a'Bouzy — Restaurant in Houston

I know this restaurant has been around for a bit, but it's still lovely to look at on the inside. The decor is a mix of French and modern but not too overdone. You can tell it is a place where people want to take pics and upload to reels on busy nights.

I had wanted to try this for some time but finally made it out. My fiancé and I came for bunch this last Sunday. The female hostess and manager at the door greeted us and were so nice.

We proceeded to order pommes frites to start with which were to die for. Nice and crispy but a good amount of greasiness, most likely from the duck fat. The corned beef hash was nice as well. The waitress was excellent, I didn't catch her name but she was a blonde lady and very sweet.

My review is brief for this reason. We had intended to have a full brunch experience when we arrived, I had even looked over the menu before. However, the table that they sat us at was directly in front of the raw bar where the oysters and other cold seafood was. Well, I knew they had a great oyster program, so as we were looking over the menu, we saw at the raw bar, I noticed both cooks did not have any gloves on. They proceeded to make all the food touching various things that were not food with their bare hands plus the oysters and crackers, and occasionally wiping their hands on their aprons. My fiancé is sous chef and has worked at some pretty high end places. He told me that they should be wearing gloves because it's against health code. Not only that, I saw the female cook take a bite of a cracker while preparing food. To top things off, she also had brought a bucket of ice, the same ones I saw the bar use, and had placed it ON TOP of the raw oysters. It pretty much just sat ON TOP of the oysters the entire time we were there. We didn't really say anything while we were there, but it concerns me that the same ice bucket used for ice for cocktails, it's probably the same bucket used for the seafood, and while the ice is inside the container, I don't think it's within the health code to sit on top of raw oysters. So yes, the sanitary issues did concern us and we paid our tab and left.

While the restaurant is beautiful, and I definitely see the appeal aesthetically, I would be concerned about eating there seeing what we did and who knows what practices or health code staff issues goes on in the kitchen.

Perhaps, just comeback and drink wine since there's not ice...

The restaurant itself is quaint. We came here for lunch and the service was great. There were paper bags of free popcorn. It was bland and unseasoned. I didn’t get it. Personally I would get rid of these because it was a juxtaposition of American junk food in a “fancy” French restaurant. I started of with an Afternoon in Paris cocktail. It was grapefruit forward and nothing else. It taste like a watered down grapefruit juice? I didn’t like it. We followed up with a Burgundy red wine and that was much better. Appetizers: -Escargot was buttery with parsley notes. Puff pastry was fun and snails are snails. It is a typical escargot you’d find in Paris. -Blue crab fingers were okay but the sauce rocked. Order a loaf of bread for sauce dipping. -mussels and fries: Mussels wasn’t smelly which was good. Sauce is even better and should be dipped with more bread. -scallops is one sliced into 3. White wine with cream and breading made for a tasty bite. Order this and don’t share. -Baked oysters with Parmesan was also tasty. -Braised pork belly was served too large. I’m not sure there was any fat. It should have been cut smaller maybe into cubes for easier eating. Instead it’s stringy and not as pleasant to eat. -Lemongrass cod was missing the lemongrass. Lemongrass on its own is mild. In Asian cooking we it’s not used a the main flavoring. I felt the cod was bland and the sauce didn’t do much to help. -Trout meunière was better with stronger seasonings. It was the better of the 2 fish. Dessert: Donut holes and ice cream was the best! Donuts were huge and tested like crusty churros. When combined with the ice cream it was awesome. crème brûlée tasted as it should. -chocolate lava cake was ok. -cappuccino was made the Illy coffee. -20yr Tawny was awesome with notes of plum and smooth sweetness but. I could sip on this all day. Overall, it was okay. There were hits and misses. I’m not sure I’d call this a full French restaurant. What was French was typical fare I’ve had 19years ago. Others weren’t so French. It could use a little modernization to the recipes. -Tuna Nicoise Salad: salad was good. Tuna was bland with peppercorn coating. This is a very old way of cooking and wished it...

Had made a reservation for my bday 2 weeks ago and requested a corner table inside. When we got there they only offered us outside seating. Took awhile for drinks/coffee to be served but we ordered our meal as soon as she delivered drinks. She wasnt very attentive to us and took a long time between the few visits to see if we needed anything. There were 5 of us and 3 of us all ordered the same thing. Server forgot to include one of our orders and my friend went without eating a meal. We all waited for about 5 minutes to get an update for her food to come out to find out the server never put it in. Our food got cold waiting thinking her food was coming out any minute and I ended up sharing my food with her. Server apologized and offered to put it in or pack it to go but our brunch was nearly finished and my friend had to leave soon. Food wouldnt hold up on an hr drive back home. The server didn't come back to check on us after that, the manager came and apologized for the mistake and tried to make it up to her/us. Brought her a dessert on the house but it was a bit disappointing this was the service we got for my bday. They shouldve comped our meal. Experience wasnt special. Server should have written down the order if it was too difficult for her to remember but was more frustrating that 3 of us ordered the exact same thing. I'd understand the mistake more if we all ordered something different or had complicated orders. It was a mess. Getting out checks took a while and were wrong when she brought them to us. Valet parking was $6, we weren't thrilled about being seated outside. The short rib grilled cheese was good but the chunky tomato soup that came with it tasted like marinara/pizza sauce. It was not our favorite for the price of each dish. My friend got a cup of french onion soup and waited for bread that never came. The deviled eggs were good. More than likely would not come back due to bad service and food being mediocre...