The Union Kitchen — Restaurant in Houston

Terrible experience here. I made a reservation at 630pm for 8pm dinner. Could I have given more lead time on a Friday? Definitely. But an hour and a half also isn't a moment's notice. Immediately I suspected problems as the girl who answered the phone was way more concerned with talking and laughing with her coworker than attend to our conversation. I confirmed I could have a res at 8pm and specified I would like the side of the restaurant with booths - "sure, yeah" said the distracted voice over the phone. I confirmed again due to her distracted tone, yes she confirmed again. I arrive at 755pm, punctual, I see several booths open through the window, assume one was mine, perfect. Walk in, a 4top was seated in front of me. I'm thinking great, service is moving nicely. I let them know I have an 8pm res, she acknowledges my name on her sheet but said there would be a 20-25 minute wait because she just sat a 4top and half the restaurant is a wedding party. A bit confused I said, no problem, I requested this other side over here and there's clearly open booths. She answered the wedding party booked that entire side of the restaurant. I'm looking at her, back to at least 3 open booths, back to her. Clearly the wedding party was already there and booths were going unoccupied. I asked if I could have one and she said no, they reserved them. I advised I also made a reservation, did theirs trump mine? I asked what the point was of the restaurant accepting my reservation if I would still need to wait 20-25 minutes. The first girl was at least trying to be nice but then another girl walked over and rudely said "what's the problem?" I explained the situation again and said I was assured I could sit on the booth side and she responded "well I didn't take your reservation". They then verbally doubted that someone told me I could sit on the booth side due to the wedding party or that I had the conversation at all (despite my name being on the list in front of them). They confirmed finally, rudely, I would need to wait at least 15-20 minutes and then both of them just stared at me. No further attempt at a resolution (with clearly open tables), no apologies, no offerings of speaking with a manager, just staring at me, daring me to argue with them. It was embarrassing and unprofessional. This was an important night for my date and myself, so we left and assuredly won't be wasting our...

My company had a dinner here, there were about 15 of us in attendance. The service was bad, we only had one waiter taking orders (which could be the reason for the bad service). It took 45 minutes to get simple appetizers and drinks. When they arrived they were given to the wrong person and most felt the taste were unremarkable.

Naturally if it took that long to get small plates we'd expect to have a wait for our entrees and they didn't disappoint. Several of our entrees came out cold, mine included. I politely excused myself to the bathroom and while I was away from my company, I asked a member of management to please quietly remove my food, and prepare my meal to go. He inquired as to why, I informed him that it was cold and I am with my job so I didn't want to make a scene or be a bother. Initially the manager asked if I wanted him to take my food in the back and microwave it? For a moment I was completely speechless and just looked at him, I replied, no please don't. Finally the manager said that he would take care of it quietly and send my food out package to go,while I refreshed myself in the bathroom. About 20 minutes later the same manager brings me this dish packaged to go and announces that he hopes this is more to my liking in front of everyone. After I clearly stated I didn't want to draw any attention to the situation. I was completely embarrassed and ready to go.

My teammate said if he were being generous he'd give the overall restaurant a 3 out of 10. We all agreed for the most part.

To add insult to injury as I'm leaving, that same manager singled me out stopped me and said, Make sure you and your friends come back tomorrow. I replied, no I live very far away, he then challenged my comment and said but it's worth whatever drive to come back here and get this service. Now I'm livid, I said, but the service is horrible, you're disrespectful, my food was cold and unremarkable, and now you're being rude, plus you stopped me at the door and didn't open it for me. No I'm not bringing friends here, please move.

I would not suggest this Union Kitchen. I've loved other locations but...

Dined in for brunch on Mother’s Day, service seemed slow as there were many open tables. My friend and I were very excited to try their mushroom veggie burger but apparently it was discontinued it a month ago. We were wanting to share a bunch of Vegetarian options but it was very limited. The server said they can turn make any dish into vegetarian. Therefore, we ordered the Parmesan chicken pasta and substituted the protein for their roasted Brussels sprouts and asked to make vegetable forward (It basically was Fettuccine Alfredo with mixed vegetables and a side of plain dry Brussels sprouts on the side.) This completely lacked in seasoning, nothing special. The temperature wasn’t hot, we had to ask if they could microwave it. Seemed like they threw it together without any care if it was good or not. Very disappointing. We didn’t want to trouble them to change it out as there weren’t too many options for us to begin with. We also ordered a potato omelette which was alright, nothing exciting and the portion was small for what it was. So we asked for some bread.. when the other female server offered different options of jams.. my friend wanted the mixed berries and when she came back, she brought us strawberry jam. My friend wasn’t a fan of strawberry but we settled with it as it took her awhile to come back. The only thing that was good was their Asian crunchy salad and their Spinach dip. My friend and I felt very let down. The server Jesse was made aware of our dissatisfaction and it was not his fault but we wanted to see what effort they were going to make it better. He sent the GM over and he said Hi to us which was nice and very brief. When we asked for a box to go, Jesse just dropped off the styrofoam box and said “and heres a bag if you need it.” And walked away. Honestly, service is pretty poor. I appreciate it when the server assists with boxing our food, but maybe that’s too much to expect here. It’s really the little details that make a place special. In the end that was that and nothing else. On a special day like Mother’s Day you would think they would care more. I wouldn’t...