The Oceanaire Seafood Room — Restaurant in Houston

good day to the folks that are about to read this… hm where should i start? LOL, valentines day is over and let me tell you about this terrible experience at The Oceanaire Seafood Room in Houston. Christopher or whatever his name is, topher or whatever he prefers, supposedly hes the manager. anyway i couldnt tell bc the lack of customer service. meanwhile i work in customer service so understand but this was bad. i spoke to him to tell him I was outside and that valet was taking forever. I ended up coming in leaving my driver so i could save our reservation and within one minute he gave my reservation away. he kept saying in a monotone voice sounding like life was beating him at all cost that he understood but really didnt bc he could’ve accommodated by adding me to the list of getting table even after our reservation …he took away a $50 charge for a reservation that he kept saying he gave away and said he wouldn’t seat. OFC you need to take that away bc im here and didnt pull a no show you said you wont seat me and also said you wont add me to the list to get seated and i should sit at the bar for service. Don’t even let me started w the bar service. Shoutout to John, the best bartender who did what he could. I even feel bad of how inconsiderate his coworkers and manger could be to tell everyone waiting for their table to sit at the bar and for the people who couldn’t get a table to sit at the bar. so you expect 20 plus people to sit at a bar and a bartender to take orders for all those people plus make drinks for the whole restaurant??? … I feel so bad for all bartenders working there.. it was only 2. plus the guy cleaning dirty glasses. poor management. lack of employees. So we ended up sitting at the bar since we had no where to go, tell me why we had to wait 35-40 min for our order to get taken bc bar tenders had to take food orders bc they kept telling everyone to go to the bar. which wasnt there fault. I blame management. If it was me I probably wouldve quit today bc of how unorganized this restaurant was. We ordered food and the kitchen kept saying things were out. So youre telling me yall didnt plan for valentines day !??? So many things were out…we came before 9pm...we couldnt even get two choices we wanted. The kitchen even said something was out but it still came out so whos lying? the waiter or the kitchen? we had ordered something else bc we were told it was out… but our original order came. Oh my spinach was sooooooo salty. I think the kitchen was throwing things out just because….. didnt even try the food. I asked people near me for their opinion, they said the same. so unorganized, food bland and some salty. terrible customer service. so much lying… if yall dont want blacks to eat here just say that bc i saw the previous google review about the terrible service and how racism is shown. imagine spending your day like this, its depressing and all you hear a monotoned person, who is .. not gonna lie well spoken but not as accommodating as he seemed messing up valentines day because this restaurant decided to over book. the greediness for money is disgusting that you cant even offer good customer service first #SAD and im not even from houston. this set the tone for me. Terrible. If i could give zero stars for this restaurant today I would but heres a one...

My experience at Oceanaire started off great. Then the waiter started to forget things (refills, wine, side items etc.) One of my sisters waited 45 mins on her wine. My sister and her husband ordered a certain steak, after about 30 mins the waiter came back apologizing saying the restaurant did not have the steak that they ordered, so they ordered another steak. After about 15 mins the waiter came back saying they only have one order of the 2nd steak they ordered and not two. So my sister kept 2nd steak order and her husband ordered a different steak. After about 15 more mins the waiter came back now saying the kitchen accidentally gave my sister’s steak away and she had to get something else. At this point she was very irritated but just ordered the same steak her husband ordered. The food came out and we began to eat. I asked for a side of ranch and while dipping I found something in the bottom of my ranch and I picked it out. After picking out the foreign object and cleaning it I saw that it was a piece of a chicken bone ( the tip of a wing). I instantly felt queasy as there were no chicken wings on the menu. I spoke to the manager and he informed me that the kitchen sometimes prepares chicken wings for the staff, however it is in a different location of the restaurant. I could not eat another bite as I was completely grossed out. The manager told me my bill would be taken care of and gave us menus and told us we could have dessert on the house. So we put in our dessert orders and the table begin to give the waiter their food to be boxed up. My husband gave the waiter his food to be boxed and the waiter asked him if he needed anything else and my husband told him hot sauce (the red sauce that comes with the shrimp fried rice). The waiter brings back the hot sauce with out the food. My husband asked about his food and the waiter said “I thought you only wanted hot sauce”. I asked the waiter, why would my husband only want hot sauce ? What is he going to put the hot sauce on? The waiter responses “I thought he just liked our hot sauce”. The waiter then said he will have the kitchen remake the food. After about 20 mins the waiter comes back and says the kitchen is closed and he can just take my husband’s food off of the bill. The bill finally came and it was a mess. The waiter still included my husband’s food on the bill and the desserts that the manager said were on the house. He adjusted the bill but kept his tip at a high percentage (he kept his gratuity at the percentage of the higher bill amount). His gratuity should have been adjusted at the lower price of the bill. He adjusted the bill about 4 times (but never his gratuity) and at this point we were just ready to go as the restaurant began turning off the lights and valet was closing and we had to get our cars. We were there about an hour and a half after closing time. We left feeling exhausted and defeated. Our waiter Zach definitely swindled his way into a tip that he did not deserve! The experience was overwhelming and nothing like we imagined it would be. I expected so much more from this...

Edited Review: The Third Time was NOT the Charm

January 2023: We made a reservation for a Friday evening (9:00 pm) due to work schedules and arrived about 10 minutes early. Not very busy for a Friday evening. The opening intro from our server was well-rehearsed, but too fast. They no longer serve bread ahead of the meal and appetizers. We didn't order appetizers and went straight to the entrees. The food was not that good given the cost. One of the entrees was a steak, medium rare. It came back medium well. When the server came to check on it, he asked 'do you want it remade?'. What should have been said, is let us remake that for you. The simply prepared salmon was OK, but a small portion for the cost. And while I understand they close at 10:00 pm (although you can make a reservation for 11:00 pm?), we seemed rushed for desert. Our entrees weren't even cleared and they asked if we wanted desert because they were closing the kitchen. We weren't ready for desert quite then and declined. If you are going to "close" at 10:00, then make your last reservation well before 9:00. Odd that at the bottom of my receipt is this quote from Mr. Fertitta, "There are no spare customers." I don't necessarily agree.

MAY 2021: We made a dinner reservation for three to celebrate a special occasion. I dropped off two of our party while waiting on the valet. They did not seat them citing the whole party must be present, yet we observed later this was not the case for all parties. Despite many empty tables, we were seated by the entrance to the kitchen which was noisy and "smelly". Our waiter asked if there was a special occasion and when we told him what it was (graduation), his reply was "It is the season". What a totally rude remark! The food was OK, certainly not worth the premium price charged. I discussed this with the manager after our visit and he indicated he made some notations in my "profile" regarding seating in the future and said he was sorry citing staffing shortages and busier than usual. He did ask that we call before the next time we visit so they can make sure everything goes well. It goes without saying you shouldn’t have to call ahead to ensure a good customer experience.

July 2021: What a totally different experience compared to the last time we visited. We did not let the restaurant know we were coming, although the GM asked us to (see above). The seating was much better than last time. Our server, Juan, was the best! He explained the dishes as though he has prepared hundreds of them. He gave us plenty of time to decide, and when he was with us, gave his undivided attention and was very engaging...he really appeared to enjoy his work. The food was prepared perfectly, excellent portions and taste. Desert was delicious. The pace of the meal was very good. If I had one criticism (and this is just a real nit), the water glasses were topped off a little too often, interrupting our family conversation. Why didn't I give it a higher score? Visits need to be consistent before I can give...