Bramble

Great service. Loved watching the kitchen. Oysters were amazing! My ribeye was a little over cooked but still ok that I didn’t send it back. The pig shoulder «was awesome» (from the husband). The sides were lacking. Wine suggestion was spot on. I’d bring out of towners here for sure. The best thing about this place is they are farm to table and all food is sourced from Texas ranchers and farmers!!! Support!

Dumb. No consistent menu, screw up order, no one cares, never go back. Bad experience.

Didn’t honor our reservation.
We were so excited to try this restaurant. I made a reservation almost a week in advance. When we arrived at 7:50, 10 minutes before our reservation, we were strongly encouraged to eat our dinner at the bar as the hostess was waiting on one of 2 tables to leave in order to seat us and «they weren’t cooperating.» We declined as we’d prefer the a table, thus the reservation.
Both of the «uncooperative tables» got up to leave at 8:15 so we approached the hostess expecting to be seated. Instead she told us that we’d have to wait for a different table to leave as she had to give these tables to an 8:30 reservation. She didn’t seem to care that we had a reservation. We finally gave up as it was made clear that our business wasn’t needed/​wanted/​appreciated and goodness knows when the next table was going to leave or if we’d actually get it.

Turned my friend and I away because we didn’t have a reservation. So much for a neighborhood joint.

Great food! Wonderful service, the staff is very knowledgeable and will help pair any of their menu items with beverages. Menu changes are frequent so you know they are only serving the freshest selections. A southern twist on fine dining it’s a great meal, guaranteed!

The food was very flavorful. The cooking is seriously very good. Service was good.
They also did a great job making a trendy space out of an older building. Their architect or interior designer needs some major credit for a great job. So, it’s a value add to the galleria area property values for sure.
While I did like the ambiance, there needs to be a physical barrier between the older kitchen and the re-​modeled dining area. The older kitchen was very bright during our dinner. That could be an easy fix.
As to the menu, I think there are still a few kinks to work out. But, since they change their menu all the time, maybe my suggestions will be helpful.
There was no wine on the menu under 12 to 14 dollars a glass which is a bit high unless it’s a special event. But beer can be had for 4 to 5 dollars and it is served in a can. Ok. Noted. My cocktail was ok but maybe not the strong point of the evening. The raspberry lemonade cocktail was not very flavorful.
The only red meat options on the menu when I went (the menu changes a lot) were a 3 ounce app ($ 15) and a 16 ounce steak with no sides ($ 36). 15 dollars for three ounces of meat was pretty silly and that put me in a bad mood that the red meat options were so limited but I had snacked later in the day and didn’t want 16 ounces of meat. I was confused as to what circumstances a 3 ounce piece of meat would be purchased as an appetizer since you can’t really share it. Since its meat and can be cut easily, give us some size options! So, I wished there was more options for red meat. I got the red meat app and got sides with it ($ 6 each) to make a go of it for a meal. Another dinner companion got the 16 ounce steak but with no sides. There was not much selection at all for the sides but it was unclear why they where there except for the steak.
I will say that my meat was delicious. All 3 ounces of it.
Overall, the food is good but the options were kind of limited in the menu. portions for the good sides like the mushrooms were low but the portion size for the beans was huge which was odd.
Dessert sizes are massive. I was like, make the app that size!
FYI, Check is split evenly. Mandatory gratuity of 20% which is fine and what I normally tip but it’s awkward when it’s mandatory but there’s a space if you want to tip extra like 20% is not enough.

Bramble. amazing service and food! We had the chefs pick. Put your trust in him and you will have a wonderful meal. They can help you pair your food with great wines. Truly amazing place. Good for group dinners. Reservations on the app OpenTable. Thank you so much for an amazing meal!!!

