The Palm Houston – Downtown

Eating was not good. only the oyster where ok, but the meat was dry, lobster was over boiled, even the butter was tasteless

Unfortunately good not great. Have dined in many Palm’s across the US. Was below par from previous experiences. Server and staff tried their best. A little confusion and inexperience. Some orders were incorrect and food temperature was unacceptable. Some meals were on time and excellent, half were not. It was New Years Eve and busy. Some area for improvement. We appreciated the effort however.

We would go to The Palm to treat ourselves. However, this is not the place to go on events like New Year's Eve. We were only a couple, placed in a corner of the restaurant, and basically ignored. We had to ask for bread for the table. When we did receive our appetizers, my wife's soup was lukewarm. We waited an eternity to receive our main meal; the restaurant was busy, so we respected that situation. When the plates did arrive, my shrimp dish was overcooked and my wife's requested medium-plus filet mignon was rare in the center. When she asked for the center to be cooked for just a little longer, it came back extremely well done. We didn't finish our meals, we simply requested the check and left . . . and very disappointed.

Everything was good, except the lobster gnocchi. When we told the waiter there was no Lobster in the gnocchi but we would eat it anyway. She then took the gnocchi back to the kitchen and a manager came out with the same dish and told us there was Lobster. She turned her phone flash light on over the gnocchi and showed us the tiny red specs, she said that was the Lobster. I had to laugh and that she needed a flashlight to show the Lobster like we didn't know the difference in taste between potato gnocchi and lobster. There was no Lobster flaor to the gnocchi. At all other restaurants, Matos, Perry's, Pappas Brothers, any dish with Lobster has popcorn size or larger pieces of Lobster in the macaroni or Mashpotatos.

We visited on New Years eve for dinner. The service was spotty which I attributed to the holiday crowd. We tried the salmon, sea bass and shrimp dishes which all tasted very fresh and prepared to our liking. Two items did not meet our expectations: 1. The tomato and mozzarella salad was very small and the tomatoes were sliced so thin that there was no flavor from them. 2. The cippolini onion soup with bone marrow was overpowered by the bone marrow which had a strong musty flavor and the cheese topping was too thick. We would not try these items again.