Latuli | ★ | Gulf Coast cuisine | 8900 Gaylord | 832-241-6144
At Bryan Caswell's Latuli, a bowl of wild boar ragù would be reason enough to rank it among the top Italian restaurants in Houston. Ribbons of housemade malfalde, gently chewy with a clean finish, tangle in a meat sauce underneath a mound of feathery whipped ricotta. It's comforting and rustic, the kind of dish that reminds you how satisfying a classic can be when it's done right.
As enamored as I was after my first taste of the pasta, I was also perplexed. Before Caswell opened his "Texas-Gulf-Coast-meets-Tuscany" spot Stella Sola in the Heights, he had already made a name for himself locally and nationally with Reef. The Midtown restaurant, which opened in 2007 and closed shortly before the pandemic, cemented his reputation as a chef who championed local seafood from the Gulf of Mexico.
Latuli isn't a seafood restaurant. It's not strictly Italian either, even with textbook malfade, meatballs, cacio e pepe and tiramisu. Its website describes the cooking as American coastal and Mediterranean. When it opened last May, an announcement in my inbox promised "Texas roots and global flavor to Houston's Memorial neighborhood."
Fine, so it's a little bit of everything, much like Houston itself, which as a newer resident I've learned resists tidy labels. You can order nicely chilled Gulf shrimp cocktail or the crowd-pleasing $14 bread service with airy yeast rolls and Gruyère cornbread. But the sprawling menu feels far too inconsistent, especially when entrées start at nearly $40.
The prices may be less of a sticking point in the Memorial area, home to one of the city's wealthiest ZIP codes. Latuli, with its polished dining room and broad appeal, seems designed with that clientele in mind.
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Latuli, which takes the first two letters of business partner and owner Allison Knight's three children, clearly opened with significant backing. Wooden beams stretch across the sky-high ceiling, and two artificial palm trees anchoring the main dining room give the space an Aspen-meets-West Palm Beach feel.
Large mirrors amplify the soothing shades of blue and white throughout the room, which includes some tables set aside for games of mahjong. Leather banquettes and a flickering gas fireplace lend warmth to the otherwise gleaming room.
In this polished setting, longtime Caswell fans will spot familiar touches. I pored through years of menus from his previous restaurants to find many of the same dishes - sometimes listed almost verbatim - on Latuli's menu.
Smoked redfish dip with pimento cheese, Shiner Bock mussels, the grouper a la plancha, double-cut pecan smoked pork chop and Oyster Ghutz (roasted Gulf oysters with Texas hot links and beer-washed sauerkraut) may not be new ideas, but they're executed well.
Still, I wanted more from a hometown hero like Caswell, who bridged the era between Houston's first James Beard Award winner Robert Del Grande and chefs including Chris Shepherd and Justin Yu, who pushed Houston further into the national conversation.
An ahi tuna crudo glossed in soy-chile vinaigrette felt overly safe. Another dish showcased a fillet of fish cloaked in airy tempura that was cooked to an ideal temperature and flaked beautifully. But calling it a banh mi, when it was served on a brioche bun without many of the other typical accoutrements, felt like a disservice to one of Houston's most iconic sandwiches.
Chicken and hummus arrived with crispy strips of poultry - adult chicken tenders, essentially - atop a bed of butterbean hummus. It looked like a fusion dish that you would find in the mid aughts, when Caswell was garnering accolades for his locavore sensibilities and featuring bycatch on his menus.
One dish rose above the replay of Caswell's greatest hits and the newer, hit-or-miss additions: the pizza pescatore.
Crustaceans and pizza dough aren't the most obvious pairing, but Caswell's deft hand with seafood is on full display here. The thin, crisp crust arrives blistered with just the right char. A nutty pecan pesto forms the base, topped with sweet lumps of crab. The richness never overwhelms; guanciale adds depth, while zippy Fresno chiles and peppery watercress bring lift and balance.
A cobbler, once brimming with Texas peaches (now swapped for blackberries), offered a similar surprise. The fruit's sweetness, deepened by faint caramelization, tasted like summer incarnate.
I'm not sure where the peaches were sourced, but I wouldn't be surprised if they came from a local farmers market. I've spotted Caswell more than once at Urban Harvest, strolling the aisles and chatting with vendors on weekend mornings.
Perhaps Latuli's restlessness mirrors Houston itself - sprawling, ambitious, resistant to neat definitions. There is pleasure to be found here, sometimes in surprising places like the chicken and dumplings. But when the best dishes are the ones that feel most focused - the ragù, the pizza pescatore, a cobbler still bubbling from the oven - it's hard not to wish the entire menu carried that same clarity.
More Information
Latuli, 8900 Gaylord, 832-241-6144, latuli.com
One star
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Monday, 11 a.m-10 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday
Prices: $16-$22 starters and soups; $12-$27 salads and sandwiches; $16-$23 shareable dishes; $25-$58 mains; $10-$18 desserts
Reservations: Available on Resy and recommended.
What to order: Bread service, chicken and dumplings, Bakers Dozen oysters, pizza pescatore, wild boar ragù, seared snapper
Noise level: Quiet to moderate
Parking: Valet
STAR RATINGS
Four stars: Superlative; can hold its own on a national stage.
Three stars: Excellent; one of the best restaurants in the city.
Two stars: Very good; one of the best restaurants of its kind.
One star: A good restaurant that we recommend.
No star: Restaurant cannot be recommended at this time.
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