09/18/09

Amazing atmosphere - fresh & quality food

by lwa96

I always have a wonderful experience at Gravitas. Sercive is friendly and food always arrives in a timely manner. My friends and I love the atmosphere, delicious cuisine, and creative cocktails. Gravitas will always be one of our favorites!

• Pros: Best infusions and dessert!

08/23/09

nice idea, with room for improvement

by operalatte

I went to Gravitas by suggestion of some friends of mine. The waiter, although very nice, did not come around very much. We had a few food allergies that we described at length and watched him diligently writing them down. AFter too long of a wait between apps, then salad, then entree, we were disappointed to notice that the allergy info had not been communicated! We then had to wait another twenty more minutes to be served! All in all we stayed there for three hours, and not just because of the wonderful conversation. Lamb was extremely fatty, but the smashed potatoes, fish, salads, and bread pudding were fantastic. Just needs some tightening up in the management dept, i think... More organization, but the food was relatively wonderful.

• Pros: Some of the food was shockingly good
• Cons: some of it was average

08/04/09

Second visit even better than my first

by Jani

Wanted to share my thoughts on a wonderful dinner this past weekend and here I find THAT guy. More on that later. I first dined at Gravitas for Yelp week with friends and wanted to bring my husband. The restaurant was almost full when I first came and very loud. We came in late to avoid the noise. We started with cocktails in the bar that the very pleasant bartender recommended. I was boring and went for the pomegranate martini which was very good. My husband had a very pretty mixed gin drink, the name I can't remember. It wasn't bad, but was a little too unusual for me. Once we were finished we were seated in the dining room. Our waiter immediately sold us on a simple tuna sashimi dish with a unique wasabi sauce that made the dish, beautiful tuna or not. I talked my husband into sharing their bistro steak. When it arrived the waiter brought out two dishes each with a sizable portion of steak. I told him that we only wanted to share one. He then patiently explained to me that the chef had separated the dish for us and that it was one steak with some extra frites for each of us. Very glad we were sharing. We could have invited a third for dinner and still had something to take home. After devouring the steak we decided to go ahead and share a dessert as well fearing another colossal serving. The dessert was actually a very petite, modern looking chocolate mousse. It was more than enough. However, the highlight of the evening was a delicious bottle of Prima Voce Italian red. We ordered it by accident, well if you can do that. Throughout most of the evening there was a belligerent little man trying to impress his date a few tables over from us. Middle age, overweight, and with a receding hairline he was doing his best to show off by tormenting a poor waitress (sorry if I'm being cruel, but I was a waitress once too and some people's behavior is simply inexcusable). We had already settled for a couple glasses of unremarkable shiraz, but towards the end of our meal this man got up and started stumbling drunkenly towards the kitchen shouting something unintelligibly. He shoved the bottle in his poor waitresses face and stumbled back to his table. When I asked our waiter what was going on he told us that he, duh, didn't like his wine. Even though we were nearly done with our meal we thought we'd order a bottle just to see. It was a truly amazing tuscan. We had a couple more glasses and our server packed it up for us to finish at home. Thank you for the unintentional recommendation sir. Next time try class. Its never failed to impress a girl that I'm aware of. Overall this is one of the better meals I've had since Moving to Houston. I would definitely recommend coming when its not busy as the restaurant can get a little tight and extremely loud.

• Pros: Diverse selection of foods, great wine
• Cons: Loud, strange clientele

08/01/09

Start Over Ausi!

by DePugh

I visited Gravitas Last night! The sewer smell at the front door was a plumbing pipe leaking off the front eve. That's when I should have turned around and left. The place was kinda empty. We sat down got the wine list, and to my surprise, I gotta say this is the worst I have seen in Houston! I like all kinds of wine, especially imports (not so much Australian) How ever i didn't recognize much of what was on the list. The server was totally recommending this Tempranillo not from Spain but from Australia. The wine sucked! I sent it back. The next wine they brought had temperature or storage issues. Sent it back too.(drank water) Next we had the Venison Chili I got a little indigestion. Then we ordered the Veal, (not so bad) However they forgot the order on gnochii , the server argued with me that I never ordered it! Maybe she saved me more heartburn, and $$$! So we had to try desert, since the experience was already a train wreck! Desert was great! Bread pudding is all I can recommend! Never Going Back to this DUMP!

