Gloria's Latin Cuisine — Restaurant in Houston

We were looking for a restaurant that had food and a (latin) dance floor and this was highly recommended by a few friends and friends of friends. Making reservations was quick and simple. I heard about this place from a friend who also mentioned the strict dress code. So, I asked about the dress code when making the reservations to which they replied, no jeans or tennis for the men and no tennis for the ladies. Sounded refreshing after being to so many places filled with booty shorts, sagging jeans, and flip-flops aka "slides". Arrival at the place was straight forward and fast, nice. Valet practically invaded our vehicle and motioned for us to surrender the vehicle....a little more "pushy" that what I would prefer, but ok. Inside, the atmosphere immediately makes a nice 1st impression. Then the new-ness fog clears and we begin to see it. There are people of all colors, shapes, and sizes....wearing shorts, tennis shoes, and jeans...men and women alike. The waiter was asked about this. Apparently, the dress code is for the dance/night club that the restaurant converts to after 10-ish pm. Oh ok, well, I guess that makes sense. I mean, that's why we were dressed up for, in anticipation of dancing the night away....after dinner. Food was GREAT! Never-ending chips and salsa & refried beans. The salsa had just the right amount of heat for the chips. The "Mar y Tierra" that I had was delicious. The steak was cooked just right, medium rare. The jumbo shrimp was just that, jumbo. The fried plantains were nice and juicy. The mexican rice was good, although nothing to write home about. Refried beans needed some more flavor. The sweet tea was also good. Waiter was very attentive....well, the one that I think was our waiter. There were a few that were taking care of our drinks and one that took our orders. Service was prompt and food came out fairly quickly for a Saturday night. Fast-forward to the conversion. All the tables were picked up and put away in the main dining room, clearing the dance floor. Interesting. While they were clearing the table, the DJ started to play a few tracks to get the crowd ready...and you could see it. The crowd was growing around the dance floor and they were just itching to get out there. Finally, everything was done and people were beginning to get out on the floor, dancing to salsa, merengue, cumbias, bachatas, and even some reggaeton. We enjoyed ourselves while this lasted. Then when the music changed up and the DJ started playing more club/house music. That's when we saw it. This really ruined the night for some in our group. There were more than not, people in jeans, shorts, yoga pants, tennis shoes, and even flip-flops. FLIP-FLOPS!! (aka slides). So much for the dress code.... This really ruined our night....I expected so much more class in this establishment. No class here, just a whole bunch of people looking like either they just came from the gym, rolled out of bed, or even wandered in tired from working the street corners. We might return again for the food. Not sure about the night life here yet....we might show up in jeans and tennis shoes next time and try our luck...we still might be over overdressed. Until...

Parking is atrocious here. If there's no street parking, then you're stuck with the valet.

Inside is l.o.v.e.l.y. Specifically this spot at the very back where the floor to ceiling windows open all the way. On a nice weekend morning they open these and it's just the thing to perfect your brunch. Highly, highly recommend sitting in the back where this happens. Once you enter the building, to your left will be a bar, and to your right will be a short seating area next to windows. Keep heading forward and there will be a large dining area - this area is sort of dimly lit - do not recommend. Directly ahead at to the right is the closed off area with floor to ceiling windows that open up completely - 100% recommend this.

Mango mimosa - What a nice twist; very crisp and clean. Definitely a great go to for your brunch.

Huevos Motuleños - It /looks/ amazing. The fried plantains are fluffy and sweet. The tostada, however, is drenched in red sauce and it completely overpowers the entire dish. I don't think I was able to taste anything other than the red sauce. The tostada itself didn't maintain much integrity for long.

Fajitas - nice, thin tortillas. A good amount 4-5 were given originally; didn't have to ask for more so not sure if they would charge extra. A nice side of rice comes along with this seasoned with butter and oh so soft. Also a nice side of shredded cheddar cheese, guac and sour cream - these were not ample enough in my opinion, but it's only $17 for the whole shebang. Also would be nice to have some jalapenos to go along with this. The fajitas themselves are cut sort of interestingly; very wide. As a tortilla all wrapped up the flavor is lovely and the meat is not too chewy, but if you eat the fajita by itself it's very dense and dry. If you like to skip the tortillas and just eat the ingredients separately I would not recommend this dish.

The service was lovely! I learned a little spanish from my waitress 'mitad y mitad' means half and half. So if you and your friend/date are sharing a meal, remember this...

If I could give this place a zero, I would. We had a terrible experience to the point where we even felt humiliated! Poor customer service and extremely unprofessional staff!! We got on the wait list around 8:45 pm, and received a text half an hour later that our table was ready. We were right down the street(not even 5 min away) and decided to head back to Gloria’s to enjoy a nice dinner. Mind you we had never been here before, but was “highly recommended”, so we were pretty stoked that our table was ready. When we got there we’re in line, again, waiting to let the hostess know we got our text. Well, in front of us there’s a couple, didn’t think anything of it, they took care of their business and then it’s us. The hostess tells us to hold for a moment and then that moment was was just taking a little too long. Finally, she returns and tells us they don’t have a table anymore but she can seat us at the bar. We were like, “okay that’s cool” and follow her. She has us stand there for about 10 min as she tells us that we are waiting for the other people who were there to close their tab. Then the bar tender moves the couple that was in line with us, that had no reservation, into our seats and tells the hostess we can have 1 seat next to them… of course we speak to the manager which takes another 5 min to show up. At this point we have been standing next to the hostess in front of the bar for15 min! Manager shows up, tells us he can set up a table but only have 30 min to order our food and eat it as he will have to remove the table in 30 min to open up the dance floor…. At this point we can see they really don’t want our business. There was no effort on the manager’s behalf to accommodate us, his customers. We ended up leaving, and I can say that I will never set foot in this place of business again nor will I recommend it...