Artista Restaurant

01/12/09

Fabulous Pre-Theater Dinner

by tulips479 at Citysearch

Went there with a friend before a show and had a fabulous girls' night out. Although the restaurant is definitely upscale, our waiter was very attentive and friendly. Everyone starts with fried plaintains with three different sauces that were delish. We had the empanadas as an appetizer and loved them. I chose the salmon for the entree, and it was cooked perfectly. We ended the night with the most delicious Tres Leches I've ever had. I will DEFINITELY be going back!

• Pros: Tres Leches!
• Cons: On the pricey side, but to be expected with convenience of being in the theater

11/04/08

You'll need a reservation

by bmwm5driver at Citysearch

Wonderfull after show dininng expereince. Fabulous food, great service and the interior is very interesting. Nice view of the Houston skyline. The dinner menu is a bit expensive, but that's what you'll pay for upscale dining with a highly recommended rating. The lunch menu is a better value. Go often. If you like the restaruant, then you'll need to try Churasco's next. Cordoba is doing a good job.

Note; if you prefer boot seating, make sure you reserve it. The Hostess is very protective of whom sits in thier booths. The best booths are on the main dining floor, are curved back up to the glass wall.

• Pros: Highly recommended for dates and romantics.
• Cons: No booth for you. Hostess is a Booth Nazzi.

10/29/08

Disappointed Twice!

by luckyblond at Citysearch

I really wanted to love Artista because I am huge fan of the other Cordua restaurants (Americas and Churrascos and Amazon Grill) BUT twice I have had bad experiences for weekday lunches. First, the menu is an unsophisticated pick and choose. As a fine diner, I want the menu to describe the dishes as the chef makes them and not just list the entrees like a burger joint. A pro: the executive lunch is a good value especially if you get the signature tres leches as the dessert choice. Other than the tres leches, the food is my second complaint. The chicken and steak dishes were dry, unflavored and poor choices of meat. The empanadas tasted like they were from the frozen food aisle. The meals I?ve sampled in the two groups I?ve dined with are not bad but not at the level you would expect for the price or expectation. Finally, the service. Like the food, it just doesn?t live up to one?s expectations for a nice lunch downtown. I had to continuously flag down staff to get refills on drinks and sauces. It was very distracting. Overall I felt like it was everyone?s first day, the chef, the wait staff, and the hostess. Very disappointing!

• Pros: Fabulous atmosphere and great location
• Cons: Food and service

10/09/08

Awful Service

by jjandersontx at Citysearch

Been coming here for a long time, because traditionally it's been a great business lunch spot. The last two times have been awful though, with the last time arguably the worst service I've ever experienced. We had reservations, but had to wait close to ten minutes to get seated. Then once we were seated, we didn't have a waiter wait on us for another 15 minutes, at which point I got up and grabbed someone. After we ordered, which we did right away, we didn't see the waiter again until the check came. In the meantime, they had forgotten to bring out our salads (they never came), never refilled our drinks, and the bus boy I grabbed didn't bring the ketchup I asked for. Then it was like pulling teeth to get the waiter to bring the check. And it wasn't even a theater day!!

Food was fine, but like I said, simply awful service. Time for me to find a different business lunch spot.

• Cons: awful service

07/18/08

Not a winning lunch combination

by garlandcompany at Citysearch

I had a lunch meeting with a business associate followed by a business meeting at city hall. Artista seemed like a perfect venue since it's directly across the street. I had eaten at Artista before-but it had been a year or two. The room is quite lovely and my waiter was charming and helpful. HOWEVER, the

food was absolutely dreadful. We both had the Executive Lunch which features a first course, a main course and dessert for 15.95--a very good value. I made the mistake of opting for the corn fettucine with grilled shrimp for my main course--it arrived before the first course was completed and as soon as I looked at it I knew it had been sitting in a warming oven--and we were there at 11:30 AM! The fettucine was a complete schmooy glop--looking very much like the 3 pound pasta tv spots that Pizza Hut is running right now. My companion's chicken breast was dry and tasteless. All of a sudden it came back to me why I had not been back to Artista. When there are terrific high-end choices for lunch within a short drive or a nice walk (LaGriglia, The Grove, The Strip House, Morton's), why in the world would ANYONE patronize this restaurant?

• Pros: Beautiful room, great view, good service (at least in my case)
• Cons: Subpar food

07/17/08

Humiliated by waiter? Please! Response to Houston727Gal

by silvers399 at Citysearch

I wouldn't let the experience with the rude waiter stop me from enjoying dinners at Artista (for all you know he's probably not around anymore). I think you are over-exaggerating...I have traveled to many different places and wouldn't feel "humiliated" for not knowing the "etiquette" of the hospitality industry in that country...I would take it as a learning experience for the future and laugh it off. Period.