Terrible. Fool’s gold. Terrible service, rude bartenders, chewy shrimp, tasteless sauce. Catering to people who think they know how to eat.
Shame, such a nice location. If you like to drink and eat quality, this is not the place. Ohh and super expensive

Food is overpriced. Menu is confusing. Portions are small. Food takes 30 minutes. Food isnt even that good. Savebyourself the trouble

The owner tried to fight me. That should be enough to tell you what kind of service this place deems itself. Oh, he smelled like alcohol as well. The food was pretty pathetic and the wine selection was a joke. Terrible experience and horrible representation of Houston and Texas.
FYI: IF anyone has notice JOHN is a server at this place as well. Which should tell you another thing about them. They are dishonest people and there food is pretty salty…

Let me first begin by saying I want to acknowledge that this is my first review, but hopefully the contents justify the rating.
That being said, I grew up in Houston, I love the food in Houston, it’s made me the foodie I am today, but I’ve now lived in LA for the past decade. I’ve come to expect a certain class of food at the price range that Bramble offers. Furthermore, I expect a certain amount of service. Unfortunately, I received neither.
Let me begin with the food.
Roasted Oysters — Meh at best. A little too big, fishy and not much taste.
Venison Tartare — High hopes for this one, but absolutely no taste. Worried it would be gamey but it wasn’t. Could have used more citrus. Was served very lukewarm.
Foie Gras Biscuit — Now let me be clear that this is one of my favorite dishes in LA at Animal but I thought in the South the biscuit would be better. Nope, it was stale.
Shrimp and Grits — This is what I came here for, and wow such a disappointment. Full juicy shrimps but again the grits were blah.
Boudoin — Pass.
Finally, what made it all go from 3 stars to 1 star was the service. Now throughout the meal, water was dripping from the ceiling on my mother. She complained a few times but finally the owner came over and looked disgruntled. After questioning the authenticity of my mother’s claims he threw up his arms in disbelief. I couldn’t believe it. Was he actually questioning whether she was getting wet from his ceiling?
Then the bill comes and it has a mandatory 20% gratuity. Now I’m happy to tip. In LA, 20 is the minimum. However, tipping on service is part of the experience and should be a choice. Upon receiving the receipt we questioned the charge. The waiter immediately got defensive and said the tip was for him and not the owner. I said «I understand and I would like to talk to the owner about our experience. I’m happy to tip you, but I just want to speak to him.» The owner hears this and throws off his apron to literally fight my brother and I. Meanwhile, a waiter standing nearby tells me to stop breathing near him.
Needless to say, the food and service did not justify the bill.
Edit– I would like to note that Jon who reviewed right after me works at the restaurant and posted a fake review. He was actually the gentleman that told me not to breathe on him. He changed his profile picture but you can see all his activity is associated with the restaurant.

The casual atmosphere is a bit misleading given the prices for what you get. We had the marinated flounder appetizer which consisted of a beautiful yet sparse presentation. It was literally 3 bites (not enough to share) and the sweet potato purée tasted like jarred baby food. We also ordered sweetbreads and the shrimp and grits. Everything was under seasoned and underwhelming. Service was mediocre and food wasn’t anything to rave about. I like the concept and fresh ingredients but it’s doubtful I’ll go back for seconds.

I will start by saying I really did want to like this place, I was eager to try the new kid in town that boasts farm to table concept, and is incredibly close to home.
The restaurant itself is small inside with tables, booths and a bar, and an open kitchen you can see into. It’s unclear what crowd they’re trying to appeal to since some groups had suits and ties and others had sweats and flannels.
Their service strategy is a strange one… 3 servers in the area who all attend to you. They were all passionate about the food and the concept but very pushy in the water refilling. I think even the host filled our glasses once. It is unnecessary to refill every time the glass reaches ¾ full! It interrupts any chance of having peaceful conversation.
What is going on with the menu?! It changes daily/​weekly and they have about 10 appetizer options and only 4 entrees. The appetizers are either good for one person or to share, but there’s no way to know which it is unless you ask specifically. The entrees include 1 burger, $ 14 and 3 entrees all $ 26+ and they had 3 off the menu items written on a chalkboard in the back. The limiting entrée menu was frustrating and you take a risk when going of not finding something appealing to your palette.
Beef belly ($ 15)-two pieces of fatty beef with oyster mushrooms. The beef was good and flavorful but there was one layer that was inedible and hard. It was a very small plate and would have been nice to have some greens or veggies for some crunch on the plate.
Mushroom fricassee– mushrooms, egg and bean dumplings. Incredibly bland, even for comfort food! It is a stew like dish with a runny egg to thicken the broth, but there was not much else to the dish. It was visually unappealing and the texture of the dumplings was too chewy. Do not recommend.
Burger-​The burger was quite good, the meat was smoky and flavorful. It was cooked medium rare instead of medium and there were lots of chopped onions that fell out everywhere but would still order again!
Cake-​pretty large slice but very, very heavy on the icing.
Overall, not impressed by food and pricing or operations. The burger was its saving grace but for a place with the reputation it’s trying to portray, that shouldn’t be the best thing on the menu.

