El Dorado Ballroom is easily one of my favorite community spaces. There's always something…read morehappening that helps me connect with and learn from the community I frequent so often. Their Juneteenth kickoff press party was informative, lively, and filled with the kind of creative energy that makes Houston feel like home for a transplant like myself. The cocktails, sponsored by Gentleman No. 3, were refreshing with fresh watermelon and mint. The small bites (mac and cheese with collard greens, deviled eggs, and jerk chicken) made for the perfect happy hour snack. I genuinely love El Dorado and the range of programming they offer. When you can experience culture, creativity, and community all under one roof, it's a true neighborhood gem. With Kindred Stories moving into the building and ongoing art exhibits, the space just keeps growing. El Dorado makes it easy to learn from your neighbors and get to know them too.

This is an amazing Historical location in 3rd Ward. It is so nice inside and outside…read more The concert was so great. Looking forward to more.

My girlfriend and I went to the Harry Potter Yule Ball at this venue…read more It was our first time here so we were blown away. The Harry Potter-ness was great but the venue on its own is so nice. Classic castle vibes. So many amazing photo locations. We will definitely consider this place whenever we decide to tie the knot one day. Would love to put our own twist on decorations such a unique place you would never suspect is in west Houston between Westheimer and Richmond Ave.

DO NOT TAKE YOUR PHOTOS HERE…read more The owner himself said that he DID NOT CARE that I write a negative review so here it is :) Our experience with this venue was extremely disappointing and unprofessional. We booked Paraiso Maravilla for a quinceañera photoshoot, and the male venue owner, Soahail, was extremely rude, and unprofessional. We were specifically told that someone would be waiting at the door to greet us and escort us to our suite to get dressed 20 mins ahead of our scheduled session. When we arrived, no one was there. Another family was still taking photos, so we had to go upstairs ourselves to find Soahail and ask whether we could access the suite. Because of this, we started our 1 hour session approximately 15 minutes late. During the final portion of our scheduled time, Soahail began following us around and repeatedly monitoring us. With approximately 10 minutes remaining in our paid session, another family entered and occupied the area where we needed to take our final photos. Rather than allowing us to finish the session we had paid for especially considering that we had already lost 15 minutes due to the delayed start he told us that our time was over and that we needed to leave. When we tried to take one final pose, he became extremely angry and confrontational and kicked us out, he literally chased us out. We were rushed and disrespected. The entire experience turned sour and took away from what should have been a special quinceañera photoshoot. Based on our experience, I would not recommend this venue for photoshoots. He told us he was "losing money" by allowing us to stay just five extra minutes. As a paying customer, I found that extremely rude. A little kindness and flexibility could have completely changed this review. Instead, we were rushed out and left feeling like our business wasn't valued. If he's worried about losing money, he should consider how treating customers this way may ultimately cause him to lose business.

The Wynden was an absolutely fantastic venue for our March wedding!…read more The people: Ginger was my point-person, and I can't say enough wonderful things about her. Her vendor recommendations were excellent, and she was indispensible on the day of the wedding. We did not have a "coordinator" throughout any of the process, but having her there to bounce ideas off of and to help me to make site-specific decisions every now and then ... and to serve as the day-of coordinator was a huge load-off. The Masraff's staff (package deal) is excellent. They were all attentive, and kept things running smoothly all evening long! The space: We had our ceremony outside (though it was hit or miss as to whether the weather was going to cooperate). The lay-out is fresh, clean, and lovely for a wedding. We added nothing to the gazebo, and just had a few aisle arrangements every few rows of the rented white folding chairs. Then, we added some string lighting above to make it feel more intimate and romantic as night fell during the reception. We ended up with about 170 guests, which was the perfect size (as was previously suggested by Ginger) for the space. We did a buffet, but tables were assigned, and that worked really nicely as well. The food: We love good food, so it was important to us that we feed our guests well. At the Wynden, you must use Masraff's catering, which was absolutely excellent. We got so many compliments on the food that we lost count. Overall: We highly recommend this venue! And you truly can't beat the central location, surrounded by tons of hotel options, and so close to so many restaurants, bars, the Galleria, etc.

I attended a fraternal alumni dinner at The Wynden. I drove in from San Antonio for the event. This…read moreplace is super easy to get to, and pretty near the highway. The venue is beautiful and was perfect for about the 175-200 that were in there. They had round tables set up for 10 at each table. Fortunately for me, I sat closest to the door - which is nearby where the buffet was set up in a side room. Unfortunately for me, this is also by the kitchen is located, so when the caterers were cleaning up, I was a little distracted from my guest speakers by the clanking of dishes and cleanup in the back. If you were looking to book for a wedding, where music would be playing, I don't think the cleanup would impact your event. The microphone system (which I don't know if it was provided by the venue or by my organization) was a little low volume for what we needed. But overall, visually, this place is a great venue for weddings, guest speakers, etc.

The Downtown Club located on W. Dallas and Caroline St. is a great establishment. I first joined…read moreafter finding out exactly what it was that was located on top on the Allen Center parking garage. The gym is great! Not too crowded. My wife loves the classes there and they have personal trainers that can help you meet all of your goals. They also have the largest facility of indoor tennis courts in Houston. The tennis community is great there! All levels of experience and a wonderful "starter" program for new members as part of your on-boarding. Lastly, the food at the Center Club is great! Chef Julio has been with them for years and never ceases to impress. His knowledge is fast and he has a great knack for pairing with wine and special occasions. Some friends of mine were married there and the food/service were great! Can't say enough good things about my experience with the club and excited to see what is ahead.

