Vin

01/13/08

Out of business

by abbystryker at Citysearch

I have dined at this restaurant a few times in the last year and have enjoyed it thoroughly. I tried to make a reservation this week and found it strange that no one answered the phone and voice mail simply instructed me to make a reservation through opentable which I did. I arrived there last night only to find a "Closed for Business" sign on the front door. Nor sure how long it has been closed, if this is temporary or permanent.

• Pros: None
• Cons: It's closed its doors.

01/05/08

Too loud, unprofessional service, subpar food

by houfoodie at Citysearch

Nothing comfortable about the atmosphere, interior design does not match menu selections; acoustics? horrid, I really don?t care to hear everything the tables next to us are saying; some of the most unprofessional service I?ve experienced at this price level of restaurant in Houston, no knowledge of menu items and armature wine service; food presentation lacking and flavors not impressive; will not recommend this restaurant even to an enemy. It would be nice if management would refine restaurant as the location is great for nights attending shows within the Theatre District.

• Pros: location
• Cons: everything other than location

12/12/07

Decent food, VERY SLOW SERVICE

by lovinghouston at Citysearch

VIN is a nice place, fun place with good decor. The food is ok but if they plan to stay open long in downtown, they might want to speed up the service. It is painfully slow. I have been twice and each time I hope it will get better but it doesn't. If you plan on going for lunch, be sure to set aside about 2 hours. No Kidding! They must have 1 cook in the back. I have decided that I will probably just eat somewhere else.

• Pros: Food
• Cons: Service

11/25/07

Want bad food and bad service??/

by tellyajenn at Citysearch

I went here because we had tickets at the hobby center. The food was awful not worth the money what so ever. We made reservations with plenty of time to spare. I am in the hospitality industry so I am usally very easy going on places. We had reservations at 6 so we had plenty of time. We told our waiter that we had tickets at 8. First off he could not wait to get away from us, if he was busy it was one thing, the place was dead. Never refilled water, or asked us if we wanted another cocktail. He came by as little as possible. He didn't bring us our food someone else did and spilled part my friends dinner down the front of her dress. A large party came in to the back room and how waiter got it. So we did not see him for an hour by this time it was 745 and we had to go so I had to go up to the host stand and say we haven't seen our waiter in forever and we have to go can we get our check? There was a manager there, he came to talk to us for like two seconds, no comp drinks or anything. The one good thing I have to say is the back waiter who was sent to cover for our guy after he abandoned us was awesome, I also loved that breakfast at tiffanys was playing in the bar. Really tough steak, bad flavor combos also. Dont waste your time or money.

• Pros: Cool place very hip love decor
• Cons: service food employees in general

10/20/07

Masively underwhelmed

by melhbern at Citysearch

Extremely disappointing. Certainly not worthy of even one star, let alone two stars. On our recent visit, we never felt welcomed, and our waiter was mostly among the missing. Specific problems included the following:

We told them that we were celebrating my wife?s birthday when we made the reservation and again when we arrived at the restaurant. They wished her a happy birthday 3 times, but did nothing else.

We ordered a bottle of champagne. It took an inordinate time to arrive, and they filled our glasses once. They never returned to refill our glasses. We had to do it ourselves.

We ordered S. Pelegrino to accompany our dinner. We went through the bottle by the time we finished our appetizers and sat there with empty glasses, but they never showed up to ask us to order another.

They carried multiple cases of liquor through the middle of the dining room not once, but twice.

My wife ordered soup for her appetizer. They served the soup but forgot to give her a spoon.

Our entrees arrived before we were quite finished with our appetizers. Our waiter was nowhere to be seen as they clumsily cleared our appetizer plates while holding our entrees. We never saw our waiter the entire time we were eating our entrees. No one ever asked us if we needed anything else.

We asked about a foie gras appetizer that was listed as ?various interpretation? and as MKT price on the menu. The waiter didn?t know how it was prepared and disappeared into the kitchen for ten minutes before he returned and described it and quoted the price as $12. My daughter ordered it. When the bill arrived it was $18.

The noise level and music was so loud you could not hear the waiter or your dinner companions at the same table.

Numerous tables were seen to be equally unhappy and complaining to the management. Nothing appeared to be done to rectify it.

The wait staff was very untrained and unskilled.

We expect that the restaurant won?t last six more months.

