As a huge fan of both Dario's and Alicia's, I have waited anxiously to try the new Marvino's. I was really looking forward to what I hoped would be the next great restaurant in Cypress. I'm sad to say I was very disappointed. To begin, we ordered the Oysters Marvino as an appetizer. Sadly, the oysters were not shucked properly and were left attached to the shell. Pieces of shell were left all over the oysters making a terribly uncomfortable crunch. The manager happened to be making his way around the restaurant checking on everyone, so we mentioned our concern. He immediately apologized and asked to replace them for us, or offer us another appetizer. We chose to go with the spinach artichoke dip, which we believed would be a safe choice. I can honestly say, this was by far the worst spinach artichoke dip I have ever eaten. It was hard to tell, but appeared to have an exorbitant amount of Parmesan, making the dip the consistency of thick mud. Whatever seasoning they chose made the dish taste sour. I'm not one to usually complain, especially not twice! As we pushed away our dip, the manager arrived with a replacement Oysters Marvino. This time, it was excellent. There were no shell pieces and the flavor was spot on. For entrees, we ordered the Snapper and Cioppino. For sides, we went to my 2 favorite dishes from Dario's, the creamed spinach and crabmeat risotto. My date liked her Snapper, but the Cioppino was made with frozen crawfish tails making the broth taste like it was made with freezer burned seafood. The risotto was cold, and the creamed spinach tasted terrible. While the service was great, the execution of the food was terrible. I will be back to both Dario's and Alicia's, but Marvino's will not be my choice again. read more

Visited Friday, March 9 for dinner. National meatball day! Of course, I had meatballs as an appetizer and my partner had a wedge salad. She also ordered the ahi tuna special while I had a meat-lovers pizza. The tuna was cooked to rare and he pizza was very good, if a LOT of food. I took half of it home for breakfast the next day. We got a decent deal on a Spanish wine and started the meal with cocktails. Service was prompt, you get two waiters on most nights and a busser here so it should be. For a rodeo night the room was full. Still, arriving at 8PM we were immediately sat and the server was there to take our drink orders immediately. I was impressed with the wine service, it was an older wine (2000) and the cork was fragile but the waiter was able to open it without cork fragments getting in the wine. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, this place has a beautiful room, a good bar and consistently good food. I found the service to be very good given the location and appreciate having multiple wait-staff assigned to my table to clear plates, refill water etc. read more

Great menu with a lot of options. We started with their complimentary flat bread with an olive oil spread - very tasty. My wife and I had starter cesar salads very tasty topped with crusted parmesan cheese topping. Very good. We ordered from the kids menu - cheese pizza and chicken alfredo - kids liked both items. We ordered chicken parmesan and rainbow trout - both were great. We also tried the chocolate tuxedo cake - very good - must try it with a cappuccino. read more

Marvino's - Chocolate tuxedo cake - Italian Near Me - Cypress, Texas

My family and I used to frequent this place often. The food just isn't how it used to be. Today I paid 9.99 for 2 mushrooms stuffed with sausage. These were normal small mushrooms you buy in a pack at kroger for 2.99, not portobello.... not worth 9.99. You don't get what you pay for at this establishment. My eggplant was thin and cooked well which is a positive as previously it was thick and raw so that's a change for the better. But as I said before it is not good quality any longer. I keep saying I'm going to give it another try and another. I really don't think we will be back. read more

As a parent, I appreciate when the waiter acknowledged my kids at the dinner table. They did just that, they interacted with my kids. I didn't feel like I was out of place bringing my kids to an elegant dinner. The manager, Junior, stopped by to check on my table which made me feel catered. Lastly, the food was amazing! read more

Very new restaurant. It looks very nice on the outside and exquisite on the inside. Our waitress was polite and nice but was not familiar with the menu and got confused at times, particularly with the beverage order. My guess is she is new to the restaurant industry. For the bread and oil dip, no plates were served to us. We used the white cloth napkins as a plate. One of the managers served our entrees. He did a far better job than our waitress ever could. I ordered the Gulf Red snapper dish and it was pretty good. Enjoyed it and cleared the plate. My criticism is the spinach needed more flavor (add some spice) and the shrimp was overcooked and not fresh at all. It had a fishy taste (FRESH shrimp should not have a fishy smell or taste). I also had the house salad (without olives), which wasn't bad. They have a dessert cart and it looks VERY tempting. I think we got a slice of the chocolate cake (it was someone's birthday we were celebrating) and boy o boy.....that is one of the best cakes that has entered my mouth. Just the right amount of sugar. It took forever for our waiter to come back with our bill. Even after handing the bill to us, she never came back. I had to go to her. Would I come back again? Nah. There was no wow-factor. Only if I can get another piece of that rich chocolatey cake and the recipe!!!! read more

