03/06/09

great patio dining

by endame

i have driven by daily review cafe many times on my way home and finally decided to have dinner there. simply amazing,relaxed atmosphere and food was great. i had the mussels, filet and peach creme brulee. my friend had the fried goat cheese salad and grilled shrimp entree. i look forward to my next visit there and want to try the sunday brunch. go, you won't be disappointed!

• Pros: valet parking, great ambience
• Cons: none found

01/01/09

Great restaurant

by MEDavis

My husband and I are from California and we visited friends in Houston during the holidays. They took us to this fabulous restaurant! We are retired and travel quite a bit and we were very impressed with the food and service. The steaks were absolutely some of the best we have ever had, extremely tender and juicy. Everything we had from our salads to dessert was excellent. It was a lovely way to celebrate the holidays with friends. We loved the ambiance of this restaurant and we will definitely return the next time we are in town.

• Pros: Excellent food and service

12/19/08

Wonderful!

by dyrjnn

We have eaten at the DRC for many years and have never had a bad meal or poor service. I just don' t get the bad reviews. Every single brunch, lunch or dinner we have ever had has been excellent. We especially enjoy Sunday evenings on the patio, listening to the live jazz. Give this wonderful restaurant a try, you'll love it!

• Pros: Wonderful food, great service

12/09/08

What a find

by rb246

My husband and I recently were driving up the down the streets in the River Oaks area to look at all the Holiday lights. When we stumbled across this little cafe for dinner. When we first walked in, we noticed the lovely holiday decorations that seems to give this restaurant a warm and cozy feel to it. Which we like very much.We were greeted by the friendly staff and seated right away. Amazingly, since it was crowded. After looking at the delicious menu it was time to make up our minds. I started with the baked goat cheese salad. A little bigger than I expected, but so tasty I ate the whole thing. The combination of the grilled apples, spiced pecans and an entire bulb of roasted garlic made this salad my new favorite. My husband had the tortilla crusted shrimp. YUM!! Crisp shrimp, savory sauce. What else could you ask for. Our waiter suggested a great bottle of wine to go with our entrees. He seemed knowledgable enough so we went with it. I had the Beef tenderloin. It was great, tender, and very tasty. My husband had the Lamb chops. They were cooked to perfection. I believe they were marinaded in honey and cumin so when grilled, the honey kind of caramelized which made for a burst of flavor in each bite. The pumpkin creme brulee was to die for. This little cafe is a treat to find. The food was great. Service very good and the atmosphere cozy and quaint. I will difinately recommend this restaurant to all my friends. Cant wait to go back!

• Pros: great food and service
• Cons: cant think of one

11/03/08

Raw Shrimp on the French Toast?? Gross!!

by NewtoHouston711

I went here with a couple of friends for Sunday brunch. We didn't have reservations, so we asked to be put on the list. After the host stared at us for what seemed like a few minutes he stuttered that it would be until 1:00 before we could be seated (Keep in mind that it is only 10:45am).However, he then quickly changed his mind and said a table would be opening up shortly if we wanted to wait at the bar. As we were about to walk up to the bar a member of the waitstaff walked up to the people who had walked in after us (also without reservations) and offered the same table to them while we were still standing there.The girl behind us had to tell him "Actually they were here before us." To which he just walked off with no response. So we were seated after about 5 minutes (so much for 1:00).The waiter finally came over.He was completely inattentive and "out-of-it" throughout the entire meal.He did not know the soup of the day (I was a server, this is an important thing to memorize).They didn't offer any kind of "bottomless" mimosa specials like so many other brunch restaurants and the Mimosa's were small, expensive ($4) and weak.The bloody mary tasted like sucking on the end of a poorly seasoned crawfish (disgusting).When we finally got our food I noticed something shiny on my French Toast.Upon closer inspection I discovered that it was a piece (nickel-sized) of raw shrimp!!Gross! I informed some random guy because I hadn't seen the waiter in quite some time.He didn't say anything just took it back to the kitchen.Finally the waiter came back and I told him about the shrimp expecting some kind of reaction to this horribly gross situation and he just said "Oh".I am horrified, this is a dangerous health code violation.I'm pretty sure all the kitchen did was scrape the shrimp off and cook it a little more because it came back in 3 minutes but now burned on the outside.He then mixed up all our credit cards and charged one of them twice-incompetent.We'll never go back.

