Apicius Open Kitchen — Restaurant in Houston

My mother has had treatment at MD Anderson for the past 1.5 years. When we first began going, I had to bring my two young children and father with me. My husband was working out of town so it was easier to care for everyone if we stayed at The Rotary House, the hotel that houses this restaurant. As time passed and circumstances changed, I had to send my mother for treatment accompanied by my father. They don't do well driving in Houston traffic or organizing rides, so once again, Rotary was the obvious choice. So, we lived at the hotel off and on for a year and a half. Most of the time, we ate at Apicus, so here is everything you need to know. Some of the servers and hosts are the best you will ever meet. I'd say about half. The rest are barely hanging on. Always pleasant but not always, or let's say, just not on top of the situation. But, if you get a good one, you will definitely know. They understand what almost everyone there is dealing with and surpass expectations.

Next, the food...well, it will be a far shorter list to tell you what is good as opposed to the later. Appetizers...the brucetta is simple and good.

All of the salads are good.

The French onion soup has been 100% good, 100% of the time I've had it. It is my go to. Very, very good.

Chicken Scampi is good but the pasta is always overcooked. Do not get the shrimp scampi. Just don't.

The meatloaf is usually decent.

Country fried chicken plate is good.

Salmon with quinoa is good.

Burgers are good.

Ordering off the menu does usually take a very, very long time, so be prepared.

If I haven't mentioned it...beware.

The breakfast buffet is the absolute best. Omelet station, french toast, waffle station. All the fresh fruit, fresh juice, good coffee, plenty of light options, excellent biscuits. Yes. Go to the breakfast buffet.

The pecan pie and the molten chocolate cake both come with some of the best vanilla ice-cream I've ever had. Getting these, to go is also an option.

The dinner buffet is hit or miss. I've had decent food, good salads, and probably the worst fish I've ever had on the dinner buffet. Desert is ok...cobbler is usually good and they have ice-cream. Just vanilla and chocolate, but hey, it's ice-cream.

Prime rib night on the buffet is usually decent, but nothing special.

However, you know what is special??? The to go option for the buffet. Plenty of to go boxes make it easy to pack up an assortment of things a cancer patient may or may not like and let them graze on their own time in the comfort of their room. This is a superior option.

Atmosphere. Plenty of nights I've turned all the lights out so my mother could rest in her room and gone back to the hospital for medical chores. On the way back to the room, I stop by the restaurant bar, order some excellent red or white wine, a snack, and just mellow put before I have to step back into caregiving. Many times, I have sat down at a large table in the restaurant at a large table, alone with medical paperwork strewn about working on what I have to work on. When my mother's tumors shrank 40% during her 2nd trial scan, we went to the restaurant and had a celebration margarita. Everyone there knows one way or another what it is to deal with cancer, and you just can compare that atmosphere to anything else. It is properly appointed to allow patrons to do whatever it is they need to do.

In summation, I give Apicus 5 stars. Not because they have amazing food, not because all of the service is flawless all of the time, not because of value, but based on the restaurant as a whole. It is a sit down, nice-ish restaurant that you can walk into after a very hard day, looking like death warmed over and recieve smiles, a hot meal, a good drink and a moment to think about something other than where you are amd what you're dealing with. Friendly faces, clean and well-appointed areas, areas where families can gather together, or you can hide from the world. I am glad it is there, and I...

Amazing restaurant….have eaten there many times and always a pleasure!

My wife and I are here at MD Anderson for obvious reasons…cancer. We are here for a while and do not desire to fight the Houston traffic to find a nice restaurant around here. So we reluctantly settled for Apicius. And we are glad we did. We were expecting typical hotel quality food and were shocked to have such great food set in front of us. Everything from the cloth napkins, to the table ware was of high quality.

The prices were more than fair. We always ordered from a menu but they always offered an amazing buffet including a dozen dessert choices.

Being from Louisiana, we are quite picky about our food and demand good quality and well prepared meals. We have not been disappointed once. We tried the soups (loved the French onion soup), sandwiches (love the avocado/bacon club), appetizers (loved the hummus and the Brussels sprouts. I am NO FAN of Brussels sprouts but we ordered them 3 times this week.). We also got salads with every meal and really enjoyed the Caesar and especially the Crispy Chicken salad.

Note: The BACON CHEESEBURGER is not to be missed. It is a MUST for any visit to Apicius. We stay for 5-days of treatment and get it at least two of the 5-days.

Service was prompt and attentive. We expected good service and they delivered. We ate in their bar some and in the restaurant some. The service was always great.

The restaurant is tastefully furnished and updated nicely. Very nice ambiance.

Amazing value for the money and quality of food...

So I work with local businesses to assist in creating systems to generate more business and better reviews from their customers. I had a converstation with the manager of Apricius Kitchen this morning asking him why they have such a low ranking and so many negative reviews at online business search sites such as gogle and yelp. He flat out told me that they did not and anyway he "didnt care" about the general public because they cater to customers in the hotel, hospital district familes, patients and worker such as those at MD Anderson Hospital and others. I ofered to send what we call a Reputation Report which details their ranking, total number of reviews online, the amount of negative reviews, what people are saying positively and negatively about their buisness , how they compare to the competiton and how we can design a program to reach out and show the public Apicius Kitchen cares about their customers. After all, Apicius's Kitchen reviews are not only being seen by local Houstonians, but also by cancer patients who travel from around the world to the renown MD Anderson Cancer Hospital for treatment. The manager at Apicus Kitchen said "no thanks, no need for it." If you look at what is being said in the negative reviews online at google and yelp, one would think "how is someone so callus and uncaring like this in charge?" People you dont have to settle. Their are better options in the area that have a 5 star ranking and zero to mininmum reviews. You deserve better, dont settle for this type of...