10/25/09

Great Place to Go

by chocness

I thought Sambuca was a very good enviroment. On Dec 27th 2008 my hubby and I went there for the first time to celebrate our anniversary and we had a very good time. The jazz band that performed that night was called "Papa Soul" and they were amazing, they sang Happy anniversary to those who were celebrating theirs or their birthdays, also the food was delicious and so was the drinks, at first we had to wait to be seated, but it wasn't a long drawn out wait, I did recommend others to go and they said that they had a very good time as well going to the one in Houston, which I plan to go again but in the city of Houston where I now reside again.

09/07/09

YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED

by simplysaid

NOTHING!

A friend and I went to your restaurant/jazz club on Friday, Sep 4, 09 for my 59th birthday. We made reservations for 6 pm. We arrived at 6 pm. were seated right away given the menus. We waited for 40 minutes, we got no water. Finally (2) waiters came to the table, no apology, and no water. By the way the restaurant was NOT BUSY. Why the delay? We order our meal; it took 50 minutes to get our meal. The roasted chicken tasted old and very dry. Finally half way through the meal we asked for water, we did get the water pretty fast. But, OMG, I had heard some many good things about SAM BUCA.

We were really disappointed.

Please let me know what the problem was that night, I sure this does not happen often, if so you guys need to take a class in customer service.

SO SAD………….

• Pros: NONE
• Cons: VERY BAD SERVICE AND FOOD

07/28/09

I make a full correction to my first impression

by ChefMark

I am a retired chef so I am hard on restaurants, but I feel I am fair. Any establishment can have a bad moment. It can be corrected by HOW the management reacts. Jayme the General Manager of Samuca, reacted properly. To digress, I sent a copy of my first review to the GM of Sambuca's. Within an hour I had received a reply apologizing and explaining the volume problem. The letter was professional and it invited me to reconsider. So I renewed the reservations and I am glad I did.

Basic Facts: Two show 7:30 and 9:30 with choice of $15 seats or VIP $25 seats. We took the $25 ones but I think the $15 would still be good, at least on weeknights. Very good waitress and nice menu choices. My wife's seafood risotto had perfectly cooked shrimp & scallops. The risotto was over cooked but tasty. My MR petite fillet with fried lobster was rare but the quality of the steak overcame any desire to send it back. The lobster was great with it and the fresh asparagus side was very good.

What made the evening memorable was the Southern Gentlemen, a true, talented group. Their music, their performance and their persona were stand-up applaud style. They had a guest violinist, Michael Ward, who took the performance even higher. He played jazz to bring tears to my eyes.

If you can afford $60 and above per person and want an outstanding evening, then run, don't walk to get to Sambuca's. (Call ahead to make sure that they have the style of jazz you want.) I will return!

• Pros: Food, Music 5 stars
• Cons: Pricey for some