• Pros: Garden looked nice
• Cons: Cross-contamination of raw food with cooked food, poor service, below average food for the price

10/06/08

beautiful garden, average food, terrible service

by Tuper

I love dining outside, and the garden at the DRC is very nice. The service is terrible: we called ahead and made a reservation, but they lost our reservation and we were lucky to get seated. The waiter was friendly, but forgot to bring us water and forgot the dessert menu, so we skipped that. DRC had very few tables outside, and no one was seated inside when we were there, but the wait staff seemed so overwhelmed with the tables outside that they are either really understaffed or incompetent. The food is nothing memorable, just average, so in my opinion overpriced for what you get. I ordered the scallop entree ($28.50): the scallops and grilled polenta were ok, but I only got 5 or six small scallops for $28.50! The baby carrots it came with were strangely undercooked, so they were between raw and steamed. The sauce drizzled inbetween was strange and I have no idea what it was. The heirloom tomatoes were gritty and flavorless. I would not recommend this place- way too much money for below average quality. The garden is beautiful, so coming for just a drink with friends might be ok, but I am not sure it's worth putting up with the bad service and difficult parking. Most likely, I will not come back.

• Pros: the beautiful garden
• Cons: poor service, overpriced food for below average quality

09/06/08

Poor Service

by BClark38

Too much credit for too much money. We arrived at 7:30 (had a reservation). They were out of wine glasses, so we had to drink our wine out of champagne glasses. They presented the orders incorrectly, twice, the waiter disappeared, the scallops were tasteless, the waiter poured wine on our feet because he missed the glasses. No wonder we had not returned in many years. Again, too much money for too little service and taste.

08/18/08

Wonderful food and atomsphere

by Customer1273

A friend and I went for restaurant week on 8/17/2008 for the first time. My girlfriend and I did not know what to expect as we had gone to a higher end restaurant the previous night. We were pleasantly surprised. This tiny, little hidden bistro was fantastic! Complimentary valet parking, great service, the food was delicious and the atomosphere was amazing. There was also live jazz music and singing.

I had the flat iron steak and the black bean chili and it was delicious. The steak was cooked to perfection! The steak was served with this fried cheese and bacon and potato filled mini burritos (can't think of the proper name for them!) but they were yummy! The wait staff was attentive and answered all of our questions, he even suggested the perfect wine to accompany our meal. This place would make a wonderful romantic date location. I will definately patronize this place over and over

08/17/08

Used to be good...not anymore

by kaybeeTX

When I moved to Houston 6+ years ago The Daily Review was a gem and a great find. We took anyone who came to visit to this restaurant for either brunch or dinner. A few years ago we noticed a significant change in the quality of food. We stopped going after way too many bad meals.

Recently we decided to give it one more try. Maybe new ownership? or new management?? One can at least hope. But alas it seems to have gotten even worse. Eggs Benedict couldn't even be made correctly. One egg was perfect, the second "hard boiled." My simple breakfast of eggs and biscuit was inedible. The waiter didn't seem concerned or even want to be bothered by our problems. I mourn the loss of my most favorite restaurant and wish it would return to its former glory.

08/13/08

Great choice - day or night

by Travlguy

I've been here several times over the years and always have enjoyed it. Great place for weekend lunch in pretty garden amongst the many trees and flowers. And a great place in the evening for a romantic candlelit dinner on the lovely patio. Great food, great service, great ambiance.....

• Pros: Beautiful & romantic setting, great food
• Cons: Parking can be difficult