I try not to write a review on an establishment until I've been there at least 3 times, unless I'm not going back. While I thought everything was ok (just ok) both of our visits, my wife's opinion means if I go back, it will likely be without her. The star rating is a combined reflection of my opinion, my wife's opinion, and the guests we have taken there. First visit, I had the Chicken Marvino. Flavor and quantity was good but not great. My wife judges a restaurant by their spaghetti (or other pasta) vongole in red sauce, or the restaurant's closest equivalent. She had that both visits with the first time being ok but the last time she thought it was way too salty. First visit was with daughter and her boyfriend. Daughter's opinion was similar to my wife's, just ok. BF liked the Chicken Marvino. The server on that visit was fairly attentive, but had a bit too casual of an attitude for the decor of the restaurant, but was otherwise satisfactory. However, since my daughter's BF is a server at another restaurant, the fact that he commented on the server's attitude caught my attention, ("cavalier" was actually the word he used) especially since I was thinking about the same thing. But nothing I would feel compelled to talk to a manager about. The second visit we took friends from out of town. We had debated a different restaurant but Marvino's was open an hour later than our other choice and was more convenient. We had a different server and I don't know if they were shorthanded that night or what, but we had to ask for bread, ask for refills on our drinks, and the meals came out slow. He did apologize for the delay. The only thing on-point was him asking about dessert, which we declined. I will say our guests were thrilled with dinner. Jerome thought the soup was "Good. Really good." And they enjoyed their entrees as well with Jerome having the lamb, but the wife's was salty and my entree was so average I can't even recall what it was except that the noodles were under-cooked. Telling that I can remember what two of the other people ordered over my own entree. Atmosphere is good, nice decor, good job to the decorator, although I feel it has more of a Spanish feel than Italian and I've been to Italy and Spain several times. Full bar, our guest loved her cocktail. I stuck with the Italian beer. The wife had draft domestic beer, hard to mess that up, and water for the daughter. In view of the above, I can't say we will be back but won't preclude the possibility. As noted by others, Marvino's is owned by the same family as Alicia's and Dario's, and we love Alicia's, but we are picky about Italian. We had high hopes since Marvino's is more reasonable and closer than our favorite, but, it just isn't as good. read more

Wonderful service, atmosphere, food but most and management! Thank you Raul for taking the time to come to our table to greet us and making sure we were enjoying our meal!!! The salmon was DELICIOUS!!! from the appetizer, wine,entree and dessert! We'll be back. read more

Ate here last night, the Tartar of beef was fantastic and the service was great! I wasn't super impressed by the Ravioli Di Manzo, but it could have simply been my personal preference...I'm not a huge Italian food fan. I was mostly concerned (prior to going) about the poor service reviews, but our waiter was very attentive and the food was very quick. It's definitely a great date night option for Cypress, since there aren't many classy restaurants to choose from. I would definitely go back! read more

Marvino's - Tartar of Beef - Italian Near Me - Cypress, Texas

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Marvino's has a long way to go to provide quality Italian food. Went here last night (9/13/16) for a birthday dinner, and was underwhelmed: -Menu is HUGE and UNFOCUSED (in terms of what should be Italian food). 15 appetizers, 14 pastas, and 21 entrees. Being that the *very first* item on the menu is the 'Duck Spring Roll' and they call them selves an Italian kitchen -- this should give you an idea of just how unfocused they are on the food. It definitely gave me pause (and a chuckle). There's no way they're prepping that large of a menu fresh, and/or from all the best sources. As for the food: -The calamari appetizer was well cooked. -The chicken marsala I had was not good. Noticed it had sun-dried tomatoes (per the menu) which is not an ingredient in traditional marsala, but thought I'd try. Unfortunately given they put a ton of sun-dried tomatoes in the sauce it totally overwhelms the marsala, chicken (which also wasn't well seasoned), mushrooms -- basically everything that you're supposed to taste in the dish. -I only tried a small bite of my girlfriend's chicken piccata, and it was WAY heavy on the lemon. -Portions are HUGE; barely even ate half. It's unfortunate as I always enjoy Alicia's (same ownership), but it's clear things are lacking here. Service, environment, and people were all very nice -- just not the food. Time to get a chef who really knowns Italian food to overhaul and focus the menu, and ultimately what hits the table... read more

