News you can eat

New Chinese restaurant rolls into River Oaks with duck and dumplings

Maison Chinoise will open this winter.

Courtesy of Lombardi Family Concepts

The River Oaks Shopping Center will soon be home to a new restaurant specializing in contemporary Chinese cuisine. Maison Chinoise will open this winter.

Located at 1958 West Gray, Maison Chinoise is part of the Dallas-based Lombardi Family Concepts that’s known in Houston for Toulouse Cafe and Bar, its French restaurant in River Oaks District, and Lombardi Cucina Italiana in Uptown Park.

“This wonderfully diverse city has embraced our family’s concepts, and we’re thrilled to introduce Maison Chinoise to the dynamic dining landscape here in Houston,” Lombardi founder and owner Alberto Lombardi said in a statement.

At the original location of Maison Chinoise in Dallas, the menu focuses on shareable, family-style dining across an expansive menu. Highlights include Peking duck, wok-fried lamb shoulder, fried lobster, pastrami egg rolls, and a whole range of dumplings that are made in house — everything from wagyu beef pot stickers and truffle mushroom dumplings to classic xiao long bao (pork soup dumplings).

Lombardi has hired Jordan He to serve as the restaurant’s executive chef. The Chinese native brings experience from Las Vegas’ celebrated Wing Lei at Wynn Las Vegas as well as with the Hakkasan Group in Miami and Los Angeles.

The 3,700-square foot restaurant will be designed by Houston’s NDD Design with interiors inspired by traditional Chinese elements. It will also offer a 900-square-foot patio.

Maison Chinoise joins a number of other restaurants in River Oaks Shopping Center. Over the past couple of years, the development has added new arrivals to join staples Brasserie 19 and Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille, including Zanti Cucina Italiana, French restaurant Cocody, East Coast-inspired Hudson House, Los Angeles-based Pizzana, and Goode Company Kitchen & Cantina.

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Houston's smallest restaurant?

Michelin-recognized Houston sushi chef fires up 4-seat Japanese skewer spot

Courtesy of Sip & Skewer

Diners sit in front of chefs cooking on a grill.

The team behind one of Houston’s Michelin-recognized sushi restaurants is opening an intimate new izakaya. Sip & Skewer is the newest concept from Hidden Omakase owner Tuan Tran and chef Marcos Juarez.

Opening Friday, February 13, Sip & Skewer is a four-seat restaurant devoted to skewered meats that’s located within Sushi by Hidden, the group’s affordable omakase restaurant in Rice Village. At Sip & Skewer, diners sit across from the chefs as they cook a 10-course, $90 meal on a Japanese binchotan grill.

“Sip & Skewer is small, loud, and intentional. The kind of hidden experience you’d find in Tokyo,” Tran said. “And with Chef Marcos guiding the team at Sushi by Hidden, this space is getting new energy from every angle.”

A four-seat restaurant within a 10-seat restaurant might seem kind of superfluous, but Tran explains that it’s part of a larger plan for his group of restaurants, which also includes West U. hand roll restaurant Norigami. It also builds on the success of Hidden Omakase, the Galleria-area sushi counter that earned a Recommended designation in the Michelin Guide.

“Sip & Skewer is part of a larger vision. It’s designed as a stepping stone toward our next concept, Kōri, a new hand roll and craft cocktail bar opening in the Heights. Our plan is to open Sip & Skewer directly next to our hand roll spot, creating a small alley of Japanese concepts that feed into one another,” Tran explains.

“This allows us to build awareness, train our team in a new format, and introduce guests to Japanese charcoal grilling in a very personal way before we scale the idea into a larger setting with Kōri. The four-seat format keeps overhead extremely low while serving as a live test kitchen and brand builder for what’s coming next,” he adds.

On a related note, Juarez and the other chefs at Hidden Omakase are dividing their time between all three restaurants. Tuam explains that it’s a deliberate strategy to ensure a consistent customer experience.

“The same team that works Michelin-recognized omakase service also runs the grill here, which keeps quality and execution consistent while allowing the chefs a creative outlet in a very different format,” Tran said. “Because Sip & Skewer is only four seats and reservations only, it does not require a dedicated full-time staff. It’s an extension of the team rather than a separate operation.”