The Original Ninfa's Uptown — Restaurant in Houston

Overall, I would not recommend. These are the low-lights:

-No disrespect to the cooks, I'm sure some people like the flavor, but as many people have mentioned-it's not authentic. -A few of our orders were incorrect. One entree was entirely different so it was replaced, but we overlooked the rest because it happens and it was close enough-we didn't want to give them a hard time. -Some drinks were refilled (for a price without notice) and others never got the refill/drink they requested. -Funny thing: We asked for "agua de jamaica" which is hibiscous water. The waiter mentioned they were out and that the staff didn't want to go through the trouble of boiling the leaves...the leaves...hibiscous water is made with the flowers LOL. He then shows up with it afterall, but it tastes artificial which would make sense why he didn't know how it's made. -LASTLY. The waiter requested a cash tip since he would otherwise need to share it with the rest of the staff. We didn't have a lot of cash since we were paying with a card, but we managed to gather 6% of the bill. He then comes back and essentially demands more. At this point, everyone is looking at each other like "we just gave you all the cash we had" and then one of the children-bless their heart-says they have $10 to give. The waiter took it.

He asked for cash, we gave him cash, it wasnt the quantity he wanted so he threw a fit. Not everyone carries cash, it was very generous of us to try to get him to keep a good chunk of the tip and it felt like our efforts were not appreciated. We should have just made him split it all with the staff as he should. The whole situation was uncomfortable.

The only good thing that came out of this was that we enjoyed our family time, but next time we'll just have a good time elsewhere.

*Update: Restaurant has reached out to try to make it right-we declined, but it's appreciated. Hopefully they'll tell Alejandro (the waiter) to stop...

I had not been here in a while, I love the food so I always order to go because last year, we got overcharged for dinner so I feel like by ordering online you can better manage what you are being charged for and there are no surprises all of a sudden. That situation unfolded because my two teenagers nieces, 15 and 16, wanted fajita so they order the fajita for 2 and my sister who had stomach surgery and obviously CANNOT EAT much because her stomach won’t allow it, ate from the same order and the waitress charge us for double the amount. We letted go because we were with more family members and it wasn’t the point to argue in a day we were celebrating my family’s visit.

In another incident, back in January when I dine in last, we were seating outside and my food had a hair and the waitress said that because we were seated outside it was normal. We left it at that.

Today, I sat at the bar, I was waiting on a friend, we were going to celebrate my birthday and this place just happened to be really HOT, I asked the bartender twice if they could lower the AC and he said they couldn’t do anything about it that it was already on and that’s the way it was. It’s a very uncomfortable environment when it’s that hot and you can’t enjoy your time and your food. Needless to say, I left. I know prices have gone up and the food keeps shrinking every time I order, plus that incident when we got overcharged, the hair thing and now this restaurant is insanely hot, I can’t come back and I wouldn’t recommend...

I am only giving the 1 star because the waiter did his best. I made advance reservations for 15ppl which started off bad because I was told that only a manager could make larger reservations and I needed to email him because he wasn't there, only after questioning having to email did the manager happen to pop up on the line. We arrived and everything moved slowly because they had 1 person taking food and drink orders for 13ppl. Andre was kind and worked so hard to assist everyone. At some point another birthday celebration joined a nearby table. These 8ppl somehow because quickly drunk and extremely loud to where we couldn't hear ourselves or the waiter. 1 man at the table was practically screaming. My party had to stand up and walk to each other or send a quick text. I understand the room is not completely quiet but management shouldn't allow noise to get out of hand. We requested that the waiter ask the manager to see if he could calm the table and he refused to even come in the room. His offer was for our party of 13 to get up and move somewhere else. I knew from walking in my skin color was not wanted but I expect great customer service despite your racism. Next time just because you see a group of black ppl walk in that doesnt mean you need to send them a black waiter its noticable and...