Sugar Factory - Houston — Restaurant in Houston

We came hoping for birthday magic. We left $200 poorer, caffeine-deprived, and emotionally betrayed by a "rainbow" sundae with exactly one sad, blue sauce.

Let me set the scene:

It’s 11:00 AM. We have a reservation. We’re dressed up. It’s our daughter’s 9th birthday, and we’re expecting sparkle and sugar.

What we walk into is a mall food court. Fluorescent lighting, trap music blasting and a Sugar Factory “Express” location nestled across from a loud, freezing ice rink.

We ask for coffee. They say they don’t serve it yet. Not “out of stock.” Not “machine’s down.” Just not available right now. You know, during brunch. I saw espresso beans behind the counter. Decorative, apparently. Like sad little props, and they did stand out because the restaurant was sparsely decorated.

A table of beautifully dressed brunch girls bailed early and at first we thought it was the slow/cold service. Turns out they were smarter than us - they realized the advertised menu is not available the first few hours, and that the famous drink menu is not served during the first part of the day. Mimosas at brunch? Who wants that!

The menu? One laminated page. It screamed "we have a skeleton crew and we really don't care."

Our daughter ordered the infamous “rainbow” sundae. It arrived with one sickly periwinkle blue syrup, like the rest of the rainbow called in sick. Our birthday girl asked “is this the rainbow sundae?” And we had to explain, gently, that sometimes life lies.

Our son ordered the rainbow cake, which was served frozen to match our server's icy attitude.

Our server? No greeting. No smile. No “happy birthday.” Just pure “I’ve emotionally clocked out” energy. She floated in and out of the experience like a ghost who once worked hospitality and gave up.

The only human spark came from the in-house photographer, who offered to take a photo after the meal. Scene: melted sundae, straw wrappers, my lipstick on the rim of a glass, and a neon sign about Houston glowing faintly in the background, which otherwise looked like a government building with it's cheap tiled flooring and crammed-together seating. She was sweet, though. We declined the $25 photo, but hope she got part of the automatic gratuity fee (more on that later).

Then, the real kicker:

The server finally started to show signs of life while enthusiastically calling my husband to the counter to pay the bill and referring to him as "sir." She had the tip screen all queued up, and as he was selecting the percentage she leaned over his shoulder like a human hawk, and asked him to tip in cash. Back at the table, he stated that he felt bad because the two twenty dollar bills he had on him were less than 20% of our bill, but also a little awkward as it's pretty forward to straight up ask for cash. This caused us to pause and do some seriously scary math.

We had ordered one hot chocolate, one milkshake, one club sandwich, one sad monochromatic "rainbow" sundae and one slice of frozen cake right off of the Sysco truck. How could that be more than $200.00?

Plot twist: gratuity was already included. For parties of one or more. So, unless you are drinking one of those goblets of sugary alcohol all by yourself ... everyone.

At that moment, everything clicked. Why give good service when the tip is guaranteed and the goal is to scam another suburban parent while explicit music blares over a child’s birthday breakfast?

Final verdict: a sugar-coated scam wrapped in neon and apathy. If you’re craving a sad sundae, overpriced food, dead-eyed customer service, and the dulcet sounds of clubbing music while your toddler eats a $22 slice of cake in a mall you’ll love it here.

Rainbow Desserts: one frozen blue tear of disappointment.

Coffee: a cruel rumor.

Vibe: DMV meets Chuck E. Cheese meets clubbing with your toddler.

Music: explicit. Volume: aggressive.

Service: spiritually absent.

Tip: double-dipped, thank you very much.

If you’re looking for cold cake, colder service, and the slow, sugary unraveling of your expectations, you’ve...

