The Honey Hole — Restaurant in Houston

Ok, so I was invited here by some friends through my wife as they've tried this place before, and I've never been. Let me preface this review by saying, "I just want to be honest with my experience." I'm not telling anyone not to visit this location, but there are some things that do need improvement, so I hope the owner takes this to heart as I would like to give this place another shot.

The Good: The place looks very esthetically pleasing when walking in. You can tell they put a lot of work into making it look very upscale and comfortable. Ample seating at private and long tables, plenty of bar space, and doesn't feel cramped. Lighting was nice, including some custom decorative lights. No blaring music, just nice tunes at a reasonable level so I could clearly hear the person next to me. Has all the makings of a great atmosphere to bring family and friends. It comes complete with a decorative wall for photo ops if you want to snap a photo on the way in or out.

The room for improvement: 1.) Be careful what kind of shoes you wear here as the floor from the bar area all the way to the restroom was very slippery. I was wearing a nice pair of Jordan's and felt like I was on the verge of skating on my way to and from the restroom. It could be a hazard for someone in a rush to go in that direction.

2.) The Service. Our waiter was a young man who looked to be about college age. He came to our table about 15 minutes after we sat down and took our drink and food orders. The drinks came soon after, and while my Lemon Drop was very tasty, a person at our table had a vodka with club soda. Her drink came with a lot less club soda, and she asked for more to make the drink balanced. The waiter came back almost 15 minutes later with a small, half empty, warm bottle of club soda and left it near her to pour herself. When asked about the menu and what he would recommend, he said he couldn't recommend any of the beef items because he himself only eats beef maybe once a month and suggested the fish. He then made sure to ask all of us if we had any seafood allergies, even for those not ordering any seafood.

For the rest of the service, before the bill, in order to get a refill or ask for something, we had to find him as there was no consistency in checking up on us as a party of 6. He stopped by with the check and told us that because we had a large group of people, because 6 is considered large, he could only split the check up to three ways.

We were fine, as we were three couples, and after we agreed, he looked confused and, without a word, walked away with the check. After almost 20 minutes of watching him venture to other tables and talk to coworkers, he came back with the check, split three ways, and our to go boxes. We let him know we needed to pay the bill now because we needed to leave as a group to go to an event. He would not come back with our cards until another 15-20 minutes had passed. When he did come back, we all noticed there was a mandatory gratituity of roughly a little over 20%. He effectively got $60 from our table in tips. Based on the service, I still would have tipped because I always do, but for $20 from each couple, mandatory on the bill, I expected more attentive service.

3.) The Food. I was excited to try the food because it is a southern cuisine based menu. Fried fish, red beans and rice, fried chicken, beef street tacos, and so on. Decent selection and the menu is both digital and laminated.

Through the waiter, we found out that the fish only comes breaded and fried with no grilled option for the fish, apparently. I thought of trying the fish and red beans, but I opted for the fish and grits with crawfish etouffe. The problem with this dish wasn't really the individual parts. It was how it was served. It came in a bowl and was layered. The grits were on the bottom, the fried catfish was on top of the grits, and the etouffe was on the fish and made the crispy fish soggy, and it fell apart.

Again, I'd like to try again, but the above items sorely need some...

I had a chance to visit The Honey Hole yesterday. I have been on a mission to visit Black owned restaurant's for the past 6 months. My friend recommended this location since we were going to celebrate our mutual friend birthday who is a Presbyterian . Before we went, I did visit Google reviews, which to be honest had some really horrible reviews. I called my friend to see if she had ever visited this location and she said no. In my mind as a former restaurant server, bartender, front of the house supervisor, than manager, I wanted to check it out on my own and form my own opinion. My friend arrived first and our table was ready! It was actually earlier than the reservation so when I arrived before our reservation time I was truly pleased. Our waitress Tay... I'm almost sure it's Tay not Kay but just in case I want her to receive these accolades. I sat down with one friend who was already there. The server was so kind. We had the table right next to the DJ and I was like oh lawd. It wasn't easy to hear my friends, but it wasn't hard when the DJ was jamming like he was...ty DJ! We received attention from our server several times..she was a doll..not just in looks but in personality. She advised me about the menu. We ordered our food. It all happened at a descent time not hour's later like some reviews stated. Now this has nothing to do with my service or anything in the dinning area. I ordered the chicken fried chicken...it was a beautiful dish . The taste although not bad...it isn't why I'm leaving a review. I love really great food not average....it was average... I didn't eat half of it and didn't take it with me. My friend advised me I could have dressed it up at home but I don't do that. Generally if I take home food it was great...not average. I make average to good food myself at home. The service was great! I did intentionally go speak to the manager Demi who was a peach, I wanted to advise her that I had a totally different experience then some of the reviews I've read on Google and she was very kind. I thank my server/waitress for the great dining experience and advise her to keep up the great work. Side note: To all the bad reviews that talked about the tip being attacked to the bill, stop going to a place where you want to go for show and can't pay for service. Stop showing out.. it's...

I'll say my one Khan first. The service what does a bit slow as in our waitress did not frequent our table enough. At the end, she made an excuse about a big party holding her hostage...... I understand that, but I saw her walk through the common room several times, and she didn't stop at our table. I got water at the beginning and that was it. I had to ask her for some more on the one time she checked our table, because we could never really catch her. There was a guy that went from table to table filling water glasses, but I guess it was easy to overlook our table because we were set in the far back corner, right before you entered the party room. It's also just across from the kitchen where everyone has to pick up their food to distribute. It's also just before the hallway to the bathroom and supply/break room door. So, it's a very easy table to overlook, and I kind of feel like they did. Other than that, the rest of the experience was great. The food made it worth it. The few issues we had with the service and lack of water, were mitigated by the fact that the food was so good! We got the catfish and grits (crawfish etoufee on the side), the t h h pancakes, and the peach cobbler pancakes, and the acai bowl. We didn't order any drinks other than the waters that we got at the beginning, I doubt they would have made it to our table anyway! Haha! The DJ was phenomenal! He had a vibe going throughout the entire time we were there. I walked in around 11:30 and requested a table for two, and it ended up being about a 30 to 40 minute wait, and it was definitely worth it. I'll be taking more friends there. I will say that I'm very excited about this black owned business, I hope that they survived everything in this country that's to come. I love the vibe that they had going on in there. I love the fact that we had so many faces of young black men in the kitchen! That was a sight to see. It was beautiful. This establishment can go very far. I can say keep up the good work and always seek to improve, never think that you have made it and done all that you can to be the best business that you can. There is always more to gain and learn from your customers and your fan base! The menu is on point! I'm going to go back one weekday (Tue-Fri), so that I can try...