn’t like the chopped eggs. Maybe because I just had the deviled eggs and it seemed to take away from the soup because it didn’t fit in. My main was a redfish. It was cooked properly with a crispy skin. It tasted good and I enjoyed the roasted okra. I did find myself wishing there was a thick sauce to bring all the ingredients together. I was hoping for more but overall, it was an okay...

My husband and I have been coming here for two years . We started going there when we lived just around the corner and we continued to make the journey even after moving to the memorial city area. I say that to emphasize how this place was one of our beloved restaurants on our regular rotations. However, over the years we have continued to be slightly more disappointed with the menu, one dish in particular. The famous pork chop. What caught our attention with this place when we first started going here was the enormous but absolutely delicious pork chop main dish. Its original recipe was a Dijon mustard sauce and it was without a doubt the best pork we have ever had and one of our favorite dishes of all time. It kept us coming back for sure. Then at some point, they changed the recipe to feature jalapeño and blue cheese. We were disappointed with the change, however tried it. It was also delicious and even ordered it a few times, but it was nothing like the previous recipe. We found ourselves always requesting the old recipe, which 9 times out of 10 they would do for us which we greatly appreciated. That brings us to last night. I was super excited to go back and chose this place to celebrate being pregnant with our first child. We saw that they changed the recipe once again and we decided to try it. Once again we were met with disappointment. The pork itself is cooked perfectly but the sauce and the partially cooked onions on top were not impressive at all. It is very frustrating knowing the potential of this place and just seeing our favorite dish continue to go downhill. I understand that restaurants need to update their menu but there is no reason to change perfection.

This review is truly meant to be constructive criticism for the restaurant. Everything else about it we enjoy including the cocktails and the atmosphere. However, we can't see ourselves continuing to go back here as frequently because of this.

As loyal customers. I beg you. PLEASE BRING BACK THE OLD PORK...

It seems to be a struggle for this neighborhood spot to find its way coming out of the pandemic. The service staff seem harried and haggard despite being seemingly plentiful and there is disorganization abound. Dining there recently, it took 40 minutes for food to arrive which when it did was mediocre at best and far from piping hot (the sauce was already congealing on my pasta and my friends grits). Interestingly the wrong food was attempted at our table twice and another round also incorrectly attempted at another table, so something was happening in the kitchen. Beyond the temperature of what we received, it just didn't really seem up to their previous standard and certainly not justifying the mid $20 per entree price point. The staff struggled to get the seating in the patio area arranged in a way that didn't feel like you were in the midst of an ant hill surrounded by distracting flows of servers, and seemed unprepared to handle set up for slightly larger parties. While we also were next to a table with 4 kids who sat down for maybe 5 minutes in the course of an hour and a half. It was surprising that the management seemed to lack interest in mitigating liability as the kids climbed up, over, and around the area's higher patio structures; a good 5 ft off the ground with steel bars only a few inches wide. At minimum it would have been nice if they could have politely asked for the children to be seated and not run weaving between tables. It also would have been nice to have the too long wait for food acknowledged and for the wait staff to return at least once to check if everything was good. Perhaps a designated area for seating families could help too. Likewise better organization and flow would ease the burden of servers and help reduce confusion. We did provide feedback on all of these items to our server however she was spectacularly disinterested. Needless to say we won't return in the foreseeable future but hope that they find...