Came here August 2012 with a few friends on a Sunday night at 7:30 and found the restaurant was about 1/4 full. Parking is a little tricky but very ample. It is not obvious if this is the first time you have been here so you might actually end up going through the back door which could pass as the front (Hooter's side) or the actual front door (I 45 North side).
Could not comment on any greeting since my friends were already there but we had to move to another table to accommodate 7 of us but there was a hostess that I noticed who cordially sat people as they came in the front.
There is a patio on the "back" side if you call it that with rustic iron material. I think there were about 8 tables.
The chips, red and green salsa seemed pretty good. I saw where somebody said it was oily but I did not detect an Exxon spill. The sauce was thick, not runny, plus!
As far as the hit or miss service we had a decent server. Nothing stellar but nothing bad about him. As far as filling drinks I think they team work here because a lady filled my water up 3 times while he served the food.
It wasn't that busy so a nice touch would have been for at least a manager to come around the tables and see if everything was ok. No special touch, that is ok, they do not realize that little stuff like that goes a long ways in the way customers view your place. You either care of you really don't about clientele returning or not.
The food:
I had the bean and cheese nachos (12 for $6.99) which were ok except for the movie theater quality cheese, I don't care too much for translucent cheese too much but if I closed my eyes it was salvageable. Evidence picture posted bin KCUY 2.72 A 97A Exhibit A.
I originally ordered the 10 chicken wings since I would have rather gone to Hooters for their wings, yes there are people that go to those places for the wings and not the eye candy. My friend ordered 10 and so did I. With my luck the server came back and said they were out of wings, ruh ruh ruh ruhhhhhhh.... Ok, that is when I ordered the bean and cheese nachos.
The two chicken wings that my friend gave to me were dark! Like they did not change the oil for a couple of weeks. I was going to be forgiven since I was craving breaded chicken wings (I asked if they were breaded or birthday skinned, reply was like Hooters, NOT!). I so wanted to give the benefit of the doubt but patooey, I felt like I was a dog chewing on one of those toys you buy at PetSmart. To not draw attention I continued dipping into the ranch dressing that is provided thinking to my self "big juicy bounch bite of tapioca, large chicken flavored gummy bear", didn't quite curve my brain to let me think that but it helped a tad. Note: Don't order the chicken wings. I must say however that these are not your itty bitty Buffalo Wild Wings chicken parts, these are like your Chinese restaurant size where they are as big as your baby siblin's fist.
Ambience, pretty well lit, not sun in your eye lit but you ever been to those annoying places where the lights are turned down so low as to try to create a romantic ambiance that you can't see the menu without using your phone as a light? Been there, done that, even for Mexican restaurants they like doing that for some reason. Plenty of lighting here, the laminated menus will have you shifting a little bit because the reflection will render you Asian........er you'll squint a little.
Water does not taste like fish water. Had to say that because every once in a while I'd get a glass of iced water that tasted like it got ran down the backside of someone's sweaty back or something (ex gf, don't ask).
The deal killer, remember when I said this is outside of Houston city limits? I totally forgot, guess I am spoiled to Bellaire, midtown, downtown etc. We kept on smelling smoke, arrggh, I have sensitive nose and can smell a burp a block away, this does not help. Maybe we should have asked but I can't remember when I ever had this problem. Maybe my bad for not asking for a non smoking section but I havn't had to do that in like10 plus years. I asked the server if there was a smoking section because I do not see anybody lighting up, he pointed to my 5 o'clock....oh ok so this is the non smoking part I am in? He nods.......
People............a smoking and non smoking sectioning of restaurant is like the peeing and non peeing section in a public swimming pool.................IT JUST DOES NOT WORK!!
The place was not loud, in fact I think we might have been the loudest ones there but we were not obnoxious. You know how you can get in a group and not realize where you are and get out of hand. This place is good for groups.
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Tip for new yelpers: I did not know about the "talk" forum of this site until I went to an actual browser yelp.com. You'll find us in the background there. I did not know this when I first started as well. read more