Nobie's — Restaurant in Houston

Decided I needed another update for some of the more recent dishes, cause I absolutely love this place!!! Since my last review, I've been here a few times and every single time the food and the service amazes me!

*Grilled Carrots with Avocado and Harissa Sauce 5/5 - this is one of my favorite favorite dishes! The sauce and the creamy avocado and the sweet carrots - all the ingredients just work in this dish! Please bring it back! 5/5

*Nonno's Pasta - a staple on the menu that is always on there.. and I love that it is cause the pappardelle is always cooked perfectly with the perfect bite. The meat sauce is delicious as well. 5/5

*Metaloctopus - OMG, Nobie's wins for knowing how to cook octopus. I've had several of their octopus dishes and they kill it every single time. It is tender, not overcooked and never chewy! This metaloctopus with the black garlic was one of the most flavorful and amazing dishes! 5/5

*Black Bottom Oreo and Chocolate Mousse Pie, Black Bottom Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, S'mores Pie and most recently Fruity Pebbles Cheesecake Pie - Nobie's knows their pie and I love everything black bottom! The fruity pebbles was on the lighter side in flavors compared to the other pies I've had here but they are all always delicious, with some more memorable than others. My favorite was the Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie with Toasted Coconuts! OMG! But that roasted S'mores was smokey and fantastic as well, even for the non-marshmallow lover cause of the smoke and the salty crust. Sweet and salty always! 5/5

*Straight Outta Comte - smoked potatoes in a cheesy, creamy bechamel sauce. Who doesn't like potatoes. You would think this dish is drenched in bacon grease and contains meat but nope - purely the amazing bechamel and the cheese. 5/5

*Cauliflower Power - delicious take on cauliflower with the curried yogurt, pickled onions, raisins, dukkah and nuts. Even my friend who doesn't like raisins will eat this dish! 5/5

*Semolina Pasta with Sausage - delicious dish. Can't remember the specifics since it's been awhile but Nobie's pastas are always cooked perfect with the perfect bite. The sausage and greens in this sauce was no different. 5/5

*Urfa Biber Fever - ok so among all these 5 star dishes, you have to have a few that aren't up to par right?! Well the Urfa Biber Fever was disappointing compared to the roasted carrots above! This one just failed to hit the mark for me. 3/5

*King Crab and Fennel - citrus, avocado, sesame brittle, and herbs. This one was really light and refreshing. Not my favorite flavor profile but good. 4/5

*Crispy Octopus - the latest octopus dish at Nobie's.. Charred leeks, gigante beans, calabrian chili, olives, capers, almonds. The crispy octopus is cooked perfectly on the outside and so soft and tender and seasoned well. I have never seen such gigante beans.. they were huge! Great flavor profile. 5/5

*Scallop Crudo - off menu item last Friday. I don't usually like cooked scallops but the raw crudo with the passion fruit, lemon sauce was delish and refreshing! Paired well with the cucumbers! 5/5

*Orecchiette con Piselli - Pistachio pesto, peas, lemon curd, goat cheese.. A very refreshing summery pasta! Loved the lemon curd and fresh herbs - I tasted mint and chives.. I think the duck would have paired well with the lemon cream sauce and made this dish over the top, but the duck wasn't ready during the first seating =( 4/5

Nobie's hits the spot on so many levels and I usually love love love all their dishes. Especially the desserts! The half off sparkling nights and the whiskey nights add to the atmosphere - so does the half off oysters and $5 drinks during the first and last hours of the day. Sometimes they miss the mark on a dish, but most of the time, the flavors work amazingly together. I'm a regular and will continue to be in favor of all the things Nobie's has to offer! Now if I could finally try the fried fish!!! But I'm always tempted by all the new dishes on rotation that I can't just...

Have now been here several times. Still a 5-star restaurant, but I did have a not exactly perfect experience recently.

Came on a Monday and sat outside on the patio for the first time. There were of course mosquitoes but don't think that's any fault of nobie's. The chairs are very, very strange out there and require you to lean very way back. If you sit outside I definitely recommend you sitting on the booth seats and not the regular stand-alone seats.

