Etoile Cuisine Et Bar — Restaurant in Houston

NOT a "class act"!

My girlfriends and I, 5 in all, went to Etoile this past Thursday to celebrate 2 birthdays. None of us had been to Etoile before so we were very excited to try this restaurant with so many good reviews. Unfortunately, the restaurant did not live up to the hype. First of all, the food was rather hit-and-miss. The onion soup, roasted duck (ask for medium instead of medium rare), foie gras au torchon, and almond cake with nectarines were excellent. I ate a lot of duck dishes in France and I would say this was one of the best. On the hand, the escargots were slightly bitter due to excessive herbs and the braised short ribs, mushroom ravioli, as well as the sautéed shrimps were over-salted. Therefore, from the food standpoint, I would give Etoile 3 to 3.5 stars. However, the food was not the reason why this restaurant was NOT a “class act”. It was its poor service. When I made the reservation for Thursday night, the hostess informed me that the latest time she could seat our group was 6:30 PM because the restaurant closes at 9:00 PM on weekdays. That would allow us 2 ½ hrs to enjoy our meal, which happens to be the “allotted” time for a group of 5 people. Since 4 of us live quite far away, we allowed extra time to get to the restaurant and ended up arriving there by 6:10 PM. Fortunately, our table was ready so the hostess graciously allowed us to sit at our table instead of the bar to wait for the rest of the party. The last person arrived at 6:30 on the dot. At 6:55, while we were enjoying our appetizers, the manager came over to greet us and asked if we enjoyed our food. I initially thought that was rather nice of the manager to walk around and check on the patrons. I would have been a happy camper had he stopped talking right after that. Instead, he went on to say that it was his understanding that it took us a while to order our food because the last person didn’t arrive on time. He wanted to inform us that there’s a “2nd seating” at this table, insinuating that we should eat quickly. I explained to him that no-one came late. It just appeared that way because several of us arrived 20 minutes early. After my explanation, he apologized for being “misinformed". Regardless, a “classy” restaurant should NOT even approach the patrons in the middle of appetizers to rush them. I would have been more understanding had he approached us “at the end” of our meals to politely ask us to wrap up. The manager’s action left us with a poor impression of the establishment. But that is not the end of the story. Two people who ordered the braised short ribs didn’t finish their food because it was too salty so they asked for to-go boxes. The server happily took the plates away to pack them up for us. Unfortunately, he mixed up the left-over when he handed them back to each of the ladies. When I brought this to his attention, his response was “they looked exactly the same.” Actually, they didn’t. We intentionally left some carrots in one and not the other so we could tell the difference. Had he been observant, he would have noticed that too. So if your party has similar dishes that need to be packed up, there’s a high possibility that you may end up with someone else’s left-over. Since the food overall was just OK and the service was sub-standard for a supposedly high class establishment, we will...

Hmmm...Words to sum up this visit. Disappointing, inflated, overpriced, not as good as the interior/exterior.

One of my partners had made reservation for this restaurant as a Valentines Day make up date. I was excited because I have been to a few upper class French restaurants before and they were quite delicious. From the freshly made butter to the bone marrow in the ribs. We had arrived and were seated pretty promptly. We were given our waters and ordered some alcoholic beverages. He had a Jardin ($13) and I had a Cutie Sidecar ($13). His drink had a small amount of salt and was suppose to be a sweet and spicy drink. It had a red pepper in it as well. The glass was cute but the drink itself was rather strong, with a spicy aftertaste. It was a bit more than he could handle but nothing that I thought was overwhelming. My Cutie Sidecar was cute and quaint as well, a little bit of granulated sugar on the rim, cute yellow color and really sweet. Not too alcoholic but not too sugar-y either. Now, if you have read any of my reviews, you know that I don't rate based off of service. I don't make that a policy since I have been a waitress before and I understand that when youre short staffed or new... you're short staffed or new. Its understandable and I am a relatively nice and understandable person. Unless... If the service is just that atrocious. I am not sure if there was something going on in the kitchen or some sort of damage control going on, but it look 15-20 minutes for our waiter for finally see if we were done looking at our menus and if we were ready to order after they dropped off our drinks. Keep in mind, we put away our menus, and I saw the waiter just walking around not serving other tables but just looking busy. I don't know if they forgot about us, but it seemed like this individual is a seasoned waiter, and for most of these upper scale restaurants the waiters are held to a higher standard in the hiring process. (MOST) So, after that tragic disaster. We ended up ordering: Bisque De Homard ($14), Escargots Bourguigno ($12), La Peche Du Jour ($38), and Filet De Boeuf ($39).

I thought that since we are still here, might as well as try and make the most of it right? Now, I tried to order two soups for us, however I guess the waiter didn't hear us? But that was no biggie. The soup was okay, but there was practically no lobster in the lobster bisque soup, and it was rather salty and just tasted.. Like nothing? Meanwhile, the escargot; which this is a French restaurant, was underwhelming. I would have expected more flavor and cleaner snail. (Legit, we eat snail at home and do a better job cleaning smaller snail than what they had) I could taste the dirt, but the butter sauce kind of covered it until you chewed more. It was still two underwhelming dishes and I wouldn't come back for those.

The two entrees were the only thing worth while, the filet was good and highly peppery and the fish of the day was also good as well. But again, nothing to take note of and nothing that one couldn't make at home.

Bottom Line: Eh, me thinks not. I wouldn't come here unless if someone else was paying. I was really disappointed and had more to expect out...

This is an upscale French restaurant that manages to emanate Parisian bistro vibes somehow to me. I came here for the first time on Sunday, August 27, 2023 for a sampling of their Houston Restaurant Week Brunch menu with a friend.

Firstly, the atmosphere is really welcoming only in the front section of the dining room. We got a table near the back, closer to the kitchen and it was a struggle hearing the other person talk sometimes. The way they set up the tables is very romantic, even during the daytime lol. The rose with baby's breath in a small glass vase is a nice flair, very Parisian.

The HRW brunch menu was interesting but the options are not as diverse as I would hope. For my app, I chose the Escargots Du Burgogne (surprised it's misspelled on their menu). I've had more than my fair share of garlic butter escargot in other French restaurants, and this one sorely disappointed me in taste. The snails were much smaller than expected and the parsley notes were very bitter and overpowered the natural aroma of anything steamed with butter. I would not order this again here.

For main entree, I opted for the Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon. Eggs Benedict is one of my favorite breakfast items to eat at many brunch places, so my standards are high. This one was pretty decent but the poached eggs weren't the right texture. I wish the egg whites had more texture, these fell apart pretty easily as soon as I cut into them. It was hard to distinguish whether the Hollandaise was prepared correctly as the notes from the smoked Salmon were pretty strong. However, just from observation the consistency is much too thin.

For dessert, I chose the Clafoutis with Nectarines (Clafoutis Aux Nectarines). FYI, this is an additional $4 to your bill. I didn't pay attention to this disclaimer and kind of wish I had skipped it. The only Clafoutis I'm familiar with is the one baked with raspberries. Nectarines are very faint in taste to begin with so overall it tastes like cinnamon apple pie somewhat. Not bad at all but the texture is too sticky.

Overall I would not recommend the HRW menu.

There is no complimentary valet, I paid $8 for 2 hours.

The name of this restaurant is very cute, Etoile means star in French. I however, would like to sample the Duck Confit, Foie Gras and Pistachio custard next time. I know for a fact this is a very popular brunch spot...