With that business model shut down, he ended up back home in Houston. Your weekly guide to Houston arts & entertainment. Hotly-anticipated restaurant, Xin Chao, has softly opened at 2310 Decatur St. Xin Chao is the second Houston venture from executive chef and restaurateur Christine Ha. Strings of white lights illuminated the patio at Xin Chao, chef Christine Ha’s new modern Vietnamese restaurant, on a recent Friday evening. Even the gin-and-tonic variant surprises, with its refreshing boost of apricot oolong tea and syrup from the slightly tart rambutan fruit. Chef Tony J. Nguyen of Saigon House has opened Xin Chao, a modern Vietnamese restaurant, with chef Christine Ha and John Suh. Ha co-owns the restaurant with her husband, John Suh, and co-executive chef Tony J. Nguyen, who was previously the chef and owner of the now-defunct Saigon House in Midtown. Xin Chao LLC is a Texas Domestic Limited-Liability Company (Llc) filed on December 18, 2019. 1,077 people like this. She was the cooking competition’s first blind contestant. On HoustonChronicle.com: How to make Christine Ha’s Sticky Wings. You can taste it in the pair’s Not Our Ma’s Eggrolls, stuffed with a mix of pork, crab, shrimp and black fungus. QAnon believers seek to adapt their extremist ideology for a new era:... 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So did our food runner, a recent Wake Forest University economics grad who became a regular here at Xin Chao after walking past with his girlfriend, then signed on to help out. The restaurant also serves the best chicken pot pie I’ve ever had and a can’t-miss slice of German chocolate cake (inspired by a Killen family recipe). Community See All. All created at restaurants that opened in the most challenging of years, the 10 dishes below top our list of the best dishes we ate in 2020. It was a textural effect that reminded me of the push-and-pull of the fried chicken textures; again, a Ha signature. Located at 2310 Decatur, the former home of the original Beaver’s and Decatur Bar & Pop-Up Factory, the new Vietnamese restaurant is the duo’s first joint venture. It was one of those forgiving winter nights that make Houston a pleasure when much of the country is shivering, and I was there to enjoy it with the last two people in my ever-shrinking pandemic pod. Those egg rolls are the staidest item on the menu. Her food was so subtle, so personal, so accomplished that I began hoping hard that she’d open a full-fledged restaurant, the sooner the better. I ordered the frozen pandan colada in a jokey mood, but the joke was on me: The tropical mix of soju, Captain Morgan coconut rum, pineapple and pandan leaf was a vacation in a highball glass, with the fun of explosive kiwi tapioca balls bumping around the bottom. Xin Chao restaurant from 'MasterChef' winner Christine Ha opens, The 10 best dishes at Houston's newest restaurants, California man blasts Texas 'dystopia' in Op-Ed, Biden officials weigh releasing Trump tax records sought by House panel, Americans remain sorely divided as Biden's quest for unity begins, "Toxic City" Houston more dangerous than vaccine, says TikTok, US America's Cup challenger: heart still beats after capsize. The owner/operator team at Xin Chao has successful independent restaurants already in Houston and hopes to add their modern cuisine to this part of town. Tubes of ice-blue neon over the new entrance doors cast a frosty shine on the the navy-blue picnic tables, gleamed in the glassware, tinged the whole outdoor room — the stately bald cypresses, the market umbrellas, the crisp white fencing — with an otherworldly sheen. My new rule is to call ahead, always, if I plan to sit outside. The bar doles out draft beer, wine and craft cocktails. The restaurant was founded by MasterChef winner … That’s the trend — the same thing happened to me at Pier 6 Seafood. She’s the blind chef who won Masterchef‘s third season; he’s the chef behind the former award-winning Saigon House Midtown.Together, Christine Ha and Tony Nguyen are the co-executive chefs behind Houston’s new modern Vietnamese restaurant, Xin Chao, where they interpret Vietnamese cuisine with a Texan spin. The partners were all … ©Copyright 2021 Hearst Communications, Inc. What's Hopping: Super-fruity beers at Urban South and other brewery releases, Excellence with bone marrow butter at White Elm in Memorial, Memorial French restaurant to close, and other Houston restaurant news, Alison Cook tries bacon-wrapped meatloaf stuffed with mac and cheese, Lucille's gets $10,000 from national restaurant group for innovation, Degust and Diversión offer intimate, complex dining and drinking experiences, James Harden’s restaurant moves forward even though Rockets era is over, New MFAH restaurants boast chefs with Michelin stars galore, famous as “The Blind Chef” who triumphed in Season 3 on “MasterChef. Xin Chao, conceived before the pandemic, came to fruition during a tumultuous time for everyone in the restaurant business. Well, it’s here, at the worst possible moment, in the low-slung structure that once housed Beaver’s. Braised pork and crispy rice we all were under the twinkly string,. 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