Georgia James — Restaurant in Houston

Chris Sheppard never disappoints, you can take that to the bank and your experience here will be in your memory bank a lifetime too. For starters, the Polaroid picture that was taken of me and my wife after dinner that was accompanied by a hand written thank you note autographed by Chris himself and sealed with a Georgia James wax sigil in a vintage, distressed envelope. Wow. But most notably, I'll probably always refer to this restaurant as 'the one with the 150 dollar steak'. That's the idea we had coming in, amongst the list of possibilities for our anniversary dinner lay this seemingly more traditional 'steak and potatoes' restaurant but given the irrefutable reputation of Sheppard and the idea of back to basics but doing it with decadence and pizzazz, we had an offer we couldn't refuse! We didn't have the 150$ steak but did opt for the 80$ crab legs and I can easily say I have not only never tasted crab that incredible (or anywhere near it) but they may have in fact been better than the steak and made me question all the crab I've ever tasted before, like what have I been eating? So for sure worth the money, and believe me there was a lot of meat, it's not like it was a blue crab leg, these legs were freakishly ginormous. How they tasted so good is beyond me but they must've been super high quality, fresh, wood roasted perfectly and the garlic herb butter was clearly complimentary. Now the steak was spectacular, 100 aged hangar steak that melts in your mouth, quite literally. For sure the best steak I've ever had. Now a new standard has been set for steak so now how am I supposed to appreciate ordinary steak every again?! The mushrooms were yet again very memorable, oyster mushrooms and various others, you can't pass up a chance to have shrooms from Sheppard ever! The oysters were actually the most anticlimactic of all but even they were great, you can never go wrong with these as an appetizer or even a main course. They for sure used real horseradish. Another surprise was the squash, I can still taste its wicked rich creamy butteriness, salty crunch of country ham bits (bacony) and the classical sweetness of a cornbread honey marriage. In fact it reminded me of our appetizer, the 3 year aged prosciutto drizzled in cane syrup (molassesy, rich, ie burnt sugar, caramelly) infused with a spike of black pepper and Johnny cakes, a touch of bitter with pickled Swiss chard but the stroke of genius was the airy, crispy chicharron accompaniment. That was beyond words and I feel I will attempt recreate this at home if I can find a high quality rind source. For dessert we needed something light so we tried the pistachio pavlova and the crisp meringue was filled with a strawberry champagne sorbet, so refreshing! And take a slow stroll going in to steal a peak into the cellars of bubbly lining the halls; and the room of hanging meats that'll make your mouth water or your money back! All this while being entertained by a wide open kitchen view from the whole restaurant, I mean, why was it ever a taboo to see the artists' palette feverishly painting our meals...

We had experienced Chris Shepherd’s first steak concept at One Fifth many years ago where we learned how amazing the baller board (IYKYK) was! Fast forward to planning a double date night out for a belated birthday and early Valentine’s Day celebration at Georgia James this past Saturday. What a disappointment and honestly a shocking experience compared to other Chris Shepherd concepts.

We were sat in the private room area off to the side where there were a total of 5 tables (they use this room as overflow dining on busy nights). The atmosphere was completely different from the main dining and it felt “flat” from the start. We were greeted promptly and had waters brought out by auxiliary staff for the table. Then we waited - 15 minutes to be exact until the server came to take our drink orders. Then we waited - another 25 minutes until a manager came over and let us know our server was tied up with another table. She took our appetizer order. Then we waited - Another 30 minutes for a dozen raw oysters (wonderful) and a redfish dip (not great - very fishy and served in a mason jar with fried saltines - not on brand for this type of restaurant honestly) to actually be served. Our server did eventually come by to take our entree orders about halfway through the wait for apps. We had salads on the table as we finished our apps - the salads are large and a table of 4 could easily share one.

Our dinner was served around 9:15pm (we sat down at 7:15pm). The steaks were good but not as good as we anticipated. The seasoning was light and not very flavorful and the steaks were dry. My steak (only one) was overcooked (med well to well when I ordered medium). Our server did say he’d refire my steak but I didn’t want to wait another 15 minutes to eat. The sides were good (fried Brussel sprouts and garlic fried potatoes) but again nothing spectacular.

The cocktails were good (espresso martinis for dessert hit the spot) and their wine list is extensive (it is marked up extremely high even for a steakhouse but that’s to be expected for the most part). The sommelier is pleasant but doesn’t truly listen to what you like or want - we took a chance on a bottle she described as not being fruit forward and dry (how we like our bold cabs) and it was fruit forward and not what we described as our palate at all.

Overall - the main dining area is modern with clean lines and esthetically it works. The service, including management who never came back by to check on us after the first touch, isn’t what you expect from this caliber of restaurant. The food is good but not great or spectacular (which it was at One Fifth!). We won’t be back and hope others who are excited to try Georgia James have a better experience...

TL;DR: Staff and building-Great! Food- Alright to Ugh.

This was the first time my fiancee and I decided to go to a high-end restaurant for Valentine's Day and also our first visit here. We saved up to come here and were excited to go but unfortunately, we will not be returning.

We ordered off the Valentine’s Day Menu. The collective dishes we had were the Lobster Bisque and Foie Gras Terrine for App. We both tried to have the White and green Beef Wellington and then we both switched to the Chilean Seabass for the mains. Ended with Pistachio & Chocolate Mousse and the Frozen Nougat.

The Good: The restaurant space was quite beautiful! the lighting was perfect and the live piano player was excellent. The ambience was great. The perfect feel for a date night.

Our server(Berennice? (On receipt)) was nice, accommodating and made us feel welcomed. She was also knowledgeable and never made us felt like we were just another customer passing through.

Staff was very quick to address our complaints about our wellingtons and our new mains arrived on the fly. They comp’d my fiancee’s martini(which was an ok resolution but i don’t feel like it was enough).

The Mid: Our table was a little wobbly but we never said anything because it didn’t bother us that much. I'm sure they would have fixed that if we told the staff but we didn’t noticed till later on. Also the meal as a whole was pretty good overall but not fantastic.

The Bad: Both of our beef wellingtons were raw and cold in the middle which was such a letdown because that was the dish we were the most exited to try and actually wanted. We both never had one before and our first experience was so disappointing and fearing getting a new wellington would have the same result, we settled for the Chilean Seabass which was fine.

Overall thoughts: My fiancee and I are just some regular people with regular jobs trying to have a really nice date to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The restaurant staff did try to rectify the situation but first impressions are everything and I felt that I should have been compensated more then just a drink. And perhaps their B&B is their normal menu but all items should have the same level of quality regardless. Also maybe this feels like a harsh critique but if you’re asking for a high cost for the food then I would hope it would get to the table with a higher quality standard.

I don’t know the etiquette of what I can do as a customer to get a more satisfactory outcome because this was the first time I ever had to send food back to the kitchen but I didn’t wanna fight too hard due to my fiancee and I just trying to have a good Valentine’s Day. Thank you...