Really excited to try a new restaurant, unfortunately, very disappointing. The portions were big, but bland...yuk. Would rather have had good and smaller portions. Decor was nice. Sadly we were put in a party room with 3 large obnoxious tables...hard to have a nice family dinner. There were plenty of nicer tables in the main dinning area. My rainbow trout had tons of salt on it and the rest of the entrees had no seasoning. $3 charge for 2 of my kids to split an entree....I thought that was tacky, just don't see that much in the burbs. We won't go back:( read more

Yummy new Italian off of Barker Cypress. Same owner as Dario's and Alicia's. Fabulous atmosphere. Calamari appetizer was really good (they batter their own). The house salad has a sweet vinaigrette dressing. Today's soup was Creamy Wild Mushroom. Extremely flavorful for a mushroom soup and just the right temperature. Ordered the Fidellini with Lump Crab. Will let you know how it turns out! read more

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Had dinner there last night and ordered the snapper special and is was fabulous! Enjoyed the Italian margaritas as well.

Loved it! Got in before reservation time, server was nice and the man helping him as well. The food was amazing! There was four of us and none of us complained about the food we all enjoyed it. And dessert was so yummy. 10/10 recommend. read more

First time trying Marvinos... the food was delicious!!Everything was prepared nicely. I had the carrot cake for dessert which was amazing! Only reason I did not give the 5 stars is due to the hostess at the front. Not a very pleasant young lady, came off very snobby. She acted like she didn't want to assist us. Other than that, I would definitely go back. read more

The salad is so so wilted. No one. Not even at home should ever serve such a thing. The restaurant owners must share their ingredients bc I've had Italian ground beef tasted like taco meat. It's very odd. I won't be back for fear of getting sick bc it's obvious they don't care about much. read more

Dinner with my wife. We live in NW Houston and Marvino's was my wife's pick wanting to try something new in the neighborhood. We have eaten at his owner's other restaurants, Dario's and Alicia's, and while I don't recall them being bad we have never made it a point to return to either. Probably because of this I made the effort to read some Yelp reviews for Marvino's focusing on the two stars or less reviews. The theme in these reviews seemed to center on poor service/long wait times. Marvino's must be reading the reviews and taking them seriously because we experienced none of that. Our dinner was at about 5:30 on a Saturday night which is not peak time but close to it. The restaurant was about half full and we were seated without a wait. Throughout our entire time the service or waiting was never a problem. We watched the tables around us and saw no indications that anyone else was having issues. There were ample staff and management working our section so that the dinner course ran smoothly. By the time we left, the restaurant was about 75% full and still no observable issues. A special shout out to or server, Antonia, who did an excellent job. The food and drink were all good and I concur with many of the reviewers that it's a solid 3-4 star meal. We each had a cocktail to statr; she had a chocolate martini (not a fan so I can't say if it was good or not) and I have a peach martini that tasted like a fuzzy navel. These were on their specialty cocktail menu so they were a little pricey, but typical, at $12 each. Salad's were good; she asked for a caprese substitution for the included dinner salad with her entree. Our server informed us ahead of time there would be an up charge for this. The upcharge turned out to be $4 which I thought was reasonable given the price of the caprese salad on the menu. No complaints with either salad; the caprese is pictured below. She had egg plant parmesan and I had the veal parmesan and we ordered a bottle of Chianti that was on special, $39. No issues with either one of the entrees. Both entrees were large and we ended up with a doggie bag. The Chianti was reasonable and improved with time after the bottle was opened. No room for desert but we were presented with a decent looking desert cart. Two cocktails, two entrees with salads, and one bottle of wine - $108 plus tip. read more

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What a disappointing food experience - over priced, yet below average. Pizza Hut has better Fettuccine Alfredo. It's a shame how much we paid for Costo dinners - can you say duped? Bread was good though. read more

Marco is such a great waiter! For my brothers birthday he went above and beyond and exceeded expectations. There should be more waiters like him! read more

Quiet intimate place, waiter was nice and friendly, bread with garlic oil was very good, appetizers were delicious, my mother in law loved her stuffed clams, calamari and fried mozzarella were great, I was already full by the time we had to order entree which came with a salad, I had the Caesar salad, it was very good. The chicken fettuccine Alfredo was great, I only gave 4 stars because my mother in law unfortunately did not like her gulf red snapper. Overall service was great and even though my mother in law did not like her entree everything else was great. The manager was kind and removed the snapper off of our bill. Dessert we took Home. I would try them again and recommend them. read more

Marvino's - Italian Near Me - Cypress, Texas

Came here on a quiet Sunday with my boyfriend and two friends. It was really peaceful and I liked the atmosphere. Our waitress Melanie was really professional and helpful. I really liked their basil tomato soup and their Angel Wings cocktail. The menu was so big that we just decided to order the filet mignon special and seabass special that our waitress recommended. We had to pack up the rest of the food because we were so stuffed at the end of the meal and the dessert was to die for! read more