06/30/08

Free Humiliation at Artista!: Response to Houston 727Gal

by GraciousHost at Citysearch

HoustonGal, that is TOTALLY UNEXCUSABLE!!!!! I would leave a comment on their website so Mr. Cordua can see it. I left a positive comment for Americas long ago (when it was still in the right decade, CULINARILY SPEAKING), and I am guessing they still have that feature on the site. The nerve of that server... and for him/her to use the Manager as an excuse is terrible respresentation!

On to my experience which was a few months back. My family and I were in for lunch before Jersey Boys, and we had a very mediocre experience. The food was definitley nothing to write home about, and I have always despised places who want you to design your own meal with mix-and-match sauces, proteins, and sides. Isn't that why you hire a skilled chef?...... to create something the layman wouldn't think of?

Whoever came up with this concept is either lazy, not a real chef, or just plain ignorant to what true diners want. Can we say "revamp time"? The prices at Artista suggest ALL the food is spectacular, and don't get me wrong, the asian-inspired crawfish taquito appetizer, and the Angel Wings (fancy chicken wings in brown butter and blue cheese) are delicious-- but thats where it ends as far as I'm concerned. I would suggest drinks and appetizers in the bar only.

Service: Our waitress seemed like she was on another planet. "Glazed look" service including a lack of menu knowledge, AND... slow refills, slow clearing of plates, forgot requested sauces, cleared entrees before mom was finished, served coffee with milk instead of cream, had to flag down for the check, and she would NOT return o the table to do anything past the time we paid the bill (or should I say, "the tip"?) And incase you are wondering, we tipped 15%, and NOT the usual 20% because of it. Thank goodness we didn't get "called out"......

In summary, nice patio and beautiful decor, but if you want fine dining food and service, your money (and tip) is better spent elsewhere!

06/02/08

My guests were insulted by the staff/management

by Houston727Gal at Citysearch

I used to love Artista. I am a frequent theater patron and always enjoyed having dinner at Artista before a show. That was before the Great Insult of 2008. A good friend of mine is from London and her parents were visiting Houston. I invited them to the theater as my guests. My friend's father wanted to treat us all to dinner. I recommended Artista believing that it would be a wonderful experience for them. We had a lovely dinner - food was great, had a super bottle of wine. This kindly old gentleman paid our bill, and we sat enjoying our coffee for a few minutes waiting for showtime. The waiter approached him and asked if there was a problem with our service. Mr. U.K. said that everything was fine. The waiter then said that his manager insisted that he ask becuase the tip was so low! I couldn't believe it! I found out later that my dinner host had tipped 10%. But please bear in mind, this was not out of being cheap or unsatisfied with the meal. In Europe, they don't tip at all for meals. It's just the way it is. This sweet little old man thought he had tipped generously and simply wasn't quite in tuned with the American rules of the road. But he was thoroughly humiliated by the Artista staff, and I simply can't forgive them for that! I will never return.

• Pros: Great view and good food
• Cons: Terrible (and insulting) service staff

04/06/08

Slow service and mediocre food; the only redeemer was that we were seeing a musical at TUTS

by smokeytx at Citysearch

My husband and I went there last night as part of his birthday celebration. It was our first time there so we were excited about it since we have enjoyed many meals at the other Cordua restaurants. I won't say that we will never go back but it will certainly not be a first choice for future celebrations. The service was very slow; in fact, we had to ask for our waiter. This should not have been the case as we were the second of the first three tables filled and there were at least six waiters lounging at the back of the restaurant. We both ordered appetizers - ceviche and crab taquitos - which were excellent. Based on those, our expectations for dinner were high. We were very disappointed. I ordered a seafood combo of swordfish, lobster, scallops and shrimp. The shrimp were good as were the mashed potatoes. The rest was, to put it mildly, awful. The swordfish was overcooked to the point of being flavorless and the lobster was salty to the exclusion of any other flavor. My husband ordered a surf and turf combination and his experience with the lobster was the same as mine. His steak was ordered medium but was deliverd to the table on the verge of being a true rare. We ordered desserts in the hopes of saving the meal; he ordered the bread pudding and I ordered the chocolate hazelnut tart. The bread pudding was ok but unspectacular and the tart was difficult to cut and the chocolate so dense that the hazelnut notes did not come through. Over all, the meal was mediocre. For the money, it should have been better and the service more attentive. There are many other restaurants in Houston that deliver a fine meal for the money spent on that one so we will think a long time before we go back to Artista.

• Pros: appetizers were excellent, very near the theater district, view was nice
• Cons: service was SLOW, main course and dessert were mediocre at best, cost for value

03/02/08

Great Atmospher!Great Food!

by miss_mona at Citysearch

My hustand and 7 other guests dined at Artista before the theatre last night. Artista still does a great job and service is fabulous BUT they need to go back to the original menu. The theatre menu reminded me of a cheap offer lunch. We used really enjoy choosy the different side items, the different sauces and having more options. Don't get me wrong the service and the food hey offered was all good and served timely, but there were no specials and the menu was not as appetizing. We really enjoy being able order drinks for intermission at dinner.

• Pros: Always Good Food and Service is Great
• Cons: The new theatre menu is too tiny and not as much fun