We came to Bramble to help celebrate a friend’s birthday. There was about 20 of us and they did a great job of accommodating our large group.
Interior space is wide open and somewhat small, or at least it seemed that way, when we took up a third of the interior. They have a fairly warm intimate décor, with lots of natural woods and low lights. There’s a stocked full bar running along the right hand side of the restaurant with a tv sneaking a peak of sporstcenter to diners. Besides the bar, there’s table and chairs throughout including a small outdoor patio space for dining. The kitchen is open style and you can crane a neck and watch them get to work on filling orders. Dress code covered almost the whole spectrum. You’ll be safe to stay casual but with the surrounding neighborhoods of Piney Point, Memorial, etc. a jacket wouldn’t leave you out of place.
Service was exceptional, especially since we had such a large group to tend to. They did a great job on jumping on our drink orders and making sure everyone was filed in on the new local specials etc. I’m not sure if it’s required, but we had a fixed menu of 3 choices of appetizers, entrees and sides, which made is much simpler for front of house to handle our crowd.
Food was fantastic. The menu touches upon a lot of nostalgic comfort foods and southern staples, all made with extremely fresh and local ingredients. Their menus change daily which is a reflection of their focus on finding what is most fresh to serve their diners. I tried as much as I could grab at around me which included Shrimp and grits (fantastic fluffy grits), yardbird (lightly fried and very juicy), greens (great hint of vinegar) and mushroom dumplings (people were jealous of my sleeper pick). No one seemed disappointed with their plates. Also, I saw a lot of great looking local gulf fish options which will probably bring me back for a whole seafood round two. Drinks were notable as well. They have a full bar and make some great simple and mixology style cocktails. Didn’t jump on the wine, so can’t make much mention of that.
Prices were fairly reasonable if you keep in mind that these aren’t off the back of a sysco truck frozen entrees. There is a scarcity when it involves eating local and fresh ingredients, but even then, you can find an entrée ranging from $ 15 to $ 25 a plate which is totally fine by me when considering the quality.
All in all, Bramble is a fantastic addition to the Memorial Village’s food desert, and I hope to see much more of them in my future.

Everything here is locally sourced from Texas, we are TRULY farm to table. I think our server must of told us this 198 times. I can totally appreciate that, but enough with the farm to table movement, we get it.
Bramble is close to the office, so four of my co workers decided to pop in for Friday lunch, and definitely was excited to check out something new. The menu looked really innovative, and I’m all for fresh, Texas ingredients. We were immediately welcomed in, as the place is actually really small. I was surprised to note that the outside area has no tables, just benches to wait, which is a a good thing because there were maybe a total of 15 tables in the entire place. Our server was very very knowledgeable about everything, very friendly, and on point. He did explain things in DETAIL, which we all understood, but it was a little long in the tooth. We started with the pig wings, which were awful. NO salt, NO taste, blander than bland, and not cheap. I had the crab roll for my main dish, which was just okay. It was very mayonaisey, and not a lot of flavor. The bread was good, and the homemade chips were a nice try, but again NO salt on the chips! My boss had the soup that had qail or something in it that was called a gumbo, but it was broth based. He said it was decent. The other two of my co workers had the shrimp and grits which I tasted and were good. ($ 18) They had a limited lunch menu and some weird things like a giant beef shank on there for $ 95. I was just confused about the theme, or what they are going for, and who they are trying to attract. I left there confused, and definitely not impressed. I also thing their prices are a little steep, especially for lunch, the four of us for lunch was $ 93, tip not included. I’ll pass.

