HS Green — Restaurant in Houston

I was extremely happy with HS Green. It's a brand new healthy food, counter service, casual, excellent cuisine restaurant in Richmond Plaza near 24 Hr Gym. It's casual and moderately priced.

The physical layout is warm and appealing. It's medium sized, with counter service, and had a separate healthy drink bar area. The restaurant is bright and welcoming with a very nice vibe to it. Finally, the Manager Jeff and his staff are very friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. If you need help, they will help you, If you have a question, they will usually be able to answer it. And if you have a reasonable request for something like a special order or a substitution, they will really try to help you.

Since it's a restaurant, let's get to the food. Orders are taken at the food counter and you pay at the end of the counter. By "Healthy Food", I mean definitely fresh, nutritious and very conscious of quality, taste and calories. Notably absent are items like fried foods and pastas, as well as sugary items.Featured are lunch and dinner entrees, salads, wraps and pizza.

I've been there about 6 or 7 times and have had many of the items. Of the features, I have tried Salmon, rotisserie chicken, soy ginger grilled chicken, and truffle shrimp mac and cheese. All are very good. The portions are large but not overwhelming. The Pizzas and the Mac and Cheese entree could definitely feed two, or provide a nice portion of leftovers to take home. The Pizzas are thin crust and are unlike standard delivery Pizza. I had the Prosciutto Pizza and a Feta and Chicken Pizza. Truly delicious, healthy, and lots of food.

I've also tried a Southwest Steak Salad and a Grilled Chicken Salad. Both were very good, but what set them apart was freshness of the ingredients and presentation. They featured stuff like cilantro, avocado, tomatoes, onions, corn, mango, jicama, pecans and romaine. And they will add or leave off items as you wish, which is nice for a custom Salad.

Probably my favorite entree is the Salmon Feature. It has a 6oz beautiful quality Salmon Filet, that is not too big and certainly not too small. It's served with yummy garlic mashed potatoes and some really tasty spinach. Jeff told me that they would substitute the sides( Maybe for someone that doesn't like spinach ), but I like it just as is. The rotisserie Chicken is very tasty and happens to include some beautifully prepared artichokes. It comes in white or dark meat servings.

I've had the Buffalo Chicken wrap and the Thai Grilled Shrimp wrap too. Both with fruit, though chips and salsa are offered too. The wraps are large and delicious. I eat big portions and they were definitely enough for me. The Thai Grilled Shrimp wrap was interesting and very tasty. It featured stuff like cucumbers, watercress, and sweet chili dressing. The Buffalo Chicken wrap was hot of course but not too hot. Just right with a beautiful mix of ingredients.

I have not tried the smoothies, sides like Texas Caviar, or the different drinks, but I definitely will. So all in all, I was obviously very satisfied with HS Green. It is decidedly casual and reasonable. Think about $10 for lunch, and a little more for dinner if you have a drink or extras. But to me it is quite a value. HS Green reminds me very much of another Houston eatery called Cafe Express which is good. To me, clearly HS Green is the new place to go. For me it's a fresher meal and a nicer experience.

BTW, I was told that this is literally the first location for HS Green, so it is obviously a new concept and business venture. I wish them well, and look forward to seeing additional locations. Obviously, I highly and sincerely recommend HS Green to you. It really is an inexpensive, high quality, fresh and healthy meal and experience. Give them a try, and you'll be...

New Year, New Me?...not quite.

It's 6 days into the year, and in previous years, I'd be trying to hit up the gym like everyone else.

This year, I'm a year wiser and realized these short term changes won't do anything but the long term habits are what will actually change your life.

I have been looking for healthier eating options, when I stumbled upon HS Green.

It is in the Strip center with Spec's and 24 HR Fitness, so it was very easy to find and this lot can be a pain to find parking, but I usually can find something in the back. Back to the above point, it's actually a good thing to get a few more steps in each day anyways.

Once you enter, the restaurant is split up into the Bar area (coffee, beer, and wine) and the main line. They have a giant menu on the wall, with the foods split up into different sections: Pizzas, Salads, Wraps, Features, Bites & Soups. It was a bit overwhelming so I asked the gentlemen working behind the counter what are the most popular dishes. Depending on how he answers, I can determine if he's just trying to sell something or if he is giving me legitimate advice. He gave 1 item per section, which I took as legitimate suggestions.

I ended up opting for his suggest from the Pizza section - TRUFFLE INFUSED ROASTED MUSHROOMS & CHICKEN. Since it was freezing cold outside, I decided to add on a cup of CHICKEN, MUSHROOM & LEEK soup also.

As far as the pizza, it's about 10 inches, the dough is super thin, but it is plenty big to share, or for one person, you should have leftovers. Their line was interesting, it's taking on the customization trends where you can actually add items to your order. I kept it simple and only added on artichokes to my pizza (no extra charge). As you continue down the line and reach the register, you pay and I was given a number (for when my pizza would be done) and my soup.

I put my number down and went to fill my cup with homemade lemonade; this stuff is fresh! By the time, I had returned to my table with my drink the pizza had arrived! They were really quick!

The soup was HOT!, which is a good thing, too many places serve lukewarm soup. I like it piping hot, especially on a cold day. It was packed full of meat! I also hate places that skimp out on the protein.

As far as the pizza, it was delicious, the crust was crispy, the toppings were piled on high. It wasn't overwhelming. After eating it, I didn't feel sluggish, like I normally do with other pizzas.

Overall, I was very happy with my lunch decision. Houston is blessed to have a new healthy food option, that is not only tasty, but...

Among the worst places I've eaten. Food was lacking flavor. Missing ingredients that were not explained until after the items were paid for and picked up. If a dessert is missing one of the 3 things that goes into it then that should probably be explained when ordering the item. Additional fruit should probably be added to it to make up for the lack of that one item. Ordered the nutella pizza, suppose to have bananas strawberries, powdered sugar, and nutella on a crust. Was missing bananas and had maybe 3 quartered strawberries on the pizza. This came out to be just a piece of flatbread with an extremely light dusting of sugar and then a light layer of nutella on top. For almost $10 this is pathetic. Now to top off the visit they mixed up the buffalo chicken wrap I had ordered with another customers order, this would have been fine if it was the employee that realized it not the next customer who came sprinting out of the restaurant to catch me and let me know the restaurant had somehow mixed up the orders. All this may have been fine if the place was not completely empty. There were no other customers in the restaurant at this time. The buffalo chicken was alright, may have been better if they had put some more chicken in it as opposed to like 2 strips very thinly cut.

I got $12 in rewards points through a rewards app which I will most likely not be using to go back since even eating for free here would seem like a mistake if the food I ordered is literally missing ingredients that i am not made aware of until after i have paid. Had the staff not known the ingredients were out that would be one thing, but after paying i asked for the strawberries only on half, which also some how got forgotten, and the staff member said they were out of bananas. Then said that she has tried it with a few different fruits, meaning it wasn't new that there were no bananas.

Would definitely recommend anyone thinking about eating here look for other establishments...