Oh my... Italian Garden in Spring Branch... We had such high hopes.
My husband and I went here for dinner last night. We were very excited to try the new restaurant in Spring Branch, and really wanted to like it.
The inside is ok. Clean, looks dated, but we don't really care. It could look like a dilapidated joint, but if the food is good we will come back time and time again.
As soon as we were seated, we received warm bread. It was good, but needed something... I think it was supposed to be garlic, but there wasn't much flavor. So, we ordered the dipping sauce (olive oil, garlic, spices, cheese) which, was $2.99. This was somewhat off putting, but hey... Everything is expensive nowadays. We did really enjoy the bread with the dipping sauce.
I ordered the special. It had chicken with kalamata olives, capers, garlic, and sundried tomatoes in a lemon butter sauce. My husband ordered veal saltimbocca. Both came with soup or salad and we both opted for the salad and balsamic vinegar dressing.
Well, this is where it started to disappoint... The salads should change their name to Bowl of Iceberg as that was it. A bowl of iceberg lettuce with 2 old looking tomatoes on top. And, the lettuce was room temperature. BUT, the worst part of the salad was the dressing. It wasn't balsamic dressing, it was simply balsamic vinegar! Holy Molé! I thought it looked a little liquid-y when I poured it on my salad. I started coughing when I took a bite. It was completely inedible. Neither of us could eat it. When our waitress came over she asked if we liked it and I said no. I also told her that we didn't think it would just be vinegar for our salad, and she just smiled and took the salads away.
On to the entrees. They came out piping hot. YAY! They looked pretty good, so we could hardly wait to taste them. My husband's veal was ok. There was no prosciutto in it, like in every other saltimbocca we've ever had. It wasn't very flavorful... But it was better than the salad.
My meal was subpar. The flavors did not really go together. It was overloaded work garlic... Actually looked like it had a whole bulb of garlic. But the worst part was the chicken. It was FROZEN CHICKEN. THEY HEATED UP! How do I know? Well, it has the fake grill marks on it, was super thin, and the consistency was off.
All in all, we will not be back. It's sad bc we wanted to like Italian Garden. We prefer to support small, local businesses. However, we can not, in good conscience, refer others to eat here. read more