CIEL Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Houston

This place is has a lot of potential, but is ruined by poor management and overpriced food/drinks. I went there with a friend for restaurant week to see what all the fuss is about. Our server James was amazing and did his best to make up for the slow kitchen and rude manager. We got there at 7:30pm and where 1 of 3 tables seated. So, they were not busy. According to James it gets pretty busy at night.

We ordered the wagyu sliders for an appetizer, which were amazing. My friend ordered from the restaurant week menu and got the branzino. I ordered the lobster ravioli. Neither was worth the price. I don't think either one of us finish our plate. I don't mind paying good money for good food, but this place is selling its atmosphere and cutting corners on their food.

The sliders came out in a reasonable amount of time. The rest of the food, unfortunately, did not. We had to ask about every coarse after realizing how long it had been between plates. Our server picked up on our frustration and even got us a couple flaming shots on the house. These were neat the first time, but it appears this a popular choice because almost every table that sat down after us got one. The problem is, they sprinkle cinnamon over the flame to create a cool effect. This produces and formattable smell the fills the small dining area. It got old really quick.

After being there for over 2 hours, we still didn't have dessert and were ready to go home. We asked our server to just make it to-go and again expressed our frustrations with how long everything was taking. He told us he spoke to the manager about our experience, but he didn't seem to care. I asked if he could have the manager come to the table.

The manager, Brett, came to the table and immediately had an attitude. He asked how our evening was going and I asked if he had talked to James so I wouldn't have to explain everything. He ignored my question and asked the same question about how our evening was going. I again asked if he spoke to James and he AGAIN ignored my question and repeated his. It was a very awkward exchange. After going back a forth a couple times he accused me of being drunk and asked me to leave (I was signing the check at the time and was not drunk). I stopped arguing and asked his name and he replied, "Brett, write it down!"

Brett is probably one of the worst managers I have come in contact with. Especially for a place that charges this much. He doesn't belong in customer service.

While looking over the bill, I found a 20% "service charge" which I have no idea if it actually goes to the server since it's not labeled as gratuity, and there was no way I was going to find out since Brett only knows how to ask question, not answer them. I ended up tipping James on top of that just in case, but for a table of 2 I feel this is a little excessive.

If you are thinking about checking this place out, I would recommend to read the other 1 star reviews. It appears I am not alone and wish I had done the same before wasting...

Ok, this is a great concept, good but overpriced food, attractive and tasty cocktails and decent service until a bad experience with our waitress hence the only 2 overall stars.

As a group of 6 mom friends we’re always looking a new spot to visit in our bimonthly girls night out. We specially look for a more fun vibe when celebrating a birthday dinner, this time we aimed for Toca madera but reservations weren’t available at 1 week away so our second best option was CIEL.

It looked like a mandatory 20% service charge left ZAK (our waitress) with no desire to attend us any extra than necessary, minimal eye contact while explaining the menu always looking like in a hurry to go (kind of understandable for a Friday night and for a person doing a job with our intent to engaged in a less robotic way)

So the bad taste came when he acted as the DJ’s personal bodyguard and didn’t allowed my friend (the B-Day girl) to talk to him, letting her know on a very dry and unfriendly way that song request weren’t allowed.

I believe in rules and I respect norms, I just don’t believe in rudeness at all, but specially from a member of a staff of a place where you spend your money looking to have a great night, yes maybe our $489 bill of four wasn’t as great as the guy in front of us who arrived at 11pm with 10 pretty girls around him, buying bottles and getting the attention of the whole crew so maybe trying to talk to a Dj (who acted like no one was talking to him) is a big No No on places and we should’ve known, maybe this was our first restaurant with club vibes ( which we actively avoid) but I still think there are more friendly ways when a respectful request is being made.

Were all servers like that? Not at all!

The security guy assigned to the wealthy client next to us was extremely nice, the busser boys were bomb, the nice lady in the bathroom engaged with my friend (which is EXTREMELY friendly) and wished her a happy birthday, the valet guys were so friendly, profesional and helpful.

Security was fast end effective when a random lady approached us very upset because her male married friend was talking to us (maybe there were asked to leave not sure) so the guys of that group got into a physical fight right outside so security made sure to escort them into their vehicles. Dangerous route if you ask me to put behind the wheel to a very obviously intoxicated person but it looked like the goal of getting rid of them was met.

Oh and did I mentioned the our waitress said to the DJ that requesting for songs was an extremely tacky thing to do? Not even trying to be discreet while saying it.

So I don’t think we’ll be coming back any time soon and I’m pretty sure that ZAK our waitress will not miss us. Which is fine, we have had amazing experiences in Houston’s fine restaurants and we can’t wait to try Toca Madera for our...

I’d like to preface by saying that I’m not usually one to leave a bad review. This experience at Ceil for Valentine Day was just that bad that I’d be doing a disservice to others not sharing.

Valentine’s Day is my birthday so my fiancé treated me to dinner. This restaurant is one she visited with a friend about a month prior and she spoke glowingly of it. Tonight it did not live up to the hype in the slightest.

We had a 7:15 pm reservation that we weren’t seated for until 8pm (we weren’t late either).

The vestibule area was completely packed, no seating available but it wouldn’t have mattered if they had seating as the restaurant was somehow over booked. (They did offer champagne but what’s five sips across 45 minutes)

We were seated by the doors to the kitchen where the front of house staff were in the most insane bustle. I kept getting bumped by waitstaff rushing back and forth.

At the table our waitress lets us know that there is only one menu, a preset Valentine’s Day menu. At first we were confused, because when my fiancé made the reservation they gave an option of being subject to the Valentine’s menu versus the regular menu, to which she chose the regular menu. (She did receive a text at 1 pm this afternoon letting her know that the menu available was the valentines menu but thought it was a mistake based upon her choice when making the reservation. No one picked up her call when she was able to make it in her attempt to clarify while at work…

The valentine menu was charged at 125 per person. While immediately distasteful, it would be acceptable considering this should be a “fine” dining experience.

While the food was at best ok, it was no where worth the final price. All the portions were small. My fiancé had the spicy chicken karaage, salmon fillet and the only option available for dessert a cannoli. I had the wagyu gyoza (dumplings), châteaubriand steak dish and the same dessert. None of it was worth 125. We had 3 cocktails between us at basically 20 dollars each. Our bill was over 400 dollars (they automatically charged gratuity).

We’ve been to some very very nice restaurants and have never come close to 400 dollars. Even worse, we were rushed through the entire dining experience. The best that can be said was that the waitstaff were still very cordial. The entertainment, while nice, was limited. (According to my fiancé the entertainment when she was there with her friend was basically non-stop through the evening).

This whole experience was more akin to theft than a “fine dining” experience. We won’t be back to...