Lobster Bisque and Burgundy Crab Meat

It is impossible for me to dine at all of the restaurants I want to (need to) as regularly as I should, especially since places are popping up all over Houston like mushrooms in their medium of preference. To my regret, I am forced to neglect some places, drive past them on my way to another restaurant that is higher up on the list. Recently, I did a little to rectify this issue by dining at L’Olivier, across whose threshold I had not ventured since the middle of 2014. I should have not waited so long.

My dining companion and I were seated on stools in the kitchen, a cocktail in hand, listening to Olivier Ciesielski, the chef behind the eatery, talk about truffles. (I had given him one, and he was going to use it in our meal; we told him to cook for us whatever he wanted to.) What followed over the next two hours was a dégustation that included shrimp, bone marrow, citrus-cured salmon, lobster bisque, and wonderful crab meat in a Burgundy sauce, served in a jar.

Ciesielski is an accomplished chef (stints at Le Relais Bernard Loiseau and Tony’s highlight his CV), and his food speaks of an intimate familiarity with ingredients and technique. Every course of our meal had honest taste, flavor worthy of a long repast. If you have never been to his restaurant, correct the oversight; if you have not returned to one of his tables in a long while, do so now. The man can cook.