My dine in experiences have been nothing but the best. Great service, great food, great atmosphere. However, my pick up experience Sunday was less than average. I had to make 3 calls, hung up on 1 time and the order still wasn't correct. Too expensive for the service I received. The food was delicious as always. read more

Excellent food - another home-run for the owners of Alicias Mexican and Dario's Steakhouse. What I like most about their model is the flavor packed food and unique twists on traditional dishes. My first impression of any Italian restaurant always starts with meatballs. Wow - mastered. Marvino's meatballs are perfectly cooked, packed with flavor and textured just right. Dishes sampled so far: -Meatballs -Marvino's pizza (thin crust, tomatoes, artichokes, prosciutto) - Duck Ravioli with sweet white cream sauce and Shitake Mushrooms read more

I was surprised how busy this restaurant was on a Weeknight......especially now, it has been open for a month or so. Interior is nice, and cozy. However, the quality of food did not live up to the ambiance. Me and my wife arrived around 7:15pm on a Monday, and had to wait 30-40 mins. to be seated. People who arrived after us got the table first. It seems like if you are a group of 2, people with a group of 3 or more get preference....Never noticed that at Dario's or Alicia as we are regulars at this restaurant's other local establishments. Now the reviews. Wait-staff: 5 stars. Other Yelpers had knocked the wait staff, but our experience with them was pleasant, and attentive. Food: 3 Stars. I was disappointed by the food, and how bland it tasted. We ordered Fried Calamari for appetizer....the marinara sauce was lacking, and tasted as if from a store bought bottle...Calamaris were ok...still ways to go to be as good as Carabbas ! Wife ordered Italian Wedding Soup...another flavorless item from the menu. Entrees fared much better than the appetizers. Wife had Atlantic Salmon with polenta and baby spinach. I had Snapper with lump crab, shrimp and baby spinach. Snapper filet was good size. Was a bit dry, but overall, tasted great. Price: 3.5 stars. It is comparable to Merche further down on US 290, but slightly inexpensive than Dario's. I will give it a 2nd try, and hope to have a better overall experience. I would still prefer Carabbas or Merche at this point though. read more

The appetizers were delicious!!! However, the main course was lousy. The rice for the risotto was over cooked and very low on salt. Regarding service, it was excelent. Overall its a good place for drinks and appetizers. read more

We had came to outlets and found this place on way home. Fantastic service, great food and the atmosphere was awesome. We would recommend this place to everyone and will definitely come back when in this area again. Again I cannot speak highly enough of the workers, from the manager down to the bus staff. All so friendly and outgoing. read more

Marvino's - Appetizer and house salad for lunch - Italian Near Me - Cypress, Texas

Went to Marvino's when they first opened & didn't like the experience, but came back 6 months later & have been enjoying dining there, me & my wife go ever Sunday evening, Great time! read more

The food was delicious. The oil that comes with the bread was perfect once you added a little salt. He minestrone soup was spicy and delicious.The egg plant Parmesan was AMAZING. The service however was not good. They never even brought my mom her Merlot she ordered and getting a refill or anything took forever because they never really checked up on you. I asked for a slice of carrot cake to go and they brought me some kind of chocolate cake, which I took anyways because we had been waiting so long for the manager to come approve the free dessert coupon Yelp gave us that my baby started crying and people were staring at us. I'd probably see if I could get takeout from here but unless I am kidfree, I don't plan on coming back again. My 2 year old and newborn aren't patient enough to have a 2 hour dinner. read more

The food was amazing first time there I went for a graduation party I didn't hear anyone complain about their food mine was excellent. Will go back would recommend. read more

Best service, creative food and quality all in one location. Absolutely MAGNIFICENT food and service! The chef and management actually came out to greet us. Feels you are a part of the like family. read more

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We tried marvinos for the first time tonight and was pleasantly surprised the fettuccini Alfredo was truly wonderful and the veal park was good too. This restaurant is is casual but elegant. The wait staff were attentive and we had a relaxed lovely meal. This would be a great date place read more

Marvino's - Having dinner with my best beau Ron at Marvinos. The veal park is wonderful. - Italian Near Me - Cypress, Texas

Dined in on a Sunday for a late lunch. Beautiful interior and building. Very welcoming! We were promptly sat. We waited for quite a while however before receiving any service. We chalked it up to short staffed. We ordered some drinks from the bar and the calamari as an appetizer. All came out perfect. For our entrees I ordered the classic chicken alfredo which was deliciously creamy without being too heavy. Wedge salad was also light, crisp, and refreshing. My husband opted for the veal romano scaloppini. The portion was larger than expected and he thoroughly enjoyed it! We will definitely be back for our Italian fix! read more

