Bakkhus Taverna — Restaurant in Kemah

Poor food, spoiled/rancid soup, slow service, bad odor inside interior dining room, nice outdoor seating area, average prices, and convenient location near the boardwalk.

We stopped in around 6pm after wandering around the boardwalk, looking for a place that was rated well and served somewhat healthy food. Upon arriving, we went inside the indoor portion of the restaurant and were promptly greeted by the hostess. Immediately, I smelled the strong odor of what I first believed was incense or a blend of wood, charcoal, and lighter fluid. Either way, the smell was very obvious and very unpleasant, so we opted to sit outside. At the time, nobody was seated inside either, so I'm assuming the odor offended everyone else as well.

The outside seating was quite pleasant, with plenty of room and nice outdoor tables with plenty of shade as well as a breeze and no bugs. The waitress was very pleasant and friendly. Service was relatively slow, with about 10 minutes to bring drinks after ordering and 10 more minutes to take the food order after bringing the drinks. Then the food took another 20 minutes after that and finally another 20 minutes after we finished to get the check. Overall, I'd say the service was about 50% slower than average.

For drinks, we had Arnold Palmers (unsweetened iced tea and lemonade). These were actually some of the best we ever had. Truly excellent ratio and very good flavor. We ordered baked pita and tzatziki as an appatizer. We arrived before 7pm and got a 50% discount on the appetizer, which was a nice touch. The pita and tzatziki was good overall. The tzatziki sauce was flavorful, fresh, and had a good garlicky flavor. The pita bread was average at best. Definitely not homemade. The flavor also had a tinge of char, which was not really pleasant.

We also ordered Avgolemano (greek lemon chicken soup). The soups arrived about 10 minutes after the appetizer. The soups were presented well with two large pieces of what appeared to be garlic bread. The soup was not a traditional Avgolemano (I've had this soup countless times over the years ag many different restaurants and homemade, but this one took a lot of liberties). The soup had a large quantity of rice, almost stew like in texture. The first bite I took, I immediately tasted something rancid. Thinking that it was a one off, I took another bite. The same rancid flavor like spoiled meat hit me like a ton of brick. The rest of our party tasted the soups and had the same reaction. It was very obviously spoiled soup or rancid chicken in the soup. This wasn't a seasoning or an herb, this was literally rancid soup. I know this sort of thing happens sometimes, but it doesn't excuse the fact that it should NEVER happen if the proper precautions are taken. I told the waitress about the soups and she said she would ask her manager if she could remove them from the bill or discount them. Mind you, these soups were uneaten (aside from the initial tasting). This was a strange response to receive regarding receiving rancid food.

We ordered an "Amerikan" cheeseburger, orzo spinach salad, a chicken kebab plate, grilled veggies, and a chicken pita. The cheeseburger was unremarkable and tasted like the standard frozen burger you'd expect at any local dive bar, very average overall. The orzo spinach salad was only orzo and a creamy sauce. It was not very good, but also that was our taste of liking it the traditional way. The chicken kebab tasted like charcoal and lighter fluid, which was very unpleasant. The texture was very good, and the chicken was tender. The roasted veggies were good but also had some of that same char flavor, which was unpleasant. The chicken pita was average and pretty traditional, with no complaints here but also nothing to rave about.

In the end, the manager took the rancid soups off the check. For 3 people, the bill was $75.

Overall, Bakkhus has pleasant employees and reasonable prices, but the food was truly poor. If you're in the area and looking for really great food, I'd try...

We had not been to Bakkhus since pre-COVID, I'll start there. We went on a Friday night, 7:30ish, which we thought would be lively, not being, was just fine with me. We sat inside due to wanting to watch the Astros vs Rangers game. They had it on behind the bar, the other TV had a cooking show, which they would not turn to the game. Ok, their perogative, their place. We knew then we would leave after eating anyway, it's cool.

The service was great! Very attentive. We cannot remember her name, young, short, blonde.

Ok, now for the food, HUGE disappointment but I will take some of the blame on myself. I ordered the 2 beef shish k bobs, lemon potatoes, onion rings. I neglected to mention I preferred the meat medium rare. This is my go to dish there and I have NEVER had to specify medium rare, just came that way. The meat came out EXTREMELY dried out and medium well, grilled veggies were great but the potatoes were extremely over salted and lacked lemon flavor. They used to be perfect, tender and full of flavor. These were so dry, like they were cooked earlier, a lot earlier and reheated. The onion rings were great.

My husband had the gyro plate. His meat was like cardboard, so dry. The French fries were just not the same as years before, dry. Pita bread was great.

We should have seen it as a red flag that there were only seven other guests there which includes the three at the bar. I remember this used to be a very happening place with a waiting list. I know it is post Beryl but folks are begging for places to go to. I have gone to 3 other places this week and chose to sit at the bar or take out due to the waiting lines.

Overall, very disappointed. Worse $60, plus tip, which she deserved, however, we have wasted in a long time. We will not be returning...

So today, I had a very unusual experience happen at this restaurant that I’m actually very frequent to and it’s something that was very undermining to the waitress you had to deal with them, but the kitchen did not prepare my food. The way I asked properly and I simply asked the waitress if she could have them just go add feta cheese to the order and she said yeah sure but when she came back, she said I’m super sorry about the kitchen. Staff is being very difficult. They are telling me that I cannot Have feta cheese on this order unless I talk to them in Spanish they said they will not respond to anybody speaking to them in English because of everything that’s going on right now in our country and I simply just shrugged it off and said whatever but then I overheard her telling the next table that she’s sorry for the food taking so long, but the kitchen staff put her ticket at the very bottom of the stack because she does not know how to speak Spanish and she had to constantly apologize to them and you can tell she was very distraught and did not know what to do. It is not her fault that she does not know how to speak Spanish . I’m hoping that the management will fix this problem immediately hopefully no other waitresses have to endure these types of people anymore with...