Bravery Chef Hall

I am obsessed with food halls (our fancy phrase for cafeterias) and downtown Houston is feeding my obsession by continuing to add new food halls!  Currently, we have Conservatory, Finn Hall, Understory and now Bravery Chef Hall.  I have been to them all and would recommend them all for different reasons.  Most recently, I stopped by Bravery Chef Hall a food hall located at the bottom of the Aris Market Square Apartments.   While the basic concept is similar, Bravery Chef Hall features restaurants curated by chefs making their offerings a step above others.  Check out my experience during a lunchtime visit to Bravery Chef Hall.

The Setup

Each restaurant has a lunch counter where guests can sit and order.  There are also tables around if you prefer.  I will say this space is smaller than some of the other food halls downtown, but seems to make a great use of space.  The food hall is currently home to BOH Pasta,  The Blind Goat, Kokoro, Cherry Block Butcher and Kitchen and Atlas Diner.  Each offers a unique cuisine which is why food halls are so perfect.  If everyone is feeling something different, they can each visit the restaurant of their choice and still dine together.

Also, outside in the courtyard is the Secret Garden a bar housed in a beautiful greenhouse.  I’ve passed this side of Bravery Chef Hall on Main Street and never noticed the Secret Garden, which is so fitting.  This spot is beautiful though so expect it to be less secret over the next few months.

The Food

For lunch, I went with BOH Pasta.  I love pasta in general and could not resist ordering from here once I saw the chef literally making the pasta at the counter.  I ordered the Tortelli, a pasta stuffed with ricotta and spinach.  My coworker went for the spaghetti, a beautiful dish.  I guess we were feeling greedy because we both ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza.   Both the pasta and pizza were delicious.  Seasoned well with fresh ingredients and fresh pasta.

The spaghetti!

The Tortelli

I saw several other places at Bravery Chef Hall that I want to try, but BOH Pasta hit the spot!  So I may just keep coming back and going there.   So far I have heard great things about Blind Goat and Atlas Dinner.   The menu at Cherry Block was also calling my name so I will definitely be trying that as well.

The Takeaway

The key difference to me with this spot, is the quality of the food.  Any of the restaurants featured in Bravery Chef Hall could be standalone restaurants in the city and be considered among the upper echelon of restaurants.  While the other food halls offer high quality food, some diners may prefer the chef driven concepts in Bravery Chef Hall.  And similar to the other food halls a group does not have to pick one cuisine.  A win win!

All and all I really enjoyed my visit and hope to be back soon!