05/25/09

DO NOT HAVE YOUR Wedding Reception HERE!!

by Citygal

I thought this restaurant would be romantic for a wedding reception, so I had mine there. First of all, during the whole planning, the owner was rude and not very helpful and very impatient (this was after I had left a deposit to reserve the date). A wedding reception is the most important date of your life, and if the people are not very helpful or seem like you are wasting their time, then you should not have it here (by no means was I demanding). I had to even pay for my own dinner to taste-test the different items I chose for my dinner menu. On the wedding date, my dad had asked for more chairs, and one of the waitress was very rude to him. Also, the food that was served is buffet-style, but not self-service. When the food came out, the servers gave small portions of food. Some of my guests asked for more of the meat, and they only gave one small extra piece. Afterwards, the servers were in a hurrry to clear up the buffet tables. I asked the head waiter to hold off on clearing the buffet so that my guests could have more, but he said that everyone was finished and not wanting seconds. After my reception, I asked my friends and family what they thought, and they said that the had just a little to eat, then when they went back for seconds, the buffet table was cleared and gone. My GUESTS LEFT FEELING HUNGRY, and some had gone out to eat again!!! I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE FOR A WEDDING RECEPTION. The reception costs around $6700, and for $67/person, you would be better off having it at a nice hotel where the service is better and you have the support of a wedding coordinator that would help you..... and your guests leave feeling full!!!

• Cons: bad service, rude owner

04/25/08

RUINIED My Valentine's Day!!!

by GMamanda993

I had been wanting to go to Bistro Vino for a while and I kept dropping hints to my boyfriend to take me there someday, He surprised me with reservations for Valentine's Day. We showed up on time for our reservations, but when we were seated...no one bothered to greet us, give us water, take a drink order, or even aknowledge us. We sat for LITERALLY TWENTY MINUTES before we got so frustrated with trrying to get service, that we left!!! We couldn't even find a manager to complain about our non-service. Anyone in Houston knows that if you want to go somewhere nice or even mediocre for Valentine's Day you have to have a reservation to eat at a decent hour!!! We couldn't get a table anywhere nice so we had to settle for...a chicken wing joint...Where we actually got great service...better than that at Bistro Vino!!!!

• Pros: NONE
• Cons: Non-exsistent service

02/18/08

Not Recommended

by AlaskAnne

We went to Bistro Vino for a romantic evening and were disappointed. There are several better places to dine for the same price within an 8-mile radius, several of them within walking distance. The piano music upstairs was intrusively loud. We had no choice but to stay there ? the weather was too inclement to eat outside and a reception was being held on the first floor. We had to shout to make ourselves heard, and could easily hear the conversations of other diners shouting at each other.

My potato soup was so heavily salted and peppered that I could detect no other flavors. My husband?s steak was good and cooked correctly. I opted for the classic Italian comfort dish Osso Bucco. Bistro Vino?s version is definitely not the traditional dish. Instead of being served with risotto, the veal shank came with tomato-sauce covered pasta, which my husband compared unfavorably to Chef Boyardee?s canned creation. If there was any of the traditional garlic and lemon zest in the dish, I could not detect it. The bone was empty of marrow ? one of the hallmark features of this dish.

The wait staff was attentive, but seemed unfamiliar with the level of service expected for this price point. The service would have been fine at a chain like Chile?s. However, whether because of the noise or plain carelessness, they could not fulfill our requests on the first attempt. Repeated requests did yield the desired results, though. We won?t return ? there are too many other better places to dine for the price. This evening was memorable, but for the wrong reasons.

• Pros: Pretty setting, good steak
• Cons: Everything else