Five Central Houston — Restaurant in Houston

*PART 1: My experience here was much different from what I've read here in the Reviews.

I was looking for a wonderful spot to host my husband's 40th Birthday Celebration and saw that there were a Cigar Lounge so I submitted an online request for more information on or around 9/20-21/2022. I received a response back on 9/23/2022 from Paige the Event Coordinator. She basically was asking what I was looking for. I explained that I wanted to see if I could Reserve an area in the Cigar Lounge and she told me that there wasn't a charge to Reserve but gave the accommodation number last for the areas. She said in the small private area it can accommodate about 15 people and the non-smoking can accommodate about 20. There is another area for open sitting which is 1st Come 1st Serve.

I told Paige that I would stop in to view the spot on Friday, September 23rd. My cousin and I decided to stop in. Upon entering the Upper Kirby Bistro we were greeted with a warm welcome. I was so fascinated by the place. I loved it on contact. My cousin has been there before so she gave me a brief tour. We ended up at the bar inside the Upper Kirby Bistro (one of their connecting spots) and was also greeted by Michael T. the Bartender. He was very friendly and talk to us. Made us awesome drinks. As we talked he over heard us talking about the spot and heard us mention Paige the Coordinator. He let us know that she was in the next adjourning room. She saw us looking and came over to the bar. I introduced myself and told her I had been the one that had been emailing and texting her about the Section in the Cigar Lounge (Downing St. Social Club. She stated that Sunday, October 2 2022 would be available and since it's a Sunday and football games are on there would be specials on wings and pizza. We were excited because I wanted to do light bites for the guests. I decided to eat Dinner on 10/2/2022 with my husband at Upper Kirby Bistro and wait to surprise him later that evening. Paige then told me to text her all the information and she would confirm everything. My cousin told me I had to RSVP for the restaurant so I told Paige I would send her all of the info needed. Michael T. the Bartender shift was over and was then replaced by Risi O. the Bartender and she too was very friendly. A little later that day (9/23/22) I sent Paige a confirmation text about RSVPing the Downing St. Social Club (Cigar Lounge) section for 6pm-9:30pm (which didn't have a cost to reserve) and to Reserve a spot in the Upper Kirby Bistro at 4:30pm all on the same day, 10/2/2022. She sent text back , "Hi Mrs. Wright, You're all set."

I sent a couple other text to her about cake and sparkler candles the next week. Which she texted back that both were acceptable.

The day of the event 10/2/2022! This is where it all began.... this event for my husbands 40th Birthday was a Surprise.... we get to Five Central at 4:30pm and valet parked for $20. Walked through the doors to the Upper Kirby Bistro and the lady at the desk said Hello. I proceeded to tell her that I have a 4:30pm Reservation. While she looked at the tablet she asked my name so I gave her my first and last name. She stated that she didn't see a reservation under my name. I was confused. I told her that Paige (the event coordinator) was suppose to put me down for a 4:30pm reservation. She was kind and sat us anyway towards the back which was fine. We waited for 15 minutes or so for our Waiter. Our waiter Mahi H. was very friendly as well. We noticed that we had a brunch menu on the menu it stated Brunch was until 4pm. This is why I set our reservation for 4:30pm so that we could order Dinner! So we asked him when brunch would be over and he said about 5pm or so!!!!! Say WHAT!!! So we had no choice but to order brunch (NOT WHAT I WANTED) we ordered and also ordered the Mimosa Carfe. Finally received our food and was not pleased at the portions for the price WHATSOEVER but whatever.

*PART 2 in another...

This concept is great and I enjoy myself when I come EXCEPT for the restaurant! My family had birthday dinner reservations on a Saturday evening. More people showed up expected. Angelica was our waitress and was ok with us using chairs from another closed section of the area. However, there was not enough table room. Angelica said that the additional guests could sit "over there" in the corner on the black couch. WTH!! Absolutely not! These were patrons that were spending money on food and drinks. So just like we did with the chairs, we pulled one table from the closed side. This is when Angelica became unhinged and started speaking loudly "no, you can't do that. That side is closed and you can't do that. I squeezed you in on this reservation and now it's more than expected. We don't even take reservations on Saturdays when we have a birthday party going on upstairs." So I asked, what harm would it do if we use one table from a closed section. We are not asking to open the section, we want to just use one table for patrons who are about to spend money. She went on another rampage saying "you can't do that. We may need to take these tables upstairs to the birthday party if they need them" Note, there were 3-4 empty tables left and none were ever used that night. I asked the same question again. She then waived her hand and said "whatever" and walked off. The embarrassment!!! I tried to speak to her a couple of times and she continued to brush me off. I finally had to just stop her and apologize for having 4 more people at the birthday party than expected. This is something I should not have had to do. This is absolutely poor customer service with an attitude and lack of vision of the larger goal. This experience made me want to explore other establishments. I love supporting black owned businesses. However, I was so disappointed in this. On the flip side, we had another family event at a "non-black" owned business this past Saturday. Reservations were for 25. Ten additional people showed up. The staff was understanding and more than accommodating. They understood the bigger picture and the greater goal. Now confirming the differences, I am not sure if I am as enthused to visit Five...

I booked my birthday dinner in the Red Room for a party of 25 with their event coordinator, Paige. There’s was a $1500 minimum + gratuity & I paid $750 for deposit at the time of booking.

The space was small & only set for 18. It’s not a room, it’s a corner of the room That they give you. They said the space was booked for 20 not 25. Well the space wasn’t set for 20 either. The party began at 8, & they never set the corner of the room up for 25. The part began at 8:00. At 8:45, I still had guest standing while trying to order food.

The waitress Shannon appeared to be overwhelmed. She was slow & unprofessional. She spoke to my guests about what I was paying, but yet neglected to inform me when we had almost reached the minimum as we had previously discussed. After we reached the minimum, my guest were to pay out of their pockets. I noticed my guests pulling out cards. When I asked Shannon where we were in my bill, we had gone much over. So I ended up spending a little over $2100.

Some of my guests had things their card was charged for that I was also charged for. My party as a whole may have spent at least $4500.

We didn’t want to spoil the night so we stayed for the live band (whom was the highlight of the night). We tried to make the best of it.

I reached out to Paige to let her know how everything went. She told ME to reach out to all my guest that may have been double charged. Over almost two months of going back & forth, only one guest was able to get their bill adjusted correctly. I am not sure if everyone reached out because that’s just a lot to ask customers to do when the mistake wasn’t theirs.

After a lot of back & forth, I received an offer for a $20 gift card. 😒 Omar was the GM that finally called me back after two months only to be rude, argumentative, & tell me that was the only thing he could do.

I have never spent this type of money & been treated & handled this way. I really expected a little more decency from such an...