Wild — Restaurant in Houston

I love Wild but Westheimer location left a lot to be desired. I have never had this type of experience and I do not want to ever again. I usually frequent the Shepard location where the staff is friendly and personable, they have set the bar for customer service. So when visiting this location I expected a friendly laid back vibe. I however was completely ignored by the bartender. At first I assumed he was preoccupied with other customers but he never spoke nor made eye contact or any indication that guest can order a drink once he finished serving guest. He did however continue to engage in a conversation ignoring customers who sat next to the “order here sign” we felt invisible but continued to wait. I understand if the bartender is busy but we were the only customers unserved or greeted in a place where we have grown accustom to being spoken to whenever approaching the counters or bar. It’s a social norm and usually customer etiquette, so why treat us as if we were an inconvenience over an hour before closing time? We left after waiting about ten minutes with no eye contact or dialogue and drove to the Shepherd location to order our drinks and recapture our evening out. This drive pushed us closer to closing at the new location. Not only was the vibe nicer at the Shepherd location (as expected) we were greeted multiple times, asked if we needed help and the manger brought our drinks to us and apologized for our pervious experience on their behalf. He over heard us expressing how much we appreciated the barista that took our order for simply speaking and making eye contact with us. We are humans and felt disregard that evening by the bartenders behavior. I think this is an amazing space to work and relax but I would not come to the Westheimer location (only Shepherd) while staff treats...

Ambience 5/5 Food/drinks 4/5 Service 4/5

Wild is a nice concept with hemp derived THC/CBD infused into drinks for a charge, and into food for free. Both of us felt sleepy after a few hours of THC infusions 🤔🤣. Nice mix of music that's isn't too loud for conversation.

Cocktails were mid at best - ones described as not sweet... were pretty sweet - subjective I suppose. Hanoi hi five described s spicy was anything but - just sweet. Buckwheat tempura cauliflower small shareable was very good - very light on batter and lightly seasoned, the cauliflower stood out. The sauce was more on the sweet side than ginger or chili. Good portion though. Shared the large Japanese BBQ shrimp dish. Shrimp were tender. The seasoned rice had so much going with a perfect blend of mushrooms, and furikake - had a little kick to it. Initially couldn't find the poached egg, it was hidden under the mound of rice. 3-4 ppl can share this dish if they order a couple of small shareables. Dessert "Cotton but not candy" was disappointing - the sponge cake was really dense, and the flavors just didn't work for us.

Service initially when there were just a few tables occupied was attentive, but deteriorated as the place filled up completely. Water wasn't filled for a whole hour. No itemized bill offered, just the total is read out. 3 cocktails, 1 elixir, a small shareable and large shareable came to 130$ - on the pricier side. While we didn't have the snapper ("Big crispy pad Thai") doesn't matter what sides you get with it, 95$ for the "1 piece" portion and 150$ for the "3 piece" version is ridiculous. No idea what the 1 or 3 piece definition is all about.

Parking in the lot, if you get there early enough, is ok, but tough to find parking on permit-required streets in the...

I visited the Montrose Wild location last night, as it is a few blocks from where I am staying. I did enjoy my visit, but was disappointed with the service. I came in just after 8:30 PM. I sat at the bar and there were three people behind the bar, two of which appeared to be serving drinks as they were wearing matching aprons, one male, one female. I was awkwardly acknowledged by the female bartender around 8:47 PM when she made eye contact with me and asked me what I would like to drink, which I was wanting the Pineapple OG. She then came back around a minute later to ask what I wanted again and explained she had another drink to make and had forgotten. I replied with the Pineapple OG, which I received at around 8:52 PM. I had recently visited the Heights location and had a wonderful experience, they too were busy when I visited, but managed to acknowledge me when I had come in.

I stayed for around 1.5 hours and ordered three drinks (Pineapple OG + Pink Loco w/THC added - both were great!) I did have to seek out the bartender each time I wanted to drink. She was enthralled in conversation with some of the other bar patrons, which I completely understand, but as another paying customer - it would be nice for you to give attention to all.

I will be back, but will probably just go to the heights location. They have a great concept and did still enjoy my time at both locations, even with this minor snafu at the Montrose location.

Update - I stopped in today (01/15/2025) and Butch was my bartender for this visit. Very nice guy, super attentive and he definitely changed my perspective from my previous visit to this location. I ended up getting the Toffee Coffee with THC and...