La Strada Restaurant

11/04/09

Are you kidding me with this place?

by RobMC at Citysearch

This place has gone downhill big time. I used to go pretty regularly, but went a couple Fridays ago they were closed. I went back and my food sucked so I asked the manager who seemed to want to remedy the situation when some 50-something has been 'cool guy' trying to act 20 interrupted the manager to talk about something. I guess he's a friend of the owner or something (I've seen him there other times) thinking he runs the joint and can twitch around the place like a junkie.

Needless to say I was pissed at 'cool guy' and told the manager to forget it as I'd never come back to their random-houred crack house. Don't get me wrong, this place USED to be a decent hangout with a good vibe, but it looks to be on the way out if they can't even keep regular hours, and have a strange guy bothering everybody... oh yeah, and for whatever reason I couldn't get a drink!! FROM A PLACE KNOWN FOR THEIR DRINKS!!

• Pros: Used to be bellinis but they can't sell them anymore
• Cons: Food and Service, Random hours, no booze

10/03/09

Loved It!

by londie1 at Citysearch

This was my first trip to La Strada and it was great. The service was good, we sat upstairs and enjoyed great music and a little breeze. The waiter was great and allowed us to lounge as long as we wanted (this was a plus after being asked to leave some restaurants for sitting too long). The food was amazing, some of the best pasta I have ever had. The only negative is that the manager would not allow us to use our coupon. La Strada has a company selling coupon books for them. After paying $30-$35 to get to purchase this coupon book, we arrive and the manager basically says "not today". We don't accept coupons on Sundays. What the F@!#! Why is that not on the coupon? That does not make any sense at all. If you have a coupon, you may want to check WITH THE MANAGER to see if you can use it before you dine there; otherwise, beware. We gave the coupon to our waiter when we arrived so he was fully aware. It was only after we ate and drank and ran up the bill that the manager decided not to use the coupon which would have saved us about $15 bucks (big deal!) Since the food was good, we didn't have a problem paying full price. However, they do need better management. This place could be a lot more profitable if the had honest people running the place.

• Pros: Great Food and Atmosphere!
• Cons: Don't like coupons even though they market them!

09/25/09

Food was alright, but manager was rude

by MBP at Citysearch

My friend and I bought the "GROUPON" for La Strada last week and we went on a double date with our husbands. The groupon said "one per two people" so we thought we could each use one. However, when we paid, they said they would only accept one coupon. The manager came to our table and explained that since it said it was not valid with any other offer and they don't split checks, we would only be able to use one coupon. He was very rude and condescending about the whole ordeal when we tried to explain that we thought since it said "one per two people" and not "one per table" we should be able to use both. He also said that if we had come separately and been at different tables, we would have been able to use both coupons, which we just thought was absurd. We ended up not saving any money and spent part of our evening annoyed by this manager and his rudeness. We could have gone to any other restaurant in Houston that night and frankly there are so many others with better food and nicer staff. We will not be going back there.

• Pros: location, ambience
• Cons: rude manager, parking

09/20/09

OK food, Repeated BAD SERVICE

by ranydayz at Citysearch

Vist twice. Both times services was SLOW, DISORGANIZED, RUDE, UNAPOLIGETIC, HIDDEN FEES, and SLOPPY. MY first visit was on a Sunday brunch. A party of 12 we waited for 45 minutes which was expected for the Sunday brunch service. The place gets PACKED. It’s like a Sunday morning club atmosphere. Thankfully the clientele were mostly hip fun loving people. Food was good though took another 30-40 minutes to arrive. Pitcher service was good. Servers seem to be unconcerned with us once orders were placed. Friends ordered at the bar several drinks faster than the waiter could even come over to take drink orders. Paying arrangements must have been rocket science to servers as it took 20 minutes to sort out.

