State of Grace — Restaurant in Houston

TL;DR at the bottom

Let me start off with the fact that the food was AMAZING. My boyfriend and I decided to dine at State of Grace for Valentine's Day because we've heard good things about the food, and safe to say it was some of the best food I've ever had.

For our appetizers, we got the half shell oysters and the beef tartare. The oysters were fresh, creamy and smooth while the tartare was very flavorful and beefy.

For the soup/salad, we got the onion soup gratinee and the caeser salad. The onion soup was intensely rich and perfectly caramelized, while the caeser salad was fresh and tangy. However, our server did not offer us any freshly cracked black pepper as we observed with other tables.

For our mains, we got the dry aged core de beouf and diver scallops. The steak was juicy, melt in your mouth tender, incredibly beefy and not at all funky from the dry aged process, while the scallops were perfectly cooked with a wonderful sear and a divinely rich beurre Blanc sauce. Our sides were mediocre however, as the asparagus was a little overcooked and mushy, the pommes aligot was flavorless and the arugula salad was boring and bland.

Dessert was creme brulee and bananas foster, and wow did both of them hit the mark perfectly. Not overly sweet and well balanced to round out this fantastic meal.

As for the service, we had many gripes. We know that valentine's day is incredibly busy and as someone in the hospitality industry, I understand being overwhelmed and I was prepared to give everyone extra time. However, our server, I don't remember her name because she barely stopped at our table maybe 3 times in the 2 hours we were there, made us feel neglected. We observed that other tables were checked on regularly. We felt that our server thought that we wouldn't tip well because we are young, and we could detect a slight tone shift upon mention that we've never been to a restaurant with a prie fixe menu before. As mentioned earlier, she did not offer us any freshly cracked black pepper for the caeser salad, we were not giving a rose like every other table, our water wasn't refilled for nearly 30 minutes and our service was quite slow with nearly 30 minutes in-between our main and our dessert.

At the end of our meal, I did talk to the director of operations, Matt to inform him of our observations. He apologized and said that he appreciated the feedback, and we thought nothing of it thinking that nothing would happen. However, Matt did comp one of our meals which he did not have to do, and because of his service recovery I'm keeping my review a 5 star.

TL;DR: The food is 9.5/10. The service was 4/10. The atmosphere is 9/10 and Matt is a 10/10. Definitely come here to try it atleast once, hopefully you have better luck with service...

We came for the Valentines Day experience, at a cost of $145/per person there is some expectation with that. Expectations aside though we had the table next to us to compare our own experience with. The service was very much the most off putting thing of the evening. From the start our waiter just didn't want to be "there." It was a very cut and dry experience with the waiter as he was there to take our orders and that was it. While the table next to us had the table cleaned up a couple of times even offered a hot moist towel after the finger food apps, while I was folding my napkin to try and keep the BBQ sauce off my pants and had to go to the bathroom to even get it off my fingers. When I had a problem with my food, I will get to food next, I kept my head on a swivel but could never find our waiter after he served us our food, never checked in himself on how any of it was going, until someone noticed I was looking and came and helped me out. Which lead to management stepping up. With Valentines day it had seemed the couples were getting a beautiful pink rose with their dinner to enjoy. I had requested if they had anymore after our entree's were done and they did, "It is the last one." We were a 9:30 reservation, one of the last tables of the evening, so I am interested if it was a by request type of deal or if it was the last one because it was supposed to be ours but our waiter fell flat on service? Curious on that, because table next to us got there rose without requesting it. Food: It was good. Would I go back if service was better for just the food? Probably not honestly. The WOW moment in our meal was the pasta I had ordered, can't remember the name but so good. Where the problem came with my food was in ordering the Steak and Lobster tail, the lobster tail came was impossible to pull out of the tail without shredding and even then wouldn't come. Which is where I got another servers help and got a new one, brought by management second one wasn't as bad, but was still a struggle and wasn't worth it in the end. Appreciate them removing the uncharge for ordering the steak & lobster. All the other food items were just under whelming for expectations. I did feel it was food I could get on a good day at half the price at other restaurants to be frank.

Drinks were good, I ordered the Aqui Aqui (spell check) and recommend that as well.

Overall experience for us was let down honestly. Just wasn't a really upbeat pleasant experience overall. I debated about 2 stars because it being V-day and our one date night a year haha, but the rest of the wait staff and management are not representative of our waiter I feel like, and we still finished the...

Hello beautiful people. So let me start out by saying as soon as you drive up you are greeted. As soon as walk-in you are greeted and acknowledged and the vibe in this place was very well thought out so much that when I walk in I’m taken to a wealthy European country side home. Such elegance and detail every where you look. Personnel is fabulous and management is on top of their game checking in periodically. Wait staff knowledgeable concerning every ingredient and the menu options. Now let’s dig into the menu. For starters the octopus was phenomenal and so tender. The waiter suggested the blue crab hush puppies and I’m thinking how delicious or different could they possibly be but…. They definitely came with a much unexpected crunchy, sweet and savory bite. My brother in law ordered a side of French fries and I never order fries because I think what a waste of calories in some fried potatoes but these fries are not your average Joe fries. Seasoned and fried to perfection. We started with the only cooked oysters which are not part of the happy hour menu but they were out of this world and so worth it. We ordered and shared a couple of entrees since most of the menu for dinner is set up to be shareable. The Gulf shrimp, are large pieces of shrimp seasoned and cooked just right, the beet salad had just enough texture and savory, the scallops were delicious and cooked just right and last but not least the half herb chicken was my favorite. We ordered a side of spaghetti squash and it was ok but nothing out of this world. All in all we enjoyed our experience will definitely come back. I do suggest to make reservation if you are going for dinner , lunch or brunch. We try to eat dinner before 6pm so we usually miss the rush and you can just walk in if it’s not too busy. They also have several rooms and a good size bar. Lastly I would like to point out that every customer at the end of that delectable filling meal on their way out are offered a cream filled ginger snap! I’m speechless. UPDATE: came in with sobre friends for brunch on Saturday and they did not disappoint. Had a little bit of everything and we ate every...