Tony's Inc

02/14/09

Excellent muscles; wish their waitstaff used more of them...

by foodiefann at Citysearch

My boyfriend and I were both servers and medium to high end restaurants, and must say that we left disappointed about the level of service we received. Normally I wouldn't care, but at such a high end place, it is worth documenting. Instead of talking about valentine's (2009), or how amazing the food was, our conversation was dominated by our headwaits menial service. I know reading this review won't stop you from going there (didn't stop us either), but what other reviewers have said is spot on. I always figure people who write such reviews are super picky or whiney, but I can assure you we are not that type. (first review)

1) We are both 25ish being served by a 25ish waiter who obviously did not "have time" to wait on us, though he powerwalked by our table about 15 times

2) Took forever to greet us, never introduced his name or title, asked us for drinks wo presenting wine list

3) We asked him about two of the 'highly recommended' wines (only about 8-15 on the list) and he said he hadn't tried them so he couldn't tell us. That right there is a big clue that there are management issues. If you are recommending a wine, come on! Servers must be able to talk about them!

4) We ordered muscles and a caprese salad. (Highly recommend both of them-they give you about 12 huge muscles). He clocked us for 2 caprese salads. Not a huge deal, but... like we'd order two of the same thing? We didn't say anything, but perhaps we should have.

5) Main courses: Filet Minion- 12 oz that was actually more like 16 oz and to die for!, veal chop (good, smaller portion), and au gratin. Never came to see how our meal was. Lucky for him he had excellent Junior waitstaff who at least asked me to cut into my filet

6) We wanted to order a glass of red with dinner, but he was never around to take the order

7) Never told us about this 'souffle' that takes 45 min to prepare, so we couldn't order it. Needless to say, we skipped desert and

hopefully he read through his 15% tip

• Pros: Ambience, Cuisine, Jr waitstaff
• Cons: Service, Obvious discrimination towards young people

04/05/08

Bad service, overpriced

by cse1973 at Citysearch

A group of 7 went to Tony's for a friend's birthday. The service was appalling, we had to wait nearly 1/2 an hour to GET MENUS and then another 20 minutes to order. My boyfriend had to order his drink 4 times before it came. The waiter offered me more champagne and then returned to tell me the bottle was empty. After the food finally arrived, my chicken was so salty I could barely eat it. I was so angry by the time I left that i could barely sleep.

10/04/04

Very expensive but not top quality

by xenohumph at Citysearch

The most fancy restaurant of Houston? I was very dissapointed.

First, the food was not extraordinary. The crabcake appetizers were excellent but the duck dish was too dry, and the steak was not the best I have ever had. For the price, I expected better.

Second, in such a restaurant I expect perfect service. All waiters were great, really, except... the one responsible for our table, unfortunately. He was snobbish, would ask a question and instead of listening to our answer would prefer to answer other waiters. There was a clear discrepancy of treatment between the "usual" customers, and new ones like us. Result: we won't go back. I am sorry, but when I pay this price, I want to be treated like a queen.

If you have money to waste, it is worth going for the decor, the wine cellar, and people watching (the posh gentry of Houston).

• Cons: , food is average

12/09/03

TO FAR GONE

by rioone at Citysearch

I for one am NOT jealous of anyone. I can afford to eat at Tony's any time. I will never eat there again due to the rude staff & bad food. Tony's was the top resturant in town years ago, but since they closed and reopened a few years back, they have not even been close to the same. I think too many people confuse high priced fluff for real, quality food and service. Tony's just dose not have it anymore and I don't think they ever will.