Review by Mark DePugh

• Pros: Desert was good!
• Cons: Wine list, Service, and Food all sucked!

07/08/09

Great Food and Great Service

by Txgal08

I was a little concerned when I read the Citysearch reviews about Gravitas but since they were a little out of date, I went in with an open mind. The restaurant was very quiet, the service was great and the food was even better! Two in our party had the flat iron steak, another had the hanger steak and my husband had the veal cordon bleu. Everyone loved their food and cleared their plate! The Bread Pudding was out of the world too! I highly recommend this restaurant for a nice night out.

• Pros: Great atmosphere
• Cons: None

05/04/09

I'm lucky

by colt45

Wow! So many bad reviews. I've been three times and had great luck. Twice eating off the regular menu. (Love the mussles). And once for a corporate event where we ate off a seperate menu. Also the staff was very friendly. I must have great luck.

08/18/08

Interesting menu, but poor execution.

by CityFoodadventure

Overall, the experience was disappointing . The service, ambiance and food were all so-so. The service and ambiance were less than what one would expect when compared to other restaurants in the same price range, such as Mark's, Mockingbird Bistro, McCormick and Schmick's, etc. We tried Gravitas during Houston Restaurant Week. When we were presented with the menus, we were a little surprised that we were not provided with the Restaurant Week menus and were asked whether we noted this on our reservations, which made their participation in this charitable event almost seem like an afterthought. We also had to ask for the bread basket several times before the waiter bothered to bring it. The ambiance was flat and unmemorable.

The food was fair. I ordered the calamari cucumber salad, trout with risotto and marshmallow chocolate tart. The menu sounded fun and different, but, unfortunately, the execution was poor. The salad was unevenly seasoned such that while one bite may seem rather salty, the next was a little bland. In addition, the calamari was cold and stale. As for the trout and risotto, the trout was perfectly seared, but the taste was destroyed by the overly salty cheese risotto and watery vegetable. The marshmallow chocolate tart was rich and tasty, but the tart shell was stale and tasted old.

07/26/08

Great food, Bad waiter

by JWDC2002

I went to Gravitas for my third visit. I love the atmosphere and I really enjoyed the food. The steak and salmon tartars and pork chop dish were delicious. The hangar steak was too. I would love to review the dessert as well, but our waiter was too slow to bring it out before we had to leave - even though we asked him when we ordered dessert to please bring it out quickly along with the check b/c we had to leave soon. It was a slow night without many other tables and he managed to chat and hang out with his co-workers for the next 25 minutes without checking for the dessert and while avoiding my attempt to catch his eye to see the status. This was after an evening of spectacularly slow service (i think it took him about 30 minutes to come ask us about appetizers after we were served our water and wine). Only go if you want a very long evening with good food and bad service.

06/23/08

Food was Good, Service was Good

by justdanielle1

Other reviews here had me worried before I decided to give it a try for brunch yesterday. Well, it was extremely enjoyable and the food was tasty. The service was excellent; our server's name was Zac and he was attentive as is appropriate; not overbearing but we weren't waiting on anything. He had it down and was very likeable and had a zip to his demeanor. I can't stand when servers are overbearing or when they look like they are at a funeral. Zac was perfect. Food was extremely good also. I tried the omelette on the brunch menu and my Boyfriend had a special off the menu salmon and dill eggs benedict. We were both extremely pleased with our choices. We also enjoyed our mimosas and it was the perfect portions for us. We did not leave hungry nor did we leave there and need a nap. This was my first visit and will not be my last. I intend on trying it for dinner soon also but they have a frequenter for their brunch in me now.

• Pros: Brunch, Valet Parking, Food, Service
• Cons: Drinks are a bit pricier than some other comparable area choices

05/15/08

Awful, Awful, Awful Food

by tyler2985

Besides a very rude/mannerless bartender...

The food was the absolute worse I've ever had. I would feel better about spending fifty dollars on Whataburger than ever eating at this restaurant again. I tried everyone's dishes, and the same. However, mine, The Roasted Chicken, was especially awful. The au jus the chicken was served with (and soaked into every other part of the dish) had a pungent, stinch aftertaste that made it hard to hold down any food I ate.

• Cons: Awful Service, Awful Food