Vinoteca Quattro

This place doesn’t even try — so why Four Seasons let’s this place occupy space & capitalize from their reputation for quality raises more questions? Visited several times over 2 years & always HOPE for improved professionalism, but it never arrives. Happy Hour is a perfect example. $ 4 small plates, but there are only 3 offerings, with a small serving of cold marinated veggies, or a small olive sampling being 2 of the 3. If this is all Management can come up with, why bother? Just close the place & save getting the complaints. And if you want almost clueless service, this is the spot to get it. The personnel are pleasant & well-​meaning, but the whole place REEKS of lack of professional management &/​or employees who have given up trying. It’s sad really, since a high quality hotel offering is always appreciated, & mostly available in big US cities — alas, not in Houston. Perhaps the new JW Marriott on Main will bring some long-​overdue professionalism to the downtown hotel scene.

We went for the Tuesday wine tasting last week and it was so much fun. It’s only 16 bucks and they had some really impressive wines to taste. The cheeses were really yummy too.
Our server was attentive but not hovering over us the whole time. Just a really positive experience overall. If you’re going to go, try it on Tuesday nights around 5 o’clock.

A group of us staying at the Four Seasons came here for a quick pre-​dinner drink. It was happy hour, and the bar and adjoining restaurant were nearly devoid of customers. Despite this, it took a ridiculous amount of time for our drinks to be served, and after 20 minutes of waiting for the tortilla chips appetizer, we cancelled the order and left early for dinner. None of us has any desire to repeat the experience again. Oh, and by the way, the $ 4 happy hour drink/​appetizer menu is OK but limited (none of the appetizers were appetizing to my taste, nor any of the wines), but the remainder of the menu is ridiculously priced; the by-​the-​glass prices for wines were generally $ 12 and up.

After reading somewhere that the Four Seasons’ Vinoteca Quattro bar had $ 4 Happy Hour drinks and appetizers from 5 – 7 pm, Monday through Friday, my husband and I decided to give it a try this past Friday night.
We initially went to the lobby bar on the ground floor but were told that the happy hour was only in the Vinoteca Quattro bar which is part of their Quattro restaurant on the 3^rd floor. We got to Vinoteca Quattro around 6:15 pm and promptly ordered our $ 4 glasses of wine and appetizers. We received the wine asap and sat back to enjoy it while waiting for our 3 appetizers (bowl of olives, mushroom crostini and a cheese plate). At 6:35 pm (20 minutes later), we’d each finished our glass of wine. My husband ordered another one and we asked where our food was. Our waitress assured us that it was coming. However, at 6:55 pm, we still had been given no food!
So, we flagged our waitress down and said we wanted to pay and leave without waiting any longer for the appetizers. She sent her Manager over to speak with us. He was very apologetic and offered to comp our 3 glasses of wine (which we declined except for 1 glass of wine). When I questioned how hard it would have been for the kitchen to at least dish out some olives or slice up some cheese for a cheese plate, he cryptically said «I can’t explain it». I’d also like to point out that the Vinoteca Quattro was only ever half full the entire time we were there.
The other big negative of the night was the smell in Vinoteca Quattro. It reeked strongly of fried chicken livers (this is not a joke) and my husband who has a minimal sense of smell noticed it. There was a chicken liver dish on the menu and from where we sat, it looked like the bartenders were frying these up in a mini-​Fry Daddy at the bar. (We weren’t seated near the kitchen so I really have to believe it was coming from the bar.) There was no mistaking that nauseatingly pungent, metallic, earthy, liverish smell and I can’t believe somewhere as nice as the Four Seasons would do this. It took the concept of ‘fajita hair” to a completely new level.
Suffice to say, I cannot fathom ever coming back to Vinoteca Quattro.