I really liked the decor and the homey feel of this place. I've been to Italy before and I got a little feel of it here. Service was spectacular. Our waitress was training and I couldn't even tell she was since she was so polite and prompt. The presentation of desserts is a big deal here because they roll all of it around to tables on this fancy cart that looks like a suit case roller at a hotel. Pretty awesome place. Calamari was great, I had the wedding soup, and the chicken fettuccine Alfredo and finished with the chocolate tuxedo cake for dessert. So much food! I enjoyed the people and service here so I will come back in the near future. read more

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Great service, great food and great management (the manager came over and spoke to us and wanted to know about the food and service.). I had the shrimp scampi with house made jalapeño linguine. My girls had the house salad with chicken. They enjoyed it and thought it was so big they might have split it. I'm happy to recommend this restaurant. read more

Marvino's - Italian Near Me - Cypress, Texas

FOOD WAS AMAZING!!!!! The only thing I would have to say is our waiter had ZERO enthusiasm or smile. But we got our table on a Friday night in 25 mins and my salmon was AMAZING! read more

Marvino's - Salmon on a bed of spinach polenta topped with shrimp! - Italian Near Me - Cypress, Texas

I wasn't going to write this review but decided my experience was so bad it needed to be shared. I will never return to this restaurant as a result of my experience. This happened a couple of weeks ago. We showed up and we're immediately shown to a booth. Took about 20 min before someone finally asked if we wanted something to drink. Took another 20 min to actually get 2 waters and an iced tea. My daughter is vegetarian and so is my boyfriend. We asked about the minestrone soup and were told it was without meat. So my daughter ordered it, I got the chicken marvino and my boyfriend got a mango salad. The food didn't arrive for almost 45 min - without any refills on our drinks in that time and no one stopping by to see how we were doing. When the food arrived - first thing my daughter noticed was that there was meat in the soup. I had to get up from the table to get someone to come over - to find out that yes chorizo sausage is in the soup. We had stated that we asked about that upfront and were told it was vegetarian. They brought us out a house salad and told us that the salad would not be charged. I said the soup also better not be charged and they said they had to charge for the soup as it was ordered. I reminded them that they ensured us the soup was vegetarian which is the ONLY reason we ordered it. Still can't believe they didn't take this off the bill. I couldn't eat the chicken marvino as it was extremely salty (the mashed potatoes though were awesome). And the mango salad was very good my boyfriend said. We waited another 30 min before we could get our check and we had to track someone down ourselves to take our card to pay. The was my first and definitely my last time to visit this restaurant and based on my experience there, I would not recommend it. read more

Overall summary: Ambiance is great, food is ok, management and service amateur. Lots of room for improvement. Here are 3 glaring flaws in our experience: 1.No reservations. We were excited to go to this new place and had a party of 11. We called to make reservations and were told they did not take reservations. But we were assured that there wont be a long wait to seat. When we got there, we were told 45 minutes. when we complained to the manager about the assurance on the phone he said it will take maybe 15-20 minutes. we were seated an hour later at a crammed bar height table. Finally we were moved to an adjacent wine room with nice seating. Victory!!!! The manager did not even come by to apologize or comp us an appetizer or anything. 2. Long wait for service: During the long wait for the table we tried the bar which only had 1 cash register for the whole large bar and there was long delay for the bartender's attention. Once seated; although the server was very nice it was just one person for a large party. Then we were given a small basket of bread with 6 pieces in it. We had to ask for 2 more baskets of bread which by the way was mediocre at best. The dipping oil was very good. 3. We ordered wedding soup which was ok. Very watered down, macaroni instead of Orzo. The main course was good all around but many of the dishes were chipped. we wondered if the owners cut corners and bought used dishes :) Overall, we all agreed to not return. Marvino's needs to try harder if they want to retain the local customers. read more

nice new option for italian. Been a while since we tried it. We did enjoy it. it is better than an olive garden but not quite gourmet. we will go back and try again and I will review it again. read more

Tried this place yesterday. I am not impressed, especially with the pricing. I don't make it a habit to ask the price if the special. I will from now on at any place for the first time. The surf and turf was $99. I could have gone to Brenners for that kind of money! Steak was ok, lobster was severely overcooked. I won't be back. read more

We tried out this new restaurant last night and returned tonight with the kids. Service was excellent and food delicious! We will definitely return! And it's wonderful to have another Italian restaurant in Cypress. read more

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