Zula Restaurant

08/27/09

Horrible Restaurant!

by JerseyTexan at Citysearch

I must say I am very disappointed in Zula Restaurant!

I made reservations for 28 well in advanced of our scheduled December 15, 2008 dinner. Our reservations were for 7PM and most of our staff was there by 7 but some showed at 7:15pm. When finally seated, about 30 minutes later, there was still a wait, no one came and took a drink order or offered water to the guests. Some folks did not get desert because by 10pm they really did not want it at that point. One of the gentleman was celebrating a 40th birthday and I asked them to have a cake with candles on it and they brought out a cupcake with a sparkler. The waiter dropped an entire tray of food and by 10PM half of our guests had still not been served. When some of the entrees did arrive the meat was not cooked to order and the sides were cold. AND there were only three other people in the restaurant! This is EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING!

I emailed and talked with the restaurant manager Julie Vo and was told nothing but lies and they would not work with me at all. I was told our first guest did not arrive until 7:23pm because they have a video. Excuse me, several of those individuals are always prompt and when they say they showed up before 7, I tend to beleive them. Julie also indicated that I Tony, their head waiter asked my boss said the service was fine. I think not Julie. In regards to the cold food I was told that it's hard to get that many dinners our and all be hot. Excuse me, that's the restaurant business. The food wasn't even warm it was COLD! Then Julie tried to blame me stating that I made the decision to have off the menu instead of a set menu but we never talked about having a preset menu.

The most disturbing part is when I called, and I was as pleasant as I can be, she immediately started pointing fingers. If anything dinner should have been free since most did not get theirs and when they did it was horrible! This was a CEO taking out his direct reports and their significant others out for a nice or what should have been nice holiday dinner! Iam horribly embarrassed as I was the one that suggested ZULA.

When folks asks for a recommendation, I immediately tell them where not to go!!! Don't go to ZULA!

I had to give it one star because otherwise I couldn't publish my review but I wouldn't give it any!

• Pros: NONE
• Cons: Food, staff, everything

07/30/09

Never Go Back!

by NA1 at Citysearch

The restaurant smelled musty. Our food was cold and was not great. We won't be going back.

• Pros: We had a good waiter
• Cons: Lots

06/26/09

worst restaurant experience ever

by serena12 at Citysearch

i have never written a restaurant review before but felt compelled to warn other people. this was the worst dining expereince i've ever had. the atmosphere was depressing, waitstaff was clueless, and the food was AWFUL. everything was oversalted and tasted unfresh. i think our waiter and chef were the same at one point. the only other people dining here were high school kids before some special event. this was on a weekend night. i do not know how this place stays open. i think the positive reviews here were planted.

• Pros: nothing whatsoever
• Cons: too many to name

06/09/09

Terrible food and Service!

by Leelee at Citysearch

Food was so terrible! I will never EVER return to this place. I wonder about the chef here! Don't go there for food. You will regret it so much!! Everyone on the table had a terrible dish! I regret that I paid for the food! I'm extremely surprised to see that this place got a good review! This restaurant needs to reconsider their chef!!!

• Pros: nice interior
• Cons: everything else...salty food, service...yuk!

05/27/09

worst service i have ever experienced!!!!

by alisonS at Citysearch

i have never been treated so rudely in my life!! my prom gorup and i went to zula's for prom dinner which is suppossed to be one of the best nights of your life. first of all we had reseved a private room but when we got there they forgot to set it up. then they told us that they would not split our check for a group of 22.. the wouldnt even split it in half. when we made the reservations we were told that we would not have a set menu but when we got there a set menu was on the table... after speaking to the OWNER about theses mistakes we were told we could order anything off the set menu and only be charged for what we ordered (the full set menu price was $40 and not the whole group wanted to pay that)... no one ever took our drink orders they assumed we wouldall be happy with water.. when the food finally came each half of the table got their food at different times(one side would be eating salads while the other would have their main course)... then we were handed a check for around $600 and we were fine with that we all paid our part...then over half an hour later the manager gave us a new check for over $700 dollars... we were outragged and asked them to honor the first check but they refused... the manager then got mad at us for asking him to honor the first check and walked away from us, locked the doors, and treatened to call the police if we didnt sit down... i have never been so disrespected in my life... i ended up paying $60 for a piece of chicken they charged us over the set menu price... one girl in the group only ordered mac n cheese and french fries and she paid $40... even those of us who did order dessert never got it...

• Pros: none
• Cons: never go here

02/27/09

Horrible!!! Will never go back!

by MarquitaJ at Citysearch

First of all we made reservations for Valentine's day my fiancee and I, it was $80.00 per person, which we were will to pay for great food and service. Service when we arrived was horrible, we were sat at our table and left there for 15 min without at least someone taking our drink order or something. Finally they came and took the drink order i ordered a Apple Martini, they came back with something that taste like lemonade???? I told him i'm not sure what that is, but it's not a apple martini, no alcohol at all. The waiter said okay i will get you another one i'm sorry, this time i will have the bartender make it. I'm thinking hmmmm.....did the bartender not make that last one??? He comes back and it's pretty much undrinkable from too much alcohol like the bar tender was trying to be smart or something. We did that one more time and i finally just gave up on the drink. Next we're still waiting our food it's been about 30min since we ordered and people who came in after us had already gotten their first course ( it was a 4 course meal). He decides to just bring our first and second out together because they forgot to bring out our salad. Worse service. And to top it off the food was horrible as well. I would never recommend this place to anyone i know. Waste of money.

