d'Alba — Restaurant in Houston

Food and Drinks: The food here is decent at best, but overpriced. The margaritas tasted like iced salt water with a hint of tequila.

Service: I think the owners are getting too comfortable with the initial success that they have experienced. Owners don’t seem to care about their customers.

Parking: Patrons overwhelm Alba and Fisher street. Owners of this restaurant should: 1) work with the community center across the street and have patrons park there, or 2) offer valet service. This place is essentially in the middle of a neighborhood. It’s a bad look to inconvenience your neighbors.

The below is my response to the owner's response to my original review which remains unedited above. I have also attached a screenshot of the owners response in the event that the owner decides to delete it.

Thank you for your response, Owner. I am not sure why you find my review "very intriguing".

The fact that you responded to this post does not negate that I believe that you have gotten too comfortable with your initial success. This is very common in the restaurant industry. To the contrary, I would suggest that your overall tone in your response furthers my point that you have gotten too comfortable. You wrote "guess what?, used exclamation points, sarcastically apologized for your success, and alleged that I am hiding my identity and have a personal spite." You seem more than comfortable, perhaps entitled, to respond to honest reviews with such accusatory rhetoric and unnecessary tone. My picture and name is indeed displayed and always has been. I am just curious as to whether you would be willing to provide a name other than "owner."

I am not doubting that your bartenders are somewhat trained; however, there are no laws that require restaurants to use "use exact measurements for cocktails and mixed drinks" as you suggested. Having trained bartenders does not negate the fact that I received a margarita that tasted like iced salt water with a hint of tequila. This is not a theory, but indeed my experience.

I'm curious as to what analytics you used to claim that you have an 86% customer return rate "because of the quality of [your] fresh daily prepared local ingredients and is directly linked to [your] prices." There could be a number of additional reasons why some of your customers return. I strongly doubt that your customer return rate is 86%, but I digress. Nothing you stated negates my opinion that you're overpriced. It's simply an opinion.

Pertaining the parking, I have indeed noticed the signs. However, posting signs towards Alba street is clearly not working. When I pass by your establishment, d'alba, I frequently observe your patrons getting out of their vehicle after parking on Fisher Street and proceed towards d'alba. Having signs posted up does not negate the fact that your patrons still park there and that parking in front of your neighbor's home may be an inconvenience to your neighbors. It's simply an observation that is grounded on absolute fact. Again, not a theory or a false claim. I suggest posting a sign that faces fisher street itself and/or consider valet services. I am happy to update this review with pictures of the parking.

My final suggestion to you is to take your time before responding to a negative review. Perhaps write the response to the review and then take a day or two and reread it. Good luck with...

Taste: 1 Service: 3.5 Ambiance: 4.5 Value: 3

Summary: interesting recipes if you’re up for an adventure that are mostly misses, there’s a playground on site which is great for families (be careful of automatic 25% instead of 18% gratuity for large groups)

We have never been so disappointed at a restaurant before. Every single dish had amazing ingredients that was ruined by some exotic flavor that did not belong. We had a Group of 12 ordering from both the main menu and HRW, only one was semi edible. Unfortunately, the food was so bad, we hardly ate, the waiter didn’t know how to react and asked the manager to listen to our feedback. Manager waived the cost for one dish that was exceptionally bad (bucatini with quinoa meatballs), that was a nice gesture.

Reviews for each dish (Main Menu):

Wide bucatini with quinoa meatballs: fresh pasta was delish, the texture was good and the sauce was just right. The quinoa meatball on the dish was terrible, it was bitter and unfortunately, my friend mixed it up with the pasta before she realized the off flavors, so she hardly ate any.

Pesto Campanelle: pesto sauce was acceptable, too many peas?

Falcon lake farms burger: weird flavors on the burger, the fries tasted like old McDonalds fries that have sat out for hours but the mayo dip was pretty good

Steak with salsa verde: steak was cooked per requested, polenta was not crispy though (pretty oily), for $45 you might as well go to a proper steak house.

HRW MENU gazpacho: tomato and watermelon mix was interesting, it could’ve been great but one ingredient (maybe saba?) paired with the smokeness gave an off taste alba balloon bread: cooked just right with the perfect crunch and doughy at the same time, it was warm but the truffle honey and pesto was a weird assault to otherwise decent pesto. crudo salad: waste of the salmon and squid ink pasta as the sauce is just not good. viet salad: great flavors with the crunchy fried onion/garlic, pickled cucumber and fish sauce vinaigrette, but apparently the kitchen staff does not know how to dice a tomato as it was served in 3 inch chunks in deep bowl that made it hard to eat. lamb meatballs: this could’ve been a great dish but there was one flavor in the meatball (mint?) that was overpowering and ruined it. The Roman style gnocchi bed was also flavorful, although texture was more like mashed potato and not crispy. bone Marrow pasta: served on half a roasted bone (scoop bone marrow out of the bone), the bone marrow was garnished with crunchy bits which was a nice touch but it’s didn’t pair well with the spinach casarecce, it could’ve easily been a separate appetizer. Although the pasta was cooked Al dente, The flavor of the sauce was off, making the dish unpalatable.

Last note: If coming for birthdays, they didn’t allow us to sing happy birthday with the whole cake before cutting the cake and...

My friend was in town so we decided to try d'alba because we saw there was a kid friendly area and we both had one year olds. We had never been and wanted to try a new spot. Walking up we didnt know where the kid area was and each server saw us and looked the other way so we kept walking down until we figured it out. We saw it was self serve in the kid area so we ordered but noticed you can't order drinks on the QR code. We weren't sure the rules so we waited to see if anyone would come over. It was hot and the kids were getting fussy so my friend went to ask and said a server said they would be over in a second and sounded upset. So we waited to not be rude. After our food came out I asked how we order drinks and he said a server will. So I went up and asked someone who told me someone will be there soon. I was so confused because that is three people telling us this but no one would show. So I took my baby with me inside the bar area and asked. He looked so annoyed when I told him I didn't know how to order drinks that I ended up being overly polite to fix it or not sound rude. He said if you are in the kid area its self serve so you have to order at the bar. I explained what we were told and he said no ma'am like I said, at the bar. So I ordered and juggled drinks and my kid back, kind of frustrated by everyone there. I felt bad I suggested this place to my friend and we packed our food to go and left. It was just a lot and even if it was self service if someone had answered us we wouldn't have been so confused. This wasn't for me and definitely...