Amedeo's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Houston

I will start by saying they have authentic Italian cuisine and being Italian, I do not use that phrase loosely. My wife and I ate there about a month ago and had such a great all around experience, we decided to support a local business and eat there once per month or so. Yesterday evening, I was craving Italian and felt like going out. I checked the web site around 7pm to see what time they close, and they closed at 9. I booked a reservation on Open Table for 7:45, and rushed my wife to get ready out of consideration for the fact they close at 9. We arrived promptly at 7:45 and were greeted and seated immediately. A few minutes later, a young man brought us 2 waters. We sat and talked for a few minutes, and that few minutes quickly turned to 10 minutes. We recognized they were moderately busy. At this time we began to comment to each other that someone should have at least taken our drink order by now. I made eye contact with 2 different waitresses, but they did not come to our table. After 13 minutes I began to get a little impatient and motioned for one of the waitresses to come over. I politely asked her if there was a waitress assigned to our table. She was clearly annoyed by me asking this question, and replied sarcastically, “I don’t know, let me go check.” When she walked away, my wife and I looked at each other in disbelief on her reply and unwillingness to even ask if she could take a drink order for us. We sat for another few minutes and agreed to leave. 17 minutes later, we walked out. As we were exiting, one of the waitresses I made eye contact with early on hurried to us and stated, “I saw y’all when you were seated. Would you like to come back in and eat?” I was like, “If you saw us, why didn’t you at least say something? “Something like, “sorry folks, we are slightly busy and someone will be with you shortly.” That would have been enough for us to stay as opposed to being ignored. In closing, I completely understand the staffing shortages that’s the restaurant industry has been faced with lately. With that being recognized and said, the poor service and rude wait staff was unacceptable. Sadly, we won’t be back. I would prefer to spend my money at other Italian options we have...

Regarding the food, the Pork Saltimboca and the Red Fish Antonio we ate on our 2nd visit to this restaurant on 10/11/24 were delicious; however, the only "Moscato" they reportedly had available to serve by the glass was somewhat dry and tasted more like a Qualitätswein Riesling. The wait time imposed on us to have the food on our table was ridiculously long (the entrèes were served 1.5 hours after we were seated!), and it became evident that a group of eight loud regular clients was given preference over us, although they arrived and ordered after we did, and the place was not yet busy when we arrived. We had to ask the waitress when would our ordered appetizer and salad be brought to our table (since the group of apparent regulars had already started to eat theirs while we were still waiting), and had to call the attention of the evening's manager about the delay on our entrèes too. As if this was not upsetting enough, the bill contained several additional and unexpected charges, which were allegedly due to our requested substitutions based on food allergies -and not on simple preferences-, ...but were not present on our first visit's bill (when we ordered the same dishes). Upon our protest, the manager claimed it was the "restaurant's policy" to make those charges, though neither my party, nor I, remember reading any posted warning on the menu to this regard. Furthermore, the waitress did not inform us of such charges when we placed the orders with the substitutions. Since our experience on Oct 11th was rather unpleasant in general, we will so inform our relatives, colleagues, and friends, together with our reservations of a...

Our experience at Amadeo’s Italian Restaurant on 12/23/2024 was profoundly disappointing. Despite securing a reservation for a party of twelve at 7:00 PM, we were subjected to an inexplicable 40-minute delay before being seated. The hostess appeared disoriented, and the initial insistence on charging a fee for storing and serving our birthday cake—despite our intent to handle it ourselves—was both baffling and inhospitable. Only after intervention from management was this issue rectified, albeit with little improvement to the overall experience.

Once seated, the service remained lackluster. Our meals did not arrive until 8:30 PM, and when they did, the quality was abysmal. The lasagna was burnt and disturbingly sour, the Seafood Amadeo was unpalatable, and the beverages were flat. Even a simple Old Fashioned, prepared personally by the manager, was poorly executed—bitter rather than smooth.

A restaurant of this purported caliber should exhibit better time management and transparency. If they were overwhelmed, an honest assessment of the expected wait time would have been appreciated. Had they been upfront about the wait time, this review could have been avoided.

Given the misleadingly high ratings and positive reviews, I anticipated a far superior experience. Instead, I left disheartened and frustrated. My birthday celebration was marred by inefficiency and subpar cuisine, all at the cost of over $300.

If you are considering dining here, I strongly recommend testing the waters solo before subjecting your guests to what could be an embarrassing and regrettable evening. Amadeo’s neither deserves its acclaim nor my...