Don't take me to the club yet again... I'm worried you might club me to death…read more This is an amazing Club in a massive high-rise in Houston. It's fancy and it's mostly used for work parties and for rich people. There are two distinct Houstons going on and this is the lucky and more well heeled (boot heeled in some cases) half of the city, the half that ordered the skyscrapers built, such as the amazing one this club is inside, but not the half that actually went up and built them. It's still amazing, even if not to my taste. And the richer half (or 5%, or 1% as the case may be), are missing out on the greatest food in the country hiding away in the poorer and less fancy parts of Houston. Yelpers are missing out on those too.

A handsome event space for those nights you are going big rather than going home to where the bags…read moreof Doritos and the xbox live. I was an invited guest at an impossibly posh private event here and I was very impressed with the space inside with multiple rooms of upscale decor touches as well as the polite valets that were handling a large crowd efficiently and pleasantly out of doors. I don't know anything about this part of town. The trip down here had mild "first few moments of an episode of Criminal Minds" vibes as the uber driver was taking deserted, dark back alleys through heavily industrial and/or abandoned industrial areas. I was not sure if I was going to find myself carved into pieces and safely stowed in his freezer in what I imagined what would not be a very nice apartment at all or what. But then the abandoned warehouse rows finally parted and then you could see the super upscale looking joint kind of sticking out off in the distance with the bright glam lights and the valet boys hustling about the lot. I don't like large crowds, but if I had to be a part of a large crowd again I would do so in the handsome event space within. It is part industrial Brooklyn nightclub vibes with the wide open spaces and reverberatory noise, but part family bat mitzvah vibes that you could bring everyone and really make it family style for the whole evening. Perfect space for wearing that fancy hat in your life out of the house where you mingle with fancy people where you don't know half of them half as well as you should like; and like less than half of them half as well as they deserve.

It is a very nice venue! We were there for the Regis Gala. The staff was excellent, always…read moreattentive to our needs. We were at table 36. The salmon sauce was to die for- I need the recipe! It was a very special night at this venue, Thank you!

First time at Magnolia Ballroom and I was only here for a World Cup watch party (Dutch fans…read morementioned this spot after the walk to the stadium).. It's more of an event space with a lot of history rather than a typical bar, but they transformed it for the Netherlands/Sweden watch party and did a great job... International flags hanging everywhere, a big screen, and small tables set up that kept things intimate. We watched the game with a mix of fellow Netherlands and Curaçaoan fans, which I know can be a complicated relationship, but we were all there in orange so it was all love. One thing I really appreciated was they let you bring in outside food.. they made a special menu for drinks, and the cocktails were pretty decent too. (I ordered a margarita).. Service was friendly, and honestly one waiter was all they needed. Glad I got to check this place out. The natural sunlight coming through, the old wood floors and staircases.. you can really feel the history in there. Vintage vibes all around... Cool spot.

The setting is very 'Texas'. As in, flags everywhere. The entry is a bit musky but once you get…read moreupstairs the smell clears right up. Table settings, wood floors, and natural light inside the (small) event space make for a nice enough atmosphere. Service: considering that I had gone to the trouble of setting up an appointment and they completely ignored me - even after I knocked on the office door, watched them look at me, and continue about their business - I'm gonna go with "unfriendly" Location: in the heart of downtown, which could be sketchy later in the night. Food: They do allow outside catering after all (hooray!) and beverages Overall: meh. A definite no.

I was married here in April 2016. Overall my experience with the venue was amazing. Anne (the venue…read moremanager) was super nice and laid back about anything I needed. It's low priced compared to many other places and can handle an intimate or semi-large party. I originally wanted 60 people and ended up with 100. The venue handled it perfectly. Someone commented on updating the "old" Victorian building but for anyone who doesn't know, this was the first school house in Houston and has a ton of history behind it. I personally loved how neutral, quant, and historic feeling the building is as soon as you walk in. Anne will suggest you use Demeris Catering. But I recommend visiting their reviews first.

On my recent Art Gallery Crawl I decided to stop by here and snag up a FTR before I started my day…read more (That and the fact that the galleries didn't open until 10:30 am and the gardens open at 9:30 am.) This garden is a small garden that has very limited hours but is quite nice. The best way to describe it is a TINY bayou bend. It still has some nice fountains and flowers for photo taking. They were setting up a tent for a wedding ceremony so apparently this can be used a wedding venue also. Their public hours are M, W, and Th from 9:30 am - 3:30 pm.

An excellent space for you event! The building is beautiful. The staff is professional. Plenty…read moreon space for any of your needs.

We were looking for an affordable venue somewhere central in Houston for our wedding, and we ran…read moreacross the Heights Fire Station. It's a beautiful historic building located in the Heights, and it's a quirky space, with the old truck bays downstairs and a more conventional event space upstairs. The Good: Lovely historic building. Decent parking. Central location. The Bad: Difficult Management. Management is available only on Saturdays from 9-10am. No other times - if you need to measure, plan, or tour the venue, that's when you've got to be there. No rehearsal times are possible, unless you rent the venue again. Management seemed put off after our second visit - we wouldn't have had to come back if their hours were not so brief! Questionable Business Practices. We meticulously cleaned the venue after our event, yet $60 was withheld from our deposit, without explanation. After calling them, the excuse we were given was that there was "water on the floor, probably from someone dragging a garbage can." That costs $60 to fix? All in all, it's a pretty place and inexpensive, but the fact that the lady running the operation is so difficult to work with makes it impossible to recommend the venue.