Reef *** (Three stars)

While I was in Houston, I went to Reef Restaurant not too far from my downtown hotel for dinner one night. Reef is Bryan Caswell's restaurant (he was Jean-Georges Vongerichten's executive chef at Bank in Houston) dedicated to seafood. I found it while trolling around Gourmet Magazine's website, hoping to find someplace decent to eat. The restaurant is a modern style, with a spare but chic dining room that has a view into the kitchen, as well as a lounge/bar area on the other side. It also has a private room near the glass-encased wine cellar.

I started with a glass of Argyle Brut sparkling wine and the Kanzuri cured African pompano with cucumber and cucumber water. Kanzuri is an Indian paste that has some spice to it, but somehow the curing process ended up yielding a gummy, tasteless fish. The spice itself has a pleasant sweet and sour dynamic, but the cucumber slices were essential to offset the fish with some texture. When I remarked on the fishes gummy texture, the waiter offered to get me something else (which I declined).

The main course was much better (and was a recommendation from the waiter). I had the red fish on the half shell with truffle infused polenta (as a replacement for the normal mac n' cheese side). The red fish has a great spice crust that doesn't overwhelm the fish, but brings some heat as a counterpart to the moist fish. The polenta was fantastic, with a reassuring corn flavor and a subdued truffle infusion that didn't scream too much as truffle infusions can. The yeast rolls with sea salt that came with the meal went well with the sweet relish jam. This restaurant likes to match spices with everything and does it well.

I had a mini-dessert called milkshake "no minors" which has kahlua and a dark chocolate tuile that was a pleasant way to end the meal.

The wine list had an interesting entry called Bin 713 that featured wines in which Houstonians have been involved -- which could mean anything from owning a vineyard to having a minority stake. None of the wine is actually grown in Texas; it's all from the West Coast, apparently. It seemed a strange thing to highlight on the menu.