Sorrento — Restaurant in Houston

I have thought for a long time about whether or not to post this review, but after reading a few other reviews, I wanted to share my experience to warn others away from dining at this shifty restaurant. I will NEVER dine here again, and I will actively warn my friends and family against giving Shady Sorrentos their business.

I dined at Sorrentos with a large party on my 31st birthday, November 25th, 2022. I booked a table through an online service and indicated it was my birthday. When I arrived at the restaurant we were told that we were being sat in the wine room. I did not book that room. I thought perhaps we were sat there because of our large party, and because it was my birthday. We had a few gift bags that could have gotten in the way of the walkways, maybe that was it, too.

The large party was a reason, but the true reason became clear: to upsell us. See, my father is a well to do man. He dresses well, but he is by no means in the 1%. He arrived an hour early to have a drink at the bar, and he is friendly so he chatted up staff. I suppose the staff saw dollar signs when they looked at my father. I should have listened to my gut and demanded to be sat elsewhere.

The moment we sat down, the server, an older gentleman who spoke broken English, bombarded my father with 'how the wine room works' and that the chef would prepare us two courses. We did not even have menus yet; we didn't have any drinks. My father insisted the server come explain to me to make a decision as it was my birthday. The server rushed over to me, explained very poorly and in a hasty manner 'how the wine room works,' but never mentioned how much it would cost; he made it sound complimentary. I regret ever saying yes to this experience, as the price was RIDICULOUS for what we received. This is not a Michelin star restaurant, and neither does their food taste like it. I could've chosen El Tiempo across the street and received better service and food for one-third of the price. Let that sink in those of you Houstonians who know how much El Tiempo costs.

10 minutes after, unfortunately, agreeing to this 'experience', I wondered where our menus were. We were told we wouldn't get menus until we were served our two courses from the chefs. I knew what I wanted to eat, but what about the rest of my party?

As the food came out, I started to get a clearer picture of how shady this place was, and of their intention to squeeze every single dollar out of us. I stressed. This was not what I had intended for my birthday. In fact, I had chosen Sorrento's to try the chefs tasting menu for myself; this option was taken away from me by their poor practices of overwhelming guests the moment they sit down, and upselling any one who looks or acts like they have a single dollar to their name. The first two courses brought to us were from the chefs tasting menu, and then we were allowed to have menus to decide our main course.

I was overwhelmed by the entire misunderstanding that I spent part of my birthday in their restroom stress crying. :)

I left feeling full, alright; full of disappointment and like I had been viewed as nothing more than a wad of cash rather than a valuable guest.

I suppose I should thank Sorrentos for giving me a memorable birthday; a birthday so bad that I have thought about it for months after and how appalling their service and mediocre food was. This is not fine dining; it is a mockery of it. To claim to be in the business of it—which I would assume they do as their tag line is 'One of Houston's finest Italian restaurants'—is a farce.

Save your money and go elsewhere, lest they wring you like a...

We moved to Houston in March of 2023 after having lived in New England for 2+ decades. Since then we have visited many restaurants in Houston but none Italian because we didn’t think we could find a great Italian place after having been to incredible Italian restaurants in Federal Hill and dined at the finest of RI and MA’s Italian offerings. But boy were we WRONG! Sorrento was an absolute stunner.

Our incredibly warm and affectionate waiter Sergio started the proceedings with a huge selection of breads each one looking more exquisite than the other. He went through each and I opted for one of each and not one of them disappointed.

I ordered the Cremini Ripieni (stuffed mushrooms with crab meat and roasted red peppers). It was beautifully balanced and my wife and I devoured it with gusto. The Caesar salad my wife ordered but it’s mark - Fresh, Crisp, Simple - the hallmark of a great Caesar salad.

For entrée I went with sea diver scallops with lemon crab risotto in saffron sauce while my wife went for the lobster tortellini with lemon cream caviar. We shared the dishes and could have had another of each next the flavor balance in each was perfect. They felt light and portion size was perfect. The stars of the dishes - scallops crab and lobster all shone through while the sauces and risottos enhanced them without drowning the authenticity of the seafood.

Finally for dessert my wife went with the double chocolate cake with vanilla gelato while opted for Italian bread pudding with white chocolate, raisins, Berry compote, and orange cream. We once again shared both and absolutely loved both. Perfect level of sweetness, sauces complimenting the desserts to perfection, decadence at its absolute finest. Usually deserts have us feel food while eating while creating an unpleasant feeling after due to excessive sugar content and other undesirable ingredients. Both these desserts made us feel happy and satiated during and long after.

As incredible as our culinary and gastronomic experience at Sorrento was, the service from Sergio trumped it. He made us feel like family. We loved Sergio and his service made us feel like we were home with our family being taken care of with the utmost love and affection that never felt like we were in a restaurant with someone we met for the first time. We are looking forward to many more meetings with Sergio.

A special shout-out to Pedro and the owner as well for greeting us, checking on us and helping Sergio. Truly caring environment and place that must...

My wife and I had a dinner after enjoying a Houston Symphony Orchestra concert on a Sunday afternoon. We were in a good mood for a nice Sunday outing.

We chose the chef’s special 5-course dinner ($75 per person) for two. Bread selection was impressive because they brought us a huge bread basket with several different options of dinner bread rolls. Anchovy bread and focaccia were delicious.

The first was ravioli that came with egg yolk. The first bite gave me an impression of “al dente”, but I couldn’t erase the final impression of eating frozen dinner not fully heated in a microwave while finishing the rest of the bites.

The second was salad with burrata on arugula with dried fig and heirloom tomatoes. Burrata was “aged” with firm crust with inside core tasted like dry and bland cottage cheese instead of burrata’s unique creaminess or buttery taste.

The third was tuna on risotto. By this third course, we realized that the texture of main ingredients for the first three courses were “rubbery” and chewy. Tuna was cooked medium rare, so the texture should be near tuna takaki, but, between our teeth, it was not as soft as we expected. I thought tuna was frozen just before it was cooked.

The fourth was veal medallion on risotto, which was approximately one and a half ounces, cooked as ordered. May be it was the only dish that we thought was decent. But beef never fails in any restaurants.

The last was dessert, panna cotta, which again gives a “rubbery” texture back on our tongues, with which we concluded that we had a rubbery dinner.

We had Riesling which was sweet and light.

Overall we...