• Pros: The restaurant is really decorated nicely
• Cons: The staff has horrible customer service and the food is not worth the money

02/16/09

Worst restaurant experience I have ever had

by mrt124 at Citysearch

My girlfriend and I decided to go to Zula for Valentines day, and it was bad from the beginning. We arrived for our 7:30 reservation and the hostess did not welcome us or walk us to our table, she only said "you can go sit at a table upstairs." The menus was a special menu for the night, but was only printed on a cheap black and white printer. It took us 20 minutes to even flag down the waiter, and when we did he was not polite and seemed as though he did not want to serve us. He did not even introduce himself to us or tell us his name. The courses were rushed through, they did not wait for us to finish our salad before they brought out the appetizer. The food was ok, but not close to the $100 they were charging. They were out of the dessert that I wanted, but instead of letting me know and offering me another choice, they brought me out the other dessert option with now apology. As a previous reviewer stated the restrooms were disgusting. A 20% gratuity was included so we could not alter the tip for the terrible service we received. Then to end the night I was going to complain to the manager on the way out, but there was not anybody there to thank us for coming as we were leaving. This was hands down my worst restaurant experience ever. I will not be returning.

• Pros: NONE
• Cons: Below average food for the price, terrible service, rude staff, dirty

02/08/09

Overcooked and flavorless

by foodiedoc at Citysearch

My husband, several friends and I went to Zula one Friday evening before attending a performance in the Theater District; we were looking forward to the food after reading the mostly great reviews on Citysearch and checking out the restaurant's website. My husband and I, together and apart, have lived/worked in various major U.S. cities and overseas, and we both agree that Houston overall has wonderful restaurants with great quality and value. Without exaggeration, the food at Zula is by far the worst that we have had in Houston.

The service was acceptable (however we were the only seated table besides another table of customers at 7 o'clock on a Friday night) and the ambience/decor is reminiscent of 80's Las Vegas, but the food was simply unacceptable. The Boulevard Sashimi consisted of fair-grade sashimi tuna wrapped in nori, accompanied by a red-chili sauce that was cloyingly sweet. The Seafood Martini consisted of 5 rubbery-hard, overcooked shrimp thrown in some pureed stewed tomatoes with garlic salt and some sugar thrown in, accompanied by a few slivers of some sort of white fish. I had the Salmon filet, described to have been citrus-marinated and served with hollandaise; this dish had no hint of flavor, citrus or otherwise, and the hollandaise tasted like a simple amalgam of flour, water, and salt. My husband had the chili-rubbed Porkchop, ordered medium; it arrived very well-done, bone-dry and tasteless with a rub that had just a hint of chemical heat but no flavor. A friend had the ginger and wasabi tuna filet, again totally devoid of flavor...have you noticed a trend here?

Boiled-down description of our Zula experience: overcooked and flavorless. With all the wonderful reviews of Zula, I'm beginning to question their authenticity.

• Pros: Relatively quiet for downtown restaurant on a Friday night (which may be a con)
• Cons: The food

01/10/09

Fire the Chef Immediatly

by bmjsa at Citysearch

My suggestion to the Manager when he asked how the food was; ?Fire Your Chef Immediately? The food had no flavor at all. I have eaten at places like The Mocking Bird, Brenner?s on the Bayou. Now these places are Five Star Restaurants with food to die for.

Zula really should learn to cook with spices and use fresh food. I was sick all night long after trying to eat at this place. Mind you I only ate a few pieces of my pork chop. This place was not good at all. The bread they served at the beginning was so tasty it was the best bread I have eaten. I thought it was a taste of what was to come; except Zula dropped the ball when it came to the main course. The food was uneatable and my guest and I left felling disgusted by what was trying to be passed off as a five star.

For those of you giving this place a five star you either work there or you have never truly eaten at a five star restaurant. No Taste, Gross Food and management didn?t seem to care. Enough said!

• Pros: passing up this place
• Cons: Food and bad Managment

01/08/09

Huge disappointment in almost every way......

by CookWannaBe at Citysearch

The waiters were wonderful here but every other detail was very poorly managed. Our meal there was a group event and it was the worst experience we've had in almost 15 years. Fortunately we have a great group of people and still managed to have a nice evening. Our reservations (made months ahead) were confused with those of another group. The group coordinator was completely disorganized, unprofessional and unresponsive to inquiries. She never conveyed important details like pre-selected menu selections or headcount to the waiters and they had to scramble to make up for her lack of attention to details. The restaurant was filthy throughout (everything including bathrooms and water pouring out of the ceiling) and the food was simply awful~ not fresh.

We've eaten at Mark's and Quattro in Houston (both exquisite) and Zula is not in the same category~ not even in the same universe. Can't drag us back there even for free food. I'm really tolerant because I have waited tables but this was just beyond anything reasonable. Ugh!

• Pros: Great waiters! Really worked hard to please us.
• Cons: Awful food, group coordinator awful, filthy restuarant