Bramble’s food was OK, and it’s service was OK – the overall experience was just OK, which is not what I’m really looking for at those $$ prices.
The main service point against Bramble is the reservation policy. For starters, it sucks that they don’t take reservations, and while they say that you can call ahead to reserve your place in line, it really doesn’t work – we called ahead, and when we arrived, it was pretty obvious that «being on the list» made no difference. But our waiter and other servers in the restaurant were nice.
The food was just fine – the only two items that stood out to me were the squid ink risotto and the cake. The risotto has great flavor and texture – very good – and the pumpkin cake that we had for dessert was huge (enough for four people to split) and delicious. Our table had a few other dishes – the chicken, steak and charcuterie board – all of them were fine, but they weren’t crazy good.

This place is way overpriced for what it is. A small piece of fish with some greens for garnishment was $ 28.
I expected so much more from them for the price. If I am paying that much for a tiny entrée, then I expect perfection. The food was beautifully plated, but what’s the point if it doesn’t have great flavors/​seasoning.
For the quality and setting I think they are overpriced 30−40%
I didn’t like the spread of cost on their entrees. They had three entrees. A burger for $ 18. Rabbit for $ 28. Fish for $ 28. I hated that, other than the burger, everything was priced well over $ 20. If I’m going someplace upscale and expensive, I’m not going to order a burger. It sucked that they didn’t have another entrée right around $ 20.
There are so many better farm to table places to eat in Houston, if you are going to spend $ 25+ on an entrée. Why settle for this place?
After I left, I went to Taco Bell because I was still hungry.

The drinks were good. The meat on appetizer meat place grossed me out. No one ate it. Ewwwwwww!
It was weird unflavored pâtés. It was very pricey and the menu was not my type of food.
It was pretty empty. Not a happening place. More of a neighborhood type of joint.
Hard to get to, six door and none work… use very front of building. Annoying bc small signs keep pointing you around. I would not go back …

This place is a great new addition to the Houston dining scene. Friendly staff and amazing food. We started with the charred corn and was excellent. Just the right amount of sweet and spicy. Then moved on to the pan seared red fish with collard greens and grits. The fish was cooked perfectly and the sides were excellent. I will be back on my next visit to Houston!

This place has potential. I love the philosophy, the seasonal menu, the décor, the service, and the food of this restaurant. For having just opened, I will also say they still need to figure a few things out.
They start off saying they’re a family style restaurant, but if I’m looking off their portion sizes they gave us, it is a very small family they’re feeding. small small family. Their food presentation is impeccable, but not one that matches that «family style» feel when you hear those words. The staff are obviously still learning the menu too — just looking through other photos, I see how they’re shifting their foods to see what are their signatures versus seasonal dishes. One thing I was disappointed by was the temperature of the food — the bread was raved about by our waiter, but when it came out — it wasn’t warm and had clearly been cut far in advance that the bread had started to dry out for a bit.
That said, the concepts and ideas behind all the dishes were great.
— Mushroom bread (focaccia style) and duck fat rolls with herb butter
— pistou with gulf crab, zucchini, and heirloom tomatoes (generous helping of crab)
— roasted sun chokes with sour cream, buttermilk curd, and mushroom remoulade (amazing! but I wish I had only more than 4 small sun chokes)
— 2 roasted quail birds with flash-​fried cauliflower, onion, and picked mustard seeds (delicious and very tender birds, but the sides were more of a decoration than a side)
I get it, they’re still building their identity and restaurant, so I’m eager to come back in a bit once they’re firmly rooted. They’re doing a pretty good job already, so it says something that I want to come back.
Note: The restaurant is a bit difficult to spot immediately. The old restaurant (Marcuse’s Italian?) still has the sign on their canopy, but when you see that, know that it’s Bramble! It’s right before Roegels BBQ.