Strip House

03/28/09

Thanks for the Reviews

by TheBestCritic at Citysearch

I was looking forward to trying the Strip House and before going I decided to check on my old reliable review section on City Search. WOW!!! Looks like you guys saved me some serious bucks by changing my mind. We have too many GREAT restaurants in this price category to risk going to the Strip House. For the money you have to throw-down at the Strip House I can go to Mark's, Pappa's Bros, Rainbow Lodge, and etc.

Not sure how these "mid-westerners" will fare out in the long run, but in Houston we don't coddle mediocrity in our restaurants!!! Take I-45 north to Dallas, those portentous buffoons will accept anything they are told is “trendy” or “the in thing.” Oh well…..

• Pros: CitySearch's reviews
• Cons: Sounds like everything

03/26/09

Excessively Expensive

by gustaveiffel at Citysearch

How can they seriously charge $4 for Diet Coke and $14 for house Cabernet. That's despicable. I also happened to have a $100 gift certificate that I tried to use, but "it has no cash value", which means I had to spend it all at one time instead of $50 for one visit then $50 for another. Very poor form on their part. Needless to say, I'll only go one more time, to use the gift certificate, then no more.

• Pros: Wait staff very courteous and attentive to detail
• Cons: Little things cost too much

03/22/09

Mediocre

by aggiecouple at Citysearch

Took my husband here for his birthday after hearing/reading the great reviews and was severely disappointed. First, the valet was $7. Valet should always be complimentary, especially when you're shelling out $200+ for dinner and when you don't have a choice.

The ambience...The place tries very very hard to be posh but falls short everywhere. The best they could come up with is the opulent-looking velvet wallpaper. The rest is a bit schizo, trying to be both hip and modern and classic steakhouse at the same time. There are red leather booths, but they're cheap and uncomfortable. The crowded table setup, and substandard furniture reminded me of a strip mall mom&pop and left no room for intimacy...we could hear the conversations of both the table right next to us, and the one 2 tables down.

Onto the food...I ordered the foie gras to start and was served a large, cold, unrecognizable tube of paste served on a whopping king size bed of straight-out-of-the-jar dates, with a plate of extremely large baguette. This place needs to take a serious lesson in SUBTLE foie gras, from the venerable Cafe Annie, where foie gras is always done right. The green beans were completely undercooked, and my snapper, which was just decent, was served on some sort of frothy green liquid. This place is all about gimmick and needs to spend more energy on creating good food. The steaks are all ridiculously overpriced. It's like they're trying to convince you they're good just through the price (not through the taste). I don't mind paying a high price for a good cut of meat, but for the mediocre skills of the chef, it was nothing short of presumptuous.

The service. Decently attentive, but not polished. There were complimentary shot glasses of soup and pecan praline from the chef, but both were served flippantly. The service, like the food, reminded me of Outback Steakhouse pretending to be a Mark's.

And to round off the evening, when we went to retrieve our car, the valet left our keys in plain sight on the valet stand, while both he and his partner left for 5+ minutes. Very agitating.

If this place was a $ or $$, I would probably give it a 3 or 4 star, but considering the price you pay, the overall grade is 1 star.

• Pros: It wasn't *bad*
• Cons: Mediocre service, Mediocre setting/ambience, Mediocre food