After seeing numerous paid magazine spots in a variety of Woodlands area publications, I thought this place sounded wonderful and could not wait to try it. The menu sounded fresh and the decor/atmosphere unique to our area. My husband finally suggested we have lunch there on Saturday with our son. Was immediately put off by their door being propped open, not sure if the A/C wasn't working or if it was on low in an effort to save $$. Since the restaurant is part of a salon and a boutique, the first smell that greeted us was not coffee or food, but hair processing chemicals.
There was only one other family in there and the male and female waiters were sitting together eating and gossiping. The blonde waitress was distracted and too busy socializing with him to pay much attention to our table or to the other. Of course we were lucky in some ways because as we were leaving two ladies came in and she completely ignored them and they walked up to the counter to get their own menus....I wanted to say, ""Leave while you can.""
We were handed our dirty, crumpled paper menus - I order the blackberry sage iced tea, my husband water and my son root beer. There was sweetner on the table but I was never given a straw or spoon to stir my tea with. The menu was fairly limited and for some reason both the wraps and the paninis were served hot and pressed. I ordered the tuna wrap and I think that would have been better served cold, and was disappointed in how fishy and dark in color the tuna was...heating it only made it less palatable. The greens, tomato and avocado were quite good on their own. My husband's roast beef panini was better, but on the bland side since he opted for mayo over horseradish. Both my husband and I thought we didn't get much food for our $$. Both sandwiches were nothing spectacular and were about $9 each with a tiny pickle slice and a small amount of chips. My husband made two requests about his sandwich and only one was done - I really wish people would WRITE down their orders and repeat them back. He dealt with the onions.
Well, we had higher hopes and I thought initially we just had poor service, then the food was blah and I thought well, look how cool those cupcakes looks in the display cabinet, perhaps they'd save the day. So we ordered one chocolate and one vanilla...the cake was super dry and stale and the icing tasted like it came from a can, but at least they were priced at $.75 each.
Then comes the bill. The printer was down and the machine was slow, so I think we waited about 15-20 minutes from the time I handed the waitress my card. She apologized in the end, but like most servers that aren't up to par, she was much more present and ""on"" when handing me the ticket than the rest of the time. I think she could sense my husband's dis-satisfaction because she would only address me the last 1/3 of the meal. Our bill without tip was $30 - looking at our plates, we would have gotten more food and better food at a chain like Lenny's or Jimmy Johns and that is sad.
This should have been a great concept and being in marketing myself, I know all those magazine spreads are very expensive and it's a shame to see someone fork out that kind of money to bring people in, but then to thoroughly disappoint them and assure no return visit when they do respond to the marketing. I suggest the owner be more present and that adults, not young kids run the place, especially on Saturdays which I would assume would be their busiest day.
Pros: Cool decor, concept with huge potential
Cons: Lackluster food, poor service - they just don't care
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