Prego

Reviews 4

DI

Diana Castillo

I will be writing a letter to the owner. Our party consisted of 4 (2 couples celebrating our anniversary, 38 years and 28 years). I take a lot of pride in recommending Pregos to others. I work in the Texas Medical Center and even when I have family visiting Houston from Australia, Pregos is the place to go. Or, at least it used to be until Saturday evening 5/20/2017. The service was horrendous, the best I can describe it is that the minute we walked in, it felt like we had just pulled into the 290 freeway, construction delays, followed by bad traffic jams and it kept getting worse. It started with poor service at the bar. Your bar tender does not know how to make a quality and classic Old Fashioned. Tell her to learn the recipe from the bartender at Goode Company seafood. When we finally got our table, I expressed my dissatisfaction regarding the old fashion to our waiter. He chose not to manage my comment and deferred it to the bartender who finally came to our table. She began by telling us, the customer, that she had been bartending 20 years and the art of muddling (We know about muddling and we also know that if you dont know what you are doing, you can ruin a classic Old Fashion). Goodie for your bartender but thats not what we wanted to hear. I requested a vodka and tonic. She brought the vodka in a glass cocktail glass with ice and a shot of tonic in a separate shot glass. Then she asked if I wanted the tonic and I said "yes, that is what I requested." She proceeded to dump the tonic into the glass, splashing tonic all over her hand, my glass and the floor. So much for class, none whatsoever. Then, our waiter took our food order after waiting almost 20 minutes for him to come back to our table; he served our food and we never saw him again until the end. He never cracked a smile, as a matter of fact, the vast majority of employees did not smile, they seemed under barrage from an overcrowded restaurant that just took in too many customers at one time. How does this make for a quality dining experience? When Pregos begins shoving and ramrodding customers into a small facility, all for the almighty dollar, you wind up sacrificing the quality dining experience for those of us who gave up dining elsewhere to come to Pregos to have a pleasant anniversary dinner. Coming out of the ladies restaurant, I saw the male hostess with the curly hair in a ponytail and expressed disbelief and dismay over our dining experience. He also looked woefully shocked and also under a lot of pressure. I shared with him that it was our anniversary and that so far, it wasnt a happy one. He said he knew it was our anniversary and quickly sent 4 glasses of a poor quality champagne. Shouldnt he have started with this at the beginning versus the end of our dining experience? We quickly asked for our check, we just wanted out of there. Our waiter brought 2 desserts and laid them on the table with 4 spoons. He never said a word to us, not "thank you for dining with us," not, "happy anniversary," nothing, just plopped the desserts onto the table. We decided to eat the two complimentary desserts. We all agreed they were delicious and we were very sorry because it was all a bit too late. Pregos brand of being a Houston dining tradition, located in the heart of Houstons bustling Rice Village went out the window last night. And, to think that your chef was featured recently in The Charles Osgood Sunday Morning Show made it worse because you simply did not live up to the accolades touted in the news. Sincerely, Table 57, Check #91

ST

Stephen Elsen

Every single scallop in my pasta dish was bad. Ammonia tasting bad- possible cause of food poisoning if I would have swallowed them. I had three bites of the dish and asked the waiter to inform the chef that the Scallops were bad. The waiter removed my full plate of uneaten food and quietly said he would tell them. Not even an Im sorry. They didnt offer to remove the item from the check, they didnt offer another dish. I didnt push the issue or ask for concessions, I think its embarrassing when people make a scene, and its my sisters favorite restaurant, so I dont want to ruin it for everyone else. My wifes salmon was uninspired. I had to be careful not to drink my water all the way down to the bottom because I was trying to avoid ingesting the slime from the ice machine - Marvin Zindler RIP, you are missed. The chocolate dessert was so sweet that my wife and two kids of 6 and 2 wouldnt eat it, although my wife said the tart was good. The others in our party were happy, perhaps we just ordered the wrong items on the wrong day. I did notice that the fish dishes appeared overdone for my taste, but thats super common. If the family wants to return, next time we will avoid the seafood. Extremely expensive for the quality you get (6 adults + 4 young kids = $500). We are foodies, and know great food, but we are not picky. If the food was decent, this review would be different or nonexistent. Service was good which gave them the second star, but I would rather have crappy service and great food than vice versa.

LA

Lance Yarbrough

Ordered the Spaghetti al peperoncino and it came out coated in a dry chili powered. The flavor had little garlic and was below average. But at $14 a plate it was still overpriced. It is supposed to be butter, garlic sauce with whole peperoncino chilies not a dry powder. I had one of the special of the evening, a buffalo culet (I think). The flavor was excellent. I could not identify all the spices but they really surprised me and worked well with the buffalo. The green beans had the same seasoning so that was unusual while the potato dish was also excellent. That said I was astonished at the $42 price tag for the dish. Since it was the special I did not see the price, I was thinking $30 max given that the 8oz Manzo dish was $28. Way overpriced and I tried not to let that ruin what was a flavorful dinner. The service was good and I would rate it excellent if people would smile. I watched the kitchen staff watching the dining room and interacting with each other and I didn’t recall anyone smiling. In summary, 2 plates of spaghetti, 1 buffalo patty, and water to go around = $95 with tip!

RO

Roger D Rossen

As always the food at Prego is a very delicious mixture of traditional Italian and innovative cuisine. My partner had soft shell crabs sauteed with lovely pasta as a side dish. The mushroom soup was delicious. The wine list is comprehensive and wide ranging in price. Even the modestly priced wines are well chosen and you cant go wrong. The big problem, however, is structural. Its REALLY noisy, at least it was this Friday night. The crowd at the bar was having a great time and let every body in the place know it. Perhaps its the old fashioned embossed tin ceiling. But the place really reverberates when full. From now on I think Ill restrict my visits to a late lunch when its barely full. Then I can enjoy a good meal with friends in quiet conversation and will not have to shout to be heard across 3 feet of table.