Gold Badge Elite Event Pop Up Dinner Event @ Dosi

Brilliant is one of many words I can think of to describe this event, and how quickly Farrah and the Houston Unilocal team put it together. No, I’m not a gold badge elite, but I knew several of the gold badge elites at the event and I scored a special invite to attend. Dosi is so new that I didn’t know what to expect with a Korean fusion restaurant, I also wasn’t sure if I would even like it since most Korean food isn’t to my liking.
Dosi set us up at the long bar table, which for an elite event was great since it was served family style. I don’t think I would have liked this if I was seated with a bunch of strangers, but for this event it worked perfectly. The surroundings and décor were very industrial with a lot of metal to enforce the look, but it also didn’t absorb the very loud atmosphere. Then again, elites are very loud people, so it could have just been us.
Each course that we were served was more amazing than the last. We had several tastings of more than half of the offerings on the menu. We were treated to a variety of dishes starting with the Banchan such as the kimchee, summer vegetables, wagyu beef jerky, and my favorite the kale tapioca chips. Next up was the Seafood selections of scallion pancake, and shrimp. On to the Meat course of black bean noodles, pork belly, and duck breast ssam. No dessert was served, but with the amount of food we had, I was so full that I didn’t need dessert.
Being able to get together with old friends, new friends, and share some amazing food was exactly what I love about the local Unilocal events. There’s nothing better than being able to share a meal with an eclectic group of Houston Unilocalers that enjoy getting together for good company and great food. Thank you Farrah and the Houston Unilocal team for treating all of us to an epic night out!

Ooh special invite to a Pop-​Up? Yes, please! Head Chef, Jordan Asher prepared an impressive spread of banchan, seafood and meat for the dinner party of 24 to sample. As I was seated in the old Toyoma building on S. Shepherd, I noticed the beautiful air plant and orchid centerpiece on the long rectangular table. Beautiful Unilocal placards adorned the table as well as 2 different sojus with shot glasses. I preferred the apple soju and after toasting what sounds like «Gun-​Bay», I started to feel happy. Like, «Come here and lemme hug ya, happy». Yep, so after a few of those, it was time to slow down on the drinky drinks and start eating.
Of the banchan, there were small bowls of kimchee, preserved carrots, summer vegetables, kale tapioca and wagyu beef jerky. My favorite was the summer veggies that were charred with sesame, black pepper and garlic. Very nice flavors and succulent vegetables.
I can’t wait to eat more of the shrimp! Wow, the rice porridge and fresh red beans, melted shallot and white kimchee teased my tongue. It left me hungry and wanting more.
The most interesting bite was the kale tapioca chip. Big, green, puffy Magic Pop doppleganger, you will be wanting this at your next Cinemark viewing! I want to buy a pillow case sized bag of this for football season. Apparently, this is made with kimchee spice, yogurt with lime and wheatgrass, and it’s the bombdotcom. My mouth is happy!
But the star of the show has to be the lamb collar. The preserved roots sauce is perfect, and the rice dumplings are an adorable, round, puffy thing. One bite and you’ll want an entire plate. I know I do.
Our friendly waiter served us the frozen watermelon soju and our table learned how to drink it in the proper form. First you pour it into a bowl, turn your head away from the table, drink it, turn back to the table and make a funny face. Cool! Anything to add to the exotic-​ness, I’m down!
I had the pleasure of meeting the Head Chef, Jordan Asher who was professional and delightful. He has immersed himself in Korean cuisine and had a beautiful and tasty offering this night.
Thank you Farrah for the invite as well as the Dosi staff. I will be sure to come back and enjoy those delectable bites I sampled.

Talk about a last minute notification for an Unilocal Elite event, I got the invitation (yay for being gold badge this year) on last Friday and guess what, the event was on the same day in the evening! Luckily, my friends were kind of enough to let me attend this before celebrating my early birthday as there’s no way I would pass up on checking out this new restaurant with other Gold Badgers.
We pretty much got a sample of all the good food here as they also gave us generous portions of their cocktail soju such as the apple and raspberry flavors. Later on, they brought out the watermelon flavored soju (blended with real watermelon!) and you drink that from a bowl instead of the shot glass. I had a great time meeting some other gold badge members and enjoyed the food but I had to cut short because I still had to continue with the plans I made with my friends elsewhere.
I do have to say though is that the kale tapioca chips and the wagyu beef jerky were two of my favorites. Their kimchi is also really good as well. I would definitely keep this place in mind for future visits.