We didn’t actually plan on eating here today. A woman called out to us & sold us on it - like it was a carnival or one of those makeup kiosks. I did say, “Oh no. Just missed the lunch!” To which the only seating hostess/waitress/person in the whole place, “Oh we have this sampler platter - it’ll be enough for all of you!” (3 adults, 2 adult sized teens) We sit down & order said sampler along with loaded fries. The food arrives at the table & what was on the sampler platter? A couple of chicken tenders, 3 wings, 5 onion rings & 3 Mac & cheese balls. 😳 Ok, so it won’t feed all of us, but if it’s great, we’ll get more food. We’re really hungry & good food we will spend on. Well, it all tastes like defrosted microwave food. Good enough to be edible, but then again, small & not amazing for $30. The fries were nothing to write home about & cost $17. The server is nice, but we had to ask her for everything but the food. The utensils/napkins, the plates, the ketchup. A few times we needed something but our waitress had walked off & had her backs to us while she chatted with a friend & watched people ice skating. The kids start to ask if we can just go to Chikfila so I asked for the check. $60+ grand total. I said to my husband, “Does that sound right?” He said, “No. we got water & ordered 2 items.” I take a look at the itemized page which we wouldn’t have seen if the waitress didn’t have to leave to get change. $20 service charge added on to the price of our food & tax. I ask her about it when she came back & she says, “Well, that’s divided between the manager, cook & servers.” Wait, what? We are paying EVERYONE’s salaries AND dinner? She gives me my change & shamelessly asks, “Are you leaving a tip?” Of course I was going to tip, but if you’re going to charge me a $20 service charge on a $45 bill, I’ll have to reconsider the usual 18-20% tip I give. Honestly, I already had a $10 pulled out but after she asked if I was going to tip, I changed my mind & left her a $5. That along with her share of the service charge, she would still be getting an 18% tip - I’m not sure she deserved it honestly but the establishment itself is the main problem. You are a restaurant in the food court. Your service & food are subpar. Nothing is worth a $20 service fee & the insane amount you charge for that food. We got Chikfila & Cinnabons for less than we paid at this place & it tasted a lot better, too. Never going to come here again & now we know why it was completely empty as pretty as it was decorated. People, don’t waste your time...

SAVE YOUR MONEY!!! Don’t buy into the hype and aesthetics of this place. I saw this place on TikTok and Instagram and I saw that this was a new location and I live in the Houston area and I was really excited to go here. I did not read into any reviews and just saw some videos on TikTok and it looks like a lot of fun and I was like this is like the best place to go for my birthday. It was not… the staff were impatient and the wait time was terribly long. When we got there, there was only one other group and we were not given menus till 15 minutes of us waiting.

And they claimed that our waiter was in the bathroom the whole time so that’s why our menus are not given and some other random waiter gave us the menus and actually already took our order and whenever our actual waitress came out, she was like oh what would y’all like to have and we said we already put in our order and she was like y’all already put in your order??? So the staff don’t even seem like they know what’s going on.

Food time. We got our expensive $25 WATERED DOWN STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE MILKSHAKE, that took like 10 minutes to make apparently. The only thing strawberry about this milkshake was the CHEESECAKE slice they put on top. The milkshake was so bland (as if they made it with 0 effort). Then we ordered 2 flatbreads ($20 each), it was below average would never order again (how can you mess up a pizza??). The food was a 1/5 and such a disappointment.

It seems that this place relies on a large group of people going in the restaurant, ordering a bunch of overpriced food. AND never coming back again. There’s no way ppl actually genuinely come back to eat here!!! For two people, two entrees, 1 Insane Milkshake, and NO appetizers we paid $100 (with tip). We bought the picture they take of you for $25 it was cute, but they strategically do it before the food comes out (now I know why🤨).

At first they played throwback music but then started playing a bunch of rap music. I don’t mind rap but the ceiling speakers were blasting in my ears. So awkward the staff , zero vibes, I said thank you to everyone but the staff seemed rude and didn’t want to be there…😭

Avoid avoid avoid!!!! SKIP the disappointment save your money.

Recommendations- best milkshakes - Chill the Milkshake Bar (College Station, Spring, Magnolia Locations). Best...