Treebeards — Restaurant in Hedwig Village

The Bunker Hill Treebeards has awesome service, in addition to absolutely wonderful food!!! The Vegan Red Beans and Rice are the best we’ve ever had world-wide!!! (TJ’s Gingerbread House in Oakland (now closed) was the 2nd best, and these 2 restaurants (Treebeards & TJ’s) were very far ahead of any and all competition! We prefer ordering from the Bunker Hill location because they have the best customer service, and their managers are VERY helpful, polite, professional, and customer service oriented. Luis, Gabby and a third manager (I apologize - I forget her name) are very helpful when placing custom orders. In fact, when placing catering orders for a holiday or large dinner party, I order directly from the Bunker Hill location instead of through Treebeards catering contact or the Cloister location, because the customer service from the Bunker Hill location is top notch!!! We live in League City, and the closest Treebeards locations are downtown in Houston. But, because the managers and customer service at the Bunker Hill location are so far superior to our experiences with the catering manager in Houston and one of the downtown locations. When the Bunker Hill location accidentally omits something from a large order, or provides the wrong dish, the managers at Bunker Hill fix the problem right away and very professionally. That is not the experience we’ve had with the catering manager in Houston or the downtown location. Also, because we live so far away from the Bunker Hill location, we use the “Uber” “Store Pickup” service. With that, we place our order online or by calling a Bunker Hill manager, we pre-pay, and then we place a “Store Pickup” order from Uber. Less than an hour later, we have the best Vegan Red Beans & Rice in the world and other delicious food from Treebeards!!! And the fact that we place these orders and incur the expense of having Uber deliver them demonstrates just how great Treebeards’ food is! This is the only restaurant where we use Uber to receive orders. In addition to the awesome Vegan Red Beans & Rice, the salads are also consistently fresh and delicious!!! Fruit salad, garden salad, spinach salad, and other specialty salads — they are all fantastic!!! Regarding their desserts, the Cho plate frosting is incredible! The best! You can get that with their yellow cake or chocolate cake. They also sell pints of their frosting so you can use it on items you bake! I also recommend you buy a bottle of their hot sauce. I don’t know what is different about it, but something is different than the top brands sold in the grocery stores and it (Treebeards’ hot sauce) is much better than those others! If you haven’t already, you should treat yourself with a trip to the Bunker Hill location! You’ll find their food consistently delicious and their...

Let me give some background before the actual review. An oil & gas company I used to work for ordered Treebeards at least once a month for investor meetings, employee engagements, board meetings, etc. It was something we all looked forward to as Treebeards was such a favorite caterer of ours. I have probably had their gumbo well over 40 times during my 3 years with the company. The setup was amazing, the consistency of the food was spot on and everyone raved about the quality. Since leaving the company, a new Treebeards location came to my area of town. I was so excited to visit. We waited for a cold day, so the gumbo would warm us up. Now, on to the review. Our visit did not add up to the standards I talked it up over all this time. Upon entering the Katy Freeway location, I was surprised to see it was a walkup and order type establishment. It's understandable I did not know this as my experience with Treebeards was always a catered event. Not a big deal; was still excited about the warm goodness we were about to encounter. We paid and were asked to select a tip amount on the screen. I chose 20%, as I usually tip, but it made me upset after our dining experience was subpar. You seat yourself, get your own drinks, napkins, silverware, refills, condiments, etc., so tell me again what I am tipping on if I do all this myself. Again, not a huge deal, because I was waiting on the gumbo goodness about to come out of the kitchen. The server brings our food and I notice I forgot to get a spoon. He literally told me (in a very non busy restaurant) that the spoons were next to the soda machine. Customer service at its best would have been for HIM to get one for me. AGAIN, not an extremely huge deal because I was certain the gumbo was going to melt my frustrations away. Meh, I was wrong. The roux was unusually thick and had a slight burnt taste. The green beans were okay but needed more flavor in my opinion. It was not what I was expecting nor what I was used to in ALL my 40+ previous meals. I will mention the ice. The ice was fantastic; like Sonic ice. Pretty sad that's the best compliment I can give. I try to give grace where I can. All of the situations that led up to the food arriving at our table could have been made better if only the food was good. I was pretty embarrassed I raved so much and brought someone to experience the "treat of Treebeards". I just knew in my soul this would be a 5-star review. What a let down! I suppose someone who didn't have the background experience with Treebeards may have felt differently. I'm completely floored and disappointed. For anyone who follows me, y'all know I usually end my reviews with commenting, "I will return" or "I will not return". I think this one speaks for itself. I have nothing...

23Dec2020  A recently opened location for this place.  They have been in business for 42 years now and in Houston with the competitive restaurant market that is impressive.  Good home style red beans and rice.  Being native Cajun ancestry I can appreciate Louisiana style cooking and the dirty rice was good. Although I have always gone to the original Cloister location downtown and occasionally the subterranean location in the tunnels when I heard this one was opening near my area I had already planned on going.   New and shiny it is – not quite laid out or signed correctly though.  The flow of the place isn’t clearly defined.  Two entry doors and an opening wall onto the patio area.  When we walked in it wasn’t as clear as the other locations as to how to order and the old Cloister cafeteria line wasn’t really laid out.  Turned out to be a register you order at, no one there when we walked in.   Couldn’t tell by first glance though since we entered on the end door if it was just be seated and get table service or not, no hostess stand or sign pointing to order here type thing.   After placing order and paying for it apparently you have to walk by what is best described as a wait staff pick up area to get to the fountain soda dispenser.  Very awkward. This one does have a bar which is nice and the patio which looks like it will be a good place to sit and enjoy drinks.  Off the main roads and pointing to a back street, Gaylord, there is sufficient traffic but not so much as to be a problem like facing a freeway.  Since my family all approved, their first visit, we’ll be going back and the place does have small portions available which is great for the...