On a Friday afternoon right before I walked into a long meeting that was going to continue until the end of the workweek I got an e-​mail from Farrah. Pop up dinner? Elite event? Gold badge elites only? It is on like Donkey Kong — my first use of my shiny gold badge this year. And at a Korean/​Asian Fusion place? Even better. Asian Fusion is always good, but it is especially good when it’s on Jewish Christmas and also when it is free, as in tonight’s case, or that one summer I dated a Pei Wei cashier for as many dates as until the free Pei Wei quit rolling in. Instead of Pei Wei, tonight was a dine in experience at a place much better than Pei Wei!
Dosi took over the old Toyama sushi place on Shepherd. I never went to Toyama. I was not even vaguely aware of its existence, as I thought it was still open business as per usual until I got the Farrah e-​mail this afternoon. Like the Ugly Duckling convincing Daddy that a nose surgery would fix all evils in the world, Dosi springs forth from the ruins of Toyama as a beautiful thing.
Sleek, upscale, clean, shiny, and inviting are just a few of the positive attributes to hurl at Dosi. It looks like an industrial, chic loft you would expect out of NYC, the cool neighborhoods. In fact, the owner in interviews even says he was trying to replicate the Momofuku of NYC experience here in Houston. Unlike Nara or other «competitors» they were going to go hard and bring it with the soju. Also with the customer service, the inviting environment, and all around knocking it out of the park.
Soju is infused drank. It’s a little higher ABV than wine but not by much. It’s not sickly sweet like a buttery nipple shot. It is like a lower proof vodka with a little mixer thrown in there. Raspberry was definitely the winner, with 18 of them put away into oblivion. The apple one had a strong aftertaste. Some of the table considered it to be more alcohol-​y tasting, others thought it needed to be mixed with raspberry. All in all, it was an interesting mouth feel. Raspberry was more pleasurable in the mouth feel territory.
The food was all on point and it kept coming out before we even had a chance to finish all that was in front of us, except for the shrimp but more on that later. That was great service and a true tasting menu to throw the kitchen sink at us, and let us just nosh and be happy. Without exception, every single food item was good. Some were the stand out rockstars. There were no weak links at all. This was like the BlackFinn event a few years ago where the kitchen spit hot heat, and slick game on every plate. That is how tasting events are supposed to go: everything is good enough you try everything and resolve that this is a place to come back to try the few things you did not get to try on the tasting menu.
I had to make a few guesses on what these things were based on the paper menu presented, because it was very very loud and as an old man it is hard for me to hear things without American Sign Language and/​or fat New Jersey Italian guy angry gesturing at da ting over dere, don’t ya see, ya big galoot!
Kimchee: better than Trader Joe’s packaged goods just up the street
Preserved carrots: colorful, hard to grasp with chopsticks, but flavorful
Summer vegetables: heavy black pepper, daddy likes
Kale tapioca chips: this was a party in my mouth and everyone at the truck stop was invited in.
Wagyu beef jerky: marry me! This was probably my favorite thing I ate. Everything else was great, but this felt like it should come home with me to a seedy motel near the airport for two hours.
Shrimp: yo, you gotta give more than one shrimp for every third person. There was nearly a riot at my part of the table over the shrimp quantity. Quality was fine. But quantity starts riots.
Pork belly: yo, this was amazing
Incredible tasting menu with a wide variety of tastes, textures, and cross-​culture exchanges. While just a pop up dinner/​elite event, this place is definitely on my short list of places to hit up again as a paying customer to get the full consumer experience of their range. Also, to try more of the soju than just the apple and the raspberry. There is a whole wall of them to sip elegantly, or chug breaux-​ishly. I intend to do both, and to utilize that empty patio facing the valeted cars that deceptively looked like a real exit.
The waiters were all super nice. Earlier on it was a lot easier to hear them talk. Towards the end when the place was filling up with other people at non-​yelp tables it started getting super loud. And our drink chants were getting drowned out by the other tables, especially when the soju had all dried up at our table and no subsequent rounds were presented. At least we still got our waters refilled at a very fast clip. The waiters never dropped the veil of being the utmost polite and friendly.
A super thanks to Farrah, David, and the Unilocal team to set this up. Also a big thanks to Dosi to entertaining us for the evening.
Dosi is A-​okay by me.