Urfa Biber Fever - described as 'grilled carrots, urfa biber, feta, pistachio, yogurt, carrot kraut, lavash.' Personally I felt like the pistachios were the best of the meal. The carrots were undercooked in some parts and overcooked to a charred crisp in others. I wasn't impressed by the overall flavor of the dish either - it was overpowered by the pickled taste and just not palatable at all. The server did acknowledge the poor quality without me even bringing it up.

Was offered a nonno's pasta on the house as well on this visit as apparently they had made too much due to some mishap - not sure if on the kitchen's side or a patron's side. Either way was happy to get this - personally one of my favorites here. The bolognese is definitely different from other bolognese sauces. Was told by a friend recently that it most resembles chili which I do agree with. The pasta itself is of course very wide and just wonderfully cooked - almost undercooked but only almost.

Olive oil cake - another favorite I've had multiple times. There's a nice almost crust w/ glaze on the outer layers and the vanilla bean whip is just amazing.

On another more recent visit was at the bar - Sarah, an award-winning bartender there is back from a recent surgery and has a sense of smell now! - First note is that the barstools don't have a small ledge near the bottom to help hoist you up or let you get off easily. This is only problematic for very short people like me (5'0") but I imagine I can't be the only short person out there who loves good food.

The bar is of course very well stocked and the bartenders are incredibly well versed in their liquor and spirits. They make great, interesting recommendations and are just lovely to speak with all around. If you're looking for a nice night out whether alone or with friends/family I definitely recommend this place.

Dilly Bread - pull apart milk bread, garlic, everything butter. They're not kidding the butter does have everything in it - there were so many different flavors that I just couldn't pick everything out. The dill flavor in the bread is very, very apparent. Almost like it's been dipped in pickle juice. It's very soft to be sure, but I'm not too sure I'm a fan of how overpowering it is. Especially when the butter itself has some sour notes as well.

Madarin Pie - I prefer the olive oil cake honestly. Although I did especially love the sesame seed bark they made - that was spectacular and stuck to your teeth in such a wonderfully horrible way. Same vanilla bean sauce that's on the olive oil cakes and same lovely...

Nobies, romanticized disappointment

Had an amazing experience at Nobies before but last night experienced the worst customer service I’ve ever had in Houston.

Made a reservation over a month ago for the patio, unfortunately a severe winter storm has rolled in and once I received a text to confirm the reservation on the same day that mentioned patio seating it dawned on us that it’s way too cold to sit outside so we tried to change the reservation to indoor. I would like to note- The day before when I got a reminder text it DID NOT mention the patio at all or I would have called and changed it then... wonder if this was done on purpose? I called at 4:50pm (they open at 5p) so could not call earlier and they said there was no availability inside until 8:30 and they were completely unwilling to allow us to cancel the reservation without charging a $75 cancellation fee despite our serious concerns about the weather. Our reservation was a 6p, we have young kids we cannot do a 2.5 hour later reservation. After arriving an hour later, they THEN offered to cancel our reservation after we already wasted our time and spent money for an uber. Why refuse to cancel our reservation at 5:00pm over the phone, force us to arrive, and then offer the cancellation??

Over the phone the hostess said “don’t worry we will take care of you, our heaters are very strong and you’ll be warm” Nope. It was already uncomfortably cold where we were seated at 6p, the warmer was not even turned on upon arrival… ya you’re really taking care of us…. they again said there was no available reservations inside until 830 or we could sit at the bar. We are a party of 3 so bar didn’t make sense. There were also notably tons of open tables inside, we even begged to all squish into a 2 top table. From the time we arrived we kept asking to be moved inside as it got progressively colder and they kept (rudely) said no. Finally we asked to speak with the manager who came stomping out and proceeded to be extremely rude and abrasive. She said “I don’t know what do you want me to do” offered no solutions to make it right in any way because “upper management decided.” She was not accommodating whatsoever. She told us, and I quote “the upper management is in Chicago so they probably won’t care (that it’s cold).” Cool, we don’t live in Chicago this is HTX. We sat there and literally froze couldn’t feel our faces fingers or toes.

Despite all of this, we still spent $375. We ordered dessert but by this point the waitresses had given up on us and started treating us poorly as well. We never received the dessert and she just dropped off the check. We still of course still tipped 20% because it’s not her fault management was being horrible but left with the worst taste in our mouth from this experience. (Not from the food the food is always amazing). Such a bummer and completely unacceptable for what a well known and loved HTX...