The Union Kitchen — Restaurant in Cypress

Long but detailed review ahead. Don’t go when they’re at their busiest? I went with a party of 8 at Sunday brunch time so my experience could’ve very well been unique.

Regardless, several things were lacking.

Either they are understaffed and/or the servers are not very well trained. Attitudes were very friendly and I was grateful for it, but service was sloppy. Water was not provided for the whole party, and it seems that our server at least did not understand the concept of open arm service as he nearly elbowed one of my friends in the face as he was serving. We also waited a very long time on the bartender to “make our drinks” which were simply glasses of wine. It was very evident upon seeing the condensation on the carafes that they’d been sitting at the bar for a while and either the server had been negligent, or due to understaffing during a busy time of day, he was unable to bring them promptly. For perspective on time, we ordered those drinks when not all of our party had yet arrived and we received them AFTER we ordered food and reminded the server that we had not yet received our drinks.

The food. Upon seeing other reviews, it seems like my party just had bad luck with what we ordered. I had the brunch menu union bowl which I found to be exactly what I expected, so I had no complaints. The Mac and cheese was entirely devoid of flavor on my palate. There seems to be some confusion with the staff on hash browns vs the breakfast potatoes. My dish came with breakfast potatoes and my friend ordered a side of them but received egregiously undercooked hash browns. I had a taste and didn’t mind the flavor, but the texture turned me off from them entirely.

Understocked? They seemed to struggle to get cutlery for my table and even served some of our food without providing it until we brought it up. When my friend asked for a refill, they brought it to her in a styrofoam cup without a lid (once again not open arm, even spilling some of the drink on her) as they were out of those as well. I understand that this may have been the busiest time of the week for them but a restaurant should be prepared for that with a surplus of cutlery and glasses.

I’d like to give two stars but I have three for the benefit of the doubt that I simply had a uniquely poor experience. Regardless, I do not...

My family and I rode our bicycles down to get breakfast at Union Kitchen on a lazy weekend. Only we were met by the "Brand Ambassador" security guard telling us to get off our bicycles, that they weren't allowed. We stopped of course, but I had to ask where the signs were and he said they didn't have to have signs. (The irony was lost on him that he was zipping around a golf cart around everywhere he told us there were rules about no wheeled vehicles.)

He went on to say they could just have whatever UNposted rules they wanted because this was private property.

Well yes and no, because you are providing an access for the public to enter private property, so there's some reasonable expectation that rules will be posted. But rather than argue that I simply tried to point out the misunderstanding was created by the fact that the sidewalks and trails run from our neighborhood all the way into this plaza and that a few simple signs with rules at the access points would be sufficient. I asked him to pass that on to whoever he worked for and to my surprise he said something like, "I don't have to pass on anything."

Wow. A guy on a power trip. So we skipped Union Kitchen that day and in fact we will NEVER go back. There's no need to have someone on a power trip as your brand ambassador before you get to the door. Their food was good but not great enough to get harassed by someone channeling Eric Cartman's "Respect my Author-i-tay".

In response to Union Kitchen: You don't think the security guard outside your store is not a part of your dining experience? Did you not choose that location? You know there's other areas in Towne Lake that ARE pleasant environments? When we tried to talk to property management, they dismissed us. So at the end of the day, THEY are your first impression. It sux. But it's not our fault. The economics of the situation is that you have more pull with your landlord, because we had none. At least I let you know WHY we are NOT why we stopped coming to your restaurant. Other people wouldn't tell you. They would just quit patronizing you.

We've given you a chance before that's why I left you 3 stars for food. But the person not giving you the chance is your landlord. You're frustrated with the...

Honestly, our whole experience was very confusing. We entered and were waiting and even though there were 2 other groups ahead of us they decided to take us to our table, until we came around the corner and the table was dirty. The hostess spoke so softly that we couldn't hear her at all almost. We waited, we were patient but first impressions are everything and should have trusted our gut and went to another place. They asked us if (at 2pm) we'd be gone by 4:30 or 5, really confusing because we have 3 kids and don't ever want to be sitting longer than 2 hours for a meal so we said yes. Finally got to our table, ordered soft drinks and drinks from the bar and we ended up getting our bar drinks first. The bar drinks were not great and completely overpriced in our opinion. We ordered kids food first, then 15-20 minutes later we ordered an appetizer and adult entrées. We ended up getting the appetizer first and 20 mins later the kids meals. Maybe 20-30 minutes later we ended up getting the adult entrees. The food; the mac and cheese was just okay, the korean medallions were 100% overcooked. If you order medium rare, you expect pink in the middle not charred and no pink in at least half of them. The chimichurri steak was very good and thankfully my husband shared with me because at this point I was very hungry.

I will say our waitress was the best part of our experience, she was attentive and kind and quick to ask if we needed anything but to be honest I've worked in the service industry for a really long time and all of your staff looks embarrassed. At the end of the day, the food and drinks were subpar and overpriced. When you come at 2pm in the afternoon the lunch rush is over and we expected a little more, we were wrong because even though the place was mostly empty it was slow service in general. We won't be back and I know that doesn't mean much but hopefully we help someone else trust their gut too. We honestly would've had more of a good time...