• Pros: Ambiance and nice bar
• Cons: Service, noise, lack of professionalism

10/18/07

Underwhelmed

by keilah44 at Citysearch

I had been looking forward to eating at Vin for quite a while since I had read so many great reviews. Considering all the hype I was not impressed. First I had been told to make a reservation but we decided to wing and found the restaurant almost empty at 7 pm on a Wednesday night, I guess the word has got out. I was intrigued by the menu?s ?southern European? influence but found the food itself did not measure up to my standards of Italian and Spanish cuisine. We ordered the artisan cheeses, foie gras and calamari to start. I had heard great things about the calamari but it was a bit rubbery, not tender like it needs to be when grilled. The foie gras was excellent as it should have been for $18 for a teeny portion. The artisan cheeses were excellent but the whole pate was literally three small bites of cheese and a paper thin slice of membrillo, it was almost ridiculous how small the serving was. The caesar salad was decent but a little strong on lemon. I had the striped bass in Spanish ratatouille for an entree and although the fish was nice the ratatouille was bland and a little dry. The bass did come with a fried squash blossom which I thought was a very nice touch and delicious. For dessert I had two of their ?worlds smallest desserts?, the strawberry crisp and creme brulee. I was not impressed with either but was totally underwhelmed by the size of each. They were honestly a bite and a half each and for $3 I felt ripped off.

Overall the ambiance and decor were the most attractive part of the evening. It was WAY overpriced and the food had great ambitious but fell really short. For the price of our meal there are tons of other great restaurants I would go to in Houston. You have to give it to the marketing team for trumping the place but too bad it didn?t live up to the hype. I will not be back.

10/09/07

Ripped Off!

by chalkkim at Citysearch

The atmosphere is the best thing about Vin but unfortunately my first time to experience will be my last. Mediocre food (which I could have forgiven) and a bad service experience make it a place I will mark off my list. After a just "ok" dining experience in which the waiter had been somewhat surly and non-responsive, our party of six received our check and were notified to please note "gratuity was included". The "included gratuity" was 20% on the entire check of $600 which included $300 of wine. To add insult to injury, the gratuity charge was hand-written on the check, not system generated and there was no mention of this automatic gratuity on the menu. We paid the check without dispute but none of our party of six will ever return and in our opinion neither should anyone else. It's too bad as they have an awesome private room and other attributes in a quite convenient area of downtown. Rather short sighted of the restaurant management and the waiter to take 20% of one $600 check as their total compensation from six people who frequent fine restaurants for both business and pleasure.

09/25/07

THE BEST YET!!!

by txflyboyz at Citysearch

Ok Houstonians, if you want to be treated like Kings and Queens then VIN is the place to go to. We decided to drop in for appetizers before our show and were wowed by the friendliness, attentiveness and overall complete satisfaction from the Staff. When you go there you MUST ask to speak to Suzanne who for now is the Assistant G.M. Her knowledge, kindness and auora are second to none. She and the Staff truly made our dining experience one that we all will remember for a long time and we can't wait to go back and have another experience like we did this evening. Thank You to everyone at VIN! You've made 4 people very, very happy!!! Mike, Tony, Alex and our Queen Michele!

• Pros: EVERYTHING!!!
• Cons: NOTHING!!!!

09/14/07

WOW!

by userofreality at Citysearch

Had plans to go somewhere else last night, but we just walked by VIN and thought, first, that it looked cool, and we decided to try it on a whim.

The service was almost perfect (it took a lil long to get our starting waters and cocktails) But outside of that, the whole evening was amazing. The cocktails were some of the most well made I have had in houston.

The starting bread was outstanding! The appetizer chosen as well as the Ceaser salad and Salmon main dish were out of this world good. We eat out often and @ higher end places looking for this type of experience and it was a bullseye. After eating food your whole life, tasting new flavors and excellence leaves a lasting impression. I hope that this place survives and continues to wow people.

I would highy recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for the best.

• Pros: Bar. All food courses.
• Cons: Cost (but u pay for what you get). Downtown parking.

08/25/07

Lunch service needs improvement, Dinner is a better option

by bmwm5driver at Citysearch

I've been twice for lunch and eachtime the service was average a best. The food quality is high and the restaurant is beautiful - so is the restaurant manager (she's a Hottie). You'll defiantely need a reservation for dinner becasue ots popular. Hands down the best restaurant in that entertainment strip. go somewhere else for lunch like TreeBeards, MaBella's or Azumas.