We rushed back from Fredericksburg for this restaurant reservation so I was really hoping that it was worth it. And it was.

One Fifth is Chris Shepherd’s (of Underbelly) five-year project featuring five different restaurant concepts. The first one (last year) was Steak, which I unforgivably missed. I was determined not to miss this year’s so as soon as I got a reservation, I knew I had to keep it.

This year’s concept, Romance Languages, is French, Spanish and Italian Cuisine. It’s really hard to get bad food from such cuisine so I knew that one way or another, we will end up happy.

For entree, I chose the suckling pig aka cochinillo. In the Philippines, it is called lechon. I could have had the entire pig at the price of this dish but it did not even taste half as good! Here’s when I’m really starting to have a bad case of homesickness…If I didn’t have to compare it with Cebu’s Inasal, this dish would have bode well.

This restaurant is faultless. Not an easy feat in this city crawling with really good restaurants. Our server, Emily, was above par.  I kick myself for having missed the Steak concept they had earlier. I ditched that reservation for Roka Akor, which was no slouch either. Next year’s concept is Fish. I can’t wait.

One Fifth, 1658 WESTHEIMER RD, Houston, TX

You can make food pretty and delicious, but making it artistic and scrumptious is even better. Artisans in downtown Houston is the latter.

We stumbled upon this restaurant as I was making frantic reservations on a Saturday afternoon. Houston has an absolutely dynamic restaurant scene, but it is like that for a reason. In this part of the world, you cannot swing a dinner napkin without hitting foodie whose aim in life is to be the first to try any new budding restaurant in town (ouch!). It is a must to make a reservation early on to get a good table at a decent hour. For me, a good dinner experience is not just about food. It is the sum of food, service and the best ambience the restaurant has to offer. If it is a scenic, I need to be by the window overlooking the view; not the window that looks through the kitchen…

Anyhoo…thanks to Google’s snooping on my web searches, this restaurant popped up in OpenTable. It was voted best in wine selection, so D had to go. And since he is my designated driver, this became the obvious choice.

After the delicious dinner, we stumbled upon Spec’s downtown and I found my official celebratory I-survived-Harvey Sauterne. This is the highlight of my night.