Lava Lounge — Restaurant in Houston

I am sitting inside for lunch as I write this on 10/19 at 1pm.

PLEASE NOTE: Most of the reviews on the Google Reviews for this place are fake. Nearly all of the 5-star reviews are from people who have never ever left a Google review. Also the fake reviewers are flooding in by the boat-loads to get the restaurant such a high average. Please check out Yelp for sincere reviews.

Service: There wasn't much. I asked for a physical menu and she gave me a bit of an attitude. A different waitress ended up taking our order because the first one never came back until after we ordered. We took our time ordering too. Most of the waitresses ran about and were MIA. Not a single waitress checked up on us after we got our food. It is worth noting that as I write this there are about nine other tables.

I even asked for new silverware and the check several times to many different employees before one finally figured it out. Yes, the silverware was dirty.

Atmosphere: It looks good from afar but a bit too gawdy. They're trying too hard to look fancy. After sitting down and getting a closer look, every seat and couch is filthy. Everything has stains, the silverware had fuzz on it and was severely scratched. The furniture and wares were either bought secondhand or they brought all of this stuff from a previous location.

Food: I got the lava pasta and the rest of my party ordered a chicken shawarma and a beef shawarma wrap. It isn't anything extraordinary. I have had better food served out of food trucks in Sugarland and off of Hwy 6. They served the pasta first and the other two dishes came out 10 minutes later. Why didn't they wait to bring out all three? We also ordered a cheesecake to-go that was to be brought out at the end of the meal. Again, no waitress checked on us at all after we received our food so there's no way she could have known to put it in the system.

Payment: We reminded the waitress who took our order about the cheesecake. She said that she was waiting for us to tell her when we were ready for it. She never checked on our table so there was no way for us to tell her or any other useless waitress and also gave us attitude when we asked about it. We waved down two other employees only to be acknowledged and forgotten during the course of our meal. The bill comes out to $75 for three entrees. There was a $3 charge for a salad that was a side to one of the shawarma. There was a $7 up-charge for grilled chicken for the other shawarma. We didn't order grilled chicken! Also, for a party of three an 18% tip was automatically calculated in. So we were already forced to tip for probably one of the worst services I've ever...

We have been to this place several times. But we had a very bad experience this past Saturday. We booked a table for 4 adults and 5 kids outdoors at 6pm, as the indoor is impossible to sit in with younger kids due to heavy smoke. We planned to have dinner with one family and their two kids along with our kids. The service was long and unorganized, some didn’t speak English properly and had to call on for help from other waiters. We ordered drinks and appetizers first. They brought couple of times wrong stuff: water no ice- brought water with ice, sweet tea- brought unsweetened, and I had to show: “hey, look, in our order, it does say no ice”, anyways didn’t make any sense to us… Then our boys ordered lemonades, we were told that those were refillable upon ordering, however when we asked for a refill, female waiter, I think her name was Linda… told that her manager said that those they can’t refill, but she would talk to him to see if they can make an exception…and when they brought unsweetened ice tea, and have ordered sweetened, they told that we have to pay lol, they made a mistake at our cost, basically. The food was so so, it was unbearable to sit outside with the pack of green flies, that were constantly attacking our food and kids. We asked for a check, the gratuity of 25% was included already—40$ for the worst service, moreover the same female waiter start telling to us, that she doesn’t get a penny from that gratuity money, and her salary is only 9$ an hour, so we left extra tip on top of that… Oh boy, what a rip off for the worst food, service, flies and overall ruined dining experience! We had to run from flies to an indoor restaurant not far by, we couldn’t finish our food, and didn’t want to take it with us- as it was full of flies bugs…just disgusting! This place should definitely change the manager and the service should be constantly taught and be supervised! I have no other comments! Waste of our precious time, and money!

P.S. email was sent as the Owner asked to send it as you can see in his reply, but as expected they have ignored it. I won’t return, and won’t recommend this...

Where is the ZERO stars when you need it? I was very disappointed with this restaurant. I went last night with my family and a friend. The food was mediocre and not authentic. For example the fatouch salad had no seasoning at all and was made with only oil and balsamic glaze drizzled on top. The meats (chicken and beef) were grizzly and tough. In my opinion, very low quality meat. Everything was drowning in oil and it did not taste like olive oil but rather a cheap corn oil. The waitress claimed to be Iraqi and Lebanese and asked my dad in Arabic where he was from. When he responded in Arabic that he is from Al-Qahira she said she never heard of it. We asked who owned the restaurant and were told two Pakistani brothers. (Maybe one of the reasons the food was unlike any Arab food I ever had despite living in in the Arab World for more than 5 years.) They only serve bottled water not glasses of water and even though we were a party of 5 a service charge was added (without our knowledge because she did not give us an itemized receipt first just presented us with the amount). Because we want to support to small businesses and know waiting tables is hard work we added a 20% tip on top of the 18% we did not know about. I asked for the paper receipt and she brought it folded up and left the table right away. That is when I knew what happened. When we left and went to retrieve our car from valet, the valet guy informed me that my car was coming right away and then asked me directly for a tip. Between the bottled water, sneaky service charge, mediocre food, and valet guy asking for a tip, I left feeling cheated, nickeled and dimed. It was not hospitable at all despite the claims on their website. I do...