Listen up, Houston! There are suddenly two new outstanding Italian restaurants on the West Side outside Loop 610. The first is Amalfi, which we will tell you about very soon. (It’s in the same shopping center on Westheimer as The Palm, and the owner/chef is Giancarlo Ferrara who spent years as executive chef at Arcodoro). The other is Radio Milano, which we will tell you about today.
The first inkling of Radio Milano, which is in the same spot that Bistro Alex once occupied in Hotel Sorella in CityCentre, came in April, when we heard through the grapevine that chef Jose Hernandez had joined the restaurant management group to head up the kitchen. Hernandez has cooked with many excellent chefs in Houston and abroad, most notably Philippe Schmit in Houston at both Bistro Moderne and then Philippe Restaurant. He won most accolades as the executive chef for a brilliant but short-lived stint at La Balance in Katy.
At Radio Milano, which has been open about a month, the space that was Bistro Alex has been toned down a bit. There’s still that interesting rough-milled wood effect on the ceiling, but we liked the addition of colorful stylized paper flowers by local artist Khyrstyna Balushka on the wall. Her shot of color warms up the room and disrupts the woodsy vibe
To date, Hernandez has cooked mostly French food in Houston, but he’s got quite a lot of Italian experience on his resume, and that’s what’s on the tightly edited menu here. There’s a lovely list of appertizers, including house-made burrata (photo at top), tuna crudo with avocado and raw beet ribbons with Texas goat cheese and walnuts (photo above), as well as antipasto selections of charcuterie, cheese plates and pizza.
Among the primo selections, don’t miss the vincisgrassi, a “white lasagne” (photo above) made with layers of pasta and veal ragout in a puddle of parmesan cream, the pork trio (leg, porchetta and tiny suckling pig chop) or perfect-for-autumn pheasant (photo below) served with potato cake and apple mostarda. Also outstanding was the housemade tagliatelle topped with sweet lobster meat in briny uni-infused cream.
Hernandez is a pastry chef as well as savory chef, so save room for his amazing desserts. We tried three of his creations: pistachio ice cream encased in a hard chocolate shell, apple fritters with sage cream sauce and a texturally beautiful plate of ricotta ice cream, tart raspberry droplets and a piping of panna cotta-like custard.
RADIO MILANO, 800 Sorella Court (in Hotel Sorello, CityCentre), 713-827-3545, radio-milano.com. Open for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch.