I've never encountered a restaurant that went from a 5-star experience to a 1-star experience from a first visit to a second visit, but this place managed to pull it off.
I took my wife here last year and she loved the place so much that she couldn't wait to come back. She literally called the restaurant "perfection" in her own Yelp Review. Of course, that meant we were going to make repeat trips here, even though with all the restaurants we have around Houston, I prefer to continue trying new venues.
This year was a complete 180 from last year. They seemed to be either overbooked or understaffed, probably both. We were waiting a while for our table, but a trendy place during Houston Restaurant Weeks having delays isn't surprising, even if we had a reservation.
The waiter apologized for the delay, saw we were looking at the HRW menu, and took all three course orders at once. We really thought that it would speed things up, but the exact opposite thing happened. It took well over 30 minutes to get our first course, which was the berries parfait. It's literally just yogurt, berries, granola, and honey in a bowl. Unlike last year, where the ingredients were carefully portioned, it seemed like this year they were all just hastily dumped into a bowl and brought out to the table. Regardless, it still tasted pretty good.
About 50 minutes after we ordered, we asked the waiter about the status of our entrees. He let us know that the kitchen was behind. He sounded frustrated. We never saw him again; he completely disappeared and while we thought we saw him around, he never stopped by our table.
We proceeded to see random people running items from the kitchen out to various tables. They weren't the waiters covering those tables. I'm not sure if they were kitchen staff, managers, dishwashers, or what. They all seemed frazzled and rushed. Of course, none of the food was coming to our table, but we clearly won't the only ones encountering delays and poor service.
At about 70 minutes, and now no waiter, we gave up and went to the host table. We asked to cancel the rest of our order and offered to pay for what we'd already received. The host went to get a manager, but another lady came out letting us know that the manager was tied up facilitating in the kitchen and was trying to offer alternatives to us leaving.
My wife was ready to leave, but I saw one of the random employees drop two plates at the table we'd abandoned. I suggested to her that it might be better to just finish our already-delayed meal rather than waste another hour going to another restaurant, ordering, and waiting for food. The lady at the front said she'd "take care of the bill."
The food that was brought out was a disappointed. The duck confit was clearly rushed through the cooking process, but was still pretty good. The shrimp and grits were a complete miss, though. They clearly didn't have time to get the flavors they wanted, so they just dumped a bunch of garlic butter into the dish and called it a day. My wife couldn't finish her meal so we swapped entrees midway since the excess butter was making her miserable.
The same lady (I'm guessing an assistant manager) kept offering us drinks. We made it clear we didn't want mimosas, so they started offering coffee. I don't think they were intending to come off pushy, but after a miserable 80+ minutes, it felt that way. Finally, we agreed to a couple of coffees with dessert just so they'd stop suggesting stuff and let us enjoy our food.
The desserts were... okay. Just like the appetizers and entree, they seemed to be hastily assembled and lacking the flavors we'd expect. My wife seemed suitably happy with the Strawberries Melba for dessert, but my chocolate pot de creme was... bland.
I've worked in hospitality before and I know that "I'll take care of the bill" means different things at different places, but this is the first time I've ever encountered-- as an employee or as a customer-- where that meant we were issued a bill for the full amount of the food we ordered, despite the fact that we nearly walked out due to the horrendous service. The only items that were "comped" were the coffees that we didn't even want.
My wife had previously made it clear to me that she wanted to come back here regularly, so as we were walking back to our car, I suggested this was just an extreme off day and next time would be better. This time, she made it clear that she'd be okay if we never came back again. Honestly, I can't blame her.
I'm leaving the second star on here because the first experience was so good. All I can say is that this place is no longer the amazing location that we experienced in 2024. read more