Da Marco — Restaurant in Houston

ROACHES, UPCHARGING, UNWELCOMENESS!!

First things first, my significant other and I love going to local Italian places when we are celebrating something or looking for a nice evening out. We have had a lot of success at various restaurants in the Houston area! Unfortunately this location is not one of them.

When my significant other and I are looking for a nice place to eat, we usually stay away from any restaurant that has a $$$$ or above listing. After spending an evening at Da Marco, I can say with 100% confidence that this location should be a $$$$$ rating and not the $$$ listed (be wary).

Therefore, when we entered the location are took a look at the menu and saw the absurd prices for entrees, we were devastated knowing that we had fell victim to the $ category that good reviews had placed on this location. Our server made this experience exponentially worse. The server quickly realized that the location was not in our price range after we denied a pushy barrage of items both on and off the menu. I mean seriously, it felt like he was a car salesmen that would not leave us alone until we chose something to eat. He became noticeably frustrated as we kept turning down options.

We decided to just get a couple drinks and a couple of appetizers and quickly get out of this server's way to open up his table for the next guest. After we ordered, the server appeared extremely offended that we did not choose one of his $75 per plate items. We noticed that he would constantly look over to our table, scolding us and talking amongst the other staff. We felt extremely uncomfortably and unwelcome.

About halfway through our meal is when the real show started. Right behind our table, within arm's reach we saw a 2-3 inch cockroach crawling along the wall. I didn't want to make a show or raise any sort of scene so I notified one of the staff who quickly took care of the roach. It was very unpleasant but we got over it quickly because we were still conscious of how much the staff wanted to quickly get rid of our table. Then the second roach appeared... This time multiple tables saw the roach and the staff began to chase it around with towels as it quickly scurried under multiple tables and on the wall until they finally caught it.

What a disaster, we finally finished and were so ready to get the check, pay and be on our way. The waiter gave us the check and, I was shocked when I noticed that he had charged us $22 per drink. This was 50% if not 100% more than what was listed on the menu. I was so upset with how we were treated and the roach infestation, I didn't want to cause a scene with the check so I just paid and left.

I can't see myself ever returning to...

Unfortunately this establishment did not live up to the glowing recommendations we received from our friends and family. We dined here on 9/25 for what was supposed to be an intimate dining experience for my husband and I celebrating his birthday.

The overall experience was lackluster and both of us felt as if we were being “rushed out” from the moment we stepped foot in. We came for the pasta which we had heard amazing things about but was thrown off when the price read $115. That’s an awful lot for pasta with 3 (yes 3) shavings of truffle on it. From the videos and photos I saw online, it appeared to have an abundant amount of fresh truffles piled onto the pasta—which would rightfully justify the price—but our experience was the complete opposite. The truffle was shaved into the pasta by a man in a black suit (not our waiter) in the quickest manner and not on our table but when our dishes were still on the side. Then we ordered the sea bass which our waiter highly recommended and suggested we split. When the dish came out he looked frazzled that it was not split into 2 and proceeded to split it at the table right then and there. *I should note it was the waiters suggestion that we split the entrees rather than ordering our own.

Now the issues I have do not regard the food, yes the food was good — good, not great. The presentation was mediocre, and the service fell short. The prices were absurd, but we would have happily looked past it had the service been up to par.

The overall experience was awkward and we were disappointed and needless to say we skipped dessert and left as soon...

We got a babysitter and stepped out after a long time for date night and this was an utter disappointment. We waited long enough to have to call a waiter to ask for drinks. When they got around to taking orders we discovered that they had run out of our preferred dish. We ordered something else and were told 5 min later that this was no longer available either. We had a pretty mediocre $50 appetizer that was not worth it at all, and were forced to order an entree off their specials menu thereafter due their lack of availability of our desired items. The special entree was also an utter disappointment - the fish was tasteless and cold and thie single scallop was overdone and rubbery. We were completely turned off, returned the dish and decided not to order anything further. The waiter and the management, knowing that they had ruined our complete dining experience, did not offer any word of acknowledgement or compensation for this. They insisted on ordering a replacement, and we acquiesed to a small dessert and coffee. At the end of the miserable experience, they did not even bother to make this $8 dessert or anything else on the house, which is a meager amount, but at least would have left us with a better feeling. They may have had other items on the menu that could have been good, but we did not really care to try anything else after this experience. Not only about the food, but moreso the horrible customer service experience, where they showed complete apathy towards customer satisfaction. We would never go back and never recommend it...