Second daring visit was 15 guest reserved in advance. We sat outside which was nice. Two other large groups were finishing up and we were the last large group and only two other tables of couples were up stairs, the bottom floor was being cleared for dancing. Our waiter FORGOT ALL our ORDERS. He FORGOT ALL DRINK ORDERS, forgot to bring a drink menu that was requested three times from numerous members of the party, FORGOT ONE ORDER, DID NOT APOLOGIZE FOR MISTAKE, FORGOT WINE GLASSES after he “ was running around looking for the wine” as he stated. In all fairness he was the only waiter beside one other waitress helped sparingly. But there were only 22 guest up stairs. 18 of which was our party. We arrived at 8:35 and left at 11:56pm. Dinner took nearly 2 hours to arrange. Waiter constantly externalized blame and never apologized for his lack of quality in his service. Manager however did apologize after having to be talked to by a couple party members and offered free cake cutting and a $10 bottle of champagne. Regardless of the food I will never be going back to La Strada.

• Pros: gingerbread pancakes, brunch
• Cons: Bad service/crowded Sun./valet parking WAS NOT complimentry

09/16/09

Terrible food for price

by estradaime at Citysearch

I had eaten there a couple of years ago and besides the Sunday brunch I have not eaten there in a while. I ordered the Bistec (Steak) medium rare and was served medium well. The steak was dry and tough and I needed the sauce to give it the flavor. My wife's pasta was ok but nothing to talk about. At $32 the steak was such a waste of money. I would not recomend this place for dinner.

• Pros: Quite on weekdays, nice decor
• Cons: Food is equivilant to a chain restruant at higher prices

07/12/09

maybe 15 years ago it was good

by daisychain at Citysearch

Most people agree it's not what it used to be. Some good menu items remain, but are poorly executed.

• Pros: Dessert
• Cons: Valet charge

07/10/09

my new place for lunch

by tellishouston at Citysearch

i ate at la strada last tuesday with my cousin and we were just driving by and saw this big yellow bilding with this ivy all over and at first thought it was a mexican restaurant, but were surprised that it was italian in a good way. i ordered the michal’s best or something (forgot the name) but it tasted good, came out fast. my cousin was real hungry and ordered crab cakes which tasted alright and he had some fettichini with this really really good chocolate cake afterward. next time i’m going to come back here more hungry, becuase the food was really good and the prices seemed kinda expensive, but the amount of food i got was a lot! would definitly come back!

• Pros: good bread, big portions
• Cons: quiet for a tuesday afternoon maybe too quiet?

07/09/09

Good times, decent food

by EHarris at Citysearch

I go to La Strada probably about once a month with my girlfriends - usually Thursday nights. Sometimes the waiter takes awhile to get our food in, but we're usually there for a couple hours or so and aren't in any kind of hurry, so I can understand where some of these reviewers are coming from - but seriously, when I go out to eat, I like to make an event of it and not be in a hurry (or else we'd get fast food!) In any case, this place is pretty good overall, and is good to sit for awhile with friends and not be ushered out like at some other places.

• Pros: Great place to have drinks with friends
• Cons: Sometimes the food is great, sometimes mediocre

07/07/09

Service very bad food portions same

by jairu at Citysearch

Group of ten dinning out for a birthday event. the service was very slow, the entire time we waited not one person asked if we wanted to order drinks 39 min. later two people took our orders. the food was brought out in a timely fashion but three guest order the same dinner plate all portions where completely different.

after eating the waiter dropped all bills at the end of the table not returning each credit card to the right owner. the waiter also over charged a credit card to make her tip larger the money was return in a cash advance from the waiter..

• Cons: waiter charged extra on bills and etc

06/07/09

HUGE let down

by Egrandich at Citysearch

I was so disappointed, it has inspired me to write my first review ever! I haven't been to La Strada in years. It used to be one of my favorite restaurants, the kind of place to go for special occassions. Not anymore. It was absolutely awful.

We arrived for a Sunday brunch, the valets charged $8 in advance per car. Normally I would have driven off but I had a car with family behind me. Not to shock them, I paid the valet for their car too.

Food came quickly but dirty dishes were never removed and water glasses were not refilled. Food was tasteless. Mom said "Food is better at Luby's"

Waiter charged 20% tip automatically charged to bill because of a group of 6 or more dispite the fact it was only 4 adults and 2 very small children. Only 4 entrees were ordered, the kids are not big enough to get their own so we share our food with them. Not even the kids would eat the flat pancake. Way too expensive too. Even at half the cost I would have felt cheated. I will never go back there. We left 6 hours ago and I'm still pissed-off. Not worth the one star rating but program insists on at least one or it thinks it was forgotten.

• Pros: Good Iced tea
• Cons: everything else