Johnny's Italian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Shenandoah

I would love to be able to cite one positive from our entire experience, but it’s a struggle. From the minute you walk in you’re greeted with the ambiance and decor of a low-end hotel’s in-house restaurant. As I swept the crumbs from the bench seat of the booth we were sat in, I couldn’t help but notice the cracked wine glass delicately placed next to the old USB, Ethernet, and outlet ports from when the restaurant was clearly the hotel’s business center.

After 20 minutes we had our first watered-down drinks placed at the table, and the server promptly disappeared afterwards to seemingly avoid taking any food order. By the time our glasses were empty, we were finally able to order our starter and main courses. The second round of drinks arrived more quickly, but were equally watered down and the server had difficulty finding a place to set them on the table since no one cleared anything from it.

Our starter was okay enough that we were slightly hopeful that things would turn around. But alas… our salads arrived eons later and they were mediocre at best. We didn’t even finish them, and I can only assume that the half-empty plates were left as some sort of punishment because we stared at them for nearly an hour. If you’re keeping track, we’re two hours into our dining experience at this point.

Our entrees arrived (after we mentioned to the manager that we had been there for nearly 2 hours) and our server was shocked that he had to clear the plates in order to make room for the food. I wish I could say that the steak was so good that it made up for the service, but no. If someone whispered the word “salt” next to the meat while it was cooking it would have imparted more flavor than what we received. Up until now, I was unaware that “aged” beef could have absolutely zero taste. Even if my medium rare medallions weren’t cooked until they were grey inside, the experience of eating unflavored meat was all consuming. I “upgraded” my side to risotto, but instead received undercooked white rice with an overpowering amount of garlic and, what I can only assume to be, Kraft Parmesan cheese.

Our server offered us dessert on the house, but we declined and asked for the check. Why drag that out and suffer more disappointment? But we had the disappointment forced upon us when we were brought 2 boxes of sweets to take home. As a baker, I’m still perplexed by the fact that I couldn’t even figure out what pastries the items in the boxes were. One was some sort of pink coconut covered in the chalkiest, cheapest milk chocolate you could get - in one box it was square, the other round. I’m assuming the second item was an insult to baklava and placed in there strictly to illicit rage when we got home.

If you would like to spend over two hours, and nearly two-hundred dollars, on a meal equivalent to hospital food… I suggest you just go across the freeway and admit yourself to Memorial Hermann because service and food...

Only leaving one star because I have to. This review is specifically for management. Our visit on Mother's Day was absolutely terrible. The Hostess and one Server had both been working for almost 12 hours. I understand that being understaffed is a reality as I work in the industry myself, but that is no excuse for what we experienced. Our reservation was at 5:30, it took almost 45 minutes to be seated at a 6 top, there were no customers waiting to be seated in front of us. We were told for about 30 minutes that our table was being cleaned. After being seated, we waited almost 20 minutes before the hostess asked if our sever had taken our drink order, they had not, so she said she would bring our table of 6 waters, we received 3. another 20 minutes went by and the server came and took the drink order for half of our table before running off. After drinks came we asked for bread for the table, which came out with our appetizers after being there over an hour. Our table ordered 5 steaks all requested at medium-rare, they all came out cooked differently, one of which was more than well done. We then had to wait almost another 10 minutes for silverware to eat with. We had all ordered salad as a side and we were not informed that there was no product to make them, we were not asked if we wanted to replace it with something else. We finally asked for a manager after almost two hours of being there. Manager never came by because he was too busy hovering around the table sitting by the back window who were getting more than exceptional service. They also received salads after we were told they were out of product and they sat well after we did. We were offered to have our steaks re-made, they then brought us undercooked steaks. The hostess ended up taking care of our table mostly as well as taking care of getting things compensated for us. The whole meal ended up being compensated, but then the server came and slammed the receipt on the table and said "there its comped." I did flag our server and the hostess down and tipped them $100.00 because their management and kitchen should never have left them hanging like that. hands down, worst service I have ever received in...

This was during the 3-course Houston Restaurant week event.

We waited in the hotel lobby past our reservation time, in which there were multiple temperature-testing machines...which were never used. When our server greeted us he expressed annoyance at how many other people came in at once.

When we sat down we had to remind him to bring us stuff multiple times, and it became apparent he was the only server in a presumably full restaurant. At one point he forgot a part of my entree, but we were only on course 2 of 3 after almost an hour and a half, and we decided to just forget about it so we can leave sooner. It wasn't on the bill so must have never been rung in, which is fine. Aside from these issues, he was otherwise very polite, despite clearly overburdened with guests.

When the dessert course came around, they informed my girlfriend that one of the 3 selections, which she chose, was out of ingredients. When she chose the other one, he returned again to say they were out of that too, so her options were cheesecake, which she strongly dislikes, or a...scoop of ice cream.

Whom I presume was the manager, a gentleman in jeans and a regular shirt who didn't introduce himself, asked if we were doing okay, and we politely explained the dessert situation. He said sorry...but do we want to order anything else. Well no, you don't have what we wanted, and we already paid for something we didn't want, so no we would not like to buy more.

By the end of the experience, we had spent 2 hours there, primarily waiting on food.

The food was adequate and even good at times when it was available, the server (who was good about wearing gloves/mask) was polite yet rushed/infrequently visiting, and the atmosphere was fine despite us being sat next to an occupied meeting room for hotel guests, with just a curtain between us and them.

The primary issue was clearly staffing and stock. One additional server and chef would have made the service great, and having the ingredients for the limited menu would have made the experience complete. My recommendation is to better prepare for a bigger influx of customers during Houston Restaurant week, or reconsider...