Diversion Cocktails — Restaurant in Houston

Unfortunately a very underwhelming experience. We’ve been looking forward to coming here for several months after visiting DEGUST next door. When I was booking three days in advance, there are several openings for two people, But interestingly a lot more openings for four people groups… When we went to add one more person in the morning of the day, there were no openings available for the hour around our time slot. So we expected them to be very busy!

When we got there, parking lot was pretty much empty. We walked in the door with Diversion sign on it, there was a tight hallway with a rope blocking the entrance and a sign to wait to rue seared. We stood there for a few minutes and did not see single person. Tried walking out and going to the Degust entrance, but that was locked. Then we came back to the diversion door. This time we could see the bartender. She said hi but for several minutes her and her partner did not make any attempts to come welcome us in. So we just stood looking at each other and wondering what we’re doing here in.

Eventually they came to get us and the place was practically empty. There were two other couples sitting at the bar. All tables were empty. So we could’ve easily brought in our friends to give them more business yet the website made it look like they were fully booked for the night.

The cocktails were good, but can’t say they were mind blowing, especially for the price.

So overall experience was pretty bland… My friend cut her finger on a splinter in the door, later there was another woman who cut her arm quite bad on that splinter as well, and the bartender just basically said go to the bathroom to clean it up. She wouldn’t give her a Band-Aid that she was asking for. The sense we got, was that the staff didn’t really want to be there. The young lady just looked sad and kept checking her phone. The guy didn’t really smile much. I wish there was more interaction and engagement with customers, especially those sitting at the bar.

We definitely like the concept of the place, but to stay in business we imagine they need a business person to come in and observe the experience that’s happening for their guests. Unfortunately ours was dampened from the very beginning and didn’t improve from there… But nobody really even tried...

My husband and I visited Diversion when it first opened in 2021. There was a lot more attention to detail back then, from the service to the quality of the drinks. Even the bathroom itself was amazing at the time, fully stocked with anything you could possibly think of for a bathroom.

Fast forward to bringing 5 other friends with us last night (2024), we first got a phone call that the bar was "accidentally overbooked" due to a system error and we could only be at our table for 1 hour and 15 minutes. They did offer to cover 2-3 of our drinks to make up for the missed time.

When we got there, the place was nearly empty with 3 other couples being seated. After we all ordered (interesting timing), we were told that we could actually have the table for 2 hours because "they moved some things around". Actually nobody else came after us, and the place started slowly getting more empty. So, all these nonsense calls and creating upset customers for no reason.

The "indulgence" drinks were notably diminished (compared to our earlier visits in 2021 and 2022) and the "experience" components of them (small accompaniments or elements to complete the experience) were all so incredibly tiny. Too much $$ ($30-35) to justify getting a drink with the tiniest portion of anything!

My husband ordered a bourbon-based indulgence drink and he could not justify how this bourbon drink with crushed ice, some smoke and 4 frozen grapes was worth $35....We remembered the first cocktails we had there and those were truly an experience and worth the $$ (grand presentations with enough snacks to indulge in!)

I am not sure what happened to this place, but nothing is the same anymore. Even the bathroom seemed to pale in comparison with the bathroom they maintained in 2021-2022.

There was also "no food" because the guy who worked on the food station was not there that day. That also seemed strange. You would think that with developed recipes another person could also take over and take care of the food for the place.

Overall, I felt kind of embarrassed that I created such hype for this place for my friends. We will not be going back. It was kind of sad to see how this place is...

Kinda long post: I wanted to love this place. I walked in and it smelled like I was at Massage Heights. That was a plus. The bartender came and I asked to sit at the bar since there were about 6 empty seats. He went to look at the reservations and told me the bar books reservations first and he could seat me at a table. I told him ok, and that it was my 1st time there and my birthday so I decided to come by myself to try them out. He didn't seem to care about that at all. He sat me at the table, and didn't come back to check on me for at least another 30 minutes. And no it was not that busy at all.

He finally came back with a warm towel. I thought this was nice. I could smell the eucalyptus but I could also smell the towel was sour. Like they had washed it, let it sit out too long, then put it in the dryer. No big deal though. I went ahead and gave him my order. I ordered the Moonson to drink, lobster ragoons, and crispy pole beans. The ragoons were so good! My drink taste like Kumbucha (not great), and the fried beans were just ok.

I went to wipe my mouth with my cloth napkin, and it smelled sour like the hot towel. One other guy walked by and asked if I was ok, I was eating at the time and said yes. My original bartender passed by a few minutes later to seat someone which is the same guy who sat me at my table, and I feel like he was purposely avoiding me. He sat them down, and went on the other side of the curtain. Separating him and myself and did not ask me if I needed anything.

I wanted to order another drink, but it took so long to get the first order, and by the time they came back to me, I knew I had to jump at the chance to pay because there was no telling when someone would approach again and ask if I needed something. Needless to say, I was there an hour and a half and only accomplished ordering 1 drink.

I am a generous tipper, but he was not getting 25% for ignoring me most of the night. I want to give this place another shot, but I also don't want to give bad service my money.

Lastly, in that hour and half I was there, no one sat at one section of the bar and I could have been sat there instead. I should have read the reviews...