Sunday, August 23, 2009

HRW: Monarch at Hotel Zaza

Well, guess it's not really truly an HRW visit and I'll get to that. Myself and couple of co-workers got there early so we sat at the bar for a drink. When we were ready to be seated, the hostess sat us against the wall between 2 big tables. What's worst was that the wall we were facing was where the servers had their water jugs and extra utensils. So, the server was reaching over our heads to get stuff.

We of course, asked the hostess to reseat us. The poor girl basically was told by the head hostess that it has all be planned and basically can't move us. Mind you this is still early for dinner. There's a table in a corner and we don't even mind being stuck in a corner, but truly a 3 top should really get a 4 top table, not squeezed on a 2 top. Mind you, the 2 top isn't truly for 2, it can seat 2 but we've seen a twosome seating at a 2 top they ran out of room to put their drinks and food.

Of course, I escalated it to the manager and the guy didn't bat an eye and reseated us immediately. I must say sitting at a table for 4 truly for 4 is very spacious. I'm sure that totally messed up the hostess' arrangements, but they also under estimated us. They thought we were coming in just to do the prix fixe and weren't going to generate alot of money off of the tab, when in fact we ordered off the menu. Honestly, their menu looks better than the prix fixe. This should teach servers and hostesses alike that when we are going to Restaurant Week, it is really to attract patrons to the restaurant, but don't write us off by giving us bad service or sticking us against a wall. By the time we were done, we actually had a similar tab to what we would have w/ the prix fixe.

Alright, on to the food. Like I was saying that the prix fixe wasn't that interesting. So all of us ordered off menu. We started w/ their nacho. That was yummy and it was made with sirlon and you can tell it was puree sauce that really makes the nachos. That said, one of my coworker ordered filet, another one ordered salmon, and I ordered scallop. The filet was done well, the twice cooked potato wasn't that done, it was still crunchy, so I'm not sure how it's twice cooked, but it was still crunchy. The salmon and the potato was fine, the scallop was recommended cooked medium, and it was good, but the mashed potato was better.

Sadly, their dessert looked good, but has no taste to it. I've never leave a dessert unfinished. I had the nutella crepe, I kindly talked the server to get me the crepe from the prix fix, it's not usually served. It was like a little omelet shaped with cheese inside, with the nutella drizzled over it. It wasn't warm. I don't appreciate any crepe that's cold, and traditionally that means it's not cold. One of my friend ordered pomegranate creme brulee, and it has a very thin sugar crust, and the brulee doesn't have any real brulee texture to it. It tasted more like a lemon bar than a brulee or anything w/ pomegranate in it. The strawberry cheesecake was much like any artificial cheesecake you taste. It came w/ strawberries w/ what made out to be romanoff sauce. The strawberries were good the sauce was not what romanoff is supposed to be. I'll just call that a wash.

Drinks were delicious, wasn't enough to bring me back, maybe for happy hour but not for another dinner. A word of warning, if you pull up to the hotel side of the place and valet (which seems to be the only option around there), the hotel side charges you $12 for parking. The restaurant side charges you $6 for valet. So, be careful which side you pull up.

Monarch at Hotel Zaza
5701 Main Street
Houston, TX 77005
(713) 526-1991
www.hotelzazahouston.com

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