Musaafer — Restaurant in Houston

Update: A friend decided to try the restaurant and ordered the same dishes and was disappointed as well.

Also no one has even bothered to reach out to me to talk about my experience even after I gave the negative feedback to the manager at the restaurant. I would really not waste your time with this place. There are way better places in town.

For the prices they are charging, the food and service is lacking on many levels. To start I ordered some wine but it was flat when served. As a wine connoisseur one can tell when a bottle has been sitting open for a while. So I asked for a glass from a freshly opened bottle, which took forever to show up.

Then I ordered 3 mains, the Butter Chicken, the Dal Makhni, and Rajma Kofta and the Gulab for dessert. First off all the food was lukewarm and not hot. The koftas itself were bland, dry, hard and cold. You can see from the picture below they are cracked and look like they have been sitting around outside for a while. It was difficult to get a fork through and cut them with ease. The sauce was lukewarm so it did not help with softening the koftas.

Next the Butter Chicken is a staple Indian dish and being a world traveller(musaafer) myself and trying a lot of butter chicken around the world, I was very disappointed with this one. The color of the sauce was unusually dark, the flavor unpleasantly intense with way too many spices used and the presentation bare. Compared to the other dishes on the menu the presentation of the butter chicken was shockingly lacking.

Of all the 3 mains the Dal Makhni was the best. It was buttery, the flavor was on point and cooked perfectly but once again lacking on the presentation.

If you are going to charge upwards of $20 for a dish and try to be a fine dining restaurant then make all the dishes presentable. So to make the dishes look somewhat picture worthy I actually took some greens and a flower off the Kofta dish and added those elements of presentation to the Butter Chicken and the Dal. See picture below.

For dessert I ordered the Gulab and was looking forward to it but once again was disappointed. First off the rose seemed like the B team made it. Compared to other pictures posted on Google the flower and the rest of the presentation seemed off. Second, reading the menu it seemed like it would have a rose flavor however the flavor was unnoticeable. The mini Gulab jamuns were served cold. These should always be served hot especially if ice cream or some kind of cream is involved, which it was in this dish. So overall the dessert did not satisfy. The presentation was ok and the flavors lacking once again.

I shared the above feedback for the main courses with one of the managers who was at the bar and stopped by my table to check in but nothing was really done about it. Instead the server began being pushy, trying to sell me on getting some cocktails or other types of wine saying it was the manager’s recommendation. Was really turned off by that. That is not what I was expecting after giving negative feedback about the food.

To top it all off when the final bill came the server had charged me more for the glass of wine which I had to get corrected and instead of coming back with an updated bill so that I could double check everything else he had already charged my credit card.

So adding a 20% service charge automatically for this kind of service and food and then asking for more tip on the final bill is just not right.

Overall I felt like the focus of the restaurant was just to be instagrammable and something for social media. It is nothing to brag about, it’s extremely overpriced, lacking in service and the food is a huge disappointment.

If you are looking for some loud music, a club type atmosphere, some drinks, then sure come on by but if you are planning an evening hoping for some good food etc. don’t waste your time...

This place has been on my radar for quite some time but with covid I didn't get to the restaurant until last night.

As soon as you walk up the stairs it's like you're transported to 16th century India. Everything in the restaurant is unique. There are many pieces transported from India and pieced together at the restaurant. We were lucky enough to be given a tour of the entire restaurant by our waiter Humberto and learned that the restaurant has been 2 years in the making and still isn't complete. Once all the covid restrictions they are going to take it up a notch with a chefs choice seating. I look forward to coming back to check that out.

The food from start to finish was sublime. Well all except the lobster tail.

We started with Mithu's coriander prawns. This was probably my favorite dish. It was prawns in a rich curry of what seemed like a thick dal like consistency. It came with a side of pav(bread) made of coconut. I recommend breaking a piece of that bread off and dipping it right into the curry. It will blow your socks off!

The tuna chaat came out next and it was a very different but delicious delivery on chaat. Instead of using a Puri(fried puff) for a base they had these little crunchy beads that were used for the crisp aspect of Chaat. I'd definitely order this again. It was light but packed with all the chaat flavors you'd expect from a dhaba(street vendor).

The Gobhi was a dish recommended by our amazing waiter Humberto. Keep in mind I wouldn't have ever chose this off the menu. It's basically cauliflower done four ways. One was a spiced hummus basically. The other was a roasted cauliflower with Indian spices. The third was like boondi(fried beads). The last was a mini sandwich. All of which were absolutely delicious.

Our first main was the butter chicken experience. Wish I got a picture of this. It was three styles of butter chicken. One being a dhaba style which displayed the rawness of spices used in Indian cuisine. The second was the restaurants take on butter chicken. It almost tasted like a mix between saag and butter chicken. The third was your basic B styled butter chicken which you would find at other Indian restaurants. This is definitely another dish I'd get again.

The lobster tail was our other main and I really honestly don't have much to say about this dish. It seems to be popular so we went with it. I wasn't impressed one bit. I did like the heat of the dish but the thick coconut curry wasn't pleasant for me. The lobster was so chewy it was like eating haribo gummy bears. Not sure if that's even a good comparison. I don't recommend this dish at all.

The garlic naan was absolutely fantastic. The best naan I've had in Houston. Thin yet chewy with the perfect amount of garlic.

We had two desserts. One being the mishti doi which was a refreshing yogurt custard with a very beautiful presentation. Had the tang of yogurt with a light sweetness. An Indian froyo basically.

The second was the Qubani. Also recommended by our waiter Humberto. The pastry chef made a mock apricot filled with apricot jam. This was a very modern take on paan. Make sure you get a bite of everything together to get that paan taste.

We also ordered four cocktails. The adraki sutra, Bombay velvet, soma e-elaichi, and the bootlegger. All four were good. The adraki is a refreshing spritzer. The soma was a very dessert like cocktail. The bootlegger is for the bourbon lovers and my favorite drink on their menu. They smoke the star anise right at table side with a torch. Then give you the cocktail in a bottle for you to pour over the star anise infusing the drink with the smoke flavor.

Overall experience was a 4/5 only because of the lobster tail. Ask for Humberto because he genuinely makes the experience 10...

Nut allergy friendly: Musaafer labels all of their allergens pretty well, and they are very clear about which dishes can be made to be allergen-safe. Just don't ignore the labels. Some drinks also use pistachio so be careful on the cocktail menu.

Parking: we parked in the nearby parking garage, went down to the lobby level of the Galleria, and walked around and followed the signs until we found the entrance. Took us about 6 minutes to go from our parking to the restaurant so keep that in mind if you have a reservation. Parking can get tough on weekends too depending on how full the garage is; we had to go near the roof.

We arrived at 5PM on the dot for a reservation of 4 and still waited about 5-10 minutes before being seated. The entry lobby is full of artwork, making you feel like you've left the Galleria into someone's personal collection.

Drinks: One person in my group had a Chai Tea plain and the rest of us shared various cocktails. All of them were quite unique with very aesthetic presentation. We started with the Truffle Master (4/5) and went into some other gin based cocktails. None were particularly memorable, but they were all good.

Food: I never expected to have leftovers at a Michelin restaurant, but.. we did. Portions are really generous here, none of that small-bite-tasting-menu-pretentiously plated stuff.

Lychee Ceviche (3/5): While it was good and beautifully plated, I have to say that this felt like the most overhyped dish. I ordered it after seeing some recommendations of it as a "must-get" and I didn't think it was doing anything crazy. It was more saucy than emphasizing the fish, like a coconut sauce. Portions weren't worth the price. I personally felt way more coconut than lychee, but some of my friends said they could taste the lychee. Barrah Kebab (4.5/5): Each bite was succulent and you could have it three entirely different ways depending on if you dip it in yogurt or the pomegranate. Very sharable for 4, we each got our own piece. The onions that came along were a fantastic palette cleanser, maybe even moreso than standard radish at a sushi spot. Mushroom Khichdi (5/5): Universally a favorite of our group. Presentation was beautiful, with our server explaining the history of each ingredient and mixing it at the table for us. I swear that each bite gave me a different tasting note between the truffle and the spices. I'd go back for this alone. Dal Musaafer (5/5): On the topic of dishes I'd go back for alone, this lentil dish is the other one. Just smoky enough, incredible depth of flavor in the spices, went excellently with naan or rice. Laal Maas (4/5): A more saucy and tender goat that also went really well with rice or naan, but nothing crazy here. Lamb Chop Sulfiyan Biryani (4.5/5): Holy massive portions. Enough for everyone to get a bite of lamb and enough rice to fill anyone up. Huge recommend to accompany the saucy dishes. Garlic and Bullet Naan (4.5/5): I favored the bullet naan for the extra spice, but both were great and the naan was huge. Brussel Sprouts (4/5): Nothing too crazy here, but they were cooked well with an excellent crunch.

The Mushroom Khichdi and the Dal Musaafer were definitely our highlights, but everything was very good and very sharable. Would highly recommend coming as a small group and sharing entrees.

Split bill and paid via inKind with no issues (use a referral and/or...