Riva's — Restaurant in Houston

I have been to this establishment many times before, My family and I go on days we know are not as mature such as random weekday evenings. We understand the culture of this restaurant and in fact are avid supporters of the environment, often patronizing w/ out kids (we live nearby). As recently as September, we celebrated my daughters 8th birthday and were even given balloons by the staff that were left by the piano. Per usual, my family and I (2 adults and 1 child) showed up to Riva’s at 4pm on a Sunday to play Uno and to enjoy their pink sauce and pesto but were angrily met by the owner and told we were not allowed in due to our daughter’s age. I was obviously confused because we frequent the restaurant so often that the servers know us- we’re “the family that plays Uno.” When I confronted the owner about why weren’t allowed in suddenly, he rudely told us that it’s not a place for kids and we needed to leave. Knowing what he was referring to, I told him “it’s Montrose and 2021, we can sit on the other side if there was a party.” Regardless, he angrily demanded us to leave. Not understanding why, I asked for a legitimate reason and he stated a family had recently thrown pasta to other patrons or to him (?) because of the culture- he wasn’t very clear but the excuse was completely bogus nonetheless. I kept explaining we understood the environment and showed him that the sign says “due to the mature environment, children under 12 not RECOMMENDED” let me reiterate here, RECOMMENDED. If I chose, as a parent, to allow my child to frequent a restaurant that MAY have mature content that is my prerogative. Though, this day was particularly dead with all of 1 person at the bar and maybe a few in the back. Honestly, it felt discriminatory to not be allowed in because we had a child. We gladly supported this establishment but it’s unfortunate to say that the times prior to today we were also met with the resistance over our child- once the manager (possibly- shorter hispanic woman) had to leverage with him over allowing us in and another time he approached us abrasively because my sister ordered a drink she couldn’t drink and asked if she could exchange it (that’s a whole other story). The owner has no patience or tolerance and is completely erratic. it’s ironic considering I was refused service because I have a child, a child I am teaching to be tolerant, non-judgmental and loving to all people. I believed Riva’s represented and pride itself on being open to all walks of life, but not after this discriminatory treatment. Lets be real, by no means does this place advertise to be family friendly, but it is not 18 and up either- there is no cut off time for children, it is not a club or some dive bar, IT’S AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT. The owner has always been abrasive but in this instance showed his true colors; erratic, short tempered and judgmental. I can’t imagine what he did can be legal (turn away people because they have a child?). Oh, the kicker ? they threaten to recorded me and take pictures of my car/ family. The staff were complacent as they stood around and did nothing to control the incident or the owner. I’m sad to lose this place but even worse feeling to be treated so poorly and for such a ridiculous reason. All this thinking does is further the divide and segregate us even more from each other. Please avoid at all cost. I wanted to support local but I can go to North Italia and receive better service. (I highly recommend...

I've never been treated as poorly at a restaurant as I was at Riva's. I highly recommend avoiding this place at all costs. Houston has too many great places to get brunch to waste your time in this place.

We visited Riva's with a group of 7 to celebrate my father's 61st birthday with his friends and my sister. He called in advance to make sure they'd have a table for our fairly large group, and they were ready to accommodate us when we arrived.

When ordering, I asked if it was possible to have an omelette that doesn't include mushrooms, and the server told me that everything is preprepared in advance so that was impossible. Apparently they couldn't even make a plain omelette without any fillings at all, which leads me to believe that they must not be making them to order.

When the food arrived, everyone received their entrees except for my father, who was left to sit for 10 minutes. Of course, we all were waiting to start eating until he received his food. After all, it was his birthday. Finally, I asked the waiter where my dad's food was, and he went to look for it, but a few minutes later I saw him running around bringing drinks to other tables. Then someone else came by and said they would try to track down the omelette my dad ordered. It took a third employee to finally bring the food, and there wasn't so much as an apology.

When the check came, I stepped away to talk to the manager, because not only had the service been awful, but each of our separate checks had 18% gratuity added to the bill due to the size of our party. I asked to step out the side door with the manager to speak to him away from the dining area to avoid causing a problem, and his response to me was the abruptly yell, "You complain too much! I don't have time for this!" and then to storm away.

After arguing with the waiter separately, I was finally able to get the extra gratuity removed, but the manager came over and proceeded to scream at me again in front of the entire dining room. I suggested that he should have at least offered a simple apology for the delay (I wasn't attempting to get anything for free), and he screamed, "I don't have to apologize for anything!" I paid cash quickly and abruptly left to avoid any further trouble.

I've been to my share of bitchy gay mimosa brunches in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. I know how they usually go. You get a few obnoxious tables of fall-down-drunk queens having too much to drink and getting belligerent. Sometimes I'm at one of those tables. Our table, however, was occupied by me, my pregnant sister, my father, and a group of his polite older friends. We couldn't have been less demanding, yet we were treated like we didn't matter.

My dad's birthday brunch was ruined by the terrible service and the ensuing screaming match, and you can be sure that we won't be returning. This is the kind of thing you see on Kitchen Nightmares, where the owner or manager of a restaurant yells at customers, and you think, there's no way that could happen in real life! Apparently, it does happen, and...

I will start off with finding parking was a pain. The lot they have is limited so you’ll have to park on the street somewhere and many spots have a “no parking” sign that points to different directions and states the time. It took us about 30 mins to find parking somewhere nearby.

When we finally arrive to the restaurant, it looked almost like a dive bar from the outside (sorry, I don’t know how else to describe it). Once you enter, it’s small and quaint. My only issue I has were the workers. There were groups of people waiting to be seated and we sought out the employees that walked by number times. We called to them to get their attention and ALL of them ignore us. We sat at the bar waiting and no one greeted us or anything. It was quite disappointing to be honest having this as an experience during a date night. One server I finally got to stop for a moment, I asked him if there’s a wait or who do we talk to to be seated, he just made a noise of some sort and walked away.

Waited about ten mins and finally an older fellow started asking people for their names and how many the number in their party. We waited about another five minutes and finally got seated. The server that kind of ignore us and made that noise ended up being our server (he speak by the way).

We ordered the crab cakes. It was very different from all the other crab cakes I’ve ever had. I think there were cucumbers in there. It was… Interesting. They brought over soup (of the day I’m assuming) and salad before the main course. I’m guessing it automatically comes with the meal since we weren’t asked if we wanted any of it. They brought out the garlic bread. I ordered the chicken penne pasta with the Rosa cream sauce and my gf ordered the lasagna. I will say the portions are HUGE. We barely finished a third of each plate. Of course, we to-go’d our meal and asked for the check.

The server was definitely busy so he wasn’t so attentive. When we dropped off the check, he gave us to-go boxes. I was assuming there were no bags since he didn’t bring us one. Once we packed our food, the guy who seated us initially stopped by the table and gave us a bag. After that I see him bussing table. Got better server for a bus boy than the server.

4 stars for the food and the bus boy. I do recommend the place if you want someone small and intimate. It’s an...