Zanti Cucina Italiana - River Oaks — Restaurant in Houston

This is my 2nd time at Zanti and I was really disappointed during this visit. During my first visit everything was perfect from the moment I valet my car to the moment I paid, I received the best service. During my visit time I was very disappointed. I made a late reservation for 7:45 and when I arrived the host was amazing and was able to set my at 7:30. My waiter immediately came to my table and provided me with water and slight explanation of the menu and asked me if I was ready to order. At this time I had not had an opportunity to review the drink or dinner menu so I asked for some additional time. I was waiting on one other person so I reviewed the menu while I waited and then ordered my first drink. Once the other guest arrived it they reviewed the drink and placed their order. My drink arrived by another waitress and she provided a great explanation and presentation of the drink. Our waiter returned back to the table and asked if we were ready to order before the other ladies drinks arrived. We decided to go ahead and place our order and during that time the other ladies drinks arrive and the presentation of these drinks were very different from how the young lady presented our drinks. We placed our order, our food came out and before we were able to finish our dinner we were being asked about dessert. At that moment we knew that our waiter was rushing our dining experience and decided to take our food to go and not order any additional drinks and just leave. I was celebrating my birthday so my friend asked if they could get a birthday cake with candle and during that moment he returned with our boxed food and the check all before the dessert ever arrived. We ate the dessert as quickly as we could, paid, and left. I was really disappointed because this was my birthday dinner and my friends and I were in the restaurant for more than 1 hour because our waiter made us feel that we needed to leave. I am not sure what caused the rush because we arrived well before closing but my birthday dinner was certainly ruined by...

Restaurant Review: Zanti Cucina Italiana, W. Gray, Houston Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Date of Visit: 2023-10-08

Having been a loyal patron for over a year, it is with great disappointment that my most recent dining experience at Zanti was not up to the standard I have come to expect. Specifically, the Octopus Carpaccio—a dish that my wife and I have enjoyed many times—caused us both to fall severely ill.

Ambiance: As always, the ambiance was delightful with tasteful decor and a charming atmosphere. The establishment maintains its inviting presence, which made the subsequent events all the more disheartening.

Service: The service was prompt and courteous, with the staff attending to our needs efficiently. As usual!

Food Quality: This is where the experience fell drastically short. We ordered our favorite appetizer, the Octopus Carpaccio. Upon tasting, both my wife and I noted that it did not seem as fresh as it usually does. As a result, we both fell ill, displaying symptoms indicative of food poisoning. The experience left us bedridden for several days, suffering from high fevers and an inability to eat.

Price: The pricing is as expected for an Italian restaurant of this caliber, which only amplifies the disappointment in food quality on this occasion.

Conclusion: Although we have had countless satisfying experiences at Zanti, this unfortunate event has severely undermined our trust. It is crucial for any food establishment to maintain a consistent level of quality, especially when it concerns the freshness of ingredients. I urge the management to investigate this matter promptly to ensure it does not happen again.

While it is true that everyone can have an off day, the consequences in this case were serious, affecting not just the enjoyment of a meal but also our health. I hope that this incident is an isolated one and that the necessary measures are taken to prevent such unfortunate events...

Now that the twins are getting a little bit older we are starting to bring back date nights. That means we finally get to dress up and explore some hot and new restaurants in town.

We are not sure Zanti is considered new, but it's definitely new to us. We were invited here for a birthday dinner. First of look it up on GPS, since I haven't been out in forever, I just assumed River Oaks meant the area by the River Oaks District off Westheimer. So we blindly started driving there and the GPS was like no you are still 15 minutes away.

Once, we pull up, we didn't bother looking for parking and just used the valet as we were already running late. When we left is when we found out it was complimentary and tips are appreciated it, they do accept cash app/venmo.

Once inside, the place is huge and it is quite loud. We started off with the G cocktail and the no com-pearable. The G comes in the skull mug, it is quite spicy and gives you a good kick. We started out with the fried samplier, which comes with calamari and shrimp.

As far as entrees my wife had the seafood cioppino with a side pasta with butter sauce. The seafood cioppino was quite salty, but the side pasta was amazing. They did tell us that all of the pasta in homemade in house and it was so simple yet so delicious. We opted for the Tagliatelle as the actual pasta. He was very knowledgable, in the different options as I do not like spagehtti and prefer a thicker noodle.

I had the bolognese and it was solid. I still perfer North Italia's version, but their home made pasta was the star of the show.

We ended the meal with the Zanti sphere which is a huge martini glass with a chocolate ball inside. They pour on flaming liquor to melt the chocolate revealing ice cream and a brownie. I thought this would be overly sweet, it was just right.